Ever tried Percy Pig flavoured beer? Well now you can thanks to one Fife-based nano brewer at this newly launched local beer garden.
A Fife brewer has tried his hand at creating a unique flavoured beer which will go on sale this weekend at the second “pop-up” beer garden at his local football club.
Ian McGrath who owns Beath Brewing has organised for Cowdenbeath FC‘s private car park to be turned into a beer garden for the local community to enjoy.
The nano brewer who brews part-time in his double garage at home, started the business five years ago and prides himself on making unusual beers. Ian currently works full-time in IT.
Percy Pig Beer
Inspired to try and turn Marks & Spencer’s beloved Percy Pig sweets into a beer, Ian purchased bags of the strawberry soft gum sweets months ago and has finally decided to make the milkshake pale ale beer which comes in at 5.2% ABV.
He said: “I go out to the garage and brew different beers every week. I have a few recurring ones and I name them after music. Around a year ago I was eating Percy Pigs and I thought ‘I could make a beer out of this’.
“We have made a lime and vanilla milkshake one before and a mango pale ale, so I thought I could make it out of Percy Pigs. I bought the sweets months ago and, finally, I decided to do it.
“I dumped the sweets in a small 50-litre tank and waited to see what would happen. They float, and they melt, and then I put a bag of lactose to give it that sort of milkshake flavour. It smells a bit fruity and tastes a bit like Percy Pigs, too. It is a really interesting beer and a good one to drink.
“It is just going to be available at the beer garden for now I think, if it goes down well there then we’ll put it into cans and sell it in local shops. I have a keg of it just now, and someone mentioned I should try Colin the Caterpillar for my next brew!”
Beer garden
Launching the beer garden last week, Ian wants to provide a space for the local community to come together and is only interested in selling his beers locally, with no desire to approach supermarkets for deals.
The beer garden will run across three sessions tomorrow (Saturday May 8) from 1-3pm, 3-5pm and 5-7pm. It has also been upgraded this week with gazebos now being erected for the occasion.
He added: “We did one last week from 3-5pm and we limited it to 50 people and had 45 people turn up which was good. We’ve never done it before and we just wanted to create a few jobs for local people.
“We had some security who hadn’t worked for a while and the two girls who were running the tables had never worked before. One of the girls was 18 and had left college and couldn’t get a job. It was so nice to be able to take her on and give her a chance.
“They’ve got a private car park on the premises which is a huge area. I spoke with David Allan, who is the secretary and finance director at Cowdenbeath FC, last October about fundraising for them. They wanted me to create some beers for Christmas they could sell so we did that and made three different ones. We made a £700 donation as a result.
“It is a waste of a great space and they don’t use it in the winter. I wanted to do some great things with the space and we just want to open it up to the community.”
Family-friendly
Welcoming families and children to the beer garden, which is also dog-friendly, it will have a capacity of 150 people this week, but Ian would be delighted to see 90 individuals turn up to support it.
Priced at £5 per person, entry includes a pint of his Bang Shang a Lang pale ale for those 18 and over. A maximum of six people are allowed at any one table in line with Scottish Government coronavirus guidelines.
He said:” We’re hoping to grow it even more and bring in more breweries and things as restrictions ease. We were very careful and we had two or three metres between the tables and a few people have already said they will be coming back this weekend.
“We’re building up 10 gazebos for this weekend. The Gala committee has loaned them to me. They are big heavy-duty ones and we’ll be over at the cark park setting them up on Saturday morning.
“There’s half pints and pints, as well as a range of soft drinks and other things too so we’re promoting responsible drinking.”
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