#lainesontour

[lainebrewingco-blog]

The hopback with Admiral, Columbus and Summit hops

[lainebrewingco-blog]

Here's the "mandatory" brewers selfie from the Laines/Caledonian collab brew on Monday

[lainebrewingco-blog]

CALEDONIA DREAMIN’

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of going up to Edinburgh to do a collaboration brew with Caledonian Brewery. We have had a very good relationship with Caley for quite a while now, and the idea for a Laines/Caledonian collaboration started to really pick up steam when we visited last year. 

I was due to land in Edinburgh around 8pm on the Sunday, perfect timing to head out after checking into the hotel for dinner and a drink or two, but delays on all flights to Scotland from Gatwick meant that my plane didn’t even land until after midnight, and with a bright early start it was best to go straight to bed as it was. 

The Monday kicked off with the safety talk and a tour, as well as meeting and chatting with the film crew that were following us around for the brewday, and going over the final tweaks to the recipe with Peter Sharp. We had been working on this recipe together over both email and phone for 6 weeks, so both of us knew it like the back of our hand, but it’s never a bad thing to go over it once again!

The whole day for me was part brewing this beer while a film crew are watching your every move, and part looking around in amazement at this amazing brewery that is such a beautiful mix of traditional and modern methods, all situated in a series of wonderful red brick buildings. It was very easy to be staring in awe at the history on one side, before turning around and seeing modern equipment sitting alongside it.

And certainly can’t visit Caledonian without having a Caley pie and a pint once the hard work had finished!

The brew itself went fantastic. It’s a Session IPA that is called ‘Fringe Benefit’, and will be on sale at the Brighton Fringe Festival for all to try!

A big thankyou must go out to all the folks at Caledonian Brewery, particularly Peter Sharp, and these two above: Craig ‘Shakey’ Steven and Stewart Murray, who made me feel right at home and also took me out for an amazing meal (and a super tasty haggis scotch egg!) and a couple of drinks that somehow turned into a very late night for us all!

Keep an eye out for news on our collab beer on here, on our twitter (@lainebrewing), facebook (lainebrewingco), as well as Caley’s twitter (@caledonianbeer).

Fringe Benefit will be on the bar in the Speigeltent throughout the festival, which runs from the 6th of May to the 5th of June in Brighton.