The BeerCast

Some sad news for Scottish brewing reached us this week, with the announcement of the closure of the Windie Goat Brewery. They had been attached to the Failford Inn in South Ayrshire, located in the tiny village of the same name about ten miles east of Prestwick. Like so many fledgling breweries that became successful, they began brewing solely for the pub only to branch out when demand for their beers increased. Although they never had any bottling equipment, mini casks from Windie Goat (they took their name from a local wood) where always in high demand. Indeed, head brewer Michelle sent us a cask of their 5.5% American-style IPA Gutter Slab (read our review here), which was a tremendous full-on Cascade-blast that really delivered.

Sadly the pub has recently passed into new ownership, and they aren’t concerned with an on-site microbrewery so the site has been closed. The brewing equipment was sold to the Iceni Brewery in Norfolk (Michelle and partner Chris driving the tanks there themselves), and the last few casks of the tellingly named Final Fling have been sold. It’s a real shame – Windie Goat were less than four years old and had already made a big impression, winning awards – most recently for Gutter Slab at last year’s Scottish Real Ale Festival, where we managed to catch up with an understandably delighted Michelle.

We contacted her this week and can take some comfort that she plans to start again after a break to consider her options, possibly in England near her family. We wish her all the best, and although the absence of Windie Goat will be felt from this years’ SRAF, the fact that Michelle tells us she has retained all her recipes makes us hopeful we’ll be able to try her beers again at some point in the future.

Edinburgh is a city well known for festivals, and fortunately for us on the BeerCast they aren’t just restricted to the arts. The 2009 Scottish Real Ale Festival has rolled around again, held at the Assembly rooms on George Street. As promised in our recent preview we turned up with high expectations, given the impressive beer list. Getting right down to business, the first beer sampled was the Hebridean Brewery’s Seaforth Ale (4.2%), which completed the full set from the Stornoway producer (we sampled their other four beers during BeerCast #30). Seaforth was very light, slightly soapy but a decent golden ale – a pretty good start to the festival.

Next up was Williams Bros Birds & Bees (4.3%), a new beer from the Alloa brothers Scott and Bruce. Recently it got through to the finals of the Sainsbury’s Bottled Beer Challenge – we’ll have to see how it differs in the bottle, as on cask it was flowery and lemony and very sessionable. We were trying to work out if it was their Williams Gold remixed slightly, as it has many similar tastes. The third beer on the agenda was Traditional Scottish Ales’ Gold Thistle (4.5%), a sharp-tasting golden bitter which suffered from a poor woody smell. The flavours were light and hoppy, with a bit of golden ale biscuit.

Windie Goat are a very small micro who brew almost exclusively for the Failford Inn in Ayrshire, and having previously sampled Gutter Slab (5.5%) we had to go back for another taste. After three gentle golden ales, the difference was startling – Cascade hops on the nose, and a wonderful bitter citrus flavour and aftertaste. It was so good that it sold out very quickly, so we can count ourselves lucky to have got in while we could. Beer number five was from a producer I’ve never tried before – Aberdeenshire’s Hillside/Deeside (they recently changed names) – their 4.0% Nechtan. This one was also tremendous, grapefruity and refreshing, it really delivered that zesty summer flavour many brewers fail to get into their beers.

Beer six was the traditional ‘BeerCaster’s choice’ round, where we buy one for someone else on the panel – avoiding the cruelty of a 9% barleywine. The one I ended up with was Sulwath’s The Grace (4.3%), which tasted far stronger than it’s abv and had a similar grapefruit aroma to the Nechtan. The flavours were different however, there was a sweetness I’d not picked up in any of the previous beers, presumably down to the mix of two types of malt and three of hop. Sulwath are based in Castle Douglas near Dumfries, and clearly put a lot of effort into their beers if this one was anything to go by.

The final beer of the night was the also traditional ‘lucky dip’ round, selecting a totally new random beer based purely on the name. This year it was the turn of Caledonian’s Top Banana, which given the name unsurprisingly had some gentle banana tastes on the back of a powerful banana aroma. It was nice for a fruit beer though, and reminded me of Wells&Young’s Banana Bread Beer. A sweet palate cleanser at the end of the night – almost like a dessert after a (particularly lengthy) meal. Speaking of which, we’ll be back tomorrow for seconds. Stay tuned…

Last month when we visited the Scottish Beer Festival at the Assembly Rooms in our home city we found a great deal of things we liked, both new and old. One of the newer discoveries was a pale bitter called Peden’s Cove from the Windie Goat Brewery in Failford, Ayrshire. Tucked away in the far corner of the festival due to alphabetical order, it was a really tasty session bitter from a relatively new producer (they started up in 2006). Anyhow, Michelle the head brewer recently sent us a minikeg of one of her newer inventions – Gutter Slab. With a whole weekend of golf on the telly to get through…what could be better?

