Harviestoun are one of my favourite breweries in the UK (I once had a beer bread recipe on their website that won me a case of Bitter & Twisted) so I was really chuffed when they agreed to take part, So over to Stuart for a little bit more about him.

Harviestoun Brewery

What is your brewery capacity?
Currently 10,000brls pa. We are in the process of increasing this

What is different about your brewery?
Given the are 700+ breweries in the UK alone I’m not sure!

How long have you been brewing for?
25 years

How did you get into brewing?
Had to stop being a student eventually

What beers do you brew regularly?
Bitter & Twisted, Schiehallion, Haggis Hunter

What special/seasonal beers do you brew?
Old Engine Oil, Ola Dubh and 12 other monthly brews throughout the year, including a fresh (green) hopped beer

Where do you think the future of brewing lies?
In more specialist beers and the continuing success of cask conditioned beers

Harviestoun Brewery

What is you proudest moment in brewing?
When our American Importer tasted the Ola Dubh and said ‘I’ll take it all’!

Do you have any brewing regrets?
No

What was last beer you drank?
Schiehallion

What is your favourite hop?
It’s not so much the individual hop rather the way in which they combine. There are over 130 varieties so it’s still work in progress!

What is your brewing ambition?
Hopefully to continue to brew beers that people like.

Do you have a Brewing hero/inspiration?
I find most of the brewers’ I meet inspiring!

Which beer dp you wish you had brewed?
I’m happy for other people to brew good beers too!

Favourite hobby outside of brewing?
Music

Thanks to Stuart fortaking time out to complete this, you can repay him by visiting the Harvistoun Website and by buying his beers.

If you are a brewer and would like to take part then please drop me a line.

Lakeland Blonde weighs in a little bit lighter than the Lakeland IPA at 4.2%, It is brewed with Saaz and Cascade Hops, Cumbrian Water

Lakeland Blonde from Bitter End Brewing Co

and most surprisingly Lager Malt.

It pours crystal clear, really pale golden with a small white head. The aromas weren’t huge but there was a hint of citrus a few hops and slight grassy notes that were mentioned in the tasting notes.

Flavour wise it wasn’t quite as full as the Lakeland IPA and the body was a little bit thinner, there were very subtle hints of the citrus and you could definitely taste the Cascade hops in the beer which gave it a lovely bitter finish that cleaned the palate and left me feeling rather refreshed.

Personally I preferred the the Lakeland IPA but Lakeland Blonde would be the perfect post hike pint on a hot summers day in the Lake District, It would also be a great introduction to craft beers for all your lager drinking mates, as it has enough flavour to make them think about it but it’s not got anything that will scare them back onto lager.

Since trying some of Bitter End’s beers I have seen them in Open All Hours in Keswick, which Is kind of nice as it must mean they are doing something right as Open All Hours stock some fab beer and as I said in my previous post the branding is great and really helps it stand out.

I’ve still got a few more of their beers to write up so in the meantime check out The Bitter End website, read their blog or follow them on twitter here.

The beers are also available to buy from My Brewery Tap

What sort of community/clientel does your pub serve?
All sorts from city boys to market traders.

Glyn Roberts Of the Rake, London

What made you want to become a publican?
Is it bad to say money? Seriously, I enjoy it, there’s not much more to say than that, I believe everybody should enjoy their work.

How long have you been a publican?
On and off for the last 18 years or so. I’ve been managing The Rake for the last 18 months now.

What facilities does your pub have?
Two fridges full of beer and a microwave! There’s also the outside decking area.

What makes your pub different?
We have a range of about 130 different beers in the fridge at any one time with about 10 ciders too. There’s also more stashed downstairs to keep the range larger than the fridges. All in all about 160-170 beers. We only sell beer that is brewed in its country of origin, nothing brewed under license.

Do you do accommodation?
Not unless you count me sleeping on the bar floor the night before the last Welsh Beer Festival!

What challenges have you faced as a publican?
Keeping the range fresh, keeping an already successful business growing, so far it’s working.

