DOG DAYS By Chris Rae
It’s a tough world for businesses at the moment. The UK is fresh out of recession and in danger of sliding back in. [Source] spoke to a number of Scottish drinks makers to see how international collaborations were helping to ease the pain.
Slowly, and with a steady
hand, the shortbread was added. Too much and the mixture would be ruined. Not enough and it would be a pointless exercise. An international conglomerate of micro-brewing experts, wearing camouflage shorts and heavy metal t-shirts looked on intently, as if witnessing a bizarre, Frankenstein-esque experiment. Dean’s Scottish Shortbread was not the only unthinkable ingredient they were experimenting with. Before long, liberal doses of Scottish toffee and American candy floss would be added to yet more containers. The men had come together to create the most off the wall beer ever conceived; a true craft beer for serious beer drinkers. A BrewDog beer. BrewDog started out in 2007 as the brain child of James Watt and Martin Dickie. The pair started brewing their own,
‘hardcore’ beers because they were sick of the flavourless, mass produced lagers available in Scotland at the time. What began as a small garden shed style micro-brewery is now a multi-million pound business, selling over £7 million worth of beer last year. Since its inception the company has built a reputation for controversy through their high strength brews and close to the bone labelling. They currently hold the record for the world’s strongest beer - the 55% ‘End of History’. Their latest project however, is a step in another direction. A joint effort by BrewDog and like-minded American brewers, the Three Floyds Brewing Co, ‘Bitch Please’ is a beer giving a true taste of both nations. “We did a few trial runs; including oak chips for smoking salmon, before we settled on
Toffee, Shortbread, Islay Whisky and Candy Floss for the beer,” says James Watt, BrewDog’s co-founder and Managing Director. “We wanted it to be a kind of homecoming for Nick [Floyd], founder of Three Floyds. Nick is originally from Dundee, but moved to the US aged five, so this was a great taste of home project for him.” It’s not easy to make such an odd combination of flavours work together, but the experiment was a long term project: “Initially the flavours don’t taste all that pleasant in a beer. They’re very sweet,” says James. “It’s the eight month ageing process in Jura whisky casks that makes it something special. It takes time for the yeast to break down and ferment the sugar, taking the edge off the sweetness.” The whisky industry itself is no stranger to joint ventures. Over the last decade a number
of small and medium sized distilleries have been either forced to close or been mothballed due to a lack of funding, despite being owned by multinational firms like Diageo or Pernod-Ricard. Leaving hundreds of casks of their malts in warehouses maturing, with no one to sell it to. Matisse Spirits Ltd, who has offices in Edinburgh and Tai-
wan, came up with an idea 11 years ago that would make sure these fine whiskies were not forgotten. Matisse buys these casks of whisky, the best of which they bottle as Matisse Single Malts, always naming the distillery on the bottle too. “Because we are not tied to one distillery, we can search out hidden gems that have lain in
the warehouses of distilleries that are unlikely to reopen,” explains Edward Drummond, Master Blender for Matisse. “Our mission is to bring these whiskies to the global stage.” Matisse products are already available in China, Thailand, and the USA and as well as their native Taiwan, where
they are one of the top selling spirits brands. Matisse products are renowned for their quality; in fact Jim Murray, author of the Whisky Bible 2011, went as far as to say that a bottle of Matisse Caperdonich 1972 Single Cask was “liquid gold”. That special malt was recently auctioned by First Minister Alex Salmond and fetched £1000 for charity. Scotland’s other national drink, Irn Bru has also been playing away overseas. It turns out that Russians love our favourite fizzy pop. They are now one of the biggest consumers of the drink, where it is in the top 5 most popular soft drinks, along with the likes of Coca-Cola, Fanta and 7up. It all happened after the export manager for A.G Barr, the makers of Irn-Bru, overheard at a trade conference
that a Russian drinks company had been let down by PepsiCo and were looking for a new business partner. As he put it, they “never looked back”. Somewhat ironically, after the original partner company went bust, Pepsi Bottling Group took over the franchise in yet another international joint effort. Back in Fraserburgh, ‘Bitch Please’ is slowly maturing, soaking in the flavours of Jura whisky. “It’ll probably be ready to bottle in about three months, but it’s hard to tell,” explains James. “When it’s ready though, we’re going to have a big launch event at our new bar on the Cowgate in Edinburgh.” When it comes to the future though, James is clear on one thing: “We’ll be working with Three Floyds again. It’s been a lot of fun!”