Noonan - Scotch Ale

GREGORY J. NOONAN

A Division of the Brewers Association

Boulder, Colorado

Scotch Ale

By Gregory J. Noonan

Classic Beer Style Series

Edited by Phil Rice

Copyright 1993 by Gregory J. Noonan

ISBN-13: 978-0-937381-35-9

ISBN-10: 0-937381-35-7

ISBN-13: 978-1-938469-57-2 (e-book)

Published by Brewers Publications,

a division of the Brewers Association

PO Box 1679, Boulder, Colorado 803061679 USA

Tel. (303) 447-0816 FAX (303) 447-2825 BrewersAssociation.org

Direct all inquiries/orders to the above address.

All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, no portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the publisher.

Neither the author, editor nor the publisher assumes any responsibility for the use or misuse of the information contained in this book.

Cover design by Robert L. Schram

Cover photography by Michael Lichter, Michael Lichter Photography Cover art direction by Susie Marcus

The author would like to give his thanks to the following people who made significant contributions to this book:

• Mary Bertram, Caledonian Brewery, Edinburgh, Scotland
• Dr. David Brown, Scottish & Newcastle Brewery, Edinburgh, Scotland
• Ronald Borzuscki, Rose Street Brewery, Edinburgh, Scotland
• Ian Cameron, Traquair House Brewery, Innerleithen, Scotland
• Charles Finkel, Merchant du Vin, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
• Dr. David Johnstone, Tennent Brewery, Glasgow, Scotland
• Alan Hogg, Currie, Scotland
• Hope and Nora Hogg, Currie, Scotland
• Ronald Hogg, Edinburgh, Scotland
• Jack Horne, Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
• George Insill, Edinburgh, Scotland
• Duncan Kellock, Maclays Thistle Brewery, Alloa, Scotland
• Roger Martin, Hugh Baird & Sons, Essex, England
• Charles McMaster, Leigh, Scotland
• Mary Nevins, Burlington, Vermont, U.S.A.
• Adrian Newman, Belhaven Brewery, Dunbar, Scotland
• Nancy Noonan, Burlington, Vermont, U.S.A.
• Lady Catherine Maxwell Stewart, Traquair House Innerleithen, Scotland
• Russell Sharp, Caledonian Brewery, Edinburgh, Scotland
• Elizabeth Home Wilcox, Charlemont, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
• James Younger, Broughton Brewery, Broughton, Scotland

To George Insill, maltster for McEwans for more than 40 years, whose recollections of the Edinburgh breweries were invaluable to this effort, and whose preservation of records from these same breweries forms the core of the Scottish Brewing Archives, to Charles Mc Master, archivist and pub guide, and to the brewers of Scotland.

OH, GUDE ALE COMES

Oh, gude ale comes and gude ale goes,

Gude ale gars me sell my hose,

Sell my hose, and pawn my shoon,

Gude ale keeps my heart aboon.

I had sax owsen in a pleugh,

They drew a weel eneugh;

I selld them a just ane by ane,

Gude ale keeps my heart aboon.

Gude ale hauds me bare and busy,

Gars me moop wi the servant hizzie

Stand i the stool when I hae done,

Gude ale keeps my heart aboon.

Oh, gude ale comes and gude ale goes,

Gude ale gars me sell my hose,

Sell my hose, and pawn my shoon,

Gude ale keeps my heart aboon.

Rabbie Burns

Greg Noonan is the brewmaster at the Vermont Pub & Brewery and author of Brewing Lager Beer (Brewers Publications, 1986). He has written numerous articles in brewing periodicals, including a series on beer styles for The New Brewer.

Greg dates his interest in world beer styles back to savoring the limited imported beers available in the early 1970s. While hitchhiking across the United States in 1973, he sought out regional brews, but lamented their lack of character. The first homebrews he tasted were unearthed from a dirt root cellar where the corked and wax-sealed bottles had probably laid since prohibition. The sherrylike flavor of the sedimented beer was beyond anything that he had previously encountered.

The products of a homebrewing acquaintance piqued his interest even further, but his first attempt to brew his own did not follow until 1977. Greg dove in head-first, mashing his own grains on the very first brew. All-grain brewing was a subject that homebrewing literature of the time addressed only tentatively. Faced with an information void, Greg turned to professional literature for guidance. That research and his concurrent experimentation and experiences led him to document what he learned in what has come to be a standard reference manual for home and craft brewers.

Greg and his wife, Nancy, opened their 14-barrel brewery and pub in Burlington, Vt., in 1988, after three years of lobbying the Vermont legislature to allow on-premises brewing. They chose to open a brewpub because it offered the best opportunity to brew not just a few brands, but a broad range of traditional beer styles. They eschew generic Amber and Gold appellations in favor of brewing to historic styles: Scotch and Irish ale, Best Bitter, Bavarian Weizen, Bohemian Pilsener and Vienna lager, to name a few of the 30-odd beer styles they have recreated in the past four years. The annual March tapping of their January 1st batch of Wee Heavy has become a cause celibre for the pubs patrons.

Although the demands of the brewery and the constant need for a busboy in the pub leave him little free time, Greg spends what leisure he can carve out with his family, reading (Kotzwinkle, Steinbeck, Burgess, Gardner) and drawing, as well as making the occasional pub crawl.

ALLOA ALES

Awa wi black brandy, red rum and blue whiskey

An bring me the liquor brown as a nut;

O! Alloa Ale ye can make a chiel frisky,

Brisk, faewming a fresh frae the bottle or butt.

An awa wi your winesthey are dull as moss water,

Wi blude colourd blushes, or purple, or pale;

Guid folks gif ye wish to get fairer and fatter,

They aye weet your seasans wi Alloa Ale!

Gif ye wish healthie habits an wad be lang livers,

Then spiritous drinks ye sould never fash wi;

But Alloa Ale ye may drink it in rivers,

An the deeper ye drink, aye the better yell be,

Sae potent as physic its virtues are valued,

They daily wha drink look hearty an hale;

O ye a hae heard tell o a Balm got in Gilead,

Tak my word fort twas neathing but Alloa Ale!

Then countrymen croud roun the bizzing ale bicker,

An waur no on whisky your siller an sense;

Nae gate yell fa wi the like o this liquor,

That thro body and saul can sic vigour dispense.

Let nae Brandy-bibber scare you wi his scoffin,

At prudence in drinktill he tire lat him rail;

Ilk a dram that he drinks is a nail in his coffin,

But youll lenthen your life-lease wi Alloa Ale.

John Imlah, 1827

When I began to work on this book, I was doubtful about the value of any book being entirely devoted to a single beer style, and especially so for a style which is neither especially well known or documented in America. I thought the series was frivolous. I guess I was just dumber then. From the vantage point of having now seen four of the books of this series, and having been exposed to the wealth of information that Ive been privilege to encounter in researching this book, today I have nothing but enthusiasm for the Classic Beer Style Series.