Glenkinchie and Belhaven (Part 2)

After the dram at Glenkinchie, it was time to hop on board the Boozer's Bus and truck on out to Belhaven Brewery, located in a very sunny and picturesque Dunbar. Located almost directly on the North Sea, it is a pleasant town. A pleasant town that we descended upon like hungry and thirsty Huns. Our Motorized Longboat came crashing down the narrow streets as we screamed war cries and threats to all that passed us by. We were there to slay a terrific demon, a horrible eldrich beastie. That dragon's name was Thirst. And slake our thirst we shall. We arrived at the brewery a bit late (we almost left a few people in the gift shop) but we were ready to plunder and pillage. After grabbing our round shields and short swords, we fled the bus like a tide of death, slaughtering all in our path and taking anything not securely bolted down (those that were loosely bolted down were given 2 minutes of work after which we deemed it "securely").

Ok...I lied a little bit. Just a teeny bit. There was no powerful dragon. We didn't have swords. But we were thirsty. And in the end, we did kinda pillage like Vikings. But they let us pillage so it's not really the same. We got off the bus and were awaited by this sight:

Old fashioned brick and stone? Check.

Kegs? Yeppers.

Massive smoke stack? You bet.

Why yes, I believe we're at a brewery. And Belhaven is a brewery that does things right. Really, really right. None of this "Hey, let's go on a tour and then you can have a half pint after before getting rushed onto the bus". Oh no. Belhaven knows that we are partial to a pint or two. So the first thing they do when we get in there? Do we start in the mill? HEAVENS NO!

We start in the bar for a pint.

The name of the bar is "The Monk's Retreat". Don't believe me? Fine:

While I am far from monastic in terms of morality, I do meet the quota on sobriety and the ever important "look like Friar Tuck" quotient. I felt oddly reverent in this bar. It was like stepping up to take Communion. At first, you're always at the back of the line in church and it's always awkward. Walking past people streaming away from the altar having had their delightful Sunday morning pre-brunch snack and drink:

I ALWAYS got stuck in the very back. And I never ate breakfast before church either.

 You start getting closer and that's when the agony sets in. People walk away looking beatified (well, satisfied with having a quick sup during church). Yet again, it happens here:

No Colin, share! For the love of the good god above, share! He would want it that way!

Then you finally get to the front and it's all business then. It's time to put your game face on for Jesus. Same thing at the Monk's retreat:

Sacramental wine AND cracker. In a glass!

Only, at church, you got stuck with that tasteless little Nilla Wafer and a quick snort of what tasted like grape juice with grain alcohol (not that I knew what grain alcohol was at that point). Here, you get a choice of sacrament:

If there was a keg at church, I'd go more. Just saying.

 Ahh, much better. A pint of Belhaven's Best went down a treat:

Blessed be!

After a pint and a chat with a few of the big chiefs of the company the tour began in earnest. The Belhaven brewery is massive and brews a lot of beer. Not only do they brew under their name (Belhaven) but they also brew the base beer for Innis and Gunn as well. They're currently owned by Greene King and are undergoing some restructuring. But not in the traditional managerial sense. No, they're building a new brewhouse that will double their capacity. Which means more Belhaven Scottish Ale (called Belhaven Export over here) to put into my tummy. Everybody wins! We start off with this, directly outside of the Monk's Retreat:

A funny little diagram that displays the flow of the brewery. Interesting and antique looking (it looked like it was from the 50s or 60s). The flashing lights mesmerized me for awhile. It was hard to look away. We then progressed along the tour, stopping first at the mill room:

All chutes and ladders in this room. They use, if I remember correctly, a 4 roller Porteus mill:

We then went to the mash tuns:

While it looks like they use an wooden mash tun (like a whisky washback), it's actually a stainless steel tank shrouded in wood to make it look pretty for tours. Frankly, all the gleaming copper and toasty aromas of good Scottish beer being brewed were prettier than some dumb wood. But that's just me. I'm like a thirsty magpie. Beer and shiny things! Next is the kettle:

Yet again if I remember correctly, I believe they use an external gas fired calandria to heat the wort. When they were talking about upgrading the plant they originally wanted to replace this as a gas calandria is extremely inefficient. But they ended up leaving it in place as they were afraid that it might change the flavor of the beer. Which would make me a very, very sad panda. Next were some of their mini fermenters that they use for their small volume beers or test batches:

One of the cooler things they implemented was an in-line aerator seen here:

Instead of aerating through turbulent flow and just kind of guessing how much dissolved oxygen was in the beer, this lovely set-up injected food grade oxygen into the wort at a precise rate. Yay, science! From here we traveled on to their yeast room:

