Beer Review: Unforgiven red rye ale by Tempest Brewing Co

Unforgiven red rye ale by Tempest Brewing Co. 

It's been a good year for Tempest Brewing Co - the Borders brewers have lived up to many people's expectations and continued to create the fantastic beers they've quickly became known for.

Five years after starting out, they've opened a big beautiful brewery Galashiels in the Borders and begun rolling out a new line-up of great beers. They've a history in making some outstanding beers and a lot of people have been looking forward to the first batches from their new bottling line, and it's no surprise they were tipped as one of the hottest breweries to watch in 2015.

With a new brewery, Tempest also underwent a bit of a rebrand, slicker labels but smaller bottles. Their first wave of bottled beers comprises Brave New World, a potent, murky IPA (7.4%), Red Eye Flight mocha porter (7.4%) and In The Dark We Live black IPA (7.2%).

Their Easy Livin' Pils is part of Aldi's Winter Beer Festival, which launched at the start of October so hopefully there's still some left.

Earlier this year, Tempest also  released Unforgiven, a 5.4% smokey red rye ale with as much attitude as the Man With No Name. No surprises at the aroma. It's sweet campfire smokiness with tart gooseberries and bark. Pouring gives you a clear and deep amber, the colour of dying embers, with a light tanned head.

But the taste is surprising. It's shockingly alive and complex, and may be something of a challenge for anyone who's not a fan of smokey beers. The smokiness, obviously, is dominant but there's a lot more going on: fruits, spices, salt. The initial hit is peppery and exciting, like a gun battle in your mouth.

There's something sweet there too, like vanilla or caramel or wafer biscuit, but, like a shooting star in the night sky above you, it's away in a moment. And then there's a sourness, almost bloody, and a gentle sweetness of nectarines; light hops bring the notion of a soft breeze carrying the scent of those loch-side reeds near to where you sit by your campfire. It finishes slowly, bitterly and dryly.

Beer Review: Aldi Winter Beer Festival

Lochtober Fest by Loch Lomond Brewery

Aldi have long been supportive of Scottish breweries, and they've smashed it again with another sensational line-up of ales for its Scottish Winter Beer Festival. 

The best festival kicked last week, and since then Aldi's Scottish stores have been filling their shelves with beers from the majority of Scottish breweries - 50 in total. The beers, from breweries such as Williams, Cairngorm and Inveralmond, are a sterling representation of the world-class ales and lagers being produced in our wee country.

Fans of good beer are in for some treats, with beers such as Alechemy’s Red Rye IPA, Top Out's Copperheid and Windswept's Wolf; but the festival is also a terrific way for Scotland’s breweries to showcase their core beers to drinkers reluctant to make the step away from bland, mass-produced beer. The offering reflects the many different types of beer styles, hops, malts and methods being used across Scotland, from traditional British bitters to hop-heavy IPAs, oatmeal ales to bourbon barrel-aged beers.

It’s also a prime example of how large retailers should be co-operating with small producers. Brewery after brewery praised Aldi for the support it has given to Scotland's craft breweries, highlighting the open and collaborative stance it has taken - an insight as refreshing as the beers themselves. Aldi’s beer buyers Michael Whiteford and Kirsty Reid were singled out for praise.

Isla Mercer of Lerwick Brewery said: “Aldi’s beer festivals are a fantastic initiative that allow smaller breweries to showcase their beers and reach a much larger audience than they normally would. It's great from a consumer point of view to be able to have such a broad selection of quality Scottish products so easily available. Aldi are to be congratulated for putting in so much work to promote local, Scottish produce in their stores.”

Some beard-lovers, of course, may grumble that the line-up doesn't carry enough of the darker beers, such as porters and stouts, traditionally drunk as winter creeps closer. It's a valid critique, though the success of Aldi's beer festivals suggests they know what they're doing; while the beer curation is in fact a reflection of what the breweries themselves want to showcase. It was an assertion repeated by the likes of Williams Brothers, Drygate, Inveralmond, Black Metal Brewery, West Brewery, Tempest, Top Out, Barney’s, Cairngorm, Alechemy, Loch Lomond, Cromarty and so on

Beer drinkers after small-batch specials, spicy porters and the likes, your local independent beer shop will be delighted to help you.

But pedantic grumbles aside, this supermarket beer festival is an outstanding opportunity to access a wide range of Scotland's craft breweries, often thought of - incorrectly - as too pricy or elitist. The beers are priced from £1.29 to £1.99. 

Hopefully this festival and the ones to follow will encourage more people to think craft and to think Scottish. So, while it feels unfair to pick out a handful of beers from such a great selection, here are:

SIX GREAT BEERS in the ALDI BEER FESTIVAL

Lochtober Fest by Loch Lomond Brewery (5%)

The soft fruity aroma gives little away but inside is a little beer treat. Amid the toffee and toast malts, you'll find fruity and mild spiced flavours in this amber-coloured boch style beer, with the taste conjuring up the scent of an autumnal orchard.

