Another milestone reached yesterday - sorry about the delay in bringing you the news, there tasted going on - Colonsay Brewery draught 80/- Ale is now on sale at the award wining Colonsay Hotel Restaurant and bar.
This is good news for us, but better news for the beer drinkers who have been asking for it.
It’s a great fit for a place like The Colonsay and us. The restaurant serves as much Colonsay produce as possible and it’s appreciated because it tastes so good. Now beer drinkers can have the same sort of treat. The late appearance of the 80/- has, it should be said, nothing to do with any reluctance on behalf of The Colonsay to stock it, but involves technical issues which are now overcome.
Seen here, as they say in all the best local newspapers, is from left to right, Bob the brewery, Keith the boss, Davie Sutherland and man who's invaluable advice has kept us on the straight and narrow on a whole variety of issues, and Chris the brewer.
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That dear reader is what the Isle of Colonsay brewing Company bottling line sounds like. Whirr - bottles washed and evacuated....plosh filled with foaming ale......bang the cap goes on. It’s a nice simple rhythm. Then someone says something and forces you from your mind numbing routine and it all go to pot. You get Whirr, Plosh, Ughhh. That means you've forgotten to put the cap into the machine before it closes down on the bottle.
Or worse still the whirr becomes a whoosh and that means horror of horrors, you've taken the bottle off the washer at the wrong angle and ended up having a shower.
I only trouble you with this tedious account of bottling as that's what's happening today. Big time, as 80/- and IPA are being bottled in large quantities as stocks are very low. It’s been busy on the island, busy at the Edinburgh event and it’s Glasgow Farmers Market ( Mansfield Park Hyndland Street 10-2) on Saturday.
OK, OK - I'll get back on the washer. Whirr - Plosh - Bang Whirr - Plosh - Bang - Whirr - Plosh - Ughhh ...bugger it - time to sample a bottle. "Quality control you know."
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What a tasteful lot gardeners are. Entire stock of beer cleared in three days save for 5 bottles of lager. Barry's nettle marmalade and chutney were scooped up too. They were being sold as "gardeners revenge".
You've fought them for years and they keep coming back - now you can eat them.
Back at the brewery preperations have been made for brewing tomorrow, 80/- this time. Then Tuesday will see the bottling of the latest IPA and then the bosses missus is off to Glasgow with a lot of stock for the Mansfield Park farmers market on Saturday. Sad to say, for her, she is also personing the stall (ok strathclyde fire brigade?) as the skiver is - skiving.
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Day 1 of Gardening Scotland - sharing a stand with our friends from Scots Cheer - delicious scottish produced liquers. Robin doing a steady trade handing out bottle after bottle of Damson Gin, Bramble Whisky and Raspberry Vodka. Us. We have sold one bottle of beer in an hour and a half. What's the differnece. Robin is offering folk a sip we are not. Not because we are tight (which we are) but because there's no fridge and you can't sell warm beer. Well guess what, you can. We start offering folk a sip of warm beer and lager and hey presto we have an ongoing retail situation.
In fact between 12 and 4 we sell over half of our stock. Its a three day event and simple maths suggests as Friday is the show quiet day we will sell out tomorrow. Now if we were brewing in a sensible place that would not be a problem. Just pop back to the brewery pick up some more stock and off we go. But we ain't so it looks as though we will have paid for a three day sale and only be there for two of them. I told you wse needed more mainland stock. Time for a nice chilled bottle of IPA - while there's some left.
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You may not have notcied but the brewery now has a fully working online shop. Rather amusingly, and to get one back on the rest of the world, we have free delivery, unless you happen to live on that silly island of Britain which lies off the cost of Colonsay, in which case you will be charged £7.95. Revenge at last.
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