Based on the beautiful island of Orkney they are also known as the Swannay Brewery and not to be confused with the Orkney Brewery who also make some great beers.

Highland’s beers range from the 3.6% ABV Orkney Best to the 9% ABV Old Norway and Orkney Porter. My favourites in the range are definitely Orkney Blast, their 6% spicy, hoppy world class pale ale and their Old Norway Barley wine which I last drank at 11:30 in the Bacchus at Newcastle Twissup.

While they have won plenty of awards  I still don’t think they get as many plaudits as they should be for all their hard work and delicious beers, I really do adore their range of beers, the labels are great too, most of them have a story behind the name and graphics which adds a little bit of extra character and personality to every bottle.

Distribution of the beers is improving with bottles and casks finding their way throughout the UK,  the bottles are becoming more readily available in beer shops and online, you can find a list of some stockists here.  They truly are worth tracking down, they’ve all got their own individual characteristics and are all really well made.

If you want to know more you can read Rob’s Meet the Brewer here,  read my thoughts on some of their beers here, visit their website here, follow Lew on twitter here or here.

Great flavour shame about the fizz.

The train was surprisingly quiet so we managed to get a seat with table before cracking open a couple of beers for the journey, the first was a bottle of Mikkeller Jackie Brown, a cracking hoppy brown ale, although possibly a little bit too strong for the time of morning but what the heck, might as well start the day with a bang.

Next up was a bottle of Post Road Pumpkin Ale, one I’d not seen before but Dave brought along for the ride, it was delicious, it was packed full of Christmas spice, clove, nutmeg and a hint of cinnamon, my only criticism was it was way to fizzy which took the edge off an otherwise excellent beer. Both beers were accompanied by a snack of rather yummy chilli chocolate coffee beans that Dave had also brought with him.

We arrived in York at bang on 12:00 and headed to our first port of call, the wonderful Maltings pub, It’s got a great range of beer and a great interior with loads of character, a must visit on any trip to York. As with most trips to the Maltings I started with a glass of Roosters Yankee, It’s almost the perfect session beer, light, refreshing, nicely balanced and mega drinkable.

This was followed by Black Sheep’s new porter…Wooly Jumper (4%) a first from the Yorkshire brewers, it looked fantastic in the glass, really really dark with a lovely tan head. It had a really lovely smokey character to it with a bit of wood and a tiny bit of sweetness, definitely one to watch if they decide to keep making and tweaking it.

After this and concious of only having a few hours we headed to Pivni, unfortunately they were having a few issues with so they had to delay their opening, forcing us into changing our plan and heading for the Last Drop Inn, one of the York Brewery Tap pubs, Now while it served the York beers there was a beer on the bar that I just couldn’t resist. Hop Back Winter Lightning, I’m a big fan of their Summer Lightning, which they also had on the bard and Dave opted for. Much to my surprise Winter Lightning poured the same as the Summer Lightning but smelled and tasted completely different, It was packed full of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg with a little bit of yeast and some hops in the finish…simply gorgeous, the perfect beer for sitting next to a nice open fire after a long walk in the snow…none of that in York though and it was time to head for the next pub.

Like Narnia with beer and meat!

Just round the corner was the House of Trembling madness, a cracking little bar that is one of York’s best kept secrets, it sits above one of the best bottle shops in the North, funnily enough called The Bottle. Its got a huge high beamed ceiling, massive fire place and great old inn tables and chairs, it’s like stepping back in time. We quickly ordered a glass of Jever and a glass of Barbar Honey beer, the Jever was as crisp and refreshing as always the Barbar was a a great surprise, dark and fruity, malty and slightly sweet, honey was definitely present but not over the top like some beers in this style.

By now we were getting rather hungry and after watching a few plates of food from behind the tiny, but well stocked bar pass by we decided to dive in and try a Hunters platter each, A huge wooden board full of meaty treats all form Yorkshire, such as wild boar, smoked duck, smoked chicken and parma ham, served with home made bread, mustard and a deliciously crisp salad, all of which was surprisingly filling, this was accompanied by a glass of Tripel Karmeliet, which was amazing, spicy, slightly sweet, stupidly easy to drink for it’s ABV.

Just as we were finishing our drinks we heard through twitter that Pivni was back open so after a quick root round the bottle shop we headed off to sample their wares, not before buying a few bottles for the journey home though.

Arriving at Pivni we were greeted with an amazing array of kegged and cask beers, but there was only one to start with, the much sought after Thornbridge and Darkstar collaboration beer, Thornstar. It poured a lovely dark brown colour with a really thick and creamy white head almost like a Guinness. It’s a great beer, it plays with your head, it’s so dark yet the flavours are so grassy and piney from the hops it kind of takes you by surprise, It also has plenty of caramel and almost nutty

Lovely local meat, just what we needed.

malt, it is superbly creamy, a perfect example of handpulled ale. If I was nit picking then I would say it is a little bit confused but I would certainly drink it again.

