Cheers' Theory of Intelligence

It works for us!

'Well you see, Bob, it's like this . . . A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Bob, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers.'

Brand New Ales At The Grog

May is a good month for cask ale. A wonderful range of seasonal ales are on offer from our local Highland breweries to add to their usual listings. One of these to be featured this week is White Lady wheat beer from Cairngorm brewery. A classic light bodied session bitter. This copper coloured beer has a delicate malt flavour and a hint of caramel from crystal grains. It is traditionally bittered with Goldings and has a dry slightly spicy finish. It's proving very popular even for a wheat beer.


To add to our great range of ales this week we also have Hebridean Gold from Isle of Skye Brewery. A distinctively different ale, brewed with porridge oats for exceptional smoothness, with a deep and creamy head.

Both ales are selling extremely well so worth popping down to The Grog and Gruel before we sell 'oat' !!

Quiz night results

Another great evening of cask ale and intellectual jousting at The Grog and Gruel last night as another quiz night was held as part of our Easter Ale Festival. Quiz mistress Dr Jacqui Hill was hosting the evening and, after a few half pints of ale and a Wild Boar Chilli, she was in fine form. We had 10 teams in all, including last years winners and reigning champions "The Guessers" and a team of about 12 students from Lochaber College.

So.. what did we learn?? Well, The teletubby with the hat is Dipsy, A laxton Superb is an apple NOT a laxative,and Elvis Presley was did infact die at age 42 and is NOT still alive. Well done to all those who took part especially to the winners "The Guessers", runners up "Trumpton Fire Brigade" and a special round of applause for the 12 Lochaber college students who came in 3rd place (even after trying to use mobiles to get answers)

Our next quiz night will be held as part of our mid summer ale festival.

Could ale be good for you ?

Researchers have found recently that beer, in particular light ales, contains a substance that boosts bones and could mean they are less likely to suffer from osteoporosis. The finding, published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, backs up previous research which also showed that the drink was good at fending off brittle bones – especially in women. Silicon which is present in pale ales from the high volume of hops is responsible and may have other health benefits.
As we move, slowly, from winter into spring the number of lighter ales on sale increases here at the Grog and Gruel as customers look for a lighter, refreshing session ale. So good news for all our ale drinkers. Now you can remove guilt from a trip to the pub as you fend of brittle bones with a trip to your favorite award winning cask ale house.

Lochaber's Favourite Watering Hole

A big thanks to all the CAMRA members who have recently voted for The Grog and Gruel to be crowned winner of the Fort William and Lochaber Pub of the year 2010. Although we are regular winners, every year there are more folk selling cask ale which makes the competition even tougher. As far as we at The Grog and Gruel are concerned the CAMRA good beer guide is the bible for ale drinkers and awards given by CAMRA are the only ones to be taken seriously.
Our formula for success has never changed. Take only the highest quality local cask ale(and the odd cask of Tetley's..(I do like the odd pint of Tetley's), treat it with love and care and sell it in relaxed, comfortable friendly surroundings. Nice to see our customers agree with our philosophy and chose to vote us winners again. We have a great line up of local, seasonal cask ales over the next few weeks, there is no better time to visit the award winning Grog and Gruel.

Japanese Whisky ?

With over 70 bottles of single malt whisky on the shelves at The Grog and Gruel, we try to feature whisky from every area available. As whisky gets a lot of its flavour from the water of the area it is produced in, regional variations give each whisky a distinct unique flavour. We have a couple bottles of Irish whisky hidden away for those who wish to drink whisky from our celtic cousins and now we have a Japanese whisky available also.



YAMAZAKI single malt whisky is made from the purest natural ingredients distilled through the art of Japanese craftsmanship in perfect harmony with nature. The whiskies are handcrafted at Japan’s oldest distillery, built by Suntory founder Shinjiro Torii in 1923. The distillery is situated in the Vale of Yamazaki on the outskirts of Kyoto, an ideal environment for whisky production where the same exceptionally pure waters used in Japan’s most esteemed tea ceremonies are used to produce YAMAZAKI whiskies.



