The BeerCast

The arrival of tailbacks on the roads and wasps in the parks can mean only one thing – Spring is here. After enduring months of snow, sleet, winds and haar (something we say every year, only this time it actually happened) the weather is taking a turn for the better. Here in Scotland that means average highs in the mid-teens Celsius. So while we all rush to reveal that pale flesh and stick another white pudding on the barbie, beer sales traditionally rocket.

So what to drink? Clearly, avoiding macrolager is the only decent option. But there are so many alternatives out there, it can be something of a muddle. That’s why we’ve compiled another BeerCast guide – to the best of the Spring/Summer seasonals. Just because it’s time to rush to the nearest beer garden/park/roadside verge, doesn’t mean there can’t be a good beer involved somewhere along the line. So put down that oak-aged imperial blackcurrant porter, and pick up a golden session ale. (Whisper it) – it’s not always about the abv…

Cask
If you manage to get yourself into that rarest of things – a sunny Scottish beer garden – then what should you select after wandering, blinking, into the pub (which will still have a roaring open fire)? Light, golden beer has a great tradition north of the border, stretching back to the days of Edinburgh Pale Ale and beyond. There are plenty of modern-day equivalents, such as the peerless Fyne Ales Avalanche. Hoppy, refreshing and unbelievably drinkable – it’s the perfect beer garden pint.

Along the same lines, Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted is another corker – one of only two beers from Scotland to win Champion Beer of Britain. A very rare sighting on cask, but Williams Brothers Ceilidh is tremendous when served this way, the slight spicy edge from the bottle mellowing really well on cask. Other great quenchers include Strathaven Summer Glow, Deeside Nechtan and Stewart Brewing Forth Mist – a really underrated wheat beer.

Bottle
The beauty of bottles is of course the fact that they are portable. Until Scotland truly embraces the canned beer revolution that (if you look very, very hard) is taking place, then the bottle is the best option. Alfresco drinking here usually involves either one of Scotland’s great exports to the world – Irn Bru – or one of the big imports – Buckfast. But if beer is on your wishlist, then dig out that opener and wander along to the nearest green space, with a clinking carrier bag of…

Cairngorm Trade Winds, which has a touch of elderflower to give it that distinctive summery flavour – in my humble opinion it’s one of the few beers that tastes just as good from a bottle as on cask. Inveralmond Ossian is another golden thirstbuster, as is Williams Brothers Harvest Sun. We adore Fyne Ales Jarl here on the BeerCast – but stablemate Hurricane Jack was also bottled for the first time recently, and is just as good. Finally, to rival Trade Winds – what about a bottle of Tryst Blathan? Another zesty elderflower beer that translates as ‘little blossom’ – what could be more Springlike?

Keg
Yikes. Keg beer. Well, the majority are pretty much made for good weather – easy drinking, crisp and refreshing, high carbonation. Obviously we’re not going to recommend drinking Fosters, but if something cold is on your radar then what about the two kings of Scottish kegged lager – Harviestoun Schiehallion and Black Isle Organic Blonde? Either would be much more preferable, surely.

Also on the cooler, fizzier side of things we have Stewart Brewing Edinburgh Gold, which has made recent appearances in the capital on keg. Heading along the M8, WEST Hefeweizen is a clovey, banana delight – particularly when drunk outside the Templeton brewery watching the ‘goings on’ in Glasgow Green. Finally, keg fans would be foaming (artificially) at the mouth if we didn’t mention BrewDog – their re-styled, reduced but much improved Punk IPA would make any sunny afternoon much the better.

So what are your ideal summer thirst quenchers? As we move into Easter long weekends and Royal Wedding holidays, what will you be reaching for? South of the border there are many great golden-esque ales that fit the bill – Pictish Brewer’s Gold, York Guzzler, Thornbridge Kipling, Purity Pure Gold, St Peter’s Golden Ale, Ossett Pale Gold etc etc

So many beers…so little sunshine. Drink up!

WEST are Scotland’s only German-themed brewhouse, and have been based in the old Templeton carpet factory on Glasgow Green for exactly five years – their anniversary falling last Thursday. By a strange co-incidence it was on that very day I paid my first visit to the extravagantly-crennellated warehouse that sits a few minutes stroll from the city centre. I’d heard the surrounding area can be a bit sketchy – so hiding my plummy east coast mannerisms we wandered along, straight into a rather amusing police chase outside the building. They should give Olympic-funding lottery money to some of those lads, judging by the raw speed that was on display.

