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!

Putting the fun into fundraising

Plenty of fun was had during our busy autumn festival ‘Octoberfest’ and the full programme of live music, gin & whisky tastings, pumpkin carving, quizzes & pool competitions kept us all busy.

Halloween Staff fancy dress

 

Serious pool sharks

Tabitha and her amazing pumpkin

Our rolling fundraising commitment to actively raise funds for a variety of locally based charity/projects raised £200.00 for the Glencoe Community Defibrillator Fund.

Pool Winner

Staff Pool Champ

Many thanks to all who participated in these fun events and to our suppliers who donated generous prizes for the winners. See you again next year.

Octoberfest 2016

Alfresco dining October 2016

The dramatic change of colour in the glen marks the arrival of Autumn, shades of green turn orange and brown, the temperature begins to drop and whilst Rowan trees are loaded with bright red berries others are shedding their leaves. It’s a great time of the year to visit for a brisk walk in the woods in the crisp autumn air. Octoberfest is about getting out and about before the onset of winter and enjoying all that Mother Nature has provided. and you can be sure we’ll have the log fires lit for your return. 

A wee dram by the fire?

It’s hard to imagine October at Clachaig without a festival.  We’ve been doing it for so long that it’s almost second nature. It’s not that hard is it? Stick on a few more beers and plant a banner in the paddock, ‘if you build it they will come’, to misquote the Kevin Costner film Field of Dreams. 

But we’re better than that and our customers expect and deserve more, so what is our autumn festival all about? Well, as you’d expect there will be beer, music and hearty grub as usual but this year we have a few surprises in store.

Cascading Hops

There’s a definite hoppy theme in the boots bar where Ann Marie has been busy festooning or whatever it’s called. Our arty bar staff have been busy waxing lyrically on the chalkboards about our deliciously moreish hot chocolate drinks, new additions to our growing gin collection and upcoming live music whilst the rugged outdoor types are stacking logs for our guests to enjoy cosy nights by the fire.

We will, of course, be showcasing the very best of Scotland’s cask and craft ales including some new brews from Loch Lomond launcing exclusively at Clachaig. This year we introduce Strathaven Ales and can’t wait to taste their Fiery Cauldron along with a variety of aptly named autumnal cask ales including Octoberzest, Witches Cauldron and Lochtoberfest.  

We will be rotating a very tasty craft lager selection from Cairngorm, Loch Lomond, River Leven, West, Orkney and Williams Bros and we’ve not forgotten the stout either with Silkie Stout and Black gold both putting in an appearance. For cider lovers we have cask and keg delights from ThistlyCross and
Cairn ‘O Mohr. 

 

For those pondering which ale to have, why not try our new beer flights offering your choice of 3 glasses x 1/3 for the price of a pint. Flights are a great way to sample our vast selection without committing to a full pint. On the other hand, if you know exactly what you want you could double your pleasure with our new 2-pint steins 

Enjoy 3 ales for the price of a pint

double the pleasure

Over 300 malt whiskies and a growing collection of 40 something Scottish gins grace our shelves so there's plenty to choose from. If you're a newby to the mystical world of whisky or baffled by rise in popularity of Scottish produced gins then we have the very answer to your prayers. Our ever popular Whisky and Gin  Tasting Masterclasses hosted by our supplier Gordon and Macphail are back. Pre-booking is strongly advised. Our evenings are relaxed and informal, and very unpretentious. An ideal opportunity to get to grips with what can appear to be a very daunting (but equally very pleasurable) part of Scottish culture.

Glasgow School of Art students enjoying a dram

Hungry? Allow our talented chefs to set your taste buds drooling with impressive daily specials using the very best local produce available including Prime Scotch Steak, local hill-shot venison and award winning freshly culled haggis. They’ve been busy creating a variety of casseroles and sausages using beer, whisky, cider and gin and not your average bangers either, fancy a foot-long hot dog with a variety of toppings including Chilli, cheese or fried onions....or all 3. 

Foot long banger anyone?

 So now you’re suitably fed and watered, what next? Depending on when you visit you could:

• Put your feet up and chill by the fire with a wee dram
• Join in our ever popular quiz with great prizes on offer  
• Simply listen to or join in the Sunday evening openmusic session
• Expand your knowledge and treat yourself to a malt whisky or Scottish gin tasting masterclass from the experts at Gordon & Macphail.
• Are you a pool shark? New this year for the more competitive, Friday night is pool knockout. Great prizes on offer for the winner and runner-up with spot prizes for the flukiest or most ridiculous shot. 
• Dress up in your scariest fancy dress forHalloween. Try your hand at pumpkin carving. Prize for best costume and best Pumpkin 

Did we mention our legendary live music? This year we really have rolled out the big guns.

