Stag Hamper Co is a brand new business selling hampers filled with amazing Scottish produce. When I found out that it was founded by two 19 year old university students, Jack Croxford and Scott Mann, I was very surprised.
I think back to when I was in second year of university and I could barely heat up a tin of beans, let alone start up my own company! I spoke to Scott to find out a bit more about what motivated them to try and tackle starting a business alongside studying!
They came up with the idea for Stag Hampers after Jack made some for his family and friends last Christmas. They were so well received the boys saw a gap in the market and wanted to showcase all the fantastic Scottish produce that's around at the moment. They only launched their website a couple of weeks ago and have already been snapped up by Notonthehighstreet.com where they're the only hamper company selling Scottish only produce.
They have a huge selection of hampers on their website with lots of different produce including wine, fudge, whisky, chutneys and… beer!! I asked Scott how they decided what to include in the boxes and he said it was really difficult. They wanted to showcase as many high quality goods from as many different places in Scotland as possible. Choosing which beers they wanted was one of the most difficult things. Originally they were just going to have one or two beers in a couple of boxes but they couldn't make their minds up about which to pick so they created a Craft beer hamper especially! It includes a fantastic range of Scottish beers, all in 330ml bottles:
60 North Lager
Sanda Blonde IPA
Sanda Black IPA
St Andrews Blonde Beer
Barney's Volcano IPA
Traquair House Ale
Elixir Sugar Lumps Stout
Almighty Mofo IPA
Deeside Craft Lager
Black Isle Blonde Beer
Broken Dial Amber Ale
Old Engine Oil Porter
From lagers to porters to ambers to IPAs, the selection they have is great. Sanda Black is a black IPA from Fyne ales and is very, very nice. It uses citra and Nelson Sauvin hops for a light, citrusy taste but combining this with the coffee, almost liquorice taste from the malts is a winning combination for me. I sometimes find there's almost too much going on with Black IPAs but the Sanda has the perfect balance of bitterness, fruit and roasted malts. Yum!
Old Engine Oil by Harviestoun is one of my favourite porters so I was very excited to see its appearance. Coffee, chocolate and treacle. What's not to love about that combination?! If you prefer something a bit lighter, the Black Isle Blonde Beer is a lovely golden beer. It's very fruity and is kind of like how I'd imagine drinking a summer meadow would be - floral, light and slightly grassy. There's also an element of sweetness too and it's a nice level of carbonation, I'm not a fan of super fizzy beers. Very, very drinkable.
A craft beer box wouldn't be a craft beer box without a decent selection of IPAs, and Stag Hamper doesn't disappoint. I have to also give a special mention to Alechemy's Almighty Mofo, a double hopped IPA. It has an IBU of 110 so it's not madly bitter, but you can definitely taste the hops!! If you aren't a fan of bitter things, this one probably isn't for you. However, if you like IPAs, it definitely is! It tastes lovely and tropical with a caramel, biscuit flavours in there too. I also like that it doesn't have too high an alcohol content (7.1% ABV) which you often get with DIPAs.
If you order any of the Stag hampers from their website before the 31st of October, use the promo code BeerGirl to get 10% off your order. Let me know what you think of the beers they've chosen too!
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