VISIT TO STRATHAVEN BREWERY
Our September visit to the Craigmill Brewery at Strathaven, the first
since Strathaven Ales took over from the Williams Brothers, saw 17 members
arrive by mini-bus from Edinburgh, plus Roddy who found his own way there,
more than the bus driver could do at the first attempt.
The story of the
brewery is quite remarkable, none of the originators having had any previous
brewing experience Their intention was to create a local amenity making use
of the very attractive riverside setting, as well as bringing the brewery
back into action. So that it would become a place to visit , there is an
emphasis on catering for groups, often in the form of barbecues. They
certainly provided us with a very acceptable lunch, the venison sausages, in
particular, proving very popular.
It is quite staggering that Craig
Buchanan, should be able to start from scratch in mid-career, and produce
commercially acceptable beers after a very brief tuition period from Bruce
Williams. They concentrated on very local sales initially and no doubt
benefited from the fund of goodwill from folks eager to see a local brewery
enterprise re-created. Now it is producing prize winning ales which are
gaining respect much further afield, making good use ,as Bruce Williams did,
of hops grown locally as well as local barley, the soft river water and the
occasional unexpected ingredient to stimulate the taste buds and test folks’
capacity to identify flavours. Two of the beers were available on pump as
well as a back-up of bottled beers, all of which were enthusiastically
received.
It was good to see a number of new faces in our party and I hope
this visit will encourage them to become enthusiastic and participating SCB
members.
Bill Cooper