The Rake

Where do you think the future of local pubs lies?
In differentiation, making and keeping pubs unique, publicans need to realise that people want more for their money, gone are the days where a publican could just open the doors to make money(although some can still get away with it!).

Any exciting plans for the future?
I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you.

Would you recommend the job to someone else? if so what words of wisdom would you give them?
I would of course recommend the job to the right person, they have to have a strong personality and be willing to work long hours. Make sure you have an understanding partner too, God knows I do!

Does your pub have a website? facebook? twitter?
Yes, The Rake has a Facebook page that people can join, you can also follow @Rakebar on Twitter. No website though but working on it!

What is your perfect pub?
The Rake with a food offer and a brewery of our own, unfortunately we don’t have space for a brewery or a kitchen…Oh and there has to be Goose Island IPA on draught permanently!

Anything else you want to tell us?
Follow my blog www.rabidbarfly.blogspot.com.  I’m Batman.

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.

What is your brewery capacity?
We are in a state of transition at the moment. We have a brew length of around 16 barrels moving to 25 and we brew at least 5 days a week, sometimes 7 and occasionally twice in one day!

What is different about your brewery?

Over time, we have developed a good reputation for brewing outstanding pale hoppy beers across the ABV range from Matins at 3.6% to Last Rites at 11%.  A significant feature of the brewery has always been our pump clip artwork, designed by Ivan Bradley, which is striking, witty, very collectable and usually anticipated (especially our Dr. Morton’s Amazing Remedies beers).

Dan from Abbeydale Brewery

How long have you been brewing for?
2 years now.

How did you get into brewing?
Initially hired by Abbeydale as a sales man – which is still a major part of my job. I picked up the brewing process simply by watching & learning. Then, standing in whilst staff were away. Now I get to formulate my own recipes – Demon Drink was my first solo recipe and recently I devised the recipe for Dr Morton’s Headshrinker.
Working in the past in kitchens, I always got a great sense of satisfaction cooking food for a customer. However, the pressure is far too intense and therefore falling into the brewery trade has allowed me to still produce something for consumption but in a relatively stress free environment.

What beers do you brew regularly?
Moonshine 4.3%, Absolution 5.3%, Brimstone 3.9%, Daily Bread 3.8%, Black Mass 6.66% and Last Rites 11%. A new addition to our regular beers is Deception 4.1, replacing Matins 3.6%.

What special/seasonal beers do you brew?
At any one time we usually have two Abbeydale specials, the list is vast. We occasionally bring back old favorites; Belfry 4.5%, Alchemy 4.2%, Chocolate Stout 4.5%, Smoked Porter 4.8% to name a few. For Christmas we usually feature Advent 4.6% or White Christmas 5.2%. We also brew under the Beer Works name and create our Dr. Morton’s amazing remedies beers; Snake Oil 4.3%, Brainwash 4.8%, Mental Polish 4.2% and Clown Poison 4.4%. The list is endless. Let’s also not forget the festival charity beer we brew for our own beer festival – Sunfest 8th to 11th July 2010.

Where do you think the future of brewing lies?
Cask real ale remains a consistently growing market. For me the exciting thing is trying out new hops and then watching the reaction of consumers. If the cask ale market grows then it will be worth more people planting hops, who knows in a few years we might be  trying out hops from South America or China! That would be exciting.

What is you proudest moment in brewing?
When our Black Mass won beer of the festival at Oakwood last year, 2009. Now, we have won a number of awards in the past, however the gyle of Black Mass was one that I had made. My first beer fest award. Yay!

Do you have any brewing regrets?
Oddly enough one of my worst days in brewing was the time when I brewed the gyle of Black Mass which won Oakwood. Everything went wrong and brewing that day was not stress free. I managed to boil over the copper, covering the brewhouse in dark, sticky wort. A helpful colleague managed to put my aroma hops into the copper rather than the hop-back and an oil delivery in the middle of the boil meant that the boiler was turned off, no-one told me so it was 45 minutes before I realized the boil had stopped!  The boss christened the brew Dan’s Black Mess

What was last beer you drank?

