Brewing up a Storm

Microbreweries

Ironically, it's the smallest sector that's making the biggest splash – microbreweries. Though relative newcomers to the industry, they've been quick to find their feet. And those that have been around the longest haven't just attracted a local audience; they have built up a national and sometimes international reputation.

Relative veterans of the Scottish microbrewing scene, Harviestoun Brewery, boast an impressive portfolio of award-winning beers. Harviestoun’s first venture into bottled beer came as a result of winning the Tesco Beer Challenge in 1999 with an ale called Liberation. Schiehallion, its cask-conditioned lager, named after the misty mountain near Pitlochry, has won more Gold awards than any other Scottish cask ale, including three at the Great British Beer Festival and the “Worlds’s Best Pils/Pilsner” prize at the 2008 World Beer Awards. Brooker's Bitter 'n' Twisted, another of its ales, won World’s Best Ale in 2007. Having already tasted international success, Harviestoun is expanding into new markets and its beers are already being enjoyed by US and Australian customers.

Set such a precedent, it's perhaps not surprising that so many other microbreweries have been springing up in diverse locations, from the centre of Glasgow to our northernmost islands. Some of the latest additions to this swelling sector – which already includes Broughton Ales (Greenmantle), the Arran (Blonde, Dark and Light), Cairngorm (Sheepshagger Gold, Wildcat), Bridge of Allan and Orkney (Dark Island) breweries, Houston (Teuchter, Peter’s Well) and Sulwath Brewers – are the Kelburn Brewing Company in Barrhead and the Western Islands and Highlands trio of Atlas, Fyne Ales and Hebridean.

Since the 1990’s, the William Bros Brewing Company has been proving popular with its revivals of historic Scottish beers, using ingredients that are unfamiliar to many beer drinkers. A variety of ancient recipes have been researched and updated for modern production, including such surprising flavours as scots pine, gooseberries, elderberry, seaweed, and the heather that infuses Fraoch, the beer that started it all and remains their most popular offering.

The Large Breweries

From the newest and smallest kids on the block to the oldest and largest, Scotland's volume sales continue to be dominated by the big three – Scottish & Newcastle (the UK's leading brewer and the name behind McEwan's and Younger's), Tennent Caledonian (of Tennents Lager and T in the Park fame) and Caledonian Brewing.

By far the oldest of these is Tennent Caledonian, which has been involved in the brewing business since 1556. Its flagship brand, Tennents Lager, has been brewed at the Wellpark Brewery in central Glasgow since 1885, making it the UK's original lager. Other notable Tennents firsts include: first draught lager in 1924, first canned lager in 1935 and first keg lager in 1963 – there's that famous Scottish innovation again!

Though justly proud of their Scottish heritage, S&N and Tennent’s are both now foreign-owned. Caledonian Brewing in Edinburgh remains in Scottish hands, and is one of only two surviving breweries in a city that once supported over 40. Established in 1869, it's the only brewery to still use direct-fired open coppers – a unique feature to which Caledonian attributes its remarkable success. Having won Champion Beer of Scotland several years in a row, Caledonian (or Caley) 80/- sets the standard by which other Scottish Heavies are measured, and has won medals year after year, from bronzes in the 2003 and 2005 International Beer Championships to being the CAMRA Champion Beer of Scotland in 1996 and 1997. Its stable mate, Caledonian Deuchars IPA, has an even more impressive roll of honour, including being the first ever Scottish-brewed CAMRA Supreme Champion Beer of Britain in 2002. Deuchars IPA has been immortalised in print as the favoured tipple of another Edinburgh institution, fictional sleuth Inspector Rebus. This led to Caledonian Brewing releasing a special Rebus-themed brew in 2007 to commemorate 20 years since the first Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses.

Regional Brewers

Somewhere between the Atlases and the Scottish Courages of this world lie Scotland's regional brewers, amongst them Belhaven and Traquair House. Established in 1719, the Belhaven Brewery in the coastal town of Dunbar, 30 miles east of Edinburgh, is one of the country's oldest and at the same time most forward looking of breweries. Alongside its time-honoured favourites, Best, St Andrew's Ale and 80 Shilling sits Best Extra Cold – the UK's first (non-stout) extra cold dark beer.

For more than a century-and-a-half of Belhaven's illustrious career, Traquair House Brewery in the Borders hid its light under a bushel. Sometime after 1800 the original domestic brewery on the site, which like so many others produced beer for the house and estate workers, fell into disuse. It wasn't until 1965 that it was rediscovered by Peter Maxwell Stuart, the 20th Laird of Traquair – vessels and equipment still intact. Today, Traquair produces around 600 – 700 barrels of beer a year, all of it fermented in oak for seven days to ensure – in true brewers tradition – that it's 'blessed by the Sabbath'. An auspicious start indeed for Scotland's other national drink!