Next up was MatuÅ¡ka Raptor IPA which hails from the Czech Republic of all places, not somewhere you would usually associate with the area but a sign of their latest craft beer revolution. It was a great example of a well balanced, hop busting IPA, loads of biscuity malt and a tasty bitter hop finish…excellent stuff.

Next up, I’m not entirely sure what it was, the pump clip said Meantime special but I’m sure someone said it was their London Lager, to be honest it wasn’t great, I didn’t make many notes on it and the comment that accompanied my twitter pic simply said hmmmmm, so I will leave it at that.

The plan was then to head to the Evil eye lounge for a last beer before heading for the train but we decided we fancied cheese and Belgian beer, so having seen the cheese platters back in The House of Trembling Madness we headed back there. Not fancying the potato salad, as yummy as it looked and smelled we just wanted the cheese. The dairy goodness came on the same sort of platter as the meat we had earlier, with

Creamy, hoppy and malty, confusing!

similar home made bread, some lovely sticky chutney and some huge lumps of cheese, the Yorkshire blue being the pick of the bunch. This was teamed up with a La Trappe Dubbel, It was an amazing deep red colour, really rich, sweet aromas with a really fruity taste, plums, dates, prunes, those sorts of fruits, just a little bit of spice and a touch of alcohol added to a great finishing beer.

We headed for the train, after buying a few more bottles from the shop below, who’s ever idea that was is a genius, I also picked up some smoked chicken breast and peach beer as a present for our lass, yeah that’s how I roll.

On the train it was time to crack out a couple of beers, one which had come all the way from the USA via Mark from Pencil and spoon, It was crazy, it had no less than 5 different chillis in it, it wasn’t hot or spicy but was packed full of green chilli, it was quite sweet, a really interesting concept which was great to try, so thanks Mark.

Last beer of the day fell to the awesome Orkney Porter, one of my favourite porters from the last few months, jet black, smokey and I can’t believe this is the first time I’ve written about it, I’ve certainly drank enough of the stuff.

I had a great day, great beer, tasty food, lovely atmosphere, friendly and knowledgeable staff and great company!! I can’t wait for my next visit, there are so many other pubs I want to try as we didn’t even touch on a big chunk of them.

What is your Brewery name?
We have an identity crisis: the company is the Highland Brewing Company Ltd; the brewery is the Swannay Brewery. Usually ‘Highland’ wins out.

What is your brewery capacity?
250 brls/wk on the big plant; 16 brls/wk on the small plant.

Rob and his many shiny awards!

What is different about your brewery?
No gimmicks. We strive for consistent beer of the highest quality.

How long have you been brewing for?
28 years. Four for myself.

How did you get into brewing?
Started as assistant brewer at Moorhouse’s, Burnley.

What beers do you brew regularly?
Orkney Best @ 3.6%, Island Hopping @ 3.9%, Dark Munro @ 4.0%, Scapa Special @ 4.2%,
Orkney IPA @ 4.8%, St Magnus Ale @ 5.2% and Orkney Blast @ 6.0%.

What special/seasonal beers do you brew?
Light Munro @ 3.0%, Christmas Light @ 3.8%, Sneaky Wee Orkney Stout @ 4.2%, Old
Norway @ 9.0% and Orkney Porter @ 9.0%.

Where do you think the future of brewing lies?
Quality is key, both in the beers brewed and how it’s looked after and served by the publicans.

What is you proudest moment in brewing?
Selling the first casks of my own beer here in Orkney.

What was last beer you drank?
A Scapa Special in one of the Orkney pubs – and very good it was too.

What is your favourite hop?
Goldings. (although recently used Summit which is fantastic)

What is your brewing ambition?
To restore our brewery site into a visitor attraction, quality ale pub, cafe bistro, educational beer centre etc. And to finally release the Guernsey brewplant from the clutches of its listed building and make its long move up to Orkney.

Do you have a Brewing hero/inspiration?
Richard Wintle. Former Moorhouse’s head brewer. He was a fantastic teacher.

Which beer do you wish you had brewed?
Marston’s Pedigree. A corker of a beer – so well balanced.

Favourite hobby outiside of brewing
Gardening, just need to find the time to do some!

Fnything else you want to tell us?
Try and source our beers on draught! Come and visit us at the brewery one day.

PS the picture is one that a kind person named William Wilkinson emailed in ,it’s of the champion beer of scotland 2010/various siba awards presentation. (I might add Rob was on a dray run at the time so he does look a littleworse for wear…..)