As you can see, they use a cream yeast to ferment instead of brick yeast (cream yeast is aqueous yeast instead of the yeast that comes in large bales). The room and area around it smelled really good but that might be because the ENTIRE BUILDING smelled like boiling malt. But this area definitely had a wonderful bready smell to it. Finally, their main fermenters:

They're...kinda huge. Let's give this some perspective:

That's UNDERNEATH the main fermenters. I had to take the previous photo on the first landing of two flights of stairs. I was debating whether or not to attach one of those hoses to either a very large jug or my mouth. The tour guide had eyes like a hawk (one of the plant engineers) so I had to leave it be. Soon, my sweets. Soon. After this we got to check out their packaging area:

This is their kegging machine, which was being repaired by a bunch of guys standing around scratching their head. It made me smile as it reminded me of my ENTIRE FOUR YEARS AS A CHEMICAL ENGINEER. Ahhh, nothing like absolute bafflement at what you're doing wrong. Only these guys were getting paid to figure it out. I had to pay $50,000 a year to figure it out. Oh, and so the president of my school could have a jet.

I'm not bitter or anything. Really.

Their bottling plant had just recently been removed (it was more economical to tanker beer to be bottled by Greene King) so there was a giant warehouse with nothing in it. Which was kinda spooky. But, I have a question for you. A test, if you will. Ok, pop quiz, hotshot. You use hundreds of pounds / kilograms of malt every day to brew. What do you do with it? Do you scoop it out by hand. Flush it down the drain. If you're Belhaven...

You shoot it into a dumpster through a pipe with blasts of pressurized air. As we walked by the fragrant smell of spent grain lingered in the air an occasionally you would hear a "pssssssht" and then the dull whump of a huge load of spent grain slamming into either steel or more spent grain. It was rather entertaining to watch. After this we got onto the bus and went home to do work and go to sleep early so we could get up and study for finals in April. Hahaha, oh man, that's funny. No, we went back to the bar. Belhaven, in their infinite Scottish wisdom, realized how much students love free beer and free food. So they obliged us:

That's right. Remember what I said so long ago in my Belhaven Scottish Ale review? I'll refresh you:

"My favorite nitro can and one of my favorite beers. While not as good as real draft Scottish ale, this is like a warm blanket on a cold night for me. This is my comfort beer. This and a good piece of beef and ale pie...with a scotch and cigar to finish it off? There's not a happier man"

Oh yeah. Mhmm. That's what that beer is. A pint of Belhaven Export and a Scotch pie. Free. I was in HEAVEN. It was so good. Ahh, makes me wistful just thinking about the tender spicy meat coupled with the cool, malty brew. Mmmmmmmmm. Here's a picture of the merriment, brought to you by Belhaven:

All in all, this was a fantastic day. Not only was it informative and entertaining, it was filling as well. After having a few drams of Glenkinchie and topping that off with more than a few pints of Belhaven (I had the Twisted Thistle, Belhaven Best, Belhaven Export, Belhaven 80/-, some of the Robert Burns Ale, a sip of the St. Andrews Ale, and half a bottle of some beer they brewed for Canada Day or something) I realized that being a brewing and distilling science student is pretty awesome. So cheers to you, Glenkinchie, for the free tour. And a hearty huzzah to the home of my comfort beer, Belhaven, for free reign of the bar for a few hours and some pies. And, most importantly, cheers to you all for reading this. I'm hoping that this is further proof that I do something and that it will quash those rumors. I do things, it's true.

Occasionally I leave Edinburgh to drink.

Glenkinchie and Belhaven (Part 1)

I've heard rumors going around that are sickeningly malicious. Despite constant assurances, there is a core group of rebels that still don't believe I actually do anything at this school. The photographic evidence from last time has done nothing to satiate their terrible hearsay. So, despite my generally calm and sober demeanor, I have decided to prove, once again, that I do more than just sit around and drink.

One of the key (and exciting) aspects of this course are the field trips we take. While many associate field trips with going to a theme park or a stuffy museum, here in the Brewing and Distilling Science program at Heriot-Watt, we go to...well...breweries and distilleries. Our recent foray into the field saw us at Glenkinchie distillery and Belhaven brewery, both on the same day. Shall I chronicle it for you? Yes, I believe I shall. Hold on to your britches.

