Our third farmers market in Glasgow tomorrow and for the first time we actually have supplies of lager to go. The first two were lagerless so it will be interesting to see how it goes. We bottled the latest lager brew yesterday and the opinion of Chris, Bo and David is that it is the best yet. Keith would have agreed however he is in NYC at the moment.
So stand by Partick - your lager's on its way.
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The following is reproduced without coment from a highly regarded online beer commentator:
The BeerCast
08 July 2007
Lagerboy Speaks
Beer fancying isn't just about a competition to find the darkest, strongest, most pungeant brew you can. Most beer websites and blogs do tend to concentrate on that end of the spectrum, but only because they tend to be the most interesting and flavoursome. Even the most ardent lagerfan would probably admit the lack of taste the lighter-coloured stuff suffers from. But less taste doesn't mean no taste (unless you opt for certain lagers), there shouldn't be a stigma against drinking good lager - after all, it was invented by the Czechs, and they know more or less everything good about brewing.
So amongst the BeerCast's regular malty, hoppy, caramelly (Podcast no.1 was brought to you in conjunction with that particular word) offerings, this committed Lagerboy will now and again pop up with a few drinks from the world of beers that you can actually see though. But just as 'real ale' suffers from an image problem, so does lager - one of popularity. In 2005, the UK lager market was worth £11.3bn - nine out of the top ten takehome beer brands were lagers (Guinness being the other). 42% of British adults now buy and drink it. By 2010, 80% of all UK beers sold are expected to be lager. Yikes.
But most of the major brands out there are the same old suspects - Stella, Carlsberg, Carling, Fosters. They don't taste of much, they are fairly cheap, you can buy them in any off-licence or pub. But it doesn't make them any good. Take Stella, the UK's most popular lager (it has a third of the market), due to recent issues of 'branding', producer InBev added more boutique beers to the stable, a wheatbeer called Peeterman, and a 6% super lager called Bock, which someone bought by mistake the other week and nobody would drink it. Fosters, brewed in Edinburgh, is the typical Australian lager - except I lived there for almost a year and hardly ever saw it.
You have to search them out, but local lagers are available. They cost more than the mass-produced types (although Stella recently went up again, by 12p a pint), but are infinately nicer, with more taste - and you get a pompous air of smugness to have sought out something regional that the other lagerboys will have never heard of. Take Colonsay Lager. Produced by a small new microbrewery from the tiny Scottish island of 120 people, they knock out this 4.4%abv gem using local ingredients and a slower fermentation process. That means the lager has a touch of the wheatbeer about it, and is a dark apricot, almost amber colour. Incredibly refreshing, and with a packed taste, it blows the Carlings of this world out of the water. Which can only be a good thing.
Colonsay Brewery
Posted by Richard at 12:09 PM
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Sometimes on this island matters of controversy arise, rumours are spread, mishaps befall folk. The brewery blog is not the place for this sort of human activity to be reflected or reported. As a matter of policy the brewery blog will not enter into maters of public controversy, debate or speculation. This is a firm rule. Rules are made to be broken - so here goes.
WHO PUT THOSE BLOODY LIGHTS ON THE PIER.
Navigational aids have been put on the pier, perch and rocks one imagines to assist the berthing of the ferry in the dark. The ferry timetable is constructed in such a fashion to ensure it does not berth in the dark save for perhaps a couple of late season sailings just before the winter timetable when it may berth in the gloom. Now we have four fast flashing lights that would require the BBC to offer a warning to epileptics were it to show film footage of it. They look like a crazed Chinese dragon dancer flitting round the pier. It is bizarre and pointless - unless I have the wrong end of the stick or they are going to introduce night time sailings and we're yet to hear of them. Phew - that's better.
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Well its summer and its beeb far too busy for any of that internet nonsense so here's just a quick no blog to prove that we are all still aliv.e and brewing away as normal. If the weather stays like this lager sales will go through the roof........but as we are selling it as fast as its produced that's probably not possible
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If ever any of us doubts about the sense of this enterprise we need only think of Keith, the boss, to quickly realise how sensible it all is. The boss is a man who likes to look after the bottom line and quite rightly keep a firm check on thinks. Waste is not a word in his lexicon. Don't just take the first offer of a carriage price, look round and save money. Last week hat paid off big time and will again. "A premium price for a premium product" is his mantra. Quality all the way. So it was when thought was being given to our latest product packaging. Thinking of all those summer nights lying ahead with beach barbeques, ceilidhs and lots of socialising we need a pack fit for purpose.
So we have the bumper party pack:
What was that drivel about the bottom line. Yes the boss has decided purchasing on this scale deserves a discount and so the bumper party pack sees you get 195 bottles for the rpice of 194.
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