Bladnoch

I know, I'm copying what the great BrewDog are doing, but come on James, imitation is the greatest form of flattery. It's certainly true that since taking the plunge and actually digging into my deep pocket with my very short arms¹ and ordering some BrewDog beers I've been impressed with what they do. I love Tokyo for special occasions² and for the slightly more regular occasions³ I like the Paradox. Now an 18.2% beer is not something I'm going to try and replicate any time soon. But the idea of ageing a stout in a whisky cask is achievable, even for this less experienced brewer. But where to get the cask from?

We've been buying whisky off a small distiller in Dumfries and Galloway for some time now. They are Bladnoch Distillery situated near Wigtown. Apart from making their own whisky they also do some very interesting, single cask bottlings off whiskys from other distillers. If you are interested in these then I suggest you join the Bladnoch forum where some interesting and very reasonably priced whiskys can be bought mail order by forum members. One of the whiskys we have here is Caol Ila, which is not only very tasty but is selling rather well. I recently asked what the chances were of getting hold of an empty cask and was very pleased that they happily agreed to let me have one, providing I went up to Bladnoch to collect it. A visit to a distillery? Oh go on then it's not far from Carlisle I thought.

Having got a stout in the fermenter on Tuesday, yesterday seemed a good time to go up and collect the cask. However, Google maps⁴ reported a longer journey than I expected. Never mind, we so much needed a day out, this was the perfect excuse. Besides, they do distillery tours and stuff so it'd be nice to get a look around. We needed to pick up some cheese from Thornby Moor anyway, so we set off, picked up cheese, including some nice smelly oak smoked Cumberland, I love the smell of that cheese.

We got there and managed to find our contact Sue, who then found the Caol Ila cask safely stacked behind a great forest of "useless" casks. A few chess moves later and we had the cask balanced on the front of a fork lift truck for loading into our car. I think Ann was a little apprehensive about damage to the car. Once in it seemed we had room for a second cask. A Bladnoch cask to use as a high table in the bar perhaps? What a good idea.

Although they were busy with normal punters, Sue's husband gladly showed us around the distillery starting in the bonded warehouse. I realised that there was a certain amount of privilege here. Members of the public are not normally permitted into the bonded warehouse. Even more thrilling was being invited to taste the samples from casks being considered for bottling. There is a warm feeling you get from cask strength whisky. An even warmer feeling ensues when you know the stuff has not had any duty paid on it. Then look around. This is only one of many warehouses. I'm not even going to start to work out the amount of alcohol that might be here.

The entrance to the oldest of the warehouses says "Angels keep out.....shhhh..whisky sleeping" this is reference to the "Angels Share". Whisky, in oak casks⁵ slowly evaporates and defuses through the slightly porous wood. In the original warehouse, which is nearly 200 years old, the smell of whisky soaked oak is really extremely pleasant, "that is the angels share" my guide tells me. In here they have a metal cage so the public can come in and view without any risk of them making off with the odd cask or two. Also in here are the casks that have been forward bought, duty free, a nice idea. For less than £1000 you can buy one of these. They might get you 200 bottles of whisky. £5 a bottle, what a bargain. The trouble is you have to pay duty and VAT when the whisky is removed from the warehouse, even if it happened to be inside you at the time. Duty on a cask is probably around £3000 a go. Perhaps not quite such a useful idea.

On to the distillery itself. The malting house is now defunct but makes an interesting venue for the forthcoming Book Town Festival that was being prepared for when we were there. These days most small distillers buy in malted barley, no different from the majority of brewers these days. Raymond the owner said, when I bumped into him just before we went, he would have gladly let me have some peat smoked malt to play around with had he known I was visiting. Next time maybe.

The thing that I like most about whisky is that it is simply beer that's been boiled up a bit after fermentation. In fact the only difference between beer and whisky is that they boil it after fermentation rather than before and don't bother with hops. I'm sure a distiller would say different, but in simplistic terms, that's about it. A look at the mash tun pretty much confirms that. Mash temperatures and O.G. don't seem to be a great lot different. I was intrigued that they use batch sparging. Most brewers I know use continuous sparging. I wish I had their great big lauter rake though, rather than relying on my oversized wooden spoon and good old armstrong power. Mind you, a mash at this size of distillery uses 5 tonnes of grist and 3 washes of 11,000 litres.

