29/08/2026
Oh Rowan Tree!! Our local Rowan Trees have produced a bumper crop this year. Rowans played an instrumental role in my decision to create the Beer Without Borders project. I was introduced to Ruby Jazz Ale at Artbeerfest in Caminha, Northern Portugal, in 2017. It was one of the best beers I have ever tasted and I was lucky enough to meet Tuomas Pere, creator of Ruby Jazz, at his brewery, Pynnikin, in Tampere, Finland soon after, and we became good friends. Ruby Jazz was a winner in the best dark beer section of the World Beer Awards in 2016. With our recent venture into in house brewing at Riverside Tap I am very keen to work with our two expert brewing partners to create our own Rowan Berry Ale and we are busy gathering berries while the trees are in full fruit, before the birds beat us to it! We have already gathered quite a few berries and plan another harvesting trip tomorrow but if any of our lovely customers have any Rowans hanging over their garden fence we would hugely appreciate if you could bag some up and drop them off at Riversice Tap (or Galloway Tap in Castle Douglas). As one of our sumermarkets tells us, 'Every Little Helps!'
We are also contemplating experimenting with a gooseberry beer, probably a sour. It's rather late in the season but if anybody has some still begging to be picked, we would be very grateful.
Our brewing plans are coming together nicely. Just before Covid we bought a large volume brewing kit from Bone Machine in Yorkshire (yet another Finnish connection!) when they were installing new kit to increase capacity, with the intention to instal it in the former Royal Oak pub just around the corner from Riverside Tap. Unfortunately much of this was badly damaged during the severe flooding and this, together with the effects of Covid on our business led to us shelving these brewing plans. Due to the ongoing flood risk we will mostly be brewing test and experimental brews at Riverside Tap, with larger volumes at other sites. We still have the partially destroyed Bone Machine kit and are considering making a second attempt to set it up somewhere flood free! Meanwhile we have recently purchased a small capacity brewing kit for Riverside Tap. For those who have an interest in Brewing we hope to set up an amateur brewing group to meet regularly at Riverside Tap, sample each others' beers, discuss recipes and exchange ideas. Please let us know if this is of any interest to you.
Thank you. Andrew🍻
