Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Breweries
388
Traquair House Brewery
Those Thrifty Scots
Interleithen, Scotland
It must have been a pretty amazing moment
of discovery. When Peter Maxwell—aka
the 20th laird of Traquair—discovered an
entire set of 18th-century brewing equip-
ment, tucked away in a wing of his ancient
castle in the Scottish Borders, he glimpsed
a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. By a stroke
of good luck, Peter himself had been an
executive at the Haig whiskey distillery
before coming into his title; he knew just
how to turn that jumble of old junk into a
profit-making enterprise to fund desper-
ately needed repairs on the rundown family
castle.
Today the Traquair House Brewery
turns out 600 to 700 barrels of traditional
ale every year, using that same vintage
gear that the 18th-century household
used to make beer for its domestic staff.
The ale is even fermented in the original
oak casks. (Now there's old-fashioned
workmanship for you.) Traquair's ale is
made with the simplest high-quality ingre-
dients—Munton's malted barley from Suf-
folk, Golding's hops from East Kent, and
fresh clear water from an underground
spring discovered right on the estate. If
you tour the old-fashioned brewery, you'll
see old-fashioned production methods,
including an infusion mashing process,
oak-cask fermentation for at least a week,
and a long period of maturing in cold stor-
age tanks. (There are no regularly sched-
uled tours, but special arrangements can
be made.) Traquair uses no preservatives
or stabilizing enzymes—what you taste is
practically the same thing that Maxwell's
18th-century ancestors would have tasted.
While much of the output is sold in casks
for draft beer, they also put up 200,000
bottles' worth, in suitably chunky, dark-
brown glass bottles. As Traquair has
expanded, it now produces three ales: the
malty amber Bear Ale; the rich, dark, oaky
Traquair House Ale; and the strongest of
them all, spicy, chocolatey, bittersweet
Traquair Jacobite Ale.
The brewery's success allowed Maxwell
and his wife to bring the rest of the estate
into top-notch condition as well. Traquair
House is said to be Scotland's oldest
inhabited house—a royal hunting lodge
dating from 1107, later a hideout for Cath-
olic priests during Protestant persecution.
Rebuilt and fortified many times over
those tumultuous years, today it's a grace-
ful white manor with a pitched gray roof
and tiny corner turrets, set on 41 hectares
(100 acres) of woodlands and lawns,
including a forest maze, some of the old-
est yew trees in Scotland, and an old
walled garden—site of a pleasant restau-
rant, where of course Traquair ales are
served. Peacocks strut around the lawns,
and swans glide around the ponds. Not
only is the house itself fascinating to tour,
three bedrooms are available as bed-and-
breakfast accommodations. Beer for break-
fast is strictly optional.
Traquair House,
off the B709, Inner-
leithen (
&
44/1896/830323;
www.
traquair.co.uk; closed Dec-Feb).
(
Edinburgh Airport (47km/29 miles).
L
$$$
Traquair House,
Interleithen
(
&
44/1896/830323;
www.traquair.co.
uk). $$
Traquair Arms Hotel,
Traquair
Rd., Interleithen (
&
44/1896/830229;
www.traquairarmshotel.co.uk).
