Ferment caught up with Robert (‘Brewbob’) Lindsay, who discovered beer in Belgium and became inspired to start up Scotland’s only dedicated Belgian brewer.
In the small Scottish town of Stonehaven, situated exactly six degrees North of Belgium, something special is brewing, if you’ll pardon the pun. Robert Lindsay AKA ‘Brewbob’ is brewing up a Belgian storm as Scotland’s only dedicated Belgian style brewery. Six°north, operating out of their brewery in Stonehaven and their two venues, the Marine Hotel and their dedicated bar in Aberdeen, are delighting the Scots with their take on the Belgian classics. Inspired by years spent in Belgium falling in love with beer and learning all he could, Brewbob came back to his homeland bringing with him the idea of brewing his very own Belgian beer.
In 1999, Robert moved to Belgium for work but found he was inspired more by the beer. ‘I drank a little bit too much of it probably, really enjoyed it, learned it, travelled through the country visiting breweries and tasting beers.
‘I suppose my inspiration had come from XX Bitter from De Ranke, which is an extremely complex beer within the Belgian scene. I discovered that on an open doors day in 2000; it was just different. Belgian beers were never bitter, Orval would have been seen as the most bitter beer, or was at that time, and this was just a totally new way of brewing for Belgium before the good old what I like to call the “American fad” came across here. It has a bitterness of 66 IBUs, which if you put that in an American beer is extremely bitter. But it wasn’t; the way in which they use that bitterness and the way in which they do everything in balance and in a gentle way, it was just complex. That was where I fell in love with the style of beer, and so I went out there to read, to visit, to study, to drink and came up with what I wanted to do after many, many trials.’
It was this experience which motivated him to start his very own brewery although that wouldn’t come for a while. At the time, homebrewing in Belgium was hard to come by as beer was cheap so very few people felt the need to make their own. Not deterred, Robert began working with a man named Ronnie Bart who had studied at Leuven University. The two brewed together for a couple of weeks with Robert deciding then that this was something he wanted to pursue.
On returning to the UK in the early 2000’s, Robert completed a four month brew course, going on to consolidate his knowledge at Houston Brewery in Renfrew, who were quite at the fore at that time. After that, Robert decided to go back to the Northeast of Scotland to open his brewery, in a time when there were only about 15 breweries in all of Scotland. But the venue came first and he purchased the Creel Inn in Catterline. ‘We put in some Belgian ales, replaced the 4 real ales, and added a bottled beer list of about 30 to 40 Belgian beers, which in 2002 was way out there for Scotland but people loved it. By the time I left 10 years later we had a 100 strong Belgian beer list as well as three Belgians on draft. For a small country destination restaurant we did a fair bit and we were cooking with it in the dishes as well.’
Seven years in, Robert purchased the Marine Hotel in Stonehaven. Having always been a CAMRA pub for Scotland it had the opportunity to become a really amazing beer venue.
This time Robert upped the ante with a 100 strong Belgian beer list and five to six Belgian beers on draft. Still searching for the right venue for a brewery, he focussed on making his venue a destination for beer lovers. Eventually the right location for his brewery came up, just 144 paces from the bar and 6° north of Belgium. So in 2013, the brewery brewed its first Belgian beer on Scottish soil. ‘It is a different style of beer from what most people are producing. Obviously there are other brewers in the UK who are producing some Belgian styles but it’s not specifically what they do. People seem to enjoy it as itbhas that point of difference. The groundwork at this stage had already been done by the likes of BrewDog and others so the time was ripe and people were ready to take on what we were doing’.
For Robert, the serving of the beer is of the utmost importance and they always had plans to open up other venues, so just three months later in June 2013 when a venue came up in Aberdeen, they couldn’t turn it down. Almost overnight it consumed half of their production, pushing them to the limits of what they could produce. The bar not only is a fantastic showcase for their beers, they’re also determined to keep all of their customers happy. ‘We try to make our venue as equally enjoyable even if you haven’t come in for a beer. There should always be a choice. Its about marrying it all together, along with the social aspect of it. Its not about sending it away in a faceless box, the serving is just as important. We want people to discover something they wouldn’t have tried before because of that service. It’s the whole concept and ethos of it that’s so important to us.’ This culture has clearly worked for them as they have recently expanded their brewery, now with a capacity of 5,000HL. So now they have the ability to see if people really want the beer they are making.
Robert has never lost his inspiration from the Belgian brewers. It has always been really important for them to keep up positive relationships with those who inspired them. It has been a dream of theirs to work with the guys who make the beers they want to emulate.
‘This year we have been building on our stronger relationships over in Belgium. We have done a collaboration brew with Alvinne called Chain Reaction. We are about to do another two collaborations; one with d’Oude Maalderij. Then there is an unnamed brewery that has a very high profile and we are actually going to take some of their beer over here and do some barrel aging finishes on them. I can’t confirm until it is set in stone I’m afraid. We just hope to continue to develop this and also to distribute the better products on a slightly larger scale within Scotland like Fantome, Dupont, De Ranke, Alvinne, etc as they are all the new wave of Belgian brewers. They are giving an order to what is happening in the beer world, but they are doing it in their way.’
Off the back of this, Robert and the team for the first time took their beers back to where they were first imagined, to the Zwevegem beer festival, Belgium’s largest outdoor festival. Usually you would have foreign brewers attending the festival showing off their countries’ styles, but this time they have six°north bringing Belgian styles, or ‘taking coal to Newcastle’ as Robert put it.
Initially they were apprehensive and nervous about the idea; after all, they do badge themselves as the Belgian brewers of Scotland and the Belgians are very fervent about their nationality, their passion and their beer, so it would be a tough crowd to please. But unsurprisingly their beer was very well received. The attendees were all coming back for more. While there, they also met with some of their brewing heroes, visiting the Rodenbach brewery and incredibly the guys from De Ranke, the brewers who inspired this whole venture, tasted Robert’s hommage to XX bitter, Hop Classic and it went down well. The appetite for trying new beers has been reinvigorated in Belgium and six°north were able to satisfy that thirst at Zwevegem.
‘When I left Belgium I had saved some cash and bought the Creel Inn and I had £50 quid left in my pocket and then the best part of 15 years later it gets to where it is now.’
By Erin Bottomley
First featured in Ferment Issue 16
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