Anyway, after that on to the "washbacks" goes the wort where the yeast is pitched. No cooling on these great big 45,000 litre fermentation vessels, apparently this gets to be a big problem in the summer. But, fermentation is complete in about 2 days at which point the "wash" can be used for distilling immediately if they want.

As is the case with all Scottish malt whisky, double distillation is used. The 6-7% beer, which is actually called wash and is held in a wash charger. It then goes on to be distilled first up to around 23%, at which point it's called low wines and then onto a further distillation.

During final distillation the spirit that is first given off, at this point called the fore-shots, is at around 80%ABV but full of toxins and impurities. They divert this back into a holding tank to reuse and then start collection of the main spirit after around 30 minutes of distillation. During the main distillation the spirit collected might be 65% or so in strength and this is stored ready to go into casks. Finally the spirit becomes too weak and this is also returned to the holding tank for the next distillation. I'd tell you what this rubbish liquor is called, if only I'd made a note of it in my book.

Into the cask, where of course much of the magic happens. Whisky is clear upon distillation. It might have the smoky peaty flavours and aromas but is as clear as water. Eau du Vie, water of life or in Gælic "Uisge Beatha" which became "iskie bae" by 1583 untill eventually being called whisky. The cask is the only thing that gives a true single malt any colour. Much of Bladnoch whisky is in fact quite pale, but no less delicious for it.

Unfortunately the still was not running, but if it had been I'd have not been able to climb inside the vessels. It's going to run next week apparently. But in any case, it's nice to see a little bit of tradition going.

As mentioned above, we got a very good chat with the delightfully enthusiastic owner of Bladnoch. He bought the distillery in the 1990's, disused and with a covenant that prevented it from distilling. Since the time Raymond bought the property, apparently just for the cottages that used to be the homes of the compulsory excise men up until the 80's when Thatcher's government deregulated things. By 2000 Raymond had convinced Diagio that Bladnoch represented no threat to their massive industrial manufacture of spirit⁶ and he was once again permitted to distil whisky. This week Bladnoch launch their first 8 year old whisky to be distilled by Raymond and his team. It just goes to show.

I think the intro to the talk Raymond is giving soon says it all:

"The owner of Bladnoch distillery, Raymond Armstrong, tells how he came to live every whisky obsessive’s dream, to buy an old distillery and bring it back into production. An inspiring story of what can be done with a little luck, a lot of determination and the gift of the gab."

I can feel some parallels here with beer. Many in fact. The enthusiasm of the small time brewer or distiller, the people who enjoy the product and seek it out, the cottage industry feel of the operation but most of all the thoroughly friendly people involved in it all. Of course producing a product that is more expensive is never going to have a mass appeal. Equally a product where your choices are too big. Is the fino matured whisky better than the brandy matured or the other way round?

I would recommend a visit to this distillery, if ever you are out that way. Nice people, nice whisky and if you can't get there, I have some here for you to try.

On the way home the combined smell of oak smoked cheese and peaty Caol Ila was immense. The angels share was clearly still going. I'm glad the cask is now in the cellar, after having to remove the door off it's hinges. It's now cool and so the evaporation of whisky should be inhibited while I wait for the beer to go in it.

I got back home to find my stout had done 80% of it's fermentation in 24 hours. It's a good job the FV is only 60% full otherwise it would have been a magic porridge pot situation. I think it got a little hot as the yeast had stopped and has now restarted. A sneaky taste revealed a stout of promising flavour, but I am worried that the yeast has been unduly stressed. I also found out that Ann had, rather paradoxically, ordered Smokehead from LFW. These are the whisky casks that BrewDog use for one of their whisky aged stouts. This might all end up very interesting as I also bought a bottle of Caol Ila that had come out of the cask I had just liberated from Bladnoch. Should make for some informative tasting sessions later in the year.

If the whisky aged stout works out, I'll blog it. If not then I'll keep quiet.

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¹Actually, my pockets are nearly always empty. Ann hordes the cash and I have to beg for access to it. It's a good job as I would just spend it on beer or big boys toys otherwise.

