Day 1 will see the official debut of the River Leven Brewery – a new brewplant installed in the premises formerly occupied by the Atlas Brewery in Kinlochleven. We’ll also have some Loch Ness beer on as well as some we’re really looking forward to from Tempest and Blue Monkey.

Music on Friday will be from Tipsy Laird.

Saturday afternoon we’ll be having an official beer tasting course run by the local CAMRA branch, and an evening of local folk music from 9pm.

Sunday evening will be a more informal beer and cider tasting in the Lounge Bar.

Monday – Wednesday will be our annual Pool Tournament before the “highlight” of the week on Thursday night with Steve’s Pub Quiz at 9pm. It is likely, surprisingly, to be very busy on Quiz Night so get here early to grab a table.

Then we finish off on Friday and Saturday with music from the Penny Dogs – they have such a big repertoire these days we need 2 nights to fully appreciate them.

We have a huge amount of raffle prizes to give away in aid of Breast Cancer Care Scotland so come along and buy as many tickets as you can. And don’t forget, 20p of every pint goes straight to BCC so the more you drink, the more charitable you are!!

(N.B. Please drink responsibly, and frequently.)

1. Raffle – we’re going to be selling raffle tickets and have some excellent prizes already donated. Due to our Dunblane roots we’ve managed to secure a signed Andy Murray shirt, hand delivered by his Granny! By the time of the draw (24th September) he’ll be the new US Open champion which will add to its value considerably. We also have 2 return flights from Inverness to Kirkwall, a weekend for 2 at the Benleva and a Day with the Brewer at a mystery Scottish brewery (to be confirmed…) We’re also asking all our breweries to donate something to the raffle so the prize fund will swell before the day.
2. Beer – our normal price for ale is a staggeringly reasonable £2.80. For the Festival we’re increasing this to £3.00 and the extra 20p will go straight to BCC. Hopefully nobody will complain too much!
3. Glasses – souvenir glasses will be available to buy and £2 for each one sold will go straight to BCC.

Anyone reading this who would like to donate a prize simply email or phone the Hotel. If you’d like to buy tickets drop us an email.

Thank you for reading and we hope to see as many of you as possible at the Festival. Those of you on Twitter please retweet this link to all your followers and we’ll make this a huge success.

The 10th Loch Ness Beer Festival – can it really be the 10th one already??!! – will run from the 16th – 24th September 2011. Beer ordering is well underway and we should have some marvellous ales to sample including some from….wait for it…..the Loch Ness Brewery! Yes it’s been so long in the incubation that many were starting to think it was as elusive as Nessie herself but the time is nearly upon us for the beers to be launched.

The nominated charity for this year’s Festival is Breast Cancer Care Scotland, more of which in our next blogpost which will be published very soon.

Breweries confirmed are all our stalwarts – Isle of Skye, Fyne Ales, An Teallach, Cairngorm, Orkney/Atlas, Highland Brewing, Stewart Brewing and Inveralmond. We’ll have more to confirm in the very near future….

Music will be from Tipsy Laird (16th) and The Penny Dogs (23rd & 24th) as well as a folk night on the 17th. There will be an official CAMRA beer tasting on the afternoon of the 17th and a fabulous Steve’s Pub Quiz on the 22nd. The traditional Beer Festival Pool Competition will be on the Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday and we hope to have a whisky tasting and a Meet The Brewer session at some point too.

59 Ales and 9 Ciders managed to make it on sale during this year’s Festival. The Thornbridge Brewery‘s ales did not disappoint and all, from the 3.5% Wild Swan to the 7.7% Halcyon, were excellent. As usual, all the local brews were superb and special mention also to the Tryst Brewery who supplied us with 3 excellent beers, as well as assisting with the cider supplies.

The Wilkins Farmhouse Cider was particularly well received, and the ladies seemed very taken with the Weston’s Raspberry Twist Cider – unfortunately no longer available.

The Guess Beer was Hebridean Gold from the Isle of Skye Brewery.

Beer of the Festival – Jaipur from Thornbridge

Brewery of the Festival – Cairngorm Brewery, Aviemore

All in all a superb week and thanks to everyone who came along to drink the beers and listen to the bands.

For anyone wanting more regular news updates we do have a Facebook page (which has lots of Beer Festival photos) and a rarely used Twitter thing – @BenlevaHotel.