Named after a fishing pool in the River Ayr, it seemed to be something of an experiment for Michelle (going by her brewery blog) – a hop-packed IPA in the ‘American Style’ (i.e. hop-packed doesn’t even get close). But we love hops on the BeerCast, and particularly love beers that pack a punch – and by crikey does Gutter Slab pound the hops down your throat. Cascade really zing from the beer, giving out that sharp grapefruit taste. At 5.5%abv, it’s not up there with most IPA’s from over the pond, but it certainly tastes like one.

It pours an opaque orange colour, even after having been well settled – and with these minikegs you always get half a glass full of chunks before the drinkable beer comes. But the lemony smell that follows really makes you want to dive in, and when you do the characteristic Cascadey hop taste screams at you. I get the feeling that if it was around 4%abv it would really lose something, so the higher alcohol content pays off. The consensus from the BeerCasters at the sampling was that it would be even better on cask. If we ever find ourselves at the Failford Inn, I would certainly want to find out.

Windie Goat Brewery

In our recent preview of the 2008 Scottish Real Ale Festival I wrote that we were all looking forward to trying some new things, as it’s really the main reason for going along. Last year’s festival (the review of which is here) was something of an eye-opener to the BeerCast – we’d only just started out on the real ale path – so practically everything we tried was new. I remember the first beer I sampled then (picked totally at random) was Fyne Ales’s Pipers Gold, which I described as “like drinking an entire flowerbed”. It seems my baffling beer descriptions haven’t improved over the last twelve months.

Fast forward a year, and we turned up at the Assembly Rooms on Friday and it was suddenly all so familiar. The brewers, the brands, the styles of beer, the boozy queasinesses – we seemed like old hands striding around with our pint glasses at the ready. But of course the beauty of a beer festival is that even those who try and learn as much about local beer as they can will still be able to find something they’ve yet to experience. So here’s what I managed to pack into a few short hours on Friday afternoon…

1. Orkney IPA (4.8%)
Highland Brewery, Birsay, Orkney.
‘A refreshing well-hopped pale ale’ said the tasting notes in the festival guide, and what better way to start an afternoon’s research? I’ve long wanted to try this given the reputation of the Highland Brewery (reigning Champion Beer of Scotland winners for Dark Munro), but not yet seen it during our beery travels. As an IPA it’s characteristically hoppy, more in the aftertaste than up front, but a really good session ale.

2. Gold Rush (3.9%)
Harviestoun Brewery, Alva, Clackmannanshire.
Next I made a bee-line for the Harviestoun section, as their little-seen seasonal Gold Rush was pretty much the first thing that caught my eye when wandering around. If it’s even half as good as Bitter and Twisted or Schiehallion then it’d be a winner. As it was, it was just as good – zingy and packed full of hops, it reminded me a bit of Stewart’s Edinburgh Gold – which is probably my favourite beer. Great stuff.

3. Peden’s Cove (3.5%)
Windie Goat Brewery, Failford, South Aryshire.
‘Pale Bitter named after the area where Alexander Peden preached from’, apparently. After a quick Google, Peden was a 17th Century Covenanter repeatedly jailed for preaching about his Presbyterianism. As for the beer, the classic musty Fuggles hop smell really comes out of this very pale session bitter. It’s pretty good stuff, and makes me want to try more from this relatively new producer (they started in 2006).

4. Midnight Sun (5.6%)
Williams Brothers, Alloa, Clackmannanshire.
Residents of the Wee County are really spoiled when it comes to brewers – just down the road from Harviestoun are the Williams Brothers, another big favourite of the BeerCast. They also had one of their seasonals at the festival, Midnight Sun – a hoppy porter with added ginger. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but it was ab-so-lutely fantastic. Smooth, dark tastes with the edge given by ginger (which was just in the very background), and pretty hefty at 5.6%abv, it was just great. My beer of the festival, and a real find.

5. Skullsplitter (8.5%)
Sinclair Orkney Brewery, Quoyloo, Orkney.
Recently named Scotland’s best Barleywine for 2008, Skullsplitter is a mighty concoction. We bought a collective half to sample (it was 4 o’clock in the afternoon) to see what the fuss was about. There’s certainly a distinctive ‘prunes soaked in vodka’ smell to it, although I didn’t pick up any of the suggested apple and/or plum. Very spicy taste, and surprisingly subtle, but to be honest one to sip in different surroundings than at a beer festival.

6. Dark Moor (4.5%)
Kelburn Brewery, Barrhead, East Renfrewshire.
Last year I went for a total random selection and ended up with Sulwath’s Solway Mist, a cloudy wheat beer I noted tasted like “lemonade mixed with antiseptic”. But I thought I’d give the idea another go, and plumped for Dark Moor, a ruby bitter from Kelburn. It was eminently more preferable – fruity and a lovely shade of red, a really nice session bitter.

And that was that, as we wandered out into the commuter-packed streets and went to a pub to draw breath*. Some really great finds at the 2008 Scottish Real Ale Festival (to give it the proper name), even given the high percentage of beers on offer we’re familiar with. Look out for other posts by BeerCasters who were there, and keep an eye out for future posts (and maybe podcasts) involving some of these new discoveries.

* I’m not ashamed to admit I had a pint of Kirin Ichiban, being totally real-ale’d out