Deeside Brewery and other news

From http://iansaleadventures.blogspot.com/

Deeside Brewery has moved - to new owner Mike Bain's home at Auchattie, just outside Banchory. I never thought that they would have a long-term relationship with their former landlords at Deeside Activity Park - particularly as no lease had been signed - and so it has proved.

Mike has plenty of land and some unused steading buildings, where the brewery is now located. I've arranged to go out and view the new setting next week.

It's also no surprise, that, like Brewdog and a number of others, Deeside Brewery is focussing its future growth on keg production. They will still be doing Macbeth in cask (as well as keg), but LAF will only be available in bottles in future. Abhainn – which is apparently doing very well – will be cask only, but Talorcan will be cask, mixed gas keg and bottles. The recently launched 1057 IPA (which I’ve never tasted yet) has had only limited success, partly due to its strength, so there may be a less potent variant of this brewed soon, with Nelson Sauvin hops.

Some of the old brand names – such as Brude, Broichan etc – have been mothballed for the time being. The names may be used for future brews, but probably not the recipes. Nechtan fits into this category too, but this may be on the agenda a bit sooner.

Bottling is being done at Williams Bros – none of it bottle conditioned, however – and they have signed a distribution deal with Forth Wines for the Edinburgh/Glasgow area. They also have a contract with Belhaven which will supply additional volume.

Going down the keg route has opened up a number of new outlets, including the more up-market ones like the Marcliffe, Malmaison, Raemoir House etc, and, potentially, the Tor-na-Coille. Other new “real ale” outlets such as Adam Lounge and Inn at the Park will be opening up too.

Deeside have brewed a new, as yet un-named, lager, which they have high hopes for growth and greater profits from.

The Deeside Beer Festival is still going ahead at Potarch, but there has been no publicity yet, as the original proposed date of 13/14 July may be put back to August. Much depends on the availability of suitable comedy acts – apparently no longer including Phil Kay – and the ability to pre-sell 10 tables will determine exactly when it will take place. August fits in better with a Macbeth anniversary apparently.


On other matters, the relatively recent discovery of the Macbeth Arms, Lumphanan serving Cairngorm beer, "contaminated" with CO2, directly from handpumps, has led me to have a prolonged discussion with a few of our committee who understand the intricacies of these matters far better than I do. I believe this to be a clear case of "misleading dispense" (although to be fair to the publican, it was he who owned up immediately), and I rather suspect that the Tor-na-Coille is currently also doing this with the same supplier. Certainly, that is what Deeside are planning to give them, should they take over the business there. At least Deeside are being upfront about it, but I'm not sure if Cairngorm - and perhaps some other brewers? - have been as open. A difficult issue to manage - but a trend to watch out for.


A quick visit to Grantown the weekend before last saw us paying a couple of visits to the Ben Mhor. This is definitely Cairngorm country and it was no surprise that they, like the nearby Grant Arms, had Trade Winds on, although the former also had Wildcat. Nearer home, Macbeth in the Burnett Arms last Friday again went down well, as did Houston's APA on Saturday night, watching the Champions League Final on another weekend away at their "home" at the Fox and Hounds (http://www.houston-brewing.co.uk/) - a cracking pub.