²Like I got to the end of a day without loosing it with somebody. It doesn't happen often.

³Like birthdays and Christmas, which happen with more regularity and predictability.

⁴If ever there was a reason to build a bridge.

⁵ Q: What is the definition of whisky? A: malt spirit that has spent at least 3 years in an oak cask, apparently. Nothing else can be whisky. Why Bells and Grouse can call themselves a whisky, when a large amount of the liquid in the bottle is not in fact whisky, I don't know.

⁶Diagio and many other spirit producers, to get the cost of our drink down, make most spirits on a universal still, which I believe might be called a Coffey still. Even the base for most blended whiskies is largely made in the same way as vodka, gin and rum. These bulk spirits being flavoured with various additives and colourings to get the products you buy in supermarkets and chain pubs.

European Benefits?

I'm a bit of a Euro-sceptic really. I'm not keen on the idea of extra bureaucracy laden on everything we do. Having a political law making system that has tiers¹ all the way from parish councils through borough councils, parliament and then to the European parliament makes a confusing, costly and over cumbersome system, in my view. Thank goodness in England we don't have regional Governments as well. Besides, I like going to the continent for holidays because they do things differently out there, it seems that more and more these days everywhere we go is becoming more homogeneous with less regional variations to be found the world over.

I'm also a beer tie sceptic. If you read this blog regularly you will have already worked that out. My view for the best part of three decades has been that tied pubs are in many ways inferior and my view on that is unlikely to change. Of course, the beer tie has been an integral part of how the British pub industry has worked for over 100 years or more, so to change it might well accelerate the changes in the whole of the British pub scene. Personally, I'm not convinced that would be a bad thing. The days of the "community pub" may well be numbered, the back street boozer has had it's day, out of those that are left a greater proportion, based on industry statistics², are tied to some brewery or PubCo.

Recently CAMRA's Mike Benner claimed that European Law would prevent the abolition of the tie. Now, I remembered something in the back of my mind about there being an exemption in place that prevented the Treaty of Rome affecting our beer tie system. I'm no expert on how this all works, but it seems to me that perhaps the first step is simply to permit this piece of European legislation to work.

Although I don't like the tie, I would have to admit that a complete abolition would be a crazy idea. After all, where would I stand as a brewpub? We could argue all day, I'm sure, about what precisely we should do about it. There is European legislation which is designed to prevent undesirable monopolization of various markets without unduly affecting free market enterprise. Surely we just need to allow that to work? Perhaps this solution might pacify my two key scepticisms.

Meanwhile, my mischievous friend Jeff Pickthall has created a survey. He is interested in the correlation between political persuasion and Real Ale. Whilst I think there is an element of paranoia on Jeff's part I also think there is a validity to the question. There does seem to me to be a high number of CAMRA officials who are also union activists. Besides, just because you are paranoid, doesn't mean they are not out to get you and I know Jeff is not alone in his views. I think it does have some relevance to the beer tie.

Anyway, do the survey, I think it's a laugh. I like the political compass that is used. Political opinion is far more complicated than simple left and right. I don't think the political compass is complex enough to really describe peoples political views, but it's better than a simple one dimensional measure. For the survey to be meaningful Jeff will need input from as many people as possible. Also, it needs as broad a selection of people as possible. If you don't want to do it because of some belief you have then you might just be the missing bit of data. It does allow the use of pseudonyms, so he'll never know who you are if you don't want him to.

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¹.....or is that tears?

²Source: The Community Pub Report, October 2008, page8 which shows an increase in the proportion of tenanted/leased pubs over freehold.

When winter

As our visitors make their last ditch efforts to enjoy what might be left of the summer, we have to start thinking about the winter. I have a good idea about the minimum amount of money I would need to take over the bar in order to cover the extra costs of being open over being closed. When the sun shines, during the season, the bad days generally outweigh the good ones. So far this month we seem to have done well with sales per day outperforming August. But it has been hard work.

Without doing the detailed analysis I think we've done all right this year. Not bad after a grotty summer and considering the overall gloom and doom in the economy. Reigning in the overheads during the winter months should see us survive another year without bankruptcy looming.

