LATEST NEWS FROM BELLFIELD

A Scottish specialist microbrewery is planning a strong comeback after a challenging period due to the pandemic.

Edinburgh’s Bellfield Brewery – the UK’s only, exclusively gluten-free and vegan brewery – is ringing in the changes with bold new branding, investment in production equipment and an all-weather beer garden at their brewery taproom near the city centre.

Once again, the sound of sawing, drilling, and hammering has filled the air here at Bellfield - this time to get our beer garden ready to open this July.

“Challenging” would be an understatement to describe what we’ve gone through in trying to design something that is weather proof, enables social distancing, looks welcoming, doesn’t take up sunbathing space and allows groups of six or eight to enjoy a pint!

In ‘normal’ times, Tuesday is brewday here at Bellfield.

We thought you might be interested in some of what goes on during the initial stages of the brewing process and so Sally, our assistant production brewer, has taken some photos along the way.

When did beer drinkers fall in love with the can rather than the bottle?

You need to go back 90 years. Up to this point, beer had only been available in barrels or in glass or heavy stoneware bottles. (In fact the history buffs among you, might like to know that bits of stoneware beer bottles still regularly wash up on our local beach here in Portobello, Edinburgh, sometimes with the maker's name or beer name still visible!).

The shift from bottle to can started in the USA, when a Virginia-based brewery became the first to commercially package beer into cans, in the 1930s.

At that time, cans were heavy duty tins, which needed a special triangular, can piercer to open them.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Felinfoel, a small brewery in Wales, led the field in commercial beer canning, thanks in large part to Wales’ 200+ year-long dominance in global, tin-plate production.

We’ve got a new beer coming out this weekend in mini cask and on draught for take-aways from our taproom.

It’s a 5.6% single-hop IPA, a luscious, golden beer with juicy, tropical fruit aromas of pineapple and mango, and pine and citrus flavours, thanks to the Mosaic® hops we’ve used.

Hops.

We’ve become a bit obsessed with the hops we’re growing in pots outside the office windows, just nicknamed “Spud and Renton” by one of our customers.

But though we’re loving seeing the plants grow – sometimes by as much as three centimetres a day - this variety is not what most people think of as the ‘real’ deal.

Help Keith name our new summer beer and win one of four, 5-litre, mini casks!

Brewed this week, it’s a beautifully aromatic,  5.5% Pale Ale with lush citrus tones coming from the Mosaic hops that we’ve used in the boil and also for dry hopping.