So if you are looking for a good dram in Fort William, The Grog and Gruel is the place to go. Choose from our massive selection of great Scottish whisky or for something more unusual, why not try Japanese whisky?? Maybe one day we'll be brave enough to stock English whisky too (but probably not :))

Fort William Mountain Festival 2010

The big freeze is here. Fort William is covered is frosty snow and Scottish skiing conditions haven't been so good for years. Attention is being turned to the winter mountain sports like skiing and sledging (when I was young it was plastic animal feed bags instead of sledges, sore on the bum but a much greater sense of danger). So just a quick reminder to folk that Fort William will be hosting it's annual Mountain Festival from February 11th - 15th.


Although this is a festival for those with a keen interest in the outdoors, most of the lectures, workshops and events are entertaining for anyone and well worth supporting. A full list of events can be found here. You'll also find events to keep the children amused. Over the past few years Fort William Mountain festival has made a great reputation for itself.


Hopefully you'll find something at the festival you'll find interesting and maybe pop into The Grog and Gruel for a pre-event meet up or post event discussion. I hope I'll get a chance to see some of the festival myself

Festive Williams Brew

This weekend at The Grog and Gruel we will be featuring a great winter brew from The Williams Brothers Brewery. "Yule Smile" at 4.5 % has become available over the past couple of weeks to tie in with the festive period. With a great evening of music from Sandra MacBeth on Friday night, we thought there would be no better time to try it out.

So if you are out and about over the weekend and fancy a nice beer, awesome music in great surroundings then The Grog and Gruel is the place to be. Only a limited supply of this great ale is available so try it while you can.

Hot Festive drinks.

So finally I put up the decorations in the bar. Before folk started calling us "Bar Humbug". Now full of festive cheer its time to unveil the Grog and Gruel Hot Winter drinks selection, made from the very best quality ingredients to old Grog and Gruel recipes.

You can choose between either our hot mulled wine or our warming hot toddy. Both guaranteed to keep you warm on the coldest of days. Both are available in the bar and the restaurant and will be available until the warm weather returns. Well worth popping in for.

Stuck for a present at Christmas??

Only a few weeks till Christmas, I bet there are still folk rushing about looking for those last minute stocking fillers. Some people can be so hard to buy gifts for. Here at The Grog and Gruel we can help with our limited edition "Champagne Heather Ale" made to celebrate 20 years of Williams Brothers Brewing Scotland's wonderful Heather Ale

We have only managed to get our hands on a very small number of these bottles, which are individually numbered, and there is already interest in them. At 11% and matured in ex-sherry casks used to mature single Speyside malt, these unique bottles of ale will prove to be a memorable gift for any ale enthusiast. At only £9.95 per 75cl bottle, you won't want to miss out on this rare opportunity to taste part of Heather Ale history.

Piggy Gifts

On trips to The Grog and Gruel you may notice the many pigs and pig related items around. Since before we opened Horace the Hog was planned as the mascot for The Grog and Gruel. Customers seem to really identify with our piggy friend and most of the pig gifts and items around the bar have been given to us by customers and friends. You may notice The Mighty Boar head of Sven above The Grog and Gruel bar, a gift from our local boar farm upon Sven's "retirement".

So just a note of thanks to one of our regulars who gave us this amusing salt and pepper set in the style of an amusing "piggy back" ride. Yes, that's what I said, "piggy back" ride. We are not an adult only blog. They will join the ranks of other piggy collectibles in the bar helping us pay homage to Horace The Hog !!

October is Cider Month

We at the Grog and Gruel not only like to supply you with very best local produce but also seasonal produce as well. This can sometimes mean going a bit further a field than we would like for products. Sometimes even venturing South of Glen Coe. One harvest that is in full production at the moment is cooking apples for cider. This is why CAMRA have nominated October to be Cider month.


