Drink fresh

We taste the beers every day – like every good chef! From early fermentation to the final packaged beer, it isn’t just about detecting unwanted flavours but also to capture incredible ones and understand how we can maximise these during the brewing process. Our new sensory suite has customised software for beer evaluation that tracks how well our tasters are performing and the training programme ensures our taste panel members stay at the top of their game.

All stages of the brewing process are tested in our three QC laboratories. Our analytical lab looks at the physical and chemical properties (pH, ABV, flavours and more, with gas and liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry). Our microbiology lab ensures our yeast is healthy and active and DNA screening ensures our beer is free from unwanted bacteria. Finally we have a lab for final packaging checks to drive down the oxygen content of our bottles through continual real-time measurement.

A massive part of the R&D work we do relates to key flavour compounds present in hops and malt and in building detailed flavour profiles for all of our beers as a result. We are also investigating how flavour composition and intensity change as beer ages and when beer is stored at different temperatures. We do this because we want to understand how best to store our beer on site and in our bars – but also because it allows us to tailor our beer quality advice to you guys who drink it!

This is another vital part of our Quality programme – in a nutshell it means that we work to maximise quality checks at ‘source’. This covers everything from taking continual brewhouse measurements as the beer develops and is packaged, to moving beyond Ellon and training our amazing bar crews to look after the beer and offer helpful advice, to the rock-solid commitment of our sales team in ensuring our trade customers are aware of proper serve and storage.

Finally, it’s so critical that our suppliers understand how serious we are about quality so that we get the very best from them – hops, malt, yeast, bottles, cans…even bottle caps! A good example of the value of great relationships relates to our hop supply – it’s so important we are physically there, hand selecting hops each year, speaking to the growers and merchants, learning about new varieties and whether we can use these for new beers and continue our innovation.