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!

Upgrade the A82 - Sign the ePetition

Whether local resident or a one-time visitor to the area then chances are you've been on the A82 recently. And chances are you've either been shaken like a cocktail or scared silly, or both. The route runs between Glasgow and Inverness, and for those of us who live and work in the West Highlands its our artery to the rest of the world. And as such, and with its trunk road status, you'd think it would be a pretty good road? Well, maybe an OK road, then?



The truth is no its not. Its a terrible road in a terrible condition. The last major spend on the road was about 80 years ago - here's a photo! Unfortunately the road is a little busier than it was in those days and the trucks are a bit bigger too. I could go on - but just drive it if you're skeptical.

And its not going to get any better. Congestion, vehicle damage, accidents - many fatal, a barrier to economic development... Because there's no political will to change it. Unlike the A9. Now we're not generally political campaigners, but if there's one petition that you should sign in your life its this one. Sign the ePetition to the Scottish Parliament before 4th April and make your voice heard.

Just 4 days since it was launched and there's already 1029 names on the list!

Also check out the A82 campaign web site.

Organic Whisky??

In the current times of "genetically modified this" and "intensely farmed that" it is nice to see that there are many products which are selling themselves on authenticity and high standard production. You might be thinking that surely whisky production is going to be one area which has been left the way it was always done. This however is not the case.

One distillery which seems to appreciate customers interest in organic production is Benromach. Benromach organic whisky has been available for the last couple of years. Hand produced by just two men at speyside's smallest working distillery, it is Scotland's only organic whisky and is fully certified by the soil association. This means the whole process – raw ingredients, distillation, maturation and bottling – is certified organic to the rigorous standards set by the Soil Association.


Using pure spring water from the nearby Romach Hills and the finest Scottish organic barley and organic yeast, Benromach Organic is made by experienced distillers, personally ensuring only the highest quality spirit is filled into hand selected virgin American oak casks.The virgin American oak casks are made of wood from environmentally managed forests. Only when the spirit has matured to the highest quality standard is it bottled as Benromach Organic Speyside Single Malt Scotch Whisky



This whisky will be featured in March 2008 at the Grog n Gruel for the amazing price of £1.99 per 25ml. A great opportunity to taste this unique dram

Humpff at the Grog !!

It was about ten years ago at the tented music festival at the BA club when I first met John Coletta. At that time he was playing as part of the "Humpff Family" performing a great selection of his own unique songs with a great musical line up. Since then we kept in touch and about five years ago we were able to bring a touch of "humpff" back to the Fort.

In between writing new material, teaching and his many other commitments John Coletta will be performing at the Grog on a monthly basis starting on March the 6th. With his own brand of thigh slapping bluegrass mandolin, skilfully crafted songs and his own version of some of todays chart toppers, this is an act not to be missed.

If you have not had a chance to hear any of the material by John then click this link to browse his myspace site for streaming audio and CD details or much better pop into the Grog on March 6th for our great selection of cask ale and The best selection of malt whisky for miles around accompanied by one of Scotlands best kept musical secrets.

Open Mike Night

Karaoke? At The Grog & Gruel? Surely not!

As with all things Grog & Gruel, we do it all a bit differently. Tuesday 19th February sees the return of Iain 'Stretch' MacFadyen and his open mike (should that be 'mic'?) night. Its a bit more tasteful than a karaoke night. If you're a closet folkie and fancy entertaining the masses, simply join Stretch 'on stage' and get on with it. If music isn't your thing then perhaps a bit of comedy, or poetry, in a So I Married an Axe Murderer stylee might be in order.

And in the event that you're all a bit bashful and shy, Stretch will be filling in with some western swing and traditional country classics for your listening pleasure.

Chicken Out

So, which are you? Two for a fiver or free range? Yes, the recent TV debate over the chicken that we eat led by Hugh Fearnley-Doublebarrelledverylongname has got us all talking chicken here at the Grog. Do we really care about the quality of the chicken we eat? For, as we now know, not all chicken is the same.

Whilst we're rather proud of the quality of the vast majority of our ingredients - our boar, our salmon, our venison, our black pudding, our beef... we're not as bold about the quality of our chicken. That said, we don't use battery chicken and we do ensure that it meets our quality standards as a product. What we don't do is buy Scottish - there's not that much of it about, and we don't buy free range.


So, the debate of the moment is should we? Inevitably, free range chicken will cost more. So the cost of your quesadilla or your Cajun chicken dish will cost more. Will it pass the taste test? We're doing a bit of research to try and put some real facts and figures together on this. In the meantime, we need to hear your opinion on this.

Did we tell you that we do use free range eggs, though?