So for the whole of October we will be selling Traditional Cask Conditioned hand pulled Thatcher's Cider. Although in England Cask Cider is in abundance it very rarely travels North of the border. This is something that is changing and with a 13% increase in cider sales in Scotland this year it seems that it maybe something customers are looking for also. At 6% Thatcher's Heritage Cider has been produced in Somerset for over 100 years on a family farm. Originally made to top up workers wages on the farm and now 100 years later it is available in most Supermarkets and now at the Grog and Gruel.


Again I had a small taste (hic!) of the cider once it had settled in the cellar and can say it is very drinkable. It has also proven a great ingredient in the kitchen featuring in our own "Pork and Cider Pie" which sold out the first lunch service it was on sale. Well worth dragging yourself out the house for on a cold October night.

Blaeberry Ale At The Grog

As you know we here at The Grog and Gruel are always trying to find new and exciting beers to tempt our customers. Over the years we have seen many different ingredients added to the brewing process to add interesting flavours. We have seen wheat beer, nut beer, oatmeal beer, seaweed beer and heather beer and these are only in the last couple of years.


As hops were not a traditional Scottish crop we see some great beer recipes coming from old Scots recipes and the Picts. These include heather ale, seaweed and blaeberry ale and many more. If you venture into the Grog this week you will be able to sample two great cask ales from old pictish recipes, Fraoch Heather Ale and Isle of Skye "Cuillingorm" a Blaeberry ale.

I have already tried the Cuillingorm can say it is very drinkable. A smooth tawny ale with a deep fruity flavour. This is a seasonal brew and will only be available for a short time so well worth trying while the blaeberries are in season. As always in The Grog and Gruel we would encourage you to ask for a small sample of the beer as we are sure you will find it hard to resist a full pint to truly taste this great ale.

Ben Nevis Race Weekend

Are you ready for it? Well, chances are that if you're not ready now then you won't ever be ready for the annual Ben Nevis Race this Saturday.

Half way! The Red Burn with the dreaded 'grassy bank' on the right hand side.

We're expecting to see a fair few Ben runners through the doors over the weekend so there'll be plenty of pasta available on Friday night and plenty of our special Ben Race Ale on Saturday night.

Good luck everyone!

Swine Flu Fever !!

As swine flu seems to be spreading across the globe and many folk are taking to avoiding Pork, Flying over seas, and Mexican food, we would like to re assure our customers that here at the Grog and Gruel we are swine flu free. None of the wild boar from Beauly we use has ever visited Mexico, If they had I'm sure they'd be 'cured'. Earlier in the day I was concerned so I phoned the emergency swine flu hot line...unfortunately all I got was 'crackling'.

A customer told me they were suffering from snuffling, coughing and sweating and that they must have swine flu however I think they are telling 'porkies'. On a serious note, with all the global recession business and now a pandemic approaching, now is the best time to go to the Grog and relax with a nice pint of cask ale...the perfect 'oinkment'.

Good bye Easter !!

So Easter is well and truly over. Everyone is back to school or work and all the chocolate is gone. Fort William saw a very busy time in Fort William with a great spell of good weather, even some Ben Nevis sunburn victims were recorded. Easter also saw a record number of pints and pies sold at our "Pint and a Pie" Festival. The pies proved so popular we found ourselves having to place emergency pastry orders.
Down to business tho, and the big question is "who is the winner of the best ale of the festival?". As always we allow customers to vote for the beer they enjoy the most over the two weeks. As always the results were surprising especially when the quality and range of ales were the best we've seen here at the Grog. The winner was Kelpie Seaweed ale made by those clever Williams Brothers, with Ben Nevis 80/- coming in a close second. Great to see customers at the Grog are brave enough to try a taste of Seaweed ale. But the end of the beer festival ain't the end of the world and we will be show casing another 9 local cask ales this weekend to wash away your thirst. So pop in and see what we've got to tempt you with.