Dan enjoying a beer

Dr. Morton’s Headshrinker 4.4%, pale/golden, summer fruits and well balanced.

What is your favorite hop?
2008 season of Simcoe.

What is your brewing ambition?
To become a Master Brewer with my own brewery.

Do you have a Brewing hero/inspiration?
My inspiration comes from my father’s side of my family. My grandfather was a head brewer at the old William Stones Cannon Brewery at Rutland road in Sheffield. I did not know that brewing was in my blood when I started in the trade.

Which beer do you wish you had brewed?
Timothy Taylor’s Landlord. My favorite national beer from a well respected brewery.

Thanks to Dan for filling this in, you can visit his website here, you can also find their beers on in the Rising Sun in Sheffield!

I was very kindly sent my bottle of Tally Ho by Sean at Adnams who offered to send everyone involved in Beer Swap a bottle to try.

Adnams Tally-Ho

I finally got round to drinking it a couple of nights ago when I was in the mood for a deep dark barley wine style ale so out came the Tally Ho.

It comes in a rather cool little bottle with a lovely traditional style label and It weighs in at 7.2% ABV, It pours a lovely deep dark brown with an almost red hue to it, it had a decent head which surprised me as the reports from other bloggers were that it was almost headless and in some cases completely headless, I wonder if they maybe had their bottle a bit too chilled as mine was at room temperature.

Tally Ho smells exactly as you would expect, dark roasty malt with a hint of smoke, lovely sweet  dried fruit and just a hint of spice, perfect for a cold snowy evening in front of the TV.

It tasted fab, it felt almost silky in the mouth, the roast malt and fruit from the aromas came through into the taste along wtih the spice and a bit of pepper, there was also a sweet almost dark chocoaltely flavour.

Not only had the head surprised me but just how drinkable this was also surprised me, it was amazingly light for such a deep dark beer and is something I could see my self drinking regularly. However, and I can’t believe I am saying this, I do wonder if Tally Ho would benefit from being laid down for a few months before drinking, It’s not something I can usually find my self doing but I might just have to order some to try it with.

Big thanks to Sean for sending it to me!

You can read the Adnams blog here, visit their website here or follow them on twitter here.

For tickets please contact Middlesbrough Town Hall box office on Tel: 01642 729729.

You can also get a free pint with every £10 ticket bought by visiting the Teesside Hospice website here.

So without further ado here is the info I was sent.

Middlesbrough’s Beer Festival is back, bigger and better than ever. Plus it’s all in aid of a great local charity Teesside Hospice!

Hosted in the Crypt at Middlesbrough Town Hall, Teesside Hospice’s Big Beer Fest will take place over two days allowing festival goers to sample an array of real ale and ciders and showcases local talent from The Passion Killers (Friday 26th) and The Source (Saturday 27th) plus many more special guests.

With 1000 festival goers expected to attend the Big Beer Fest promises to be a memorable weekend. An array of 40 real ales and ciders will be on offer, live music from two fantastic local bands not to mention some good old fashioned pub grub.

Entry is £10, which includes a limited edition beer glass, programme and beer token. The event will also be open on Saturday afternoon from 12noon – 5.00pm. Entry is £5, which includes a limited edition beer glass and programme.

Emma Collins, Fundraiser at Teesside Hospice said “Middlesbrough has not hosted a Beer Festival for nearly a decade so it’s great to be involved in reviving the event. Teesside Hospice is constantly looking at innovative ways of raising funds for the charity and we thought the Big Beer Fest was an excellent opportunity to host a high profile community event and raise vital funds for the Hospice.
Teesside Hospice is hoping the event will raise in excess of £15,000.

