Summer Beer Festival

Here's a date for your diaries. What better way to mark the passing of midsummer than with a good ol' Summer Beer Festival. So, expect to find a bigger-than-usual selection of Scotland's finest from Thursday 19th June through until the closing night on Saturday 28th June.

The range of cask conditioned ales at The Grog & Gruel varies continuously, depending on how busy we expect to be and which brewers are delivering to our area at the time. However, you can usually expect to see from 4 to 8 beers on the bar at any one time, and you can pretty much guarantee that they'll all be brewed not only in Scotland, but mostly in the Highlands & Islands (That'll be McTetley's then!?)

During Summerfest (yes, we're still working on the name) we'll be doing a whole lot better than that, with perhaps the biggest and best range of Scottish ales in prime condition on show this side of, er... Glencoe.

On with the planning... More details to follow.

Scottish Six Day Trials

I was out running in the wilds at the back of Kinlochleven the other night, making the most of some of the fantastic dry and bright evenings we've had of late, and came across a few of these things...

Not long now till the West End car park will be taken over by a few hundred of these and the associated circus that comes with the Scottish Six Day Trials. The annual event runs from Monday 5th May through till Saturday 10th May, with the classic Pre '65s in Kinlochleven over the first weekend.

Hope the weather holds, as the Lochaber countryside is looking great in the sunshine and snow. And if you're following the trial and need a bit of sustenance each evening, The Grog & Gruel will of course be happy to help keep you going!

Tell us what you think

We think you like what we do. Occasionally, you'll tell us. Occasionally, we'll even ask you. And besides, we've been around long enough to know what you want and how to give it to you. But perhaps that's just not even of we're being really serious about things.

So we've decided to ask you more formally. From time to time, expect to be asked if you'd like to complete one of our new feedback forms. Don't expect the Spanish Inquisition (no-one expects the Spanish Inquisition). Instead expect a simple form on which you can very quickly rate us on a variety of headings, and we've even left room for your comments if you'd like to add these too.
We've already had a whole load of these returned and we're very encouraged by the results. Lots of goods and excellents and very little of the others. And the comments have varied from the recipe for our sausages through to the nice ear rings as worn by your favourite waitress.

We might even bring you a more formal review of the results in due course. But if you'd like to be heard, ask for a form when you're next in, or better still, click on the image and print your own!