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craig's avatar

read this whilst at work, looking out the window down at the spey passes by the factory

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Charlotte Cook's avatar

Jelly

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Andy Neather's avatar

Lovely piece

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Charlotte Cook's avatar

Thank you!

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Hamish's avatar

"Painfully unsexy" is a perfect description for Cairngorm beers. They used to have much broader reach 10-20 years ago when it was not unusual to see their kegs in Central Belt pubs. Then all of a sudden there were dozens of new breweries with flash branding and Cairngorm retreated a bit and just kept plodding along. It was a bit frustrating, but, having lived in Aviemore for four years, you're right about it being cosily familiar. And the beers are really good.

There are doubts as to whether there are any pure-bred wildcats left. I often saw some felines which displayed many of the hallmarks of a wildcat (bushy tail, unbroken stripes...) when working crepuscular hours. My flatmate used to leave chicken carcasses in our garden until I got fed up of hearing cat fights at 3am.

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Charlotte Cook's avatar

I really like all their beer, I haven't done the brewery tour though, just pop in to get my wildcat supplies.

Yeah, I've never seen one even with the tail stripes. A friend thinks he rescued a kitten with its head stuck in a tin can, but it could just have been a farm cat.

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Mark Spivak's avatar

OK, so I have to ask you. I'm aware that many Speyside malts have a high content of peat, which is an acquired taste for Americans. How do you feel about it? Does it bother you?

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Charlotte Cook's avatar

Hi Mark. Most speyside maltsters stopped using peat to dry the malt in the 1960’s, so most of the whisky is not phenolic. Glenfiddich made a historic whisky with something like 50ppm phenols about 15 years ago, but there’s not much peat in speyside whisky. Islay, however! I love peated whisky and a wee splash of a strongly smoked one in a hot toddy really elevates it.

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Entrepreneurship Mostly's avatar

Thoroughly enjoyed this .

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Charlotte Cook's avatar

Thank you so much!

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