Teesside Hospice Beer Festival

And the beer list is as follows:

1. Allendale – Best Bitter (3.8%) A traditional amber coloured session beer with a difference. The strong flavour belies the relatively low alcohol content. A slightly spicy aroma comes from Goldings and Fuggles hops, with the bitterness from English Target.
2. Batemans – Dark Mild (3.0%) A creamy mild with a fruity palate, some roast character and a hoppy finish.
3. Batemans – Salem Porter (4.7%) A porter with a dry roast, nutty palate and rich malty aftertaste.
4. Black Sheep – Best Bitter (3.8%) A well hopped, light golden session bitter with a distinctive, dry refreshing taste.
5. Black Sheep – Riggwelter (5.9%) A deep chestnut brown beer with an aroma of fresh roasted coffee. A wonderfully complex palate with hints of coffee, banana and liquorice, lead to a classic Golding hop finish.
6. Burton Bridge – Sovereign Gold (4.0%) A straw coloured bitter with a citrusy aroma and a lingering bitterness.
7. Castle Rock – Harvest Pale (3.8%) Using gently kilned malt with a wonderful blend of American hops are added during the brewing process gives this pale beer beautiful poise. The hops are very noticeable and lead to a crisp aftertaste.
8. Camerons – White Rabbit (4.4%) is a pale straw coloured ale with a distinctive citrus grapefruit aroma giving it a fruity bitter flavour. This light refreshing ale is the perfect drink to have at the start of spring so hop to it and get yourself a pint.
9. Camerons Strongarm (4.0%) Well rounded, ruby red ale with a distinctive tight creamy head. Good balance of malt, hops and bitterness
10. Camerons – Best Bitter (3.6%) A light session bitter, well balanced with hops and malt.
11. Camerons – Trophy Special (4.0%) An amber ale, slightly sweet and malty, fruity and hoppy from the addition of Styrian Golding hops in the cask
12. Copper Dragon – Golden Pippin (3.9%) A light refreshing blonde ale brewed using a specially selected hop to create a citrus flavour. This golden coloured favourite is equally appealing to real ale and lager drinkers alike.
13. Copper Dragon – Challenger IPA (4.4%) A truly traditional premium ale brewed to revive flavours enjoyed by our Victorian ancestors. Full bodied and fruity with subtle hoppy undertones.
14. Daleside – Blonde (3.9%) A refreshing golden beer with a hoppy aroma and a crisp palate. Extremely quaffable with a delicate taste and a subtle aftertaste.
15. Durham – Black Velvet (4.0%) Dark malts and English hops hark back to the 18th Century
16. Durham – Evensong (5.0%) Goldings and Fugles hops combine with darker malts to give a traditional English character.
17. Elland – Beyond the Pale (4.2%) A pale golden bitter brewed with a touch of Amber malt. Pronounced floral hop aroma and a long, dry hoppy finish.
18. Festival – Gold (4.4%) A golden ale with an overall balanced flavour, distinguished by a light malt body and a light aroma flavour profile with a distinctive bitter finish. Designed to be thirst quenching.
19. Hadrian and Border – Centurion Bitter (4.5%) A light coloured bitter with a distinct hop palate, pleasantly fruity, smooth, clean tasting and refreshing,
20. Hornbeam – Black Coral Stout (4.5%) A smooth dry roast malt, dark and full bodied with a rich creamy head. Satisfying with subtle bitterness.
21. Leeds – Midnight Bell (4.8%) A premium dark mild. Roast and chocolate malts combine to give a full bodied, complex character to this rich and robust ale.
22. Mordue – Workie Ticket (4.5%) A tasty, complex beer with malt and hops throughout and a long, satisfying, bitter finish.
23. Naylors – Pinnacle Mild (3.4%) A dark mild, using lots of Crystal malt to give a sweet, malty flavour, balanced by bitterness and aroma from Progress and Goldings hops.
24. North Yorkshire- Boro Best Bitter (4.0%) Mid brown in colour with a malty aroma. This is a northern, rounded, full-bodied beer with a balanced malt and hops taste with vanilla notes.
25. North Yorkshire – Flying Herbert (4.7%) Smooth, full flavoured premium bitter. Malt and hops balance the strong fruitiness in the aroma and taste, and the finish is malty, fruity and dry.
26. Roosters – Yankee (4.3%) Pale coloured premium, aromatic bitter. Aromas of Turkish delight, lychees and Muscat grapes with a soft bitterness.
27. Salamander – Mudpuppy (4.2%) An amber coloured premium ale, malty flavour with a hoppy character.
28. Sarah Hughes – Dark Ruby (6.0%) This strong, absolutely black ale has a good balance of fruit and malt on the palate leading to a pleasant, lingering finish.
29. Shepherd Neame – Spitfire (4.5%) Crafted from traditional varieties of English malt, this golden ale combines an underlying depth of maltiness, tinged with a subtle hint of toffee, with the bold citrus and fruity spiciness of Kentish hops, to produce a well-balanced, thirst quenching, popular drink.
30. Shepherd Neame – Bishops Finger (5.0%) The dominant character of this premium ale is its generous, fruity flavour, reminiscent of bananas and pears with citrus overtones.
31. Taylors – Golden Best (3.5%) A true Pennine light mild, this amber coloured beer makes a refreshing session ale. The smooth and creamy flavour makes it a popular choice.
32. Taylors – Landlord (4.3%) A classic, strong pale ale. Refreshingly reliable, nationally renowned, this full-drinking pale ale has a complex and hoppy aroma.
33. Thwaites- Lancaster Bomber (4.4%) A very easy drinking beer with an inviting malty aroma, this rich amber beer is brewed using pale and crystal malt to achieve this full bodied flavour. A finely balanced hop character is enriched by the late addition of Styrian Goldings as a dry hop to give a prominent floral hop aroma and warming aftertaste.
34. Titanic – Lifeboat (4.0%) A fruity and malty, red brown bittersweet beer, with a slight caramel character. The finish is dry and fruity.
35. Wylam – Northern Kite (4.5%) A ruby ale in the style of a traditional ‘Scotch’ where the hops are balanced by residual maltiness to give subtle hop character and a rich palate.
36. York – Constantine (3.9%) Copper coloured beer with a rich malty flavour and pleasant hop aroma. Light and crisp finish.
37. York – Centurion’s Ghost (5.4%) A warming, dark, bitter ale with a roasted malt taste. Very easy to drink for its strength.