9am:

A terrible time for Brewing and Distilling Science students. Some of us are knocking the sleep off our eyes while others are clearly knocking the liquor out of our livers. We crowd onto the coach (it's what they call a bus over here) and find our seats. One of the heads of the department comes on to greet us:

That's Professor James Bryce. In case you couldn't tell by the outfit, he's...how can I put this....awesome. Technically not a brewer himself (he's biology and takes care of the barley/malting aspect of the course) but I forgive him. After a brief chat about the tour he departs for some sort of meeting (probably going to stop crime or something of that ilk). That leaves us on the bus for the half hour ride to Glenkinchie, near Pencaitland. We all settle in for the ride:

9:30am

After about a half hour we arrive at Glenkinchie, itching for some one on one time with the distillery (and a dram, of course). We are greeted by this:

 
And:

Fine...need more proof? Here:

That is...Kinchie Burn! It runs right next to the distillery.  You want MORE?! Greedy...

There, further proof. Now quit complaining and just stay silent while I try to reweave the tale. Ungrateful, I swear. Diageo, being the business savvy company that they are, IMMEDIATELY put us in the gift shop. Many of us buy neat trinkets like coffee cups, mousepads, and posters to hang in our cubicles. Alright, that's a falsehood. We browse whisky:

SOOOO MUCH WHISKY. It was a little slice of heaven for me. Of course, most of it was far out of my price range but it was still nice to browse expressions that weren't really available in the States. Mmmm, Flora and Fauna series. One of the nicest things about Scotland is the predominance of half-bottles, like this one of the Glenkinchie 12:

Note the price. £10 for a 350mL of spirit. Just right to split at a cigar tasting between friends or for a religious tasting. But since we got a dram at the end, I held off. The first part of the tour was a leisurely browse through the museum of the distillery:

Where we were!

Illicit still with manufactured manhole on it. Top notch work for a still you hide.

Worm tub condenser and receiving barrel.

Inside of worm tub. Note there's not a lot of copper. This will result in a heavier spirit.

Dr. Livingston, I presume? No? Well then I'm more sloshed than I thought.

Old bottles of blends. I tried to break the glass, not gonna lie.

Cooper's tools / workbench for barrels. He was sadly put out of his job after the labor issues with Donkey Kong.

One of the coolest things here were the old adverts for the Glenkinchie single malt. It was originally a ten year old malt that changed to a twelve year a few years ago so someone pasted "twelve" or "12" over all of the tens which rendered some of them kinda pointless. But here were a few that still made sense:

But really now, enough of all of that hullabaloo. I didn't come all this way just to look at old ads. I wants me some sweet distillin' action, baby. Let's let that wash flow.

10am:

After the museum, they took us out a back door and to the working distillery. At this point I was so exciting I was vibrating at a frequency that concerned my fellow classmates. I almost hit resonance frequency with the pavement and slipped through but sheer luck kept me from falling. But the entire time I was glowing faintly due to emitting energy. I was then told I would have to stop trembling to prevent fires in the malt room and still room. I reluctantly did so with great difficulty. We begin outside:

Ah yes, random iron plating #342. The pinnacle of all iron platings in the United Kingdom. Forged from the finest iron that money could buy, it is the king of all miscellaneous ferrous grating. But, lo, dear readers, this is not but a humble monarch of the iron-kin. It's actually incredibly important, far beyond it's metallurgical standpoint. This is the malt intake for Glenkinchie. Each day, two huge trucks pull up to this wee spot and dump the grainy lifeblood of whisky into this hallowed trench. This is where the magic begins. But where does it go, you may ask?

Well, I can't show you. We couldn't take pictures in there for fear of starting a fire with all of the malt dust in the air. The bins WERE huge though. Eight in total (two rows of four), they held enough grain to possibly make the aforementioned Professor Bryce quite giddy. But I can show you where the malt goes from the bins:

Behind the glinty ceiling lights and obvious reflection of the humble cameraman lies the steeping grain. This foamy, ruddy goodness will eventually become the wash, the fermented juice that charges the stills. But where is this fermented? I'm sure you'd love to know. Fine, I'll indulge you:

It ferments in one of these bad boys: a wooden washback. A huge wooden tub that is filled with that sweet steepage from before along with a healthy dosing of hearty distillers yeast (capable of handling the high ABVs required for a suitable distilling wash). The cool part (or gross part, depending on your view) is the fact that, since these washbacks are wooden, the pores in the wood will hold microscopic bits of yeast and other bacterial goodies that will promote the production (by sugar/protein/lipid degradation) of flavor characters in the final product. Deeeeeeelicious. With that...we come to the best part. This is the view from the fermentation room:

Look at them. They are beautiful. Whenever Sir Mix-A-Lot talks about "thick soul sistas", I think of these bottom-heavy beauties. After entering the room, I couldn't help but hum Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls" (warning, Freddy's in leather pantaloons). A stifling hot room, to say the least, but these copper honeys radiated both heat and delicious liquid love. Literally. It smelled like cooking grain and alcohol in here. It was blissful. I hope, one day, my house smells like that. Maybe I can get it pumped in through central heating. After it leaves the still, it ends up here:

