Seagate Brewery was established on a home brewing scale in August 2017. I started it after taking advice from some Belgian friends who said I should brew my own beers. When the Covid pandemic cut off most of my engineering work we decided to go commercial with the brewery. In April 2020, I applied for and received my brewing and alcohol wholesalers’ licences.
Living on the Isle of Arran is a dream come true where every day feels like you are on holiday. Our house is the nearest to the sea, which is only 10 feet away. During storms the waves can hit the window, which is both entertaining and frightening. There are many challenges living here mainly due to postage/deliveries and ferries. Plus Brexit. We used to buy bottles, grain and packaging materials from Europe at low cost with extremely low delivery charges, however leaving Europe has led these companies not to deal with the UK, and now we’re stuck with UK companies who charge the earth for postage and delivery. Which in turn puts up the unit cost.
Originally, I’m from South London via Croydon and Chelmsford Essex. I’m a 10% Scot by DNA and my grandmother was a Donald; I have worked and taken holidays in Scotland since the 80s and have spent many months touring all parts of Scotland. So I thought I would be retiring here. However, we became impatient and decided to move here to work. Best decision ever.
THE BEERS
Belgium beers are my favourites due to the immense wide range of tastes and styles, from yeasty blondes to mad dark quadruple beers often over 10% ABV. The best tip I can give for brewing Belgian beers is that the mainstay of the flavour is the type of yeast used and the use of candy sugar. And to brew a balanced beer - neither too hoppy or malty.
We collaborate with many businesses on the island, including the local café who use our Mocha beer in their ginger cake, fruit loaf and chocolate cake. This also ties in with our local coffee bean roasting company who supply me with whole coffee beans to use in the fermenter. Another collaboration is that we supply branded Light Owl beers to our local pizza parlour and to a local hotel; all to create awareness of local produce. We even produce a small batch of Peated Spirit infused dark beers using new make spirit from the local distillery.
In our Rise Above 80 Shillings Ale we use sugar kelp seaweed, locally foraged from the beach in front of the house. It’s dried in our boiler house until crispy and then enters the brew during the mash stage to add its mannitol natural sugar and savoury flavourings, rather than the expected saline profile.
THE KIT
On the equipment side, I’ve been a fan of Hopcat all-in-one brewing systems for many years, owning three different sized models. However, due to heater element failure on one of them and a string of orders to fulfil, I needed something else - quick. Upon review of the market I was led to the Dark Farm Brew Tank; I was taken with the quality of the build, sturdy construction and ability to adapt and reconfigure. Gareth was very helpful by phone and e-mail and I was soon back up and running. During the several months of brews, I’ve added a few tweaks such as a sight glass, quick disconnect hose couplings, steel 90 degree bends, a sample port, and outlet sock type filter.
LOOKING AHEAD
One of the new things in the pipeline is to develop our low alcohol beer for the designated drivers of the world. I also want to produce a 10% ABV strong blonde beer and add in more local hospitalities to our customer base.
HOW TO BUY SEAGATE BREWS
If you want my beer you have to come to here! Read more about Seagate Brewery and follow Steve’s brewing:
www.seagatebrewery.co.uk
Facebook: @seagate2017
Instagram: @seagatebrewery
