Atlas Brewery

http://atlasbrewery.com/

On a recent walking tour of Scotland, our journey brought us to the front door of Atlas Brewing. After finishing our 19 mile day (day5), we were rewarded with a shorter 9 mile walk from Kingshouse over the devils staircase and the highest point on the West Highland Way, to Kinlochleven. The trail ended with a very long descent in dreary wet weather with intermittent views of the Blackwater reservoir into the former aluminum mecca of Kinlochleven. We arrived in town at 2:00. Judy had emailed ahead for our tour and we were ready to take some time off the Way and talk about beer.

Atlas Brewery is located in the former storehouse of the aluminum smelting factory. The brewery was put together and was moved into in October 2001. The first batches of Latitude and Tempest were brewed in February 2002. Norman Sinclair, a highland business man, bought the brewery in August 2006. He has since added Orkney Brewery orkneybrewery.com to form Sinclair Breweries Ltd.

We were met at Atlas by Harry, an assistant brewer, who got his job by home brewing in the right place at the right time. Some administrators of Atlas were having a barbecue next door to Harry's house and the were invited over for a brew. Apparently they liked what they tasted because he was offered a job very shortly thereafter. I was happy to hear that even with his full time job at Atlas, Harry still enjoys the rewards of home brewing. Harry gave us a wonderful, personal, in depth tour of the Brewery.

Atlas brews 36,000 pints per year, an interesting way to quantify output. Their focus is real ale. Utilizing local soft water, the "Atlas" of any beer, and western grown Maris Otter barley, the beer is top fermented 5-7 days at 20* C, cooled and keg conditioned at 9* for 4 weeks and then shipped to the pub, to be tapped as real ale and finished hopefully within one week. The majority of the ale is kegged as real ale, with only a small percent sent out for contract bottling.

After the tour, and an in depth discussion of real ales, we were treated to a glass of Three Sisters from a bottle. A keg had just been set up but not yet settled enough for consumption. Three Sisters, named after the mountain range in Glencoe, is a dark fruity refreshing ale, blended with chocolate and crystal malts as well as whole flower hops; a pleasant end to a delightful and informative tour.

Harry's favorite brew: Wayfarer IPA, a seasonal which we could not find.

Harry's favorite home brew recipe:

12 gal all grain
18 lbs Maris Otter, or Optic
1 lb Crystal
150 gm Fuggles to boil
150 gm Kent Golding to finish
65* C to mash
72* to sparge