At this point I had a stunning revelation and it really affirmed why I'm in this program. As I stared into this glass and brass chamber, I watched the spirit cuts flow into the holding tank below and I gasped. I was witnessing history. Not in a huge scale, no. But certainly global. The spirit that was pouring from the spout would find a cozy home in a cask soon. It would be rolled into a warehouse and stored on a rack for some time. Maybe it'd be 12 years and the whisky that I saw flow out would end up being drunk as a single malt. Maybe it would be in a blend. But the immense awe that I felt stemmed from the fact that I was seeing whisky that someone would one day drink. I was watching history happen. And that left me speechless. I probably didn't describe it very well but it's hard to put into words. You are seeing the beginning of something monumental. All of that work and time will someday bring someone pleasure. And it's damn worth it, I say.


11am:

After this brief little moment of moving thought, we then went out back to the biofermenters and such that cleaned up the waste effluent before dumping it into the Burn. Then we went to the bonded warehouse to have a peek around:

One day one of those casks will be mine. ALLL MIIIINE.

Then the tour guide popped the cork on a duty-paid barrel and let us have a sniff. I suspect that they actually let customers fill from that barrel (instead of just sniff) as I don't think they have to pay duty to let people smell whisky. Otherwise this is a screwed up country:

11:15am

We then retired to the bar to have a  delicious dram. Unfortunately, I can't say that I truly enjoyed my first taste of the Glenkinchie. I really wasn't too big of a fan of the 12 year but the Cask Strength I tried was pretty good. Here's a photo of the glass:

I won't put up tasting notes as I'd really like to give this another crack before passing judgment. If I had to guess a flavor, I'd say "feinty". But the cask strength balanced the feinty taste well so I'll give it that. Don't hold me to those notes though because they're not very fair.

Now I know the post says Glenkinchie AND Belhaven but let's be honest...your internet is considering jumping off the figurative cliff after trying to load all those pictures so I'm gonna break this up into two parts. Because I have far more pictures for Belhaven than for Glenkinchie. So stay tuned.

Press Release: Grant's Whisky Store at Charles De Gaulle Airport

Received an interesting press release from the Grant's people today. Here it is in full:

GRANT’S WHISKY TAKES OVER STORE AT
CHARLES DE GUALLE AIRPORT IN UNPRECEDENTED BRAND PROMOTION

Grant’s blended Scotch whisky launched the first ever full Grant’s range display with an exclusive brand store with Aelia at the International Terminal 2F at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. For the first time the Grant’s range will be on display together with the Grant’s 25 Year Old, Grant’s 12 Year Old, Cask Editions, Distillery Edition, and of course one of the world’s best selling blended whiskies, Grant’s Family Reserve. The store has a limited appearance, only in operation for the month of February 2011. 

The exclusive Grant’s blended Scotch whisky shop puts the Grant’s brand family firmly centre stage, highlighting the extraordinary breadth and quality of the range and accentuating its premium crafted nature.  Travelers going through Terminal 2F will have the opportunity to sample the entire Grant’s range including the latest edition, the ultra premium Grant’s 25 Year Old, only available in selected airports.

Expertly blended by Grant’s Master Blender, Brian Kinsman, Grant’s 25 Year Old is the latest edition to the family range.  As the 6th Grant’s Master Blender, Brian has created Grant’s 25 Year Old to celebrate over a century and five generations of the Grant’s family, as well as their collective contribution to creating the finest Scotch whisky. 

“Travellers going through Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris will be the first to see the entire Grant’s range in one place,” says Brian Kinsman. “With the latest introduction of the 25 year old blended Scotch whisky the range tells our unique family history of stories and craftsmanship

Available in the Grant’s Whisky Shop will be:

Grant’s Family Reserve – one of the world’s best loved blended Scotch whiskies, enjoyed in more than 180 countries.  Winner of the Gold Medal at the ISC in 2009.

Grant’s Ale Cask Reserve – the only Scotch whisky finished in ale casks. Winner of the Gold Best in Class Medal at the IWSC awards in 2010.

Grant’s Sherry Cask Reserve – matured in Oloroso casks for extra layers of spice and nuttiness. Winner of the Gold Medal at the ISC awards in 2010.

