Recipe for success

Planning the Brewers & Suppliers evening following the success of last years event was always going to be a challenge however, like all successful recipes if you start off with the very best ingredients you can't go far wrong. 

Recipe for success

• Fill a cellar full of the best from Scotlands ale & cider brewers
• Add a generous helping of the freshest local seafood
• Blend together with the finest collection of local musicians
• Assemble a hand picked selection of brewers, distillers & food producers. 
• Serve with a smile & warm hospitality from the cream of Clachaig staff 

 

Shiny new casks

Ales & Ciders were arriving all week from all over Scotland with deliveries coming as far as Orkney & Shetland.

Cellar preparation

As well as our regular local brewers we invited some new faces from Fyne Ales,
Lerwick Brewery and Alechemy Brewing
 

Fresh from the sea

Fresh seafood & the best of Lochaber produce from Letterfinlay Specialist Foods
helped our chefs prepare some tasty offerings. Well done to Garry and our kitchen team for the excellent buffet.

Hungry Brewers

The gathering tucked in before their evenings 'work'. A blind tasting of all 10 ales. Great fun reading all the comments & scores -  some of the best however, are unfit to repeat here.

leave room for pudding

 

The Wurzels enjoying a cider...or two

Tony from Strathearn Distillery was busy doing the rounds sharing copious drams of his own whisky, rum & gin during the ale tasting, apparantly it all helped cleanse the palate.

Merlin from Cairngorm, he's a real wizard you know

 

Filling up before the ale tasting

Congratulations to Harry from River Leven Ales for being voted the best beer on the night by his fellow brewers with his River Leven Dark Ale.

Raffle swag

Huge thanks to all the brewers & suppliers for their generous raffle gifts which helped raise £257.00 for Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team.

This is a local pub for local musicians

Our local regular session musicians turned up in fine form and entertained the gathering for the evening. They certainly earned their prawns & scallops.

A Bevvy of Brewers.....or whatever the collective noun is!

So, there you have it folks. A great night in true Clachaig style. I have it on good authority that there were a few sore heads in the morning but lots of compliments too and already looking forward to next year.

Many thanks to Alechemy Brewing Cairngorm Brewery Cairn o Mohr Real Fruit Wines Lerwick Brewery Loch Lomond Brewery Letterfinlay Specialist Foods Orkney Brewery River Leven Ales Isle of Skye Brewing Company Strathearn Distillery Strathaven Ales TBS Coffee Thistly Cross Cider Fyne Ales and Williams Bros. Brewing Co. for making it a night to remember. 

And finally a huge shout to team Clachaig for the excellent service.

  

See you all next year!

Sizzling start to Mayfest

From House-Martin to House-Band

Fantastic start to Mayfest 2012 as Paul Heaton opened the celebrations on Friday night and entertained a packed Boots bar with a fine selection of solo material along with some great tunes from his back catalogue. What a cracker! Amazed he had so much energy given he had cycled from Ullapool to get here.

Woodsie and Stirton

Boots Bar virgins Mad Ferret were in great form for their Saturday night debut, normally we 'trial' new acts on quieter nights first but it was straight to top billing for Woodsie and Stirton and they certainly lived up to their own blurb with an extremely tight, technical performances with a driving knowledge and passion for Scottish and Irish folk music. A great night with much foot-stomping and hand-clapping.

Sunny outside so I may have to stack some keg

We went through a fair selection of ales over the weekend and judging by the picture above we've got some tidying up to do, mind you with weather like this we shoudn't be short of volunteers. Now to the cellar to see whats coming to a hand pull near you!

Loch Lomond Ales

Should you decide to take the high road or indeed the low road to Clachaig this week you're sure to find a great selection of Scottish cask ales. New to our taps this week are 4 fine ales from Loch Lomond Brewery. We could tell you what they taste like but why don't you pop round and find out for yourself.

Plenty of fun on the way as Mayfest continues this week and into the long bank holiday weekend with live music tonight from Mak-A-Din, Bonnie & Jim on Friday night and some jigs guaranteed from Finn on Saturday night. Music starts at 9pm in the Boots Bar. check out our What's On page for details.

It wouldn't be a beer festival without our ever popular Ale Tasting Masterclass and you can sample some great ales from Cairngorm Brewery this Thursday from 8pm in the Snug and on Tuesday River Leven Ales will be here to pass on some more cask ale enlightenment! 

See you at the bar!

Quiet February?.....You must be joking!