Being a German brewery – my earlier ‘German-themed’ comment might be taken as a slight (there were no lederhosen on display during our visit) they abide by the Reinheitsgebot purity laws – nothing but the big four ingredients involved in the production process. Brewers who stick to these principles today trade on the perceived badge of integrity the laws provide – for those who have heard of the 16th Century principles, of course. I do always wonder whether such producers are painting themselves into a corner with a self-imposed lack of creative leeway – but if you can put out a range of brews that are sufficiently different and interesting from using just water, barley, hops and yeast then it shows you must be doing something right.

WEST are very much a Glasgow operation – I have occasionally found their Munich Red on tap in Edinburgh, but to get the range of their beers you need to brave the potholes and take a trip along the M8. They mostly concentrate on tap – although Lagerboy did get to grips with their flagship lager, St Mungo, a couple of years ago, just after it had first been launched. Having finally made it through to the Templeton, there were plenty of interesting things on at the bar to go with our food, which was extremely good indeed – me not being able to say no to a schnitzel. The bar area is large and very airy, with plenty of big tables for groups swigging out of steins – all very teutonic, and very friendly.

Beerwise, first up was the aforementioned Munich Red (4.9%), which until a few moments afterwards was my favourite WEST beer. I do love a good Vienna – although this recipe is a slight tweaking of the variant to include Munich malt – the caramel and berry fruit flavours come through, but the drinkability doesn’t suffer as a result. The majority of the giant steins on the go were of the red variety, and I can see why.

I also had a go at the Hefeweizen (5.2%) – if only because it had just been awarded Champion keg beer of Britain by SIBA. Also, I was keen to compare it to the Hefeweizen recently produced by Stewart Brewing over on this side of the country, which I sampled on keg for the first time at the launch of their coconut porter. WEST’s is definitely smoother, and slightly more bitter – which I like, and helps when on the pints – and the prerequisite banana and clove flavours are there in abundance.

It was then on to two new beers from the German stable – starting with WEST Opus:B (5.0%) – a roasted malt lager first kegged on Burn’s Night (hence the ‘B’). Served in one of their giant pint glasses (pictured above with a diminutive-looking half stein of the Red), it was very dark, frothy and very cold. After warming for a short while there were really interesting chocolate and caramel aromas coming from the glass – together with a bit of plum fruit. On the taste, dark chocolate and coffee with a touch of smokiness from the malt, with more dark stone fruits and a bitterness into the finish – really good stuff indeed.

Just before leaving we were told about their birthday beer – a koelsch by the name of Opus 5 (4.4%). Intended as a celebration of their 5th anniversary it was running a few days late by the sound of it, and was only available as a sample at the time of our visit. But beer bloggers never turn down samples, so we were brought a little taster. Slightly hazy, it had some enormous lemon aromas and flavours, with a touch of acetone sharpness that told me it still wasn’t really ready. Hopefully by now it has had a chance to develop more of the clean flavours that the style merits – as a milestone beer it should be very nice.

WEST website

St Mungo is the patron saint of various things – the bullied, people accused of infidelity, salmon (rather strangely), and the city of Glasgow – which he inadvertently founded by building a small church on the banks of the Clyde. Fast forward a few thousand years and he also becomes the patron of Scotland’s newest lager, produced by the WEST brewery in the city (their capitals, not mine). In fact, St. Mungo’s Lager (4.9%) was only launched at the end of October 2008, so it’s possibly Scotland’s newest beer of any kind, let alone the fizzy stuff Lagerboy reaches for in his local bottle shop.

WEST themselves opened in 2006 in a converted carpet factory, and have a glamorous-looking European brewhouse and restaurant inside the refurbished Templeton Building on Glasgow Green. Tennant’s brewery they are not, as they produce all of their beers in line with the fabled (and often mentioned on the BeerCast) Rheinheitsgebot purity laws covering their allowed ingredients. As you’d expect, their brews lean heavily towards the teutonic end of the spectrum – helles, dunkels, and even a festive weihnactsbier.

According to their website, St. Mungo’s is the only lager in the UK brewed in adherence with these regulations – “WEST has selected the finest German malt and most noble hops to create a deceptively easy drinking and refreshingly different bright, clear, golden lager.” Well, it’s certainly easy to drink as the taste is incredibly light and diminishes very quickly. There’s a slight hint of Becks up front, but no aftertaste whatsoever. It’s very fizzy and pours with a quickly dispersing frothy head, but the clean taste just isn’t that interesting. St. Mungo’s Lager is undoubtedly refreshing, but unfortunately a bit lacking.

WEST Brewery website