The Dogwalk - a Brewdog Brewery Tour
When you enter the Dogtap, Brewdogs own bar at the Brewery located in the Ellon Industrial Estate and meeting point for the dogwalk, the first things you notice is surprinsingly not the smell of a fresh mash or loads of hops in the air. You are welcomed with a noseful of piping hot pizza (accompanied by a nice whiff of garlic). What suits a fresh Punk IPA better than a good pizza? Right. Nothing. But more of that later.
The tour itself begins in the dogtap. After getting handed your security vest and glasses you are introduced to the small brewing kit right inside the dogtap followed by a quick walk over to one of the office buildings. Next to getting something to know about the history of brewdogs and their bars you will be getting to know (if you didn't already - shame on you!) the first beer. In our case it was the "modern classic" Punk IPA.
After seeing parts of the offices in both office buildings (and finishing your first beer) you enter the new, quite impressive, 30.000 liter brewhouse, which main purpose it, is to pump out that Punk to the people.
In this brewhouse you are introduced to the process how to actually brew beer (on a 30.000 liter scale) and which ingredients make their way into it. You may as well taste some of the malts and hops used in different brewdog beers.
Walking further through the production you pass the yeast and fermentation tanks, the centrifugal filtering system and storage areas for special ingredients learning even more about the process of brewing.
Leaving the brewhouse the next area to visit is "The Fix". A cosy break room/lounge/coffee bar/bar for the employees of brewdog where we were served the next beer. Jack Hammer IPA. For me the bigger and stronger brother of Punk. Both in alcohol and hop flavours.
Next stop: Lone Wolf Distillery. This is an interesting experimental side project of the Brewdog founders. Here they (that is "Lone Wolf Distilleries" as a legally independent company) distill vodka, whisky and gin in special, high quality stills with focus on quality but quantity. As of today all spirits are still manually handbottled. An interesting new product, which is just getting produced, is a bar quality gin and tonic mixed by a dutch mixeologist marketed in cans. (Later on we tasted the gin in the dogtap and bought a bottle. Just to let you know).
Leaving the distillery through the offices we head back to the "small" 10.000 liter brewhouse, which we enter through the dogtap. In this brewhouse the smaller batches and experimental beers are brewed. You can also have glimpse at the smaller bottling line, next to the keg filler and in the background the can filling station.
The tour ends in the dogtap with a last beer fresh from the cask and some words about it by our guide: Jet Black Heart. An oatmeal milk stout draught on nitro. Very tasty and not to high on ABV (4.7%).
In summary: For us it was a quite interesting tour in terms of the history of brewdog and there steep way up in the craft beer industry. For those getting to know the brewing process i guessed it was very informative too.
I for me wouldn't do the tour again, but would recommend it to any fan of the BrewDog Beers or if you want to know more about the brewing process in general. But if i happen to be near Aberdeen next time, i would visit the dogtap again for a beer and a pizza.
If you are planning to take a tour by yourself, make sure to book upfront, especially if you plan to come on weekends. Bookings can be made (at least 48hrs in advance) via the dogtap.
Just one hint for visitors of the dogtap and especially their bottleshop: Compare prices! It happens that the flagship beers from brewdog are sold cheaper in the Tesco store (nearly next door) than in the dogtap bottleshop itself. So if you are price sensitive get your 12pack of Punk from Tescos and buy those special and small batch brews directly in the bottleshop.
Now back for the pizza i mentioned in the beginnig. The dogtap also offers fresh, handmade pizzas which not only smell good but taste delicious. Thin dough, fresh ingredients, served hot. We had two after the tour, while tasting some more beer. Luckily we did not have to drive anymore.
Slàinte mhath,
Hucki