James preparing a new delivery

Clachaig is buzzing at the moment as we go into the second week of our winter beer festival. The cellar is rammed with a selection of Scotland's finest cask ales from Cairngorm, Williams Bros, An Teallach, Glenfinnan & Caledonian to name but a few.

Plenty of things to do in the evening too, whisky & ale tastings, mountain safety lectures, quizzes & of course plenty of live music & craic by the bucket load.

Winter safety lecture

Meanwhile through in the lounge bar over 60 hardy outdoor enthusiasts enjoyed last nights lecture on
Winter Mountain Safety presented by Roger Wild (UIAGM Mountain Guide and ex Safety Advisor with the MCofS) The main focus of Roger's lectures was winter navigation, vital training that apparently paid off as some of them managed to navigate through to the boots bar afterwards....job done.

Books 'R' us

Following the recent makeover to our residents lounge we've added a couple of bookshelves and filled them with...er...books. Guests & visitors alike can borrow, buy or swap. All we ask is a few pennies for Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team. We've even come up with some innovative bookends....old whisky boxes...empty of course, sorry folks.

Everybody's got to learn sometime!

And to add to the workload we're busy training our 'newest' recruits as we gear up for a busy season. Jessica originally helped us out in our housekeeping team at weekends & during school holidays, but she's all 'growed' up now and has returned from her studies for a stint on the front desk....
......Still no Hawkers or Campbells but smiles all round & a friendly welcome guaranteed.

For the Love of Glencoe

Last week Jo Tinsley, the Outdoors Editor of Countryfile Magazine and friends spent a few days staying at Glencoe Independent Hostel during a winter mountaineering holiday. They spent their time enjoying some of the things to do and see in the area in winter, unfortunately they missed the low level snow but there was enough on the hills to make up for that.

Wintry Conditions in Glencoe - Jo Tinsley

As a big fan of the area and the Clachaig itself, she has visited several times and has even mentioned the Clachaig in her route card for the Lost Valley in the magazine two years ago, also available online here.

Steall Falls - Martyn Cooper

This trip included taking part in a two day Winter Skills course through The Ice Factor, digging snow holes and learning how to stop yourself sliding by using an ice axe; self arresting for those in the know.

Steall Bridge - Martyn Cooper

As well as some more relaxed site seeing and walking, including a road trip to Mallaig via the Glenfinnan monument and the freezing but stunning Silver Sands of Morar. Followed the next day by a walk up Glen Nevis to the beautiful Steall falls (no longer frozen, for the ice climbers among you.) and the Wire Bridge, at which I was the only one of the group to lose my nerve in the high winds and fail to cross.

Silver Sands at Morar - Jo Tinsley

Of course, the visit wouldn't be have been complete without seeing our live band on the Saturday night, Black Eyed Biddy, and sampling the beers and whiskies we had to offer. Favourites were the Old Pulteney and Dalluaine whiskies and Cairngorm Brewery's Nessie's Monster Mash. Hopefully we'll see a little more of the area featured in the magazine in the coming months.

Martyn (Guest Blogger - and big jessie when it comes to wire bridges)

From Glencoe to Bollywood

With winter refusing to let go we bid a fond farewell to ’Febfest’ and yet another hugely successful 3-week long beer festival.

A record number of customers & guests enjoyed our programme of ale & whisky tastings, live music, quiz nights and mountain safety lectures. Judging by the praise lavished on us by those in attendance, you could be forgiven for thinking our formula is a ‘piece of cake’, so spare a thought for our bar staff who handled, nurtured & lovingly presented over 50 Scottish cask ales during the festival.

Fastest off the taps being Cairngorms’ ‘Sheepshagger’ which disappeared at a speed of 18 gallons in under 3 hours, a rate of knots that even a Top Gear presenter would be proud of.


Surprisingly, the talking point of the festival wasn’t an unusual ale, a quirky band or even one of our renowned Highland Malts. Hot on the heels of Slumdog Millionaire and presented by Gerry Brown from Gordon & Macphail comes India’s first Malt whisky ‘Amrut’. Now before you scoff and pour scorn on their cheek in mimicking our ‘Uige Beatha’ or ‘water of life, it would be prudent to remember that the classic Indian dish Chicken Tikka Masala was actually created in Glasgow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tikka_masala

…..so next time you visit Clachaig, treat yourself to a wee dram of Amrut. You’ll find it on the shelf between Aberlour & Ardbeg…try it with our Haggis Vindaloo!