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.

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.

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.

Say aye tae a pork pie

So, the Easter Beer Festival has been and gone, and with it all those wonderful pies you've been enjoying over the last fortnight. More on the festival to follow soon, but for those of you who've had pie withdrawal symptoms, here's the ideal solution.

Pies by post!

The Rowan Cottage Kitchen is a small business based way out west at Newton of Ardtoe (that's just beyond Acharacle and the beach nearby is reason enough to go and visit). They came across to Clachaig last night to meet some of the local B&B businesses at the informal 'gathering' of the trade. Great to meet such enthusiasm for doing business.

They say that pies inspired them to start their little business, and pie fans everywhere can certainly appreciate why. And fear not, for you don't need to wait for a sunny day and a trip to the beach to go and buy one of their pies. No, they'll post one to you.

Thing is, I can't work out how much Piccalilli I need to go with a 2 kilogram Pork Pie!

Visit the Rowan Cottage Kitchen web site.

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.

The Tail of Sven

The countdown to our Easter Ale and Pie Festival has begun, only 5 days to go and we are very excited. The ale is settling in the cellar, The final touches are being made to our pie recipes and the staff are undergoing long tasting sessions. With all this hullabaloo going on it's not surprising that some folk have missed the new 'face' at the Grog.














Let me introduce to you Sven the wild boar. Isn't he beautiful? Sven is a gift from our local supplier of wild boar which we use for our sausages, Burgers and Chilli. He was raised on a farm in Beauly, home of Boars of Beauly. In fact The Grog and Gruel and Clachaig Inn buy all the boar meat Beauly has to offer. Sven had a harem of 9 female sows he serviced. He is a reliable 'producer' of large baby boys,the record holder weighing in at 96.4kg at 14 months. Sven's estimated weight was in the region of 250-300kg during the rutting season when they can put on up to 25% extra weight.

We feel very proud to be the home of Sven now that his working life is over. It's nice to be able to show our customers exactly where their Boar Burgers, and Chilli have come from. It's also very nice to receive such a nice gift from one of our local suppliers, another great reason to keep things local. So next time you pop in for a pint in the Grog raise a glass to Sven as he peacefully he enjoys his retirement.

Corny Caption Contest

Plans for our Easter "Pie & a Pint" Beer Festival continue to develop. The flyer is now designed and will hit general distribution later this week through a variety of email and snail channels. Here's a copy if you've not signed up to our mailing lists.

Note that we're running a 'corny caption contest' based on our general pie theme. Our graphics chap has set the bar with his stunningly bad 'somewhere over the rainbow wae a pie..." (think about it a little). So if you fancy wining some Grog & Gruel goodies, including a slap up meal for 2, then let us have your (truly terrible) pie slogan. The pie's the limit!

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.

Easter Festival Headlining Act !!

After a lot of missed phone calls, and diary planning, we are pleased to announce "Sandra MacBeth and the Shoogle Sisters" as our "Pie n a Pint"festival opener on April 2nd 2009. Sandra is one of Scotland's hardest working and prolific Singer/Song writers and has been a popular favourite in The Grog for many years. She is always in the company of some of Scotland's best musicians too.

To sample her work check out her myspace site http://www.myspace.com/sandramacbeth or check out her song "Moon Eyes" on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmlXftHAyNc, the full video was too big to upload here. She is the favoured artist on my ipod at the moment. So if you wanna have an exceptional evening of great ale, a hearty pie and some of the best music around you know where to be on the 2nd of April.

Quiz Night Announced !!

Yes indeed !! We have finally confirmed our quiz nights for the weeks over Easter,during our "pie n a pint" Ale festival. On Tuesday April 7th and on Tuesday April 14th we will be featuring quiz nights as part of our Easter celebrations. Probing questions are being stolen from various sources as I type on a whole range of topics.

We have even found knowledgeable and fully qualified local celebrities to host the evenings In exchange for a few pints and a good feed. Folk will do some crazy things for a pint of ale and a good Grog n Gruel pie.

We have so many amazing prizes, yet to be confirmed, we couldn't list them all here. We can however guarantee that it is well worth popping along.

As always these are evenings in the Grog and Gruel are not to be missed. A great selection of cask ales, top notch food, and great company.... But will any of you be able to beat the local yacht club quiz team. The local "egg heads"....best start revising now.

A Pie & a Pint

Coming soon..., news of our Easter Beer Festival which, building on the success of SausageFest 2008, will this year will follow the theme of the traditional pub staple, the Pie & the Pint!


The beer festival kicks off on Thursday 2nd April and will run over the Easter fortnight, finally winding down, or it that going out with a bang, on Saturday 18th April. Expect some good food, some excellent beer, and the odd bit of entertainment too.

More on the Blog and The Grog & Gruel web site diary page as we firm up plans. In the meantime we need to continue the painstaking research to ensure that we taste the pies and ales to ensure that they are worthy of inclusion. Hic, burp... etc.

Beer Festival Votes

Our Summer Ale Festival is now over and all that was left to do was count the votes for the favourite beer of the festival. We are used to seeing the usual favourites come out on top, Orkney Dark Island, Skye Red Cuillin, Atlas Latitude which have all been string contenders in the past.



This year however a new Ale and reached 'new heights' of popularity, Coming in as a new ale this summer to our range. Williams Brothers 7 Giraffes was a clear winner, head and neck above the rest. With an ABV of slightly over 5% it is much stronger than our usual favoured ales. Brewed by the Williams Brothers in Glasgow it adds a new taste sensation to the already superb ale range from this brewery including- Fraoch Heather Ale, Williams red, Williams Gold and Kelpie Seaweed ale to name few.

Although not always on tap, The 7 Giraffes will be available in the Grog and Gruel randomly. So it's always worth popping in to see what interesting brews are on right now. If you miss the 7 Giraffes there is always a great range of Williams Brothers Bottled Ales to be tasting.

We'll see you soon for a pint !!

Mid Summer Beer Festival

Plans for the Mid-Summer Beer Festival are coming along nicely. Our new flier pretty much says it all for now, so why not have a quick browse.


Meanwhile, we're busy speaking to breweries, adding beer to sausage recipes and trying to think of some really good questions for the quiz. In fact, why is 7 Giraffes called 7 Giraffes?

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.