A Scottish brewery has launched a new craft blackberry beer in collaboration with soft fruit experts from the James Hutton Institute.
New 4.4% alcohol-by-volume LochNess beer from The Loch Ness Brewery uses blackberries farmed in Fife. The result is a traditional Scottish ale, produced from a blend of five different malts and softened with the berries, giving the beer a gentle sweet finish as well as biscuit and chocolate flavours.
Scientists at the James Hutton Institute have claimed that the drink exploits “the growing niche market not just for craft beers but also for fruited brews”.
Loch Ness Brewery’s Stephen Crossland said: “We welcome the opportunity to develop new, niche brews for a market that is growing and evolving and think this latest recipe is one that will help win our beer new fans.”
The research organisation has recently started small-scale experiments to see if it would be possible to create a variety of hops that could be grown viably in Scotland – much further north than its normal range – with a view to giving Scottish beer makers a full set of domestically sourced brewing ingredients.
Jonathan Snape, managing director of The James Hutton Institute’s commercial affiliate, said: “It’s great to be able to create a product that teams many aspects of Scotland’s resources to make something new and of top quality: great fruit, bred and grown in Scotland, our pure, abundant water and our home-grown barley and brewing expertise.”
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