Scotland in a bottle

Gavin D Smith visits the Real Ale Shop in Perthshire, Scotland

It is one of those ideas that is so simple it falls under the ‘Why didn’t someone think of this before?’ category.

With new Scottish microbreweries springing up in abundance, and much of their output being bottled, the Scottish Real Ale Shop was established last December to offer a one stop shop for the purchase of the largest selection of Scottish bottled beers in the country, brewed from Shetland to the Borders.

As is so often the way, it took an outsider to see the potential of such a venture. In this case that outsider was Fred Wilde, who had a background in wine and organic retail, notably as manager of Oddbins and Unwins off-licence branches in the London area. “I also did a stint in Australia at an organic supermarket,” says Fred. “I was always interested in local produce, and beer was an extension of that.” In 2005 Fred moved north with his wife, Alison, and several family members to take over the award-winning Lade Inn at Kilmahog, near Callander, in the picturesque Trossachs area of central Scotland. Attached to the pub was a small building housing the Trossachs Craft Brewery, established for the Lade’s previous owners by Scottish brewing veteran Doug Ross.

Fred’s initial intention was to resume brewing, but as he explains, “There were issues with SEPA [Scottish Environmental Protection Agency] regarding effluent disposal, and we decided it would just cost too much money to do the necessary work. So we sold the brewing kit off and now Doug Ross brews our three ho.....

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By Gavin D. Smith

Section : Spotlight

Page number : 33