Cairngorm Brewery

My Scottish road trip had taken me up the country to the northern shores, then back down again, as I rolled into the Cairngorms.

The route looked a little bit like this...

I was over-the-moon at having made it on to the Orkney Isles (albeit, not for long enough...)
I'd sat contentedly with a pint of Swannay 'Scarpa Special' in the Ferry Inn, Stromness...

Top Joe's in Thurso had also been an interesting spot - the sole cask ale outlet for the town, lively and entertaining on the evening of the Scottish Cup final.

Traveling back southbound, my first stopping point was at Carrbridge, just north of Aviemore, where I stayed in the Cairn Hotel (Main Road, Carrbridge, PH23 3AS, top picture). 
The hotel-part was attached to a comfortable, country pub bar, serving up three real ales from a Scottish trio of Cromarty, Orkney and Cairngorm breweries.

I explored a handful of gentle trails and took the obligatory photo of the bridge that the village is named after - still standing but you wouldn't want to clamber onto the middle of it and jump up and down.

As we were just seven miles from the Cairngorm Brewery, I thought it was only right to make a visit.

Cairngorm Brewery (Unit 12, Dalfaber Industrial Estate, Aviemore, PH22 1ST)
The Aviemore Brewery was started in 1997, before being expanded and renamed in 2001 to reflect the beautiful region (now national park) that it lies within. They have a 20 barrel plant, capable of producing 6,500 litres of beer a day.

Two brewery tours are run each day at 11:30 and 14:30 for the price of £5.
I'm hesitant to say 'tour', as this just comprises an introductory talk, then a stroll into a room with six fermentation tanks in it, from where you can see the copper through a glass screen. Not much of an access-all-areas, but I understand it's a small working brewery that isn't designed for members of the public to wander around. There's a generous tasting session next, working the way through the range of bottled beers that Cairngorm brew.

                                 
Their beer seems to make it to Wetherspoon's outlets quite frequently, so I'd tried a couple before, but there were plenty of new beers for me here. The guide explained how their Sheepshaggers Gold was a big seller in Australia and t-shirts did a roaring trade, whilst the beer had to be badged as Cairngorm Gold so as not to offend UK supermarkets it was sold in. This was met by a blank look from my fellow tour participant from the Netherlands, who asked "what is sheep shagger?" Our guide was prepped with all the answers about the brewing process, but he was stopped in his tracks trying to find a way to politely answer that one!

I think the Highland IPA (5.1%) was my favourite (I'm so predictable with loving my IPAs....), with the Black Gold (a 4.4% easy-drinking stout) being very good as well.



That's it for the time-being for my Scottish beer exploration - I will be back to explore the Western isles another time, and perhaps be looking out for another beer festival up this way. For now, it's homeward-bound...