Our Year in Beer
Well as years go 2011 has been a cracker. Our industry is in the throws of a hugely exciting time for well crafted beer, which we have seen reflected in our growth over the past 12 months. We are 50% up on last year and we have seen some hugely exciting developments.
Below, in no particular order, are our top Black Isle Brewing Co. moments of 2011.
Our beer went foreign!
Every ambitious company wants to see a demand increase, and we saw it this year as we began to export our beers to lands afar.
Sweden were the first to cotton on to the Black Isle magic and since that initial order back at the start of the year, we have sent beer to Finland, Italy, Switzerland and yet more to Sweden. What started out as bottle orders have now seen our expansion in to the foreign draught beer market with 60 kegs of Goldeneye selling out in a week in Sweden and Yellowhammer hitting the Italian shores.
It's all very exciting and we hope to be able to announce further export markets early in 2012.
We officially moved!
...from one side of the farm to the other. 
The dog isn't dead, just resting
The new brewery had been completed for a while, but new equipment always takes time to bed in and anyone who has owned a bottling line will know exactly what we mean by 'teething problems'. Still, in May we finally shifted the offices and shop from the old site to the new one.
Come dn say hello, it's really very lovely.
We employed people!
There was a sudden realisation early on in the year that we had a brand spanking new £1 million brewery and that we needed to make more beer, sell more beer and distribute more beer. All of those things require people, so we went out and found some.
First came Chris Mair, former Sales Manager for our erstwhile neighbours, BrewDog. Chris came in as our Sales and Marketing manager at the beginning of May and immediately began annoying everybody by phoning the brewery every five minutes.
As the orders increased we took on Kevin Hodge as our full time van driver/problem fixer and all round useful bloke, Kev's background is in pub management so we figured he knew how to handle a keg. Turns out he is pretty handy at drinking them too.
We were very proud to annouce the arrival in early September of Colin Stronge as our Head Brewer/Brewery Production Manager. Colin came from the fabulous Marble Brewery in Manchester and he has made an instant impact. His little tweaks have turned good beers in to great beers and great beers in to amazing beers. It seems Colin and his partner Vik have also adapted well to Black Isle life too. They now have a spaniel (it's a requirement in the terms of employment) and Colin was recently seen milking a cow and chasing a sheep up a country lane.
Last but by no means least after his stirling efforts at Jocktoberfest we asked Richard Irvine to join our team up at the brewery. Richard has a background of running small businesses and his excellent work with the online shop has proved he is worth his weight in gold. We haven't got any gold though, so we gave him a turnip instead.
We held Festivals!
In early June we held the first of what we hope will become an annual event, the Summer Shindig.
The weekend was a brilliant success. We had over 1000 folk through the doors (well, gate) with a field full of campers and a superb atmosphere. We were genuinely surprised at how respectful everyone was, picking up litter and leaving the place in such a state you would never have known there had been a massive party at all. You're all most welcome back in 2012.
Following on from the Shindig we launched Jocktoberfest which was held over the 9th, 10th and 11th of September.
Again the weekend was a smash, with even more people turning out despite the threat of severely average weather. The weather behaved and we had the most excellent Saturday night, with the tagline 'Beers, bands and bratwurst' we fully intend to do it all again next time around.
Our deal with Adnams!
We like Adnams, a big regional brewer with a real social conscience and commitment to the environment. We like Adnams a lot in fact, and we were thrilled when they agreed to distribute the kegged Organic Porter across their vast network. We already have several installations in London and the number is growing. Watch this space!
The only way is up as they say, except geographically speaking, in which case the way forward for us is down.
The beers!
You can't be a brewery and not mention your beers in your end of year highlights. Certainly not when your new brewer has been whipping up a storm.
It would be fair to say that we've changed tack a bit on the beer front this year. Nothing showcases this more than our collaboration with Masterchef winner Tim Anderson. Tim came up with a bonkers idea for a Smoked Weizenbock with Chilli, and we let him brew it. Turns out his pallate is pretty good, because the beer was a winner. Tim then did us the great honour of matching his food to our beer and cooking for 80 people at the Caley Sample Rooms in Edinburgh.
Following on from that Colin came along and whipped up his Black Stout, at 7.4% and destined for aging in Bruichladdich organic whisky casks we managed to rack off 2 casks and 1 keg and show the beer world where Black Isle Brewing Co is heading! The aged version we called Black Islay and is available now on our online shop. Enjoy. Sensibly.
As for 2012, well we've had a few ideas and expect to see the first very early in the new year.
Other gems fro 2011 include our new website built by our friends at Gecko New Media, our new merchandise provided by our friends at Vektor, two great events at Cloisters Bar in Edinburgh and the arrival of yet more spaniels. It's been a blast and if we listed every great moment we'd be here all night.
Thank you all for your support, custom, help and any other way you may have contributed to such a great year. We're already looking at 2012 being something of a landmark year and we hope you'll join us on the journey.
If you have any memorable Black Isle Brewing Co. highlights and you want to share them, feel free to comment on the bottom of this post. We'd love to hear from you!
Have a fantastic Christmas and a very Happy New Year.
From all of us at Black Isle Brewing Co.
