Black Isle Brewery
We recently took a trip to meet our friends at The Black Isle Brewery. Both businesses share significant synergy, being privately owned and family run, and of course, making it here in the Highlands. We’re big fans of their beer, and thankfully a number of their team are big fans of our wears, so we caught up with proprietor and friend David Gladwin to learn more about his fantastic Highland brewery.
Welcome to Campbell’s Clientele, a series celebrating the people who inspire us. Friends of the brand who live, work and explore with the same love for craftsmanship, tradition and community that we hold dear. Discover all stories here.
How, why, and when did you start your business?
I started Black Isle in 1999. I was unemployed, and frankly unemployable. I wanted to create something and loved beer. I believed in organics and sustainable agriculture, so I decided to start an organicbreweryand build an organic beer brand. My philosophy was drink great beer, but if you can drink great organic beer thereby contributing to sustainable production and a healthier environment.
Why did you choose to be fully organic?
Because I believe in the principles of organic production; put simply, less is more. Since the 50’s and 60’s modern agriculture has been hell-bent on yield at the expense of everything else, including the health of the soil, rivers, woodlands and oceans, the flora and fauna of the planet, and the physical and mental health of human beings. Whether it is cancer-inducing glyphosates sprayed onto malting barley prior to harvest, or bee-killing neonicotinoids applied to oil seed rape and sugar beet, it creates a choice: personally I do not want to ingest weed-killer when drinking a glass of beer, and equally I want a tomato to be nutritious and delicious and not just a bland, spherical red object.10 years after starting thebreweryI was able to buy 130 acres of farmland around thebrewery. It had been used for 40 years for modern intensive agriculture. We converted it to organic production and yes the yield has gone down and we have a few more weeds, but also the bio-diversity of the farm has rocketed; we have birds, bees, moths, butterflies in abundance. I wake up to a deafening dawn chorus; this spring the song thrushes have been heart-stoppingly beautiful, and we even had a colony of rare haw finches visit us for about two weeks.
Have your customers’ expectations around sustainability and provenance changed?
We’re still ahead of the curve in that respect. It’s actually a little disappointing how few producers, not just breweries, champion organics. There’s no doubt it makes things harder to produce, and a high baseline for costs, but ultimately if we all do it a slightly harder way, we’ll still have a planet left at the end of it. Recently as you’d expect we’ve seen demand increase due to the organic status, it makes sense, I mean, we can all tell just by the weather at certain of year that things are changing in our world, and not for the better. If all just do a little bit, it’s adds up to a lot.
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.
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’ ourbrewery. 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 have you seen the Scottish craft beer scene evolve since 1999?
It’s unrecognisable. Really. When we started up I think there were 14 commercial breweries in Scotland, there’s now how many? 180? Every entrant started as a small craftbrewery, some are now of course much bigger than others, but the rapid increase has brought healthy competition and choice to the consumer. It’s helped us, I’ve no doubt about that, the rising tide that floats all boats and all that, but it’s really the availability of more / better organic ingredients that has allowed us to continue to evolve. We can get all sorts of interesting hops now, and that hasn’t always been the case. To keep customers happy and interested we’ve kept and eye on trends, but also invested heavily to improve quality and consistency. Our best selling beer is still the same as it was a decade ago, but if you drank the beer it was a decade ago next to todays iteration, it would almost certainly be completely different. We’re in a state of constant evolution.
How is the bar side of the business going, and do you have plans for more?
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 pizzas. 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.
Shop The Look
