Sidebar: Scotland’s Historic Brewery
There’s much that’s new and exciting in Scottish beer but the country is also home to an ancient brewery with a fascinating history. Traquair House is Scotland’s oldest inhabited dwelling and dates from 1107. The white-painted buildings stand at the head of rolling lawns bordered by a stream or quair that flows in to the River Tweed, which marks the boundary with England.
Mary Queen of Scots stayed at Traquair and Prince Charles Edward Stuart—Bonnie Prince Charlie—came calling to raise support for his attempt to win back the British throne in the 18th century. The house is owned by the Maxwell Stuart family, members of the Stuart clan. They keep the main Bear Gates closed until a Stuart returns to the throne—a forlorn hope given the longevity and ever-expanding progeny of the current House of Windsor.
Traquair has a brewery with 18th-century equipment that hadn’t been used for more than 100 years until it was restored in 1965 by Peter Maxwell Stuart, the 20th lair or lord of the estate. The kit is made up of a wooden mash tun, underback or receiving vessel, kettle and cooling trays. Next door in the Tun Room, fermentation takes place in large oak vessels known as rounds.
The beer brewed by Maxwell Stuart is Traquair House, a 7.2% ale that belongs to an old Scottish style known as a Wee Heavy, similar to an English barley wine. It’s brewed with Scottish barley, soft water from a spring on the site and—the only foreign intruder—East Kent Goldings from southeast England: the climate is too cold to grow hops in Scotland.
Peter Maxwell Stuart died in 1990 and his daughter Lady Catherine and her mother Flora now run house and brewery. The beer—only available in bottle—is exported widely to the United States, South and Latin America, Finland, France, Italy, Japan and Sweden. A second beer, Jacobite Ale (8%), was added in 1995 to mark the 250th anniversary of the 1745 rebellion and is brewed with a dash of coriander.
In order to keep pace with demand, a second micro-plant has been added to enable 250,000 bottles to be produced annually. The old saying that the best wine comes in old bottles rings just as true for the beers from Traquair.
Roger Protz is a British beer writer and edits the annual Good Beer Guide. He is the author of more than 20 books, including 300 Beers to Try Before You Die. He has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Guild of Beer Writers and has twice been voted Drink Writer of the Year in the Glenfiddich Awards. More at protzonbeer.co.uk.