Join in the music session

·         Friday 14^th Derek Young; Derek has amassed a strong repertoire of songs, including both contemporary and traditional Scottish, Irish, Country and Folk music.

·         Saturday 15^th Kinky Karma; Predominantly a covers band playing music from the 60’s to present. Songs by  Kings of Leon, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Kasabian and many more…

·         Sunday 16^th – Open Session;  All musicians, twangers, strummers & part time whistlers  – and everyone else for that matter – are very welcome.

·         Saturday 22^nd Lewis Hamilton; Lewis and his band are Scotland’s hardest working Blues-Rock trio. As a guitarist he pays tribute to some of the greatest musicians of the 20th century, taking influence from people like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix and Rory Gallagher.

·         Sunday 23^rd – Open Session; don’t be shy, bring along your Bodhrán, guitar or violin and join in....or borrow one of ours.

·         Saturday 29^th Halloween fancydress/pumpkin carving and music from Moonshine Maggie; Dig out your dungerees for some good old Foot-stompin’ country, southern and classic rock…..Yeehaa!

For full details see: http://www.clachaig.com/whats-on/?whatson_id=2245

So there you have it folks, Scottish cask and craft ales, locally produced food, Scottish gin, vodka, rum and  whisky, Scottish stouts and ciders, Scottish music and the best craic you can experience, surely something for everyone.

Special Offers on our Hotel Accommodation to coincide with our autumn festival in Glencoe.
For 2016 we have held our prices from last year. No increase, offering even better value, especially on our Dinner, Bed & Breakfast packages.

Now THAT’S Octoberfest.

Scottish Independent Brewers gather at Clachaig

If a gathering of lions is referred to as a pride, and a group of baboons is a flange, what then do you think is the collective noun when a collective of Scottish Independent Brewers all find themselves in the same bar?

It would have been handy to know on Thursday (14th April), as that is exactly what happened at Clachaig Inn as a dozen of Scotland’s brewers came together for an informal gathering in Glencoe.  Organised by Clachaig, the idea was to bring together businesses who face very similar issues, but who rarely get to meet and chat.

There was plenty of time to share ideas and talk about the more serious aspects of the business. Unsurprisingly, there was even more time for more frivalous issues, as you might expect from a networking evening with the central theme (and refreshment) being beer.

The main feature of the evening was a blind taste test, with each of the brewers invited to provide one of their brews. Marks were awarded for each beer, with points awarded for appearance, aroma and taste. With the scores totted up, the award for the best beer of the evening was given to The Hector, a smooth sweet stout from An Teallach Ale Co. A special prize (not that special!) was awarded to Carlo from Black Wolf Brewery who was the only one to correctly identify his own beer!

Clachaig director, Guy Daynes, also ensured that there was a special wild card played in the blind tasting, by including his own elderberry stout. It didn’t come last is about all we can say about it!

Everyone was also invited to bring along a few presentation pack samples of their products for a raffle. A fair pile was gathered and with it being a steady night in the bars in midweek April, the chances of winning a prize were high! £210 was raised for Glencoe Mountain Rescue.

The Clachaig kitchen excelled once again with a smorgasbord of tasters from the menu, whilst the Loch Leven session musicians added to the atmosphere with their repertoire of toe tapping tunes.

All told the Clachaig Brewers' Gathering was a resounding success. Naturally, everyone was quite glad to have solved all the problems of the industry solved in one short evening (amazing what tasting a dozen beers can do for you). However, the real success of the evening was simply in bringing everyone together so that for one evening in the year at least there was an opportunity to simply meet up and chat.

An excellent evening and by all accounts one that we’ll have to repeat again.

We look forward to an interesting summer of ales, stouts, lagers and ciders…




Businesses represented included:

Cairngorm Brewery

The Isle of Skye Brewing Co

The Orkney Brewery

Loch Lomond Brewery

Loch Ness Brewery

River Leven Ales

The Cromarty Brewing Co

Black Wolf Brewery

Thistly Cross Cider

Harvistoun Brewery

Williams Brothers Brewing Co

An Teallach Ale Co (Last minute apologies sent)

Also present were

Gordon and Macphail – Whisky Merchants

Letterfinlay Foods

Total Beverage Solutions – Coffee Merchants