Windswept Brewery's ale PIONEER bottled and ready after transnational collaboration
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A LOSSIEMOUTH brewery has been exploring the challenge of creating a shorter supply chain for Moray's farmers and brewers with the Moray LEADER-funded Field to Firkin project.
Windswept Brewery is taking part in the transnational collaboration project with a team based in Wallonia, Belgium.
Teams in both countries are looking to improve the price the farmer gets for his grain and ensure brewers are able to produce a low carbon footprint product with a local provenance.
WATCH: More about the Field to Firkin project .
Back in February, Windswept held a brewing competition between members of its team to choose the Field to Firkin project brew.
Customers were invited to an exclusive tasting session held at Windswept’s own on-site Taproom, where they picked the brew out of a selection of six trial beers.
Customers chose a thirst quenching, Elderflower infused pale ale with an ABV of 4.5 per cent. The beer was the brainchild of brewer Stuart.
Unfortunately, the whole project ground to a halt temporarily due to coronavirus. But the company managed to overcome financial hurdles, with support from Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and now the project beer – named PIONEER – is bottled and ready to drink.
Windswept recently opened their brewery tap once again and invited the same customers back for the official (socially-distanced) tasting of PIONEER.
You can check-out and buy PIONEER by following this link .
Now the beer has hit the market, the real work begins for the brewery.
The ambitious aim for Windswept is to create a sustainable, short supply chain that allows craft brewers in Moray to use local barely, get it malted locally and turned into beer without it ever leaving the county.
There are many challenges to overcome. First and foremost, Moray Speyside is whisky country and whisky uses a different variety of barley than beer.
A single 50-ton batch would be enough for Windswept for a whole year. But production isn't in Windswept's favour.
Changing the way beer is brewed, which crops are grown locally and the scale of production equipment available are all options being explored, as well as collaborative purchasing and potential farm diversification.
