I believe the children are our future.

I believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way. So, after much discussion with our lisencing board and paperwork, The Grog and Gruel will now welcome children into our Alehouse during the day in the company of a 'responsible' adult. We hope this is something our customers will find of benefit and also allow parents to enjoy our range of food and drink without having to tie their children up outside.

Although children have always been welcome into our restaurant, getting the green light from the lisencing board to having children into our alehouse took a change in the law to come about. Although under 18's will never be allowed alcohol whilst in The Grog and Gruel a fine range of soft drinks and and excellent hot drinks menu is available as well as a children's menu. We also have a high chair for those tiny wee Grog and Gruel customers. So a trip to the Grog and Gruel will no longer be reserved for the older generation it can be a grand day out for all the family.

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.

West Highland Way Gains a Mile !

People travel to Fort William for many reasons, mostly to take part in some kind of outdoor activity in the wonderful natural surroundings in and around Lochaber. One of the most popular activities is walking and by far the most popular route is the West Highland Way. For those who don't know the West Highland Way is a 95 mile walk from Milngalvie, North of Glasgow, to Fort William. The walk uses old Drovers paths, military roads and coaching routes to take you through some of the most spectacular scenery Scotland has to offer.
Since its official opening in 1980 the walk was 95 miles and terminated at a roundabout at the end of Glen Nevis about a mile out of Fort William. Not the best end to a hard 95 mile walk. So, after many meetings and discussions, the end of the West Highland Way has moved 1 mile to terminate at the end of Fort William High Street at Gordon Square (pictured here on a cold January morning). Not only is this a much more central location for the 85,000 walkers who use the path every year but also leaves you seconds away from The Grog and Gruel and a hearty welcome. We think this will prove to be a great move and when the "iconic feature" is unveiled for Gordon Square I'm sure you'll agree.

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.

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.

Winter opening

As usual Winter is creeping up on us. The nights are getting darker. The mornings are getting colder and you can already see crazy people putting up Christmas Decorations. Another Summer has passed us by in a flash and the time to hibernate is upon us. Although you may think that this means it is time for The Grog and Gruel to completely switch off you'd be wrong. It's time for all the maintenance jobs, staff training, menu reviewing and planning for next year to take place.

As a lot of this cannot take place during trade we will be closing on quieter trading nights. So from Nov 8th till Dec 17th we will be closed all together on Sundays. This is great for staff morale as we now can all watch antiques roadshow together. From November 8th till Dec 17th the restaurant will only be open Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Unless we have prior knowledge of a Christmas booking. Food will be available as usual from Noon till Nine in our Alehouse and closing time in our alehouse will be dependant on trade. So the more customers we have the later we will open (nudge, nudge).

This should not have a dramatic affect on our customers as the changes have been made after analysis of trade and after we have a few very quiet nights playing "Win, Lose or Draw" with customers. To view our opening hours for The Christmas/festive period click here.

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.

Going, going, gone...

Having seen the race conditions on Saturday we're surprised that the runners didn't come into the Alehouse all asking for warming cups of tea and hot chocolate. It was a bit wild up there!


But no, the bar was packed with plenty of tales of 30 mph winds, lashing rain and perhaps one of the stormier days on Ben Nevis this year. And rather than tea, it was our special Ben Nevis Race Ale that was the tipple of choice. Made exclusively for The Grog & Gruel by those talented folk at the Isle of Skye Brewery, we quickly sold 3 barrels of the stuff. And if you fancy a taste then you'd better be quick as its likely to be completely sold out by the end of the day.

So, another year over for the Ben Nevis Race. Nice to see so many familiar faces, including that of a certain victorious runner from Yorkshire who may well have been first across the line, but was the last to leave the pub!

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!

Three Sheets to the Wind

We're that dedicated and that passionate about our beer at The Grog & Gruel that even when we're not slaving away, striving to serve you the perfect pint, we're reading books about beer. Either that or we're really boring and haven't got any mates. Regardless, here we bring you the debut of The Grog Book Club.

Ok, so I'm not really that into writing about why I found this book interesting or otherwise. Far too traumatic as it reminds me too much of English Literature classes at school. What the hell was that Shakespeare bloke on about? And why couldn't he write in proper english like wot I do.

Anyway, a fairly interesting read and some interesting observations about beer and the world today. Particularly interesting are the comparisons of the liberal attitudes to licensing elswhere in the world and the lack of problems with more British traits such as late night post-pub trouble and binge drinking. Sobering thoughts (see what I did there!) in these times where Licensing in Scotland is going through huge changes.

Back your copy from your local book shop, check out Amazon, or get in touch and you can have mine if it hasn't been scooped up on Read It Swap It already.

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.

Cask Marque Accreditation

Our Easter Ale & Pie festival is well under way and we have already got through a fair number of casks and munched through a large number of pies. With 9 local beers for customers to taste it was a great time for us to be visited by our cask marque inspector. For those of you who are not in the trade Cask Marque is an independent check of the temperature, appearance, aroma and taste of the cask ale being served. As always the Grog & Gruel got top marks for all the ale being served at the time of the random, twice yearly inspection. This is no surprise as we are consistently checking the ales for consistent high quality in-house. Why not pop in for a pint and put us to the test yourself??

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 !!