In a few weeks time the weather will deteriorate and the footfall will reduce. I expect by the end of October I will be questioning the sense in being open mid week. For this reason we close mid week in November and will be closed fully during December and January. The trade will be non existent for most of that time. We will open up again at the start of February, again just at weekends and will be open fully by March. During the quieter months we'll grab a bit of a holiday and work like mad on decorating and finishing various projects on the place.

If you are clever you might well ask about the Christmas break. Do we not open then? Well, the last three years we haven't. We worked out that to enable us to do so we would have to retain seasonal staff, who actually don't really want to be here, just for a few hundred pounds extra takings. The effect on the bottom line is negligible. For the last three years we have been closed.

To stock up, estimate the number of casks to tap and vent, prep food and minimise waste is tricky for such a short period as the Christmas Holidays. Besides, do we not deserve one festivity off a year?

We've pondered opening for a part of the New Year break, perhaps for discerning guests. I wondered if a beer blogging and twittering type 3 day New Year "party" might be an idea. With luck, the type of people I'm thinking would enjoy the experience might well put up with a slightly reduced standard of service due to our inevitable core staff team. The deal might be a dinner bed and breakfast break and to minimise wastage for our kitchen a buffet style dinner each night, no choice but a selection of dishes for everybody to tuck into and try a bit of everything. Of course, it'll be to our usual standard.

I need to brew soon. I'm thinking of doing a big double imperial stout, or something similar at around 8%. It would be ready for the New Year. Any further ideas on brews to try would be appreciated, although strong would be the aim, I need something I can store for the spring. I would of course have something more sensible for the confirmed pint drinkers.

Anyway, that's the idea. Any takers out there?

Interesting Times

There is purported to be a Chinese curse that says "May you live in interesting times". Although it seems that there is no authenticity to this curse, and despite this uncertainty of it's origins, it feels to me like I have been dealt a wish by somebody that I should never lead a boring life.

The last week or so has been a roller coaster of fun and anguish. Of course nobody is perfect, but after a seemingly good run of success we appeared to take our eye off the ball and gained dissatisfaction in unlikely corners. This did set me in something of a period of unhelpful downward worry and introvert self-doubt.

Shortly afterwards I had an email, and corresponding comment on a previous post from our very nice people who got married here. I had copied the photographs of the wedding onto a CD and mailed it to them. Here is what they had to say:

"Hi Dave and Anne,

Kim and Jake here (last week’s bride and groom). Firstly just wanted to start by saying we received the photos you took yesterday. We absolutely love them, and they’re very professional, so thanks (once again).

Whilst we’re online, we thought we’d just add a sentence or two for all those possibly considering holding a wedding at the Woolpack Inn:

In helping us to plan our wedding Dave and Ann were flexible and accommodating. They went out of their way to ensure that it was a perfect day by, for example, photographing the ceremony and reception, and printing the photos so that they could be seen in the evening.

We chose the Woolpack Inn due to the stunning scenery. Out of the choice of two venues in the local area, the Woolpack Inn won our vote due to a fine selection of beers and a great menu, all of which lived up to our expectations.

We’d like to say a big thank you for the effort you both made, not just on the day, but for the week, which ensured that we, and our guests, had a great time. We would recommend the Woolpack Inn, not only to those considering a short break, but a wedding too!

All the best, and I’m sure we’ll see you at one of our anniversaries at some point in the future

Kim and Jake"

At around the same time there was the launch of the Good Beer Guide. We're in it again. For several reasons I think we're close to the bottom of the local branch league, I was at the selection meeting and sometimes it's the things that aren't said that you notice. Anyway, the branch view, is that if members don't get to the selection meeting then they can't complain about the selections, too true. To avoid any problems of complaints between the selection meeting and the publication of the guide the entries are kept quiet until the guide is published. I was sworn to secrecy even though I knew we were in the guide. Being in agreement with the policy my lips were sealed on the subject. There may be a fuller post on this subject....later.

At the launch of the GBG in our local Wetherspoons, to which I turned up to without my 50p off vouchers and incidentally I couldn't have used anyway because they are all dated. We had a very nice time enjoying good beer, about which a separate post is deserving. Perhaps by now you are getting the idea that I have very little time to play in this blogging world right now.