Festival starting line up !

Only 3 days to go to the Easter Ale festival and we can now release which ales will be included in the opening line up. All your favourite breweries will be included like Isle of Skye, An teallach, Atlas and Williams Brothers. Ten hand pumps will be on the bar and beers to be included Caledonian 80/-, Black Cuillin, Latitude Pilsner, Williams Red and more.

An Teallach has been in particularly good form of late and has been getting rave reviews in the bar. Remarkable what a man with a keen interest in cask ale can brew up in his barn. I think An teallach is a favourite to win the title of "Best Ale of the Festival" voted for by our customers.

My own personal favourite is also included in the line up. Kelpie Seaweed ale from Williams Brothers is also making an appearance. In addition to the seaweed (Bladder rack) harvested on the Argyll coast, they have also used organically grown malt. Kelpie is a rich chocolate ale which has an aroma of fresh seabreeze and a distinctive malty texture. How many of you will be brave enough to try a Seaweed Ale??Rememer..we'll even let you taste the ale before you buy a pint. It all starts on Thursday so don't be late or risk missing some of these great ales.

And the award goes to ....

Things seem so bleak just now, global recession, costs rising, and a dwindling Fort William High Street dwindling. Good news items are few and far between. Imagine my delight when I received word that The Grog and Gruel had become "CAMRA pub of the year Fort William and Lochaber 2009". The award is voted for by CAMRA members for pubs who are dedicated to the highest quality cask conditioned ale sold in the best quality surroundings. As this years has seen more entries to the competition and a lot more votes it really is something to be proud of.


So how did we manage to win such a prestigious award? Well, we rely on the top quality Highland ales from our local suppliers. An alehouse can only be as good as the ale it sells. Luckily we are surrounded by great brewers working hard to provide great ales for our cellar. We work closely with the local breweries giving feedback and taking suggestions so a good partnership is created and the ale being sold is in the top notch quality. We have also been graced with good staff working hard to keep and serve ale in the best possible condition.


Finding new ways of selling cask ale is also something which we work tirelessly on. This April will see our first Easter 'Pint & a Pie' festival. We take the finest local cask ales, add some great music and entertainment, and create a great selection of tasty and imaginative pies and from this a festival is born. This is just one of the ways we hope to tempt customers to go for a pint in Lochaber newly crowned "Pub of the year 2009"... woot !!

Drink Local

Word is that whilst Gordon Brown is taxing us to death and the Scottish Executive appear hell bent on controlling alcohol abuse by putting lots of small businesses out of business and letting the supermarkets off the hook, small independent breweries are actually doing ok.
SIBA, the society of independent brewers, had their annual gathering recently (p*** up, breweries, etc.....?!) and announced that their volumes are up 10%. Very much against the trend of the drinks industry as a whole in the current climate.

For the last 15 years, The Grog & Gruel has been showcasing local beers from breweries in the Highlands & Islands. And we've long since realised that staying local and avoiding national fads, often driven by large advertising budgets, is the best policy. Good news stories are a bit thin on the ground at the moment so this is very welcome news.

Join us with our celebrations at our Easter Beer Festival, which just happens to coincide with National Cask Ale Week.

Internet Networking Communities

As our website increases in popularity and the number of contacts from our website increases we decided to look for new ways to try and reach new customers through the net. As most people now seem to be busy typing away on various Internet networking sites this seems to be the way folk would like to be kept informed on whats going on at the Grog and Gruel.

At the moment we are building our friends list and we need more folk to add us. To see our myspace site go to http://www.myspace.com/grogngruel. To access our Bebo site go to http://www.bebo.com/The_Grog. Both will be updated along with the website and blog by our e-marketing department. We hope this will mean a lot more folk will be able to keep in touch with us in the way they prefer, and remember to keep in contact with your friends while on the move why not stop at the Grog for a pint and use of our free unlimited WIFI?