An attempt to give the Scottish Government power to set their own rates of alcohol duty has failed.

An amendment to the Scotland Bill giving the Holyrood Government devolved powers over duty failed to make it into the final legislation that was passed in Parliament last week. Stewart Hosie MP, who proposed the amendment, said that as well as raising money for the Exchequer, “one of the key aims of the duty is to reduce excessive consumption of alcohol”.

The Scottish National Party MP for Dundee East said: “Devolving responsibility for excise duty to Scotland would help to ensure that the tax system for alcohol consumption was consistent with the alcohol policy of the Scottish Government and equipped to tackle one of the greatest health and social challenges facing Scotland.”

To view the full article go to:  Morning Advertiser

TSA Brewing Co., the fast-growing brewery division of Scottish drinks producer, VC2 Brands, was awarded Gold at the SIBA (Society of Independent Brewers) Scotland Regional Beer Competition 2011 in Edinburgh on Wednesday evening (15th June) for its premium beer, Double Espresso Premio Caffé Birra.

The award, sponsored by Festival Glass, sought to recognise the best speciality beer in Scotland as part of the Traditional Scottish Beer Festival.

The Competition featured over 80 beers, ales and stouts from all over Scotland spread over nine categories, with the winners selected by a panel of sixty judges.

Commenting on his success, VC2’s co-founder, Carlo Valente said: “I am absolutely thrilled that Double Espresso has achieved Gold status from SIBA. Product innovation is at the forefront of our business and it is very rewarding to see our efforts recognised.

This award gives fabulous credence to Double Espresso and we are looking forward securing further supermarket and on trade listings for the product as a result.”

This stunning speciality beer is brewed and infused with double-strength coffee beans, delivering the glorious aroma and rewarding taste of coffee while light hopping helps to balance and complement the smooth, silky character.

TSA Brewing Co. upholds the values and heritage of time-honoured Scottish real-ale making practices with leading edge flavour concepts. With several families of beer in the TSA portfolio, including Lomond Gold, William Wallace and 1488 Premium Whisky Beer there is a brew to satisfy even the most discerning beer connoisseur.

Visit www.traditionalscottishales.co.uk or www.vc-2.com for further information
contact TSA on 01786 81700 or 07785 791111

Overall Champion of the Competition Sponsored by Crisp Malting Group ltd

To view all results go to SIBA Beer Competitions

Pub bosses are starting a campaign to allow smoking in bars again, five years after it was banned.

The Scottish Licensed Trade Association (SLTA) claims that 800 pubs have gone out of business since the smoking ban was introduced in 2006 and argues Scotland has the toughest anti smoking legislation in Europe.

Scots publicans will meet today with landlords from countries where smoking in bars is still allowed.

Legislation is in place in some countries to protect staff and non-smoking customers from second-hand smoke.

Publicans will hear from bar owners from the Netherlands, Croatia and Hungary, where laws are in place that allows smoking but prevents involuntary exposure to smoke by staff and customers.

The SLTA’s Paul Waterson said they did not want to overturn the smoking ban, but wanted it changed to allow choice for drinkers and flexibility for pub owners.

Read the full story in the Evening Times

The Scottish Borders Brewery, Scotland’s only plough-to-pint real ale microbrewery, has taken a novel approach to traceability by branding one of its barley fields earmarked for production with a giant crop circle-inspired pint glass.

Probably the largest pint glass in the world, it occupies a prominent position at the foot of the iconic Eildon Hills near the brewery’s Ancrum home.

The brewery this week celebrated the sale of its 500th cask since starting brewing just three months ago.

John Henderson, owner of the Scottish Borders Brewery, said: “As a new business we have been fortunate to have enjoyed really strong support from both publicans and ale drinkers, both of whom seem to be enjoying our products.

“I thought a pint glass crop circle would be a great way to draw attention to our plough-to-pint ethos and we hope it will create a talking point for people who see it in the field.”

Photography is being taken of the “pint” as the barley grows and will be posted on the Brewery’s Facebook page.

The Scottish Borders Brewery currently produces two cask ales – Game Bird, a 4% amber ale, and Foxy Blond, a 3.8% classic pale ale. Both are made using the brewery’s homegrown barley and artesian water source and are available for sale in around 80 different outlets in the Borders, Edinburgh and surrounding areas.

John Henderson concluded: “Our ability to claim true local provenance in conjunction with producing great-tasting products is helping us to gain a rapid foothold in the growing real ale market.”

Article taken from Scotland of food and drink

Some members of the WEST team and a few of our good friends and customers attended the British Institute of Innkeeping Annual Awards dinner on Sunday night and we scooped yet another award!

Yippee! WEST was awarded ‘Best Business Initiative’ for our crazy idea of brewing German-style lagers and wheat beers in Scotland (and doing that quite well, we would argue!) which is once more testament to the entire WEST team’s efforts. I am very proud of our gang here on Glasgow Green!

Following the dinner, we went on to celebrate our efforts at the Corinthian on Ingram Street, one of WEST’s newest draught beer customers, and mingled with some very tasty footballers who had just come from the SFA’s annual dinner. I didn’t quite go as far as invite all of them for a pint of St. Mungo lager, but we did have quite a few WEST beers that evening!

Click here to see their latest news including Save the Date for the 2011 “ST. MUNGO CHALLENGE CUP”, WEST Beer Garden news, and Eurovision on the big screen .

The Orkney Brewery has done the double at a major Scottish beer competition, taking top honours in two different event categories.

The brewery’s 3.8% Raven Ale won Champion Bitter at the Paisley Beer Festival contest, with the 4.4% Wayfarer IPA taking the title of Champion Speciality Beer.

Organised by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), the four day long Paisley festival is one of the biggest in Scotland, attracting around 5,000 visitors.

The two winning Orkney Brewery beers will now go through to the prestigious Champion Beer of Britain competition in London next year. Raven Ale was the only Scottish beer to take home an award from this event last year.

Norman Sinclair, managing director of the Orkney Brewery’s parent company, Sinclair Breweries Ltd, said: “This is a really great result for the Orkney Brewery team. Winning one award at such an important event would be good, but to come home from Paisley with two is very special indeed. We now look forward to taking Raven and Wayfarer to London in August 2012 and hope that we can repeat our success from last year.”

The Highland Brewing Company’s Swannay Brewery has won arguably its most prestigious award yet – overall cask beer Champion at the Brewing Industry International Awards 2011, widely regarded as the pinnacle of brewing achievement.

Further to the judging in February where Orkney IPA and Orkney Blast were awarded Gold in their respective categories, the overall championship winners were announced at a luncheon at London’s Guildhall last week. The category medals were collected by Harvey and Lewis Hill, who then waited on stage whilst the overall results were announced. In a fitting testament to the family-run company, owner and head-brewer Rob Hill then took to the stage as Orkney IPA was declared overall winner.

Rob Hill commented: “This really is our highest achievement to date, it puts us on the world brewing map and officially confirms what we have always said: our beers are World Class.”

Robust judging took place over three days by selected brewers from around the world who narrowed down 800 beers from six of the seven continents. Of the nine overall category winners, three were from the UK, two from the USA, two from Japan, one from Burma and one from Indonesia.