Once confined to a couple of shelves in a fancy off-license, craft beer is now spreading its tasty wings across shops, pubs and restaurants everywhere. People are no longer happy with the standard choices and are looking for variety when choosing their beers.
Smaller outlets have naturally been able to take advantage of this trend much more quickly than their bigger counterparts, but it’s great to see the big boys now catching up.
Nisa, the chain of handy convenience stores, have noticed a gap in their beer offerings and have therefore teamed up with Food and Drink Hub Scotland, a food and drink wholesale company, to supply a selection of Scottish craft beers throughout their 142 Scottish stores.
So, while you’re picking up your bread and milk, you can also pick up another necessity - some brilliant beers.
The Food and Drink Hub, one of Scotland’s premier food and drink wholesalers, are working with Nisa to provide a range of 41 beers from a selection of Scottish breweries. Ciders are also well represented in the offering with 6 of Thistly Cross ciders appearing in the portfolio.
The breweries involved are; Brewdog, Black Wolf, Eden Mill, Drygate, Innis and Gunn, Inveralmond, Lerwick Brewery, Tempest and West Brewery.
Eden Mill – The 19th Brew
At 3.9%, this golden ale packs a punch for such a low ABV. This was the first Eden Mill beer I saw with the updated branding, and I thought it looked great. It’s a very good balance of sweet, biscuit flavours and light, lemony citrus hops. A lovely ‘session-ale’.
Tempest - Easy Livin’ Pils
It’s good to see that a lot of smaller breweries are now doing their own take on lagers. Easy Livin’ Pils couldn’t be further from your ‘usual’ lager stereotype. It’s very light and refreshing and isn’t shy on the hop front! It’s quite highly carbonated and has lovely floral and spicy notes cutting through a biscuity malt base.
Lerwick Brewery – Lerwick IPA
A brand new bottled beer from Lerwick Brewery which showcases a new label style with a brightly coloured Shetland pony immediately catching your eye on the shelf. At 5% it isn’t overly strong for an IPA, but you can certainly taste the cascade hops coming through with a strong fruity kick which is complimented nicely with sweeter malt notes.
Inveralmond – Rascal London Porter
It’s getting to the time of year again where there’s nothing I love more than curling up on the sofa with a good book and a dark beer. Rascal is perfect for this. It has such intense flavours and I was really taken aback by how much is packed in at such a moderate ABV (5.6%). It tastes like an imperial stout but with less sweetness. It’s quite dry; roasted coffee beans, dark, dark chocolate and spicy/smokey notes come through. I thought it was one of the nicest porters I’ve had in quite a while.
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