Easy Livin Pils by Tempest Brewery (5%)

Proof that Czechs don’t have the rights to great pilsners, Tempest’s lager is honey, apricot and citrus on a light biscuit malt. Delicate and subtle with a brilliantly crisp and bitter finish.

Bourbon Barrel by Eden Brewery (6.5%)

Sweet, spirited and well rounded, this is easily one of Eden's best beers and a brilliant choice for them to showcase. The toffee and dark chocolate sit very well with the rich oaky flavours from the bourbon.

Orkney Blast by Highland Brewing Company (6%)

A potent pale ale with a sensational nose of summer woodland. Tastes of mandarin, nectarine and caramel malt with the citrus becoming ever more pronounced as you move towards a well-rounded finish.

Redact Red Lager by Williams Brother Brewery (4.4%)

A lovely little beer that comes in easy-drinking 330ml bottles. The addition of darker amber malts to the lager style is a nice touch as the toffee flavours blend easily with the citrus and autumn fruit aroma and mildly bitter finish.

6.2 IPA by Broughton Ales (6.2%)

Bid, bold and brilliant, you really ought to buy two. It’s probably worth trying the Knops IPA too for comparison. Oh, and you’ll need some of BrewDog's Jack Hammer while you're at it.

Here’s the full line-up:

West Brewing Co, St Mungo Lager

Williams Brothers, Redact Red Lager

Deeside Brewery, LAF Californian steam beer

Tempest Brewery, Easy Livin Pils

Lerwick Brewery, 60 Degree North Lager

Burnside Brewery, Wild Rhino Blonde

Belhaven Brewery, Speyside Oak Aged Blonde Ale

Cairngorm Brewery, Trade Winds

Highland Brewing Co, Orkney Blast

Jaw Brewing, Glide Ale

Sulwaith Brewers, Galloway Gold

Orkney Brewery, Corncrake Ale

Top Out Brewery, Copperheid Ale

Traquair House Brewery, Bear Ale

Archerfield Fine Ales, Archerfield Golden Ale

Black Metal Brewery, Yggdrasil

Wooha Brewery, Wooha IPA

Windswept Brewing Co, Wolf

Spey Valley Brewery, Stillman’s IPA

St Andrews Brewery, Oatmeal Pale

Knops Beer Company, Knops IPA

BrewDog, Jack Hammer Ale

Ayr Brewing Co, Hiphopopotamus Hoppy Pale Ale

Cromarty Brewing Co, Happy Chappy

Scottish Borders Brewery, Elder Flower Ale

Houston Brewery, Crystal Ale

Caledonian Brewery, Bill’s beer

Hebridean brewing Co, Berserker Export Pale Ale

Barney's Beer, Volcano IPA

Drygate, Ax Man Rye IPA

Islay Ales, Angus Og Ale

Broughton Ales, 6.2 IPA

Inveralmond Brewery, Thrappledouser red ale

Isle of Mull Brewery, Terror of Tobermory

Stewart Brewing, Embra Ale

Arran Brewery, Arran Fireside

River Leven Ales, River Leven Dark

Kelburn Brewery, Ca’ Canny

Valhalla Brewery, Old Scotness

Mor Brewing, Mor Tea, Vicar

Speyside Craft Brewery, Bottlenose Bitter

Loch Ness Brewery, Spookyness

Isle of Skye Brewery, Skye Red

Brewmeister, Pump’d Ale

Loch Lomond Brewery, Lochtoberfest festival ale

Alechemy Brewing Co, Five Sisters Red IPA

Black Wolf Brewery, Florida Black

Eden Mill Brewery, Bourbon Barrel

Strathaven Ales, Ginger JockOban Bay Brewery, Skelpt Lug

Aldi anything for a beer

Selection of bottles in Aldi beer festival

Buying beer is one of my favourite things to do. So it's nice when a chain comes along and says, "Hey, do you like buying good beer? Well, we're gonna do a beer festival, just for you."

So says Aldi, yon German market with the random crazy aisle. Kicks off this Thursday and over the following five weeks beer from around 30 Scottish breweries will be on sale. And we ain't talking Carling. We're talking independents the likes of Eden Brewery, Highland Brewing Company, Houston, Oban Bay and West Beer.

Examples include:

Orkney Blast, Highland Brewing Co, 500ml bottle for £1.99
Foxy Blonde – Scottish Borders Brewery, 500ml bottle for £1.69
Red Monk of Iona – Isle of Mull brewery, 500ml bottle for £1.89
California Common – Knops Brewery, 500ml bottle for £1.99
Brockville Pale – Tryst Brewery, 500ml for £1.79
Lightness – Loch Ness Brewery, 500ml bottle for £1.89

This is Aldi's second bash at a craft beer style festival, and is a solid commitment to Scotland's independent breweries - let's hope it's rewarding to all concerned, though I wonder how long it'll be until the bigger players try to muscle in?