You can visit the Highland Brewery website here, follow Lewis on twitter here or read my Beer Reviews

Highland Brewing Scapa Special Beer

The name Scapa Special comes from the stretch of water which more or less everything used in Rob and Lew’s beers comes down and every pint that leaves the brewery goes back down, it’s apparently one of Britain’s most historic stretches of water playing an important role throughout history. You can read more about Scapa Flow and it’s history here and in a strange but rather cool coincidence, Lew was actually sailing down that stretch of water as he emailed me the info.

Scapa Special pours a lovely golden colour with a decent foamy head, the aromas are of fruit and flowery hops with a litlte bit of biscuity malt and citrus, they aren’t huge but they are more than enough to get your mouth watering.

In the mouth it feels great, the body is a lot fuller than I first expected, it has a lovely light biscuity malt taste followed by some sweet caramel and hints of the hops coming through to give a lovely bitter, grassy hoppy finish with subtle tastes of citrusy lemon and grapefruit. It goes down an absolute treat.

For me it sits somewhere between St Magnus and Orkney Blast in terms of flavour and excitement, its not quite as punchy as the Blast and I didn’t like it as much as the St Magnus (which is my favourite of the Highland Brewing Company beers) but having said that it is an excellent ale that I would (and will) drink much more of.

Highland Brewing don’t make a huge range of ales but the ones they do are truly and honestly lovely.

You can follow Lew on twitter here or you can visit the Highland Brewing Company website here, They also supply a fair amount of beers to pubs in Newcastle so if you are in the area, check out this list for where has them on, you can also buy them from Zak @ Beer Ritz in Leeds.

Having an Orkney Blast..

The first thing that catches your eye is the image of 2 rather jolly looking, half naked merpeople (I think that’s the correct term) on the label, I’m sure there is a story behind the label so hopefully Lew will fill me in sometime and I can update this.

EDIT: Lew has just emailed me the story behind the label so here it is:

“The Orkney Blast was a newspaper published in Orkney for the forces during the second world war. The label, with the merman and mermaid, was the masthead of the newspaper back in the day.”

The next thing are the aromas that gush out of the bottle as you open it, Hops and fruit with a tiny hint of alcohol all mixed in with a lovely woody mellowness.

Orkney Blast pours a lovely copper colour with a decent sized head which did it’s best to last all the way down the glass, it drinks really really well, for something that is 6% ABV it is light, packed full of flavour and goes down a treat.

The individual flavours in the beer can all be picked out, there is a lovely maltyness, that gives just a hint of sweetness with some lovely dried fruit flavours thrown in for good measure, you then get the bitter hops towards the end along with a little bit of pine or grass.

All in all, Orkney Blast was a lovely beer, It was very drinkable and had a great amount of flavour,  It certainly didn’t disappoint, although if I am honest I preferred St Magnus, which really surprised me as from the first sip it was packed full of flavour, especially given it’s lower ABV.

You can follow Lew on twitter here or you can visit the Highland Brewing Company website here, They also supply a fair amount of beers to pubs in Newcastle so if you are in the area, check out this list for where has them on.

Before I knew it 4 bottles of rather tasty looking ale had landed on my doorstep waiting to be supped, the first of these was St Magnus Ale.

I believe St Magnus was once the king of Orkney who seemed to like a bit of scrap and ended up with his head cleaved in two (gruesome I know) after which a blind bishop fell on his grave and his sight was restored, this lead to Magnus being made a Saint, you can read more about the story of St Magnus here

Highland Brewing Company - St Magnus Ale

It poured a lovely reddy amber colour with a good amount of carbonation and a thin bubbly head. The aromas weren’t massive but there was a nice floral hoppy note to them and a little bit of sweet toffee and malt. The body was really nice, not as bubbly as the pour suggested but it had a lovely mouth feel, light and refreshing.

Flavour wise I thought it was delicious, bitter, slightly hoppy with just a hint of malty sweetness, the finish was bitter hoppyness with a but of nuttiness thrown in for good measure, it lasted a decent while in your mouth before softening and fading away.

I thought St Magnus was really well balanced and deserves it’s “World Class Bitter” label. I could easily see my self sat drinking this on an evening in the pub after a long walk or a day out shopping with the missus, I’ve noticed that a few pus in Newcastle serve beers from the Highland Brewing Co so next time I am up there I shall be hunting them down.

A big thanks goes out to Lew (and his dad) for making and sending me the beer, I’ve since supped the rest of them (all of which were lovely)  so the reviews will be coming soon.

You can follow Lew on twitter here or you can visit the Highland Brewing Company website here, They also supply a fair amount of beers to pubs in Newcastle so if you are in the area, check out this list for where has them on.