Saturday 24 October 2009

Autumn Beer Festival

Regular visitors to Clachaig are well aware of our unique weather patterns and given the wet summer we've just had it's anyones guess what autumn will throw at us, so we were pleasantly surprised last Friday, the first day of our Autumn beer festival, to wake to a beautiful day, not a breath of wind, the sun high in the sky and the Glen packed with walkers and climbers making the most of the glorious weather.


In our Boots Bar we had the fires lit and all 15 hand pulls primed for action with a great selection of beer from Williams Bros, Hebridean, Cairngorm, Traditional Scottish Ales, Houston, and Isle of Skye breweries.

Opening night's entertainment saw the return of old Clachaig favourites, the Marauders. Hailing from Glasgow they rocked the Boots Bar, so loud they almost knocked the whisky bottles off the top shelf!!

Saturday we added new additions to the hand pulls, the most exciting being a new ale from Traditional Scottish Ales, Aleoween! Brewed with fresh pumpkin to produce exciting almond and caramel flavours, the pints flew over the bar! Music came from the madcap local bunch 'Anyone for Gravy' A great night was had by all. Sunday was a more casual affair with Scott MacDonald playing his laid back tunes.

Tuesday we welcomed whisky specialist Gerry Brown from Gordon & Macphail who entertained a very knowledgeable group of visitors including residents from Holland & the USA on the complexities of our national drink.

Ale Masterclass was presented by Dixie Taylor from Isle of Skye brewery who educated, entertained & amused a packed Snug bar on Thursday night.

A great start to Octoberfest and the good news is we have plenty more great beers and events over the next couple of weeks so we look forward to seeing you!

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