The Ciders

1. Westons – County Perry (4.5%) Made from perry pears and fully matured in old oak vats to develop its strength and traditional character. Free from artificial colouring, flavouring and sweetening, it retains its natural pale colour.
2. Westons – Traditional Scrumpy (6.0%) A hearty wholesome cloudy cider. Sufficiently strong to satisfy but not too sweet to smother the mature flavour of traditional bitter sweet apples.
3. Thatchers – Cheddar Valley (6.0%)
4. Thatchers  – Traditional dry (6.0%)

We set off from a grey and rainy home hoping the weather would improve on the journey over as we wanted to squeeze some walking before we

The Woolpack Inn

headed for the Woolpack, unfortunately as seems to be the case when ever we go to the Lakes, it was still hammering down when we got there. We donned our waterproofs and hit the hills, a couple of hours and many mm or rainfall later we arrived back at the car and set off for the Hardnott pass – one of the craziest roads in the country, as it turns out it was closed due to the snowfall last week so we had to double back and go the long way round passing through many a Lakeland village and many great pubs.

We eventually arrived at the Woolpack just before 19:00 where we were warmly greeted by Dave and Ann who showed us to our room before we headed off down for pre tea drinks. Just as we got to the Bar, renowned beer geek Jeff Pickthall came in, to my surprised joined Emily in having a cup of tea, I on the other hand opted for a pint of Hardnott Light Cascade, one of Dave’s own brews and a great way to start the evening. It was light, refreshing and had plenty of cascade hops. Next on the menu was a pint of Grassmoor dark ale, quite tasty but very malty!!

