How/why and when did you start your business?
Why did you choose to be fully organic?
How have your customers’ expectations changed, in terms of things like sustainability and provenance?
What motivates you?
What motivates me is the Black Isle mission to make really exceptional organic beer, and to see as many people as possible drinking it. Love beer – love life – love the environment. It’s fun; it’s delicious; it’s socially responsible; it supports sustainable bio-diversity, and it’s good for you.
Is there an individual or organisation, current or in the past, who inspires you?
Rachel Carson, who documented the destruction of synthetic pesticides and herbicides in her book Silent Spring, published 1962.
Yvon Chouinard, surfer, climber, falconer, reluctant billionaire, and altruist.
Peter Bouckaert, head brewer at New Belgium Brewing Co 20 years ago who inspired me and described himself as the Jackson Pollock of brewing.
And the Trappist monk abbot of Saint Sixtus Abbey of Westvleteren whose quote I have had above my desk for over 20 years. Westvleteren is renowned as the most delicious beer in the world and is so popular they limit the amount any individual can buy, and you have to book to go and collect it. He said, “As every man we must be able to live. So we have to try to earn our living and let others share in what we have to abstain from. Indeed, we have to live ‘from’ and ‘with’ our brewery. This must be strange for business people and difficult to understand that we do not exploit our commercial assets as much as we can. We are no brewers. We are monks. We brew beer to be able to afford being monks. It’s a lesson in humility and a reminder that money isn’t everything.
How has the global pandemic affected your business?
Pretty disastrously to be honest, in general. We woke up 12 months ago to find that we were heavily invested in the hospitality sector that it had been overnight completely shut down. The on-trade has been virtually non-existent, and even the odd window of opening has been crippled by social distancing measures. That said, mail order has been good and there are other good things to come out of the pandemic. There is more demand for locality, seasonality, organics, and quality, even in the beer business which is of course correct and as it should be.
Have you seen the Scottish craft scene evolve since 1998, and how have you evolved to keep customers happy and interested?
What motivates me is the Black Isle mission to make really exceptional organic beer, and to see as many people as possible drinking it. Love beer – love life – love the environment. It’s fun; it’s delicious; it’s socially responsible; it supports sustainable bio-diversity, and it’s good for you.
How is the bar side of the business going, and do you have any more plans?
Peaks and troughs. We have an incredibly loyal customer base in Inverness, and we offer something entirely unique in our own beers, our guest beers and of course, the fantastic pizza’s. We have just had the most uncertain period of trade in my entire lifetime though, so I wouldn’t say it’s been a walk in the park, far from it, a lot of sleepless nights for the whole team. Fort William has been a much bigger challenge of course, there is a tiny population in the winter and summer is where the tourists descend. This year we had tourists, last year, well we all know what happened last year. We have a great format for our bars, I’m sure we’ll do more at some stage. Timing as they say, is key….