Scottish online brew supply shops?

[chirs]

Looking to buy a high quality starter kit to send to a family member in the Highlands. Anyone familiar with shops that have decent online stores in the UK, preferably Scotland?
Something like this would be great https://www.northernbrewer.com/brew-share-enjoy-homebrew-starter-kit

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Looking to buy a high quality starter kit to send to a family member in the Highlands. Anyone familiar with shops that have decent online stores in the UK, preferably Scotland?
Something like this would be great https://www.northernbrewer.com/brew-share-enjoy-homebrew-starter-kit

www.brewuk.co.uk and www.themaltmiller.co.uk are "full-service" online stores equivalent to Northern Brewer, in fact for some things they are rather better than their US equivalents, we generally get a better choice of hops for instance, and TMM is perhaps the geekiest for malts, and their ability to weigh out small amounts of speciality grains is useful. BrewUK is better for yeast choice, but we probably don't get so many yeasts as you guys. No affiliation to either other than as a customer, blah blah.

Doubt you'll find many LHBS up in the Highlands as such, although knowing how it works up there I'm sure local breweries and distilleries can supply ingredients informally (but not things like starter kits). From a quick scan www.aberdeenhomebrew.co.uk is probably the only LHBS north of the Central Belt by the look of things.

One thing you need to watch is that many couriers charge extra for delivering to the Highlands to compensate for the long distances and low population, but they all have different policies. Some only charge extra to go to the islands, many have a "blacklist" that charges extra for most of the Inverness postcodes (IV...), there will be details on the websites.

 

[chirs]

Amazing info – thanks Northern! Great username.... (•:
Well, I'll probably have to suck up the delivery surcharges – they're way out there in Roth Shire, near Aultbae. Incidentally, one of my favorite breweries is there – An Teallach Ale. I think they would probably be a fine source of yeast. The sheep even get some!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

It's Ross-shire, just in case you're writing any addresses. Out there, there's a good chance you will be paying surcharges, unless there's somewhere in civilisation that it's easy for them to collect from. Beautiful place though, apart from the anthrax on Gruinard....

Sounds like it would be well worth cultivating An Teallach - I don't know whether it's the water or what, but there's a lot of great beer coming out of the Highlands, they've got a distinct beer culture up there. The whisky-barrel-aged beers can be _amazing_!

 

[chirs]

Surprisingly, it turns out Tesco carries a fair amount of brew kits and some basic equipment. Makes things a bit easier!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Heh, forgot about them - not sure if the homebrew stuff is only online, but good enough for your purposes I guess. Wilko are the national chain most associated with homebrew basics on the high street, but I guess they probably have less representation up there whereas Tesco are relatively strong - I well remember the excitement when they opened their original store in Inverness!!!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

If you need anything more specialist, I've just come across www.brewstore.co.uk in Edinburgh who have a flat rate delivery to the whole of the GB mainland - and free over £60. Look pretty good - they carry the complete range of White Labs/TYB yeasts for instance, which is always a sound marker of a "serious" homebrew store. Also sell most malts by the 10g, which is handy, particularly if you can get 25kg sacks of base grain from An Teallach.