How a Scottish brewery looked beyond its flagship IPA

On a wet and bitterly cold day, I warmed the proverbial cockles with an oatmeal stout called Double Dark and then sampled an American-style IPA, a cross-border Anglo-Scottish bitter and a traditional Scottish 80 Shilling before heading off to inspect “Caley’s” new microplant called Wee George.

To say the brewery has had a chequered history is to down-play its tumultuous past. It was founded in 1869 as Lorimer & Clark and became a member of the Vaux Group based in Sunderland. It seemed destined to close when Vaux offloaded it.

But it was saved by Russell Sharp — whose background was whisky with Chivas Regal — who quickly learned both brewing and marketing skills in the tough Scottish beer industry.

Morphed

When Sharp retired, Caley was bought by mighty Scottish & Newcastle which morphed into Heineken UK. Cynical thoughts that Heineken might have little interest in an ale brewery using Victorian kit have — if you’ll pardon the expression — been scotched. Caley is alive and thriving and managing director Andy
Maddock and beer manager Craig Steven say the Dutch giant has encouraged them to expand the range of cask beers.

And more than encourage: £180,000 has been invested in Wee George, a pilot brewery where new beers are tested. If they meet with consumer approval, then they move to the main plant and become either regular or seasonal beers.

It’s named in honour of one of the brewery’s founders, George Lorimer. It can produce a minimum of 400l and is run by Ross O’Hara, a graduate of the brewing and distilling school at the local Heriot-Watt University.

Wee George

Wee George is a modern piece of stainless steel kit, made in Scotland. But the production process is strictly traditional so beers can be replicated in the main plant. O’Hara even uses whole flower hops — placed in a muslin bag inside the brew kettle — to reproduce the exact flavours of the beers in the main plant.

To prove the point, the first beer made in Wee George earlier this year was a batch of Deuchars IPA.

Because IPA — a former Champion Beer of Britain — accounts for more than half Caley’s production, it is one of the top 10 alcohol brands in Scotland and is on sale as far south as Cornwall, proving that matching tastes and aromas from one batch to another is vital.

Innovation

The first beer that went through the innovation process was Coast to Coast, which saw Caley dipping its toes into the American pale ale sector. It met with instant approval from drinkers and is now a regular beer. It’s 4.6% ABV and has a punchy 40 units of bitterness from the use of American Simcoe hops. The hops deliver the intense grapefruit, pine kernel and peach aromas and flavours drinkers have come to expect from the American style.

A touch of slightly darker Vienna malt also adds depth of flavour to the beer.

Flying Scotsman (3.5% ABV) was added to the range several years ago and, as the name suggests, was devised to appeal to drinkers on both sides of the border. In spite of its modest strength, the use of amber and black malts, and three hop varieties produce a deep copper-coloured beer with a malty and spicy character.

Castle

I was delighted to sample Edinburgh Castle (4.1% ABV) because it’s a superb example of 80 Shilling ale. It’s a traditional Scottish style that has been in serious decline for years but has found favour again as part of the craft beer revolution. Using English hops and roasted grain, it has a rich biscuit and toffee flavour. It’s brewed in association with the Historic Scotland tourist board, which gives it additional prominence.

The main brewery is a symphony to beer making. Two mash tuns feed sweet malt extract or wort to coppers that are worthy of the name because they are made from that material.

They are a rare breed, open vessels fired by gas, which — as Russell Sharp used to say — produce a clean, juicy hopped wort, avoiding any stewed off-flavours.

Brewhouse

The brewhouse can produce up to 300 barrels of beer per batch and the hopped wort then goes to 15 open square fermenters where a yeast culture, which originally came from Vaux, vigorously turns malt sugars into alcohol and fills the air with intoxicating aromas of freshly baked bread, and tart and tangy fruits.

Edinburgh’s nickname, Auld Reekie, stemmed from the number of breweries in the 19th and 20th centuries that filled the city with the heady aromas of fermenting beer. Such famous names as McEwan and Younger are long gone (though Charles Wells now produces McEwan’s beers).

A clutch of new craft breweries in and around Edinburgh are filling part of that large gap, but it is in the heart of the city that Caledonian proudly nurtures its historic roots.