We're busy, really quite busy. We've got into September and the north/south weather divide has turned itself very firmly on it's head. It's so sunny here and has been for a good week. It brings in the punters and perhaps also helps put them in a good mood. The compliments are flooding back in again. We did take note of the aforementioned complaints, fixing what could be fixed. But, we're starting to fray a little, as is the infrastructure of the building.

Yesterday I was on the bar for quite a while, after a visit to the local plumbers merchants for a bit for a broken toilet cistern. Toilet fixed, I then spent around 6 hours solid being very nice to everybody while serving beer, fielding the repeat questions that are inevitable when you see different people every day. I don't think anybody who doesn't do it day in day out knows just how much effort it takes to keep that going all day. You feel your painted on smile fall off as you walk into the kitchen and out of the customers view and your Basil Fawlty face appears.

I'd like to write more, but I've run out of fillet steak again and need to go out to the butchers. I need to brew, but I don't know when I'm going to do that. I have about a dozen post subjects backed up somewhere in my grey matter but no doubt time will overtake them as well. I have also sold out of bottled beer too.

I've just checked a nice couple out of the rooms. Best steak they'd ever had, apparently, I blame the butcher. But the parting comment was:

"You've gone to the top of our list of special places"

I'm just off now to get ready for another busy day. The sun is shining again. To be honest, I'm looking forward to being bored one day soon.

Climate Change

It's busy at the pub. Good. But it does mean I have less time to blog. Bad. My little brother sent me a New Scientist article by email, because he thought I might be interested. He was of course right.

It's about hops loosing alpha acids due to climate change. I worry about climate change. I also worry sometimes that we worry too much about climate change. Bad beer might just be a worthy reason to worry.

My brother did seem to think that the degradation of the quality of Saaz hops might in someway account for my reluctance to appreciate lager - I'm not so sure on that one, but it's an interesting thought.

Thin end of a wedge

I got my new CAMRA membership card today. I also got some Wetherspoons vouchers with it. Apparently I can't use them in Scotland because of the new laws there.

It'll never happen in England of course. Perhaps we said the same about poll tax and the smoking ban.

Group Think

I didn't start this blog to promote my pub. I have The Woolpack Blog for that. Not that I put much on there these days, it seems a little pointless. To cut a long story very short, The Woolpack Blog was started first and then I found myself trying to write about issues that are more generic. I felt the need to write about running a pub, pub culture and drinking culture. I wanted to write about some of the frustrations I felt when I found established culture prevented me from trying new ideas.

The last few posts have seen me writing about my philosophy here, which I admit is a bit left field, but it's the way I feel it works best in my place, and more importantly works well for me and my family. I know it's not going to work in many other pubs, they must find their own innovative solutions. All of this brings me back to thinking about pub culture and the way it seems to be.

Cooking Lager, in his own drinking culture challenging blog, talks about group think. His mention of the concept struck a chord with me; I learnt about it in a course I studies several years ago and when you look out for it you see it all over the place. Very simply, it is is where a group of people all say that one idea, method or answer, for example, is the best. Because they all agree that this is the way it should be, they fail to find a better answer to whatever problem it is they are trying to solve. The group may miss some difficult but significantly superior solution, or even dismiss it out of hand.

There are some fixed ideas about what a pub should be and what it should provide. But why is it wrong for a pub to decide to try and break the mould of pub culture¹? I think the whole of the pub industry is stuck in a kind of rut, trying it's best to keep the general masses happy, but not producing anything new or innovative.

I have long held the concept that the pub industry is partly being killed by the view of the sceptical vocal few who say a pub should do a check list of none negotiable things. I believe that there is going to be some changes where a few radical pubs will do some very different things. Many will fail but some will grow stronger and develop a new style of pub. Either that or we will end up with trendy bars and snobby restaurants being the key force in the food and drink sector and the pub left as a hollow shell, leaving drive through takeaway emporiums and the supermarkets to mop up the rest.

The future is bright, lets rejoice and recognise innovation in pubs, rather than trying to tie them to some sort of fixed bargain basement formula.

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¹Sorry, that pun made itself up.