Knoydart Brewery, a very remote brewery!

I had never heard of Knoydart Brewery, Inverie (website), before my brother told me he had visited it last week, and reading on you will understand why it had been way off my radar. To begin with, it is reckoned to be the most remote brewery in Britain, indeed, it cannot be reached by road, but you can catch a ferry to Inverie, on the Knoydart Peninsular and overlooking Loch Nevis, from the port of Mallaig on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands (website), or you could hike nearly 20 miles to get there! The brewery is situated in a converted chapel built in 1886 (above), and many thanks to Dan (my bro) for the photographs used here.

Before I go on, I was in the Jolly Fisherman in Hastings on Saturday, and one of the regulars, Goose, had already been planning to visit Knoydart before I even mentioned it, a coincidence, but knowing Goose I shouldn't have been surprised. Anyway, the brewery is run by Samantha and Matthew Humphrey, and was set up in 2018 and has a 5 Brewers Beer Barrel kit (nearly 1500 pints a brew). They use local pure mountain water from the Millburn as their supply liquor, and all their bottled beers are unfined, unfiltered and unpasteurised, thus vegan friendly.

They brew 2 cask ales, The Seven Men (4.5%) which is a 'best bitter' and The Old Forge Revival (4.2%), a pale ale celebrating the local community-owned pub (currently being refurbished - website). They have 6 regular bottled beers, including a light lager, the 4.1% Nevis Lager and a porter, also 4.1%, Dubh Lochain Porter, with 'hints of chocolate and coffee.'

The first beer they brewed was The Seven Men (4.5%), which is also available in bottles, a pale bitter brewed with Magnum and Chinook hops, thus providing fruit and spice to the aroma and taste, as you would expect. There is also a weaker session beer available, the 3.7% Millburn Pale Ale, 'refreshing and thirst quenching.'

The final 2 bottled beers available are the 5.1% Heavenly Blonde, a golden ale with hints of citrus' and my brother's favourite, the 4.5% IPA (Inverie Pale Ale), inspired by American East Coast IPAs, presumably meaning plenty of hops from the USA are used. 'Pine and citrus notes and tropical fruit flavours' are just what you would expect...

They also brew 'specials' and I have no idea if Dan has brought me back a bottle, but I'm seeing him in a couple of weeks time, so fingers crossed, cheers!

Oh yes, and Knoydart beers are only available locally, for details of which stockists go to their website, although I have seen hints that ordering may be available online in the future, but not right now, so maybe book yourselves a wee holiday, it looks like a beautiful place. 😉