Brewery Island km² Population
Colonsay Colonsay 40 100
Cooks Lager Rarotonga 65 14.200
Föroya Bjór Borðoy 95 5.000
Royal Beer Tongatapu 257 66.000
Ventnor Isle of Wight 380 140.000
Arran Isle of Arran 432 5.000
Texelse Texel 463 13.600
Sinclair Orkney Mainland 523 15.000
Okells Isle of Man 572 80.000
Islay Ales Islay 620 3.400
Coral Madeira 828 245.000
Isle of Mull Isle of Mull 875 2.600
Black Robin Chatham Is. 900 700
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You may recall a recent post of the visit by some Germans to present us with a certificate for being the world's smallest brewery --- well at last we have made contact again and got the full story.
They are a group called Aktion Guttes Bier - just what is says Action for Good Beer - and they decided to find which brewery in the world serves the smallest population - it obviously had to be an isalnd one.,..and yes you have guessed it --- Colonsay Brewery is the smallest in the world - that's official.
Let Ludger tell the tale:
"Last year we sat together talking about holidays, and sunny islands, and drinking beer on sunny islands. Me and my wife had just returned from a trip to Greece, from an island, where only Heineken was available. Somebody brought up the question how many islands might have a brewery of its own, an island where pubs do not sell Heineken or Tuborg, but the local beer, as fresh and cool as the morning dew (as we say in German) The next question was: What is the smallest island that has a brewery of its own? Where is it?
You already know that Colonsay is the winner of this contest. We investigated that very accurately. Otherwise we would not have made that trip.
To be clear: The Colonsay Brewery is not the smallest brewery on an island. That is impossible to figure out. First because there are so many islands (everything smaller than Australia is an island, that includes Great Britain). Second, you cannot detect the size of most small breweries, because they do not publish any figures, and some are run just as a sideline job.
But we were happy to certify that Colonsay is the smallest island in the world that has a brewery of its own. Smallest in terms of population and in terms of area. The list is attached to the certificate as an attachment so you can publish it on your website."
Full List to follow:
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Island life is multi-tasking. Sometimes the jobs undertaken create a bit of a conflict in our existence. The beer needs filtered - but some other call on the time gets in the way. Maybe its boat time and the ferry needs tied up etc etc.
So here we are in the middle of lambing season, you can tell that by the non stop gales and rain, and Sheena is coping with a difficult birth but is aware that its shop time. You can't tell a ewe to hang on for a few hours so she sticks with the job relaxed in the knowledge that on such a dreadfull day the shop will be very quiet and so there's no problem. Eventually the little darlings arrive: "To Mr anbd Mrs Sheep twins - dumb and dumber" mother and babies doing well.....quick wash and change and its off to the shop --- to find SEVEN cars waiting for it to open the folk in them amusing themselves watching the rain cascading down the windscreens.
Here are two of Sheena's other lambs - We would have claimed they were the actual shop delaying lambs other than the picture is taken from our sister island publication the Corncrake and keen eyed readers of both would have spotted the attempted deception. In addition if we had got away with the deception we may have been tempted to stand for Parliament.
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We've been innundated with requests for a sneak look at the new clothing range from people excited over their forthcoming visit to the island. So with a bit of technical backup we have raided some Facebook albums, ratgher like the popular press, and here is some of the stuff:
For the older person:
Ideal for wearing in a group
Now this is just a smattering of what is available so see you in the shop.
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The guy who used to run the mainland distribution hub in East Lothian was having a tidy up over the weekend and he came across a case of the very first IPA brewed by the Colonsay brewery. From memory its probably the first beer produced here when we opened at Easter 2007. It is, we imagine, rather like coming across a bottle of 2000 Chateau Margaux and you didn't know you had. The only realy difference is that the claret will improve with age and the beer perhaps not. We'll open it at the weekend and see what its like. Quite interesting though.
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