In 2016 I wondered if we could develop a pico brewery, working from my home brewing days and enforcement work with local breweries. The other big driving factor for the development of our brewery was to further reduce the shipping of packaging, plastics and glass bottled beers from off island to the restaurant. All goods and waste must be shipped on and eventually off the Island (and we mean liter
ally every thing, the only exception is cow pats and sheep droppings) This is due to the fact that our local environment is so incredibly unique, delicate and rightly well protected, a no-waste dumping policy is appropriate and supported here. Leave footprints and nothing else. (If you think about it that determines what we will leave to our children) The brewery would add to our environmental profile, as we would brew using a unique locally sourced readily available ingredient and we don't mean cow pats!!,,,,but Tiree water. Bun Dubh was the Gaelic name that we adopted for our brewery and it means 'underground' or 'dark roots' which was perfect to describe the 'dark' underground hard water with a unique brewing potential. All the water on Tiree comes from bore holes and the water has perculated through shell sand underground picking up calcium carbonate and a host of other minerals. We developed 'crafty' brewing techniques by brewing with products designed to suit our water analysis and expert suppliers that provide compatible ingredients. Malt extracts simplify the brewing, reducing energy consumption in the process and dry hopping adds extra zing to the final brews. Careful choice of brewery cleaners and sanitisers keeps our septic tanks and gardens happy. We also gradually developed simple, clever procedures that minimise waste and excessive resource use. Bun Dubh
Our brewery 'Bun Dubh, Crafty Enviropunk Brewing '™ received rapturous Tiree approval and HMRC certification on 7th June 2016 and we breathed a big sigh of relief. Thankfully,we had successfully worked with local food enforcement teams to develop our brewery quality system drawing on previous work experiences, so our inception and birth have been relatively straightforward and painless. Now we just have to keep up with the local demand for our brews. We are now at the end of our second brewing year having also incorporated cider production. We have to date, made and sold nearly 10hl of our cider and beers since our HMRC approval to our local community. Not bad for a tiny pico brewery in one of the most remotest spots in the UK, on the Atlantic edge. Shiny brewing materiel
Our beers are currently conditioned and delivered from 25l stainless steel cornelius kegs that have somehow multiplied to a population of fourteen. This gives us a brewery capacity of around 350 litres. However a new opportunity in 2018, has given us the chance to experiment with using 30l EcoKegs, thanks to our friends at Lomond Brewery. A brewing vessel upgrade plan is next on the list for a capacity upgrade and we are excitedly looking at acquiring lots more shiny stainless steel. The main limitation at the moment is our brewery hot-desking. This is where the catering kitchen becomes brewhouse when the Restaurant is not operating with our fermentation vessels sited in the secure mezzanine we built above the bar. Long term plans are for an additional premises to permanently house the main part of our rapidly developing pico brewery to the Micro stage.Our next plans will also involve recruiting an assistant brewer to learn the skills and help us continue to develop the brewery further. We are still sadly obsessive about not bottling or canning our beers, as this would mean transporting containers at high energy costs to and from Tiree. We are determined to continue to develop new ways to deliver our brews in an environmentally friendly manner as possible. As a result at this point(?) our beers are currently only sold directly from our restaurant and we are proud to have continued the reduction in our local bottled beer stock this year to 3 quality lines. Due to the overwhelming popularity of our in-house brews. This has resulted in a 45% reduction in waste glass bin uplifts from our business! Enviropunk and Tiree lifestyle. The best 70's punk ethos that we still love is, do it differently and do it yourself with attitude. We started something strange on Tiree when we first developed 'Steampunk' themed party nights for local friends that metamorphosed into 'Enviropunk' over a couple of years with the fancy dress that goes with the genre. This is how our 'Enviropunk' identity evolved. We are obsessive about our effective use of the resources we have available to us. We compost all the brewery by-products we possibly can. We recycle, and segregate packaging for re-use in every possible way and are happy to share what we have discovered with our visitors and friends. As active members of a recycling group on Tiree. We are involved in managing our clothing and textile recycling banks with all funds raised going to worthy local initiatives.Somehow we have also now have to look at extending our composting areas, as now you can almost hear all those compost worms singing when our brewing days are here. We do not know for certain where our journey will take us next. We are driven by a fine breeze and have loved everything it brings so far. For 2018, if it all goes to plan, two of our beers (Cu-Donn and Faceplant) should be available at SIBA BeerX 2018!!!