Brewdog Tactical Nuclear Penguin

The food was excellent Em had the fillet steak with ginger and Cointreau and I had the Eskdale Pork Othello which was simply delicious. When dessert arrived I asked for a beer to go with my the unbelievably tasty Blue Bore Bomb (White chocolate, cream cheese and Blengdale blue cheese fondant encased in dark chocolate with a crunch base) I asked for a beer to go with it, Dave pulled out a bottle of Tactical Nuclear Penguin and asked if that would do, I wasn’t going to say no at the chance of trying a drink I had heard so much about.

TNP wen’t really well with the Blue Bore Bomb, the dark smokey, peaty and licorice boozy liquor really complementing the sweetness in the pud. There was a lot of discussion about the drink from everyone in the pub, in general everyone agreed that it was a rather tasty drink but in no shape or form and no matter how it started out that in it’s drinkable form it was not a beer..it was in fact a spirit, it was even discussed that it might work well with a dash of coke, ice and a slice….not sure I’d go that far but Emily would love to try it.

Blue Bore Bomb, perfect with Tactical Nuclear Penguin

After the table was cleared and the mini Woolpack’s were picked up from down the road Dave and Ann joined us in the bar along with a few locals and Alan the barman. At this point the night turned into a bit of a tasting session with a rather dangers array of ales being brought out and shared.It started with Dave’s ÆtherBlæc, a whiskey barrel aged stout that may have even converted Jeff as he proudly announced he wasn’t a fan of anything aged in oak casks, only to change his mind once he had tasted Dave’s beer, Next up was Granite, Dave’s barley wine, was also pretty tasty  but Dave was the first to admit it was a bit young and needs more time in the bottle. Both these were soon supped, then out came Zippy Red IPA, this wasn’t quite the finished product and needing some conditioning but we all agreed, given a little time and the odd tweak it could be come a sublime, hoppy IPA with a lovely red colour. While we were drinking these Emily was sampling the range of fruit beers that Dave and Ann sell, a great range it was too and she was kept more than happy by the choice.

ÆtherBlæc, Whiskey barrell aged stout

A couple of geuze’s were then brought out along with a rather large cheese board packed with great local cheese, both the beer and the cheese were fantastic, the geuze was a sour palette cleanser and the mort subite was bordering on a bit too sweet but was very tasty non the less, even Emily decided she quite liked them, she also surprised us by picking out loads of flavours from some of the other beers like the rauchbier and Dave’s Tenacity Stout.  I think we may have started the conversion to beer geek. We also cracked open a Lost Abbey Serpent Stout that Phil from Beermerchants sent me, it went down very well for something that weighed in at over 11%, at first I thought it was a little too sweet but then as it warmed and I drank more of it, the sweetness died away and it was very tasty indeed.

Stout Tenacity, delicious chocolate stout

One by one people drifted off, leaving just myself, Jeff and Dave, putting the world to rights and discussing various beer related things, some of which if I told you I would have to kill you.

Eventually we decided to call it a night as we cleared the last bits from each bottle, leaving Dave to clear up the mountains of over sized tasting glasses that we had been using.

The next morning the weather was glorious, everyones heads were a little bit fuzzy and the lovely local breakfast was welcomed with open arms, washed down with lashings of tea and coffee. We then left Dave and Jeff to get on with some important work and we headed out into the hills for a walk.

All in all we had a fantastic time, great food, lovely beer and warm and welcoming hospitality, Dave certainly knows his beer and where he wants to take it. Keep an eye on him over the coming months as I am sure he will, sooner or later hit the big time.

In the meantime the only place you can get his beer is from The Woolpack, check out the website here or follow Dave and Ann on twitter. You can also read Dave’s blog here.

You can see the rest of my photos from the weekend on here

I would also like to point you in the direction of Jeff’s twitter and blog if you haven’t already seen them, the blog especially is worth following, he really knows his stuff and isn’t scared to tell people what he thinks, that is a quality that I wish more people had.

Best way to clear a fuzzy head

Like many of the things BrewDog do this is likely to divide opinion so if you have any thoughts please leave them in the comments section a the bottom.

James and Martin from Brewdog

What is your brewery capacity?
15,000 HL per year.