Grant’s Distillery Edition – non chill-filtered and sold in a giftable gold carton and exclusive to Global Travel Retail

Grant’s 12 Year Old – a new dimension in Scotch whisky, finished in American whiskey casks for six months. Winner of the Gold at the IWSC awards in 2010

Grant’s 25 Year Old  - exclusive to Global Travel Retail, this unique individually numbered batch celebrates over 110 years and five generations of the Grant’s family, containing some of the world’s most highly-prized and distinctive malt and grain whiskies, including the first whisky ever laid down at Grant’s Girvan distillery. Grant’s 25 Year Old was named “Best Blended Scotch Whisky, 19 Years and Over” in Jim Murray’s 2011 Whisky Bible.

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While I certainly applaud them for bring whisky to the consumer at a duty-free price, I do have to admit that the Distillery Edition / 25 Year Old chafes me a touch. As a man without the ways and means to afford constant travel, I often miss out on the Travel Retail Exclusive bottlings that most companies make. It makes sense to bottle and sell intriguing/different bottlings exclusively at airports but damn it, I like getting my hands on EVERYTHING a line-up has to offer. I can't afford international airfare every time I want to buy a rare release. I need some jet-setting friends with deep pockets and room in their carry-ons, I suppose. It is nice that they're able to sample at the airport. That's a huge no-no in the States from what I've seen. A shame too. Everyone likes a free buzz on the plane.

What are your thoughts?

Havana Club Barrel Proof - Sunday, Jan. 30th

This is not the review you're thinking of.

I am a stickler for rules. I never break them. That whole phrase about rules are meant to be broken makes my blood pressure rise until blood starts seeping out my tear ducts. I weep tears of blood when rules are broken. You can count on it.

I have never done ANYTHING illegal. No sir. I have totally never drank underage. I have also never, ever, ever done speedballs with Chris Farley shortly before the filming of Tommy Boy. Ok...one of those is a lie. (Hint: I don't drink.)

I am also a staunch supported of the United States. And, combined with the fact that I am all about the rules, I can assure you that I follow all of the laws of the United States while here abroad. I stop kids trying to drink before 21. I drink coffee instead of that dastardly tea that cost us so much way back when. I drive on the right side of the road and always at 55mph. But most importantly, I NEVER buy Cuban products. Ever. According to the United States Treasury (brings up a PDF):

"The question is often asked whether United States citizens
or permanent resident aliens of the United States may
legally purchase Cuban origin goods, including tobacco and
alcohol products, in a third country for personal use
outside the United States. The answer is no. The
Regulations prohibit persons subject to the jurisdiction of
the United States from purchasing, transporting, importing,
or otherwise dealing in or engaging in any transactions
with respect to any merchandise outside the United States
if such merchandise (1) is of Cuban origin; or (2) is or
has been located in or transported from or through Cuba; or
(3) is made or derived in whole or in part of any article
which is the growth, produce or manufacture of Cuba. "

However, there has been a large market for replica products of Cuban goods. While many are designated as "fakes", or copies of Cuban products sold as Cuban goods, there is also much trading of "Carbon Copy" products. Produced to exactly replicate the flavor profiles and nuances of Cuban cigars and rum, they are widely available in foreign countries for U.S. tourists to bring back. For all intents and purposes, they are exactly the same as their Cuban counterparts but are NOT their Cuban counterparts. Please bear that in mind.

It is with great honor that I got to try a recent addition to the "Carbon Copy" market, the Havana Clüb Barrel Proof rum. A masterfully done blend of the finest rums available by a secret group of rum aficionados located in Cologne, Germany, Havana Clüb (rhymes with "tube") Barrel Proof is the Western replacement for the highly illegal, super duper terrible Havana Club Barrel Proof. Here's a picture:

Totally and utterly NOT Cuban rum.

As you can see, it is clearly German. You can obviously see the umlaut. Completely German, not Cuban. Yup. Here are the flavor notes:

The nose is spectacularly flowery. Heavy hints of jasmine, and bergamot. An earthy quality as well reminiscent of mud or bitter coffee. Curacao peel as well. Quite complex.

The taste is rather nice. The flowery quality of the nose comes through with jasmine and a Earl Grey tea like quality. Not as sweet as I expected it would be. Some burnt sugar/creme brulee flavors as well. Slightly tannic and astringent too. I wonder what kind of wood they age it on.

Overall, a fine effort by those secretive German blenders. It is a fine example of what I've read to be the genteel, lighter Cuban style. Clocking in at 45% ABV, exactly like the Cuban counterpart, it has enough oomph to deliver that fragrant style. I think the taste might get washed out at a lower ABV though. Unfortunately, I won't be able to compare the Havana Clüb Barrel Proof to the Havana Club Barrel Proof any time in the near future. A shame but as I said, I stick to the rules.