The Williams Bros is a Scottish micro brewery that has been around since 1988, famed for their outstanding Heather Ale. While they are mainly known for Fraoch, which is their heather ale, they’ve got several other brews under their belt as well, most of them fantastic. In this post, I thought I’d take a look at two of their expressions; Fraoch itself, and Alba.
It was Tuesday, and I was going out to see a show. Environmentally conscious as I am, and a decent enough evening as it was, I decided to cycle to the pub where I was meeting my dear friend before going to a comedy show (the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which is the world’s biggest comedy/arts festival, is on at the moment). Inevitably, I ended up having just one or two more pints than I probably ought to, and decided it would perhaps be a bad idea to cycle home. What I didn’t think was that someone would spot my lonely bicycle and go “hey, wouldn’t it be super-fun to kick this to bits?”, but of course they ruddy did.
Hence I wonder: who are these absolute mongrels anyway? Walking home after dropping my bike off to be fixed (which will cost at least £50, apparently) I actually spotted 3 (THREE) other bikes that had endured similar treatments. Who? Why?
Anyway, enough moaning. The show I went to see was Pappy’s All Business and it was actually hilarious – perhaps not worth the extra £50 on top of the £12 ticket, but definitely worth seeing. The only negative was that the beer on offer at the bar outside the venue wasn’t great… I had to drink Heineken! The pub we went to beforehand did have a pleasant surprise in stock though, namely the new-ish Pilsen from the Scottish Stewart brewery. I’m not normally a massive fan of theirs; I quite like Edinburgh Gold but their 80/- is about as boring as beer gets.
This isn’t the first time that I’ve mentioned BrewDog on the blog – they’re a Scottish brewery of modern, bold ales. While they’ve only been around since 2007, they’ve already made quite the name for themselves on a global scale; partly due to the high quality of their products, but partly due to releases such as their Tokyo stout (18.2% abv) which was banned in the UK due to a combination of its high alcohol content and the provocative label which “encouraged excess”, or indeed Sink the Bismarck (41% abv), released 2010, which is the world’s strongest beer*.
Controversy aside, if you look past their cocky labels (“This is an aggressive beer. We don’t care if you don’t like it” and “it is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to appreciate the depth, character and quality of this premium craft brewed beer” are excerpts from the Punk Dog IPA label, for example) and the tough-guy image, their beers are generally of exceptional quality, and Paradox Isle of Arran did not disappoint!
While whiskey is drink of choice in a lot of contexts, I’m not so single minded as to drink nothing else. In fact, I may have sampled an even wider range of beer in my day than I have whiskey. Since I think it’s important to try different things in life, and not just stick to what you know and love (whiskey, in this case), I thought I would introduce you to one of my favourite beers.
What makes Innis & Gunn so special is that it is matured for 77 days in an oak barrel which has previously been used to mature American Bourbon, which imparts a lovely combination of vanilla, toffee and (surprise surprise) oak. There are several other varieties available as well, including Canadian and Highland barrels, which are both good but unfortunately don’t match up to the expectations set by the original. There’s also a rum cask expression and a couple of others, which I may post about in the future!
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