What is different about your brewery?
Our FD is a Chocolate Labrador and our night shift is made up largely of penguins.

We are dedicated to making contemporary and progressive beers showcasing some of the world’s classic beer styles. All with an innovative twist and customary BrewDog bite.

How long have you been brewing for?
2 and a half years as BrewDog, 5 years overall. Martin and I homebrewed together before BrewDog.

How did you get into brewing?
We could not find any beers we wanted to drink in the UK and decided the best thing to do was start brewing our own. Most UK small breweries are ever so boring, we wanted to do something relevant and edgy and introduce craft beer to a whole new audience in the UK.

Both only 24 at the time, we leased a building, got some scary bank loans, spent all our money on stainless steel and started making some hardcore beers.

What beers do you brew regularly?

BrewDog Beers

• Trashy Blonde
• 5am Saint
• Punk IPA
• Tokyo*
• Hardcore IPA

What special/seasonal beers do you brew?

• Tactical Nuclear Penguin
• Sink the Bismarck
• Paradox
• And our upcoming new Abstrakt series.

Where do you think the future of brewing lies?

Consumers are going to wake up to the lies of the faceless corporate multi-national monstrosities and the bland liquid cardboard they industrially spit out.

People have been brain-washed by vindictive lies perpetrated with the veracity of pseudo-propaganda. They can’t help but be sucked down the rabbit hole.

Bracken BrewDog

At BrewDog we are on a mission to open as many people’s eyes as possible.

The UK beer scene is sick. And we are the f*****g doctor.

What is you proudest moment in brewing?
A gold medal at the 2008 World Beer Cup was pretty damn cool.

Brewing 2 collaborations with Stone (our brewing idols) was awesome, just like playing music on stage with our favourite band!

Do you have any brewing regrets?
We don’t do regrets at BrewDog!

What was last beer you drank?
Three Floyds’ Lord Admiral Nelson. Stunning beer from one of my all time favourite breweries.

What is your favourite hop?
The current batch of centennial we have is superb. We love using loads and loads of hops atBrewDog.

The freeze hopping process used in Sink the Bismarck produced staggering results. We used Amarillo for that.

What is your brewing ambition?
We just want to make other people as passionate about great craft beer as we are. That is our goal, hopefully while having some fun along the way too.

Do you have a Brewing hero/inspiration?
Darth Vader, who I still thing will be the CEO of InBev.

Which beer do you wish you had brewed?
Alesmith Speedway Stout.

Favourite hobby outside of brewing?
Does sleeping count as a hobby?

Anything else you want to tell us?
Look our for loads of exciting things happening over the next 12 months including our first BrewDog pub in Aberdeen.

The best way to stay up to date with everything BrewDog is on our blog

Thanks to James for filling that in, you can follow him on Twitter here, you can also follow Bracken here and Martin here. You can also visit their website here.

Lakeland IPA from the Bitter End Brewing Co

The branding on the Bitter End Beers is great, simple clean and a little bit quirky, the labels also have a nice shine to them so I imagine they would stand out pretty well on the shelf.

The Lakeland IPA weighs in at 5.5% and is brewed with First Gold, Simcoe and Cascade hops,  so that sounded right up my street as Cascade and Simcoe are two of my favourite hops.

It pours a lovely pale copper colour, the aromas are hoppy, citrusy and a little malty, there’s also a slight floury soapy note that is lovely and summery.

Taste wise it’s great, it’s light yet has plenty of flavour, there is a slight caramel sweetness from the malt followed by the nice hop characters from the nose and then into a slight hop bitterness that cleans your palette and leaves you wanting more.

It definitely falls into the I want to drink more of this category (see here) It’s somewhere between a Saltaire Cascade and a Thornbridge Jaipur – not quite as punchy as the Jaipur but a bit more flavour than the Cascade, both of which are beers I love.

I’ve already got stuck into the other beers in the case, reviews for which will all follow soon. In the meantime check out The Bitter End website, read their blog or follow them on twitter here.

The beers are also available to buy from My Brewery Tap