I have previously mentioned my newfound love of beer and ale that opens up a whole new world for me. Instead of ‘where serves a good gin’ I’m finding myself thinking ‘where has a good selection of beer that I’ll like’. I admit that I’m still getting used to it and, at the moment, I prefer my lager tops to curb any bitterness. I do like a pale ale and I’ve been trying out a few.
Then I was sent a box of Isle Of Skye Brewing Co ales to try and I felt a post coming on.
The brewery is relatively young and originated from a chat in the pub in 1992 regarding the lack of good beer in Skye. Everyone knows that all the best ideas come from a pub session! It was the first time that I’d tried their beer so I wanted to save it for a night with my more knowledgeable dad.
The brewery has recently rebranded all of their products so there have been a few changes – Red Cuillin’s name change to Red Skye being the main one. I found the new bold labelling to be a good thing – at least I’ll never open the wrong one and will easily pick it out in a shop.
Skye Gold (the yellow one) was my first pick because pale ale is one of my favourite things right now. This one is made with the addition of porridge oats and, whilst I couldn’t really taste oats, I could smell them and there was a definite twist to it. It was refreshing and a good new addition to my IPA style collection.
L to R: Skye Red, Skye Gold and Skye Black
Skye Red is the Isle Of Skye Brewing Co’s baby as it was the first beer they brewed back in 1995. This is the one that used to be called Red Cuillin and is award winning. I thought that it was lighter in flavour than a lot of red beers that I’ve tasted and my dad agreed. It still had a nice fruityness to it with a slight bitter aftertaste. We thought it could be a perfect session ale for someone who likes red ale due to the lightness.
We left Skye Black to last so that it did not cloud our tastebuds for the others. It smells malty and slightly smoky and I was unsure about whether it would be too dark for me. It was too dark for my taste but my dad enjoyed it more. We agreed that it was not as bitter as some dark ales due to the addition of honey but it still had smoky tones to be in-keeping with a darker, stronger tasting ale.
It has inspired me to do a Scottish beers post so no doubt my instagram will be full of beer related photos over the next few months. My dads favourite was the Skye Red and I liked the Skye Gold so I’ll be looking out for it on tap in Glasgow now. The ideal situation would be to take another trip to Skye and drink it practically from the source – whilst eating some fresh fish after a walk on the coral beach but this will do for now. After a gander on their website I have seen that they also sell Skye Blaven, which is a stronger brew than the others. That’s part of my fathers day present sorted…thanks Skye Brewing.
Eat Local, Drink Local!
I want to extend my thanks to Ewan MacGill at Wire, along with all at Skye Brewing Co for sending me beer and alerting me of its presence.
Girl around Glasgow 