First the bad news, the Loch Ness Brewery won’t be up and running in time for the Festival. The good news is that the equipment will all be here so you can still have a look at the brewery and anticipate the first brew! There will be at least 20 beers available this year which are new to the Benleva including those from the Thornbridge Brewery and Angus Ales, as well as some interesting ciders which, to our knowledge, have never been available in the Highlands before.

Beer strengths vary from 3.2% to 7.7%, with a complete range of beer styles so there should be something for everyone. We will be selling our glasses this year to raise funds for the Highland Hospice in memory of our friend Jimmy Smart. We will also have a special beer – Tie The Knot – from the Isle of Skye Brewery which we will be selling to raise funds for the RNLI. This beer is being arranged to celebrate our first ever Beer Festival Wedding which will take place at 2pm on Friday 24th September. There will also be a brand new beer from the Skye Brewery and a possibility of a “World First” from a mystery highland brewery but you’ll have to watch this space for details of that….

Meantime here’s a provisional list of ales to whet the appetite.

Friday 17th September – Tipsy Laird, Saturday 18th September – Folk Night, Friday 24th & Saturday 25th September – Penny Dogs! Yes, due to their popularity, and inability to get through even a half their repertoire in a single evening, they have agreed to play 2 nights at the Beer Festival.

We have also confirmed our guest brewery from England-shire. This year it will be the Thornbridge Brewery from Derbyshire. Their beers, particularly the legendary Jaipur, have acquired a great reputation over the years so we’re really looking forward to trying them out.

Other events will be the Poker Tournament on Sunday 19th September, Pool Competition on the 20th, 21st & 22nd as well as the sometimes-popular Quiz Night on the 23rd. Something for everyone there we hope!

We should also see the launch of the much rumoured Loch Ness Brewery around that time….

Of the 62 ales consumed during the week a staggering 25 beers received at least one vote for BoF.  This illustrates the high standard of the brews this year. The beers which received votes are, in no particular order:-

Dark Munro, Saligo, Stewart No.3, Bath Gem, Innishail, Red MacGregor, Highlander, Augustinian, Orkney Blast, Black Cuillin, Red Cuillin, Bitter & Twisted, 3 Sisters, Vital Spark, Merlin, Northern Light, Brewdog 77 lager, Orkney IPA, Skullsplitter, Dark Crystal Mild, Scapa Special, Ossian, Wayfarer, Suffolk County Bitter, Hebridean Gold. Special mention to Rob Hill’s Highland Brewing Company as all of their beers received votes for BoF.

Also Thistly Cross Cider was easily the most popular cider on offer this year so well done to them.

After a very close race Red MacGregor claimed it’s second runner-up prize of the year as it was just pipped in the final furlong by Highlander from Fyne Ales. The second time Fyne Ales have won this award in the 8 years it has been running. Fyne Ales also won the Brewery of the Festival by quite a distance, with Orkney once again filling the runner-up spot.

• 62 Ales sold during the week. Only Black Gold from Cairngorm didn’t quite make it on during the Festival but it sneaked on during Sunday afternoon so we will include it!
• 7 different ciders sold including the first appearance of Scottish Cider in the Highlands (as far as we know!)
• 4 live bands – all excellent but a special mention to the Penny Dogs for a truly memorable closing night.
• Poker Competition – won by Crocket
• Pool Competition – won by Allan Crossland

All the votes are not yet in but the battle for Beer of the Festival is looking very close as usual.

Thanks firstly to all the many people who visited during the week – we hope you all had a great time. Also many thanks to all the brewers for supplying us with such excellent beer. And of course to all of our hard working staff. They’ve earned their wages this month – for a change!!

Beers we’ve said goodbye to so far include :- Red Cuillin, Trade Winds, Blessed Thistle, Crags, Crofter’s Pale Ale, Edinburgh Gold, Scapa Special, Lia Fail, Ossian, Raven, Dun Hogs Head, MacBeth, ThreePointNine, Brunette, Dark Crystal Mild and the Medium Dry Cider.

So I think it’s fair to say it’s been quite busy! The Thistly Cross Cider has been very well received and is nearly finished.

Today is the Poker Tournament and we were aiming for a full house of 27 players, but we now have 28. Updates will be posted on the Highland Poker Forum.