News update on this year’s Beer Festival…..

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.

As you may be aware plans have been afoot for some time to start brewing our own ale. These plans are finally coming to fruition! The bothy has been tidied up and readied for the equipment which should be arriving from ABUK in the next few weeks, hopefully allowing us to start brewing in time for the Beer Festival. Photos and further details will be posted soon….

Plans are in full swing for this years Beer Festival. The following entertainment is confirmed :-

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….

Well, it’s been a wee while since an update and we have much to tell you.

Firstly a wee gig is upcoming on Tuesday 13th July as Frankie Martin will be singing in the bar as part of the Great British Pub Tour to raise funds for Help For Heroes. He’s going to be playing 366 gigs across the UK so we’re very happy that the Benleva has been invited to be one of those venues. He’ll be singing the songs of Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin etc.. so a nice relaxed evening is assured! He’ll be playing from about 8pm so come along for dinner and raise funds for a good cause.

Thanks to all who attended our Golf Day on Sunday. A great day out was had by all in the sunshine at Royal Fort Augustus. Photos from the day can be viewed in the Galleries section.
Prizes were as follows:
“Wooden spoon” went to Jay House for the 2nd year running, his one stableford point was one more than last year so well done Jay !
“Longest Drive” went to Brian Stewart, it was a monster (apparently !)
“Shitist Shot” went to Fifer Dave who managed to hit a rock 3 feet in front of him , ball rebouded back to hit some other balls and came to rest at his feet. Nice one Dave, exceptional !
“Nearest the pin” was won by Fi Carrick-Anderson, stunning precision once again.
“Nowhere near the pin ” was won by Allan Kane, his ball was really, honestly, nowhere near the pin at all !
Overall winner was a tie between last years champ “Wee Billy” Macleod and Willie “mac” Fairfield. A play off hole ensued with “Wee Billy” winning again. His handicap will be severely reduced for next year !
Thanks to Karen at Fort Augustus Golf Club, Isle of Skye brewery and Rob Hill at Highland Brewing for their kind beer donation( it didnt last very long !), Carolyn for being photographer, and again to all who attended.
Hopefully the course will have recovered in time for next year.

Mild in May is a campaign by CAMRA to raise awareness of Mild, a particularly lovely type of cask ale. We’ve got our May of to a great start with Dark Munro and were hoping to follow it up with Mild May from Cairngorm. Alas, it’s apparently not going to be brewed this year but, not to be thwarted, we have arranged instead to have 3 Milds all the way from England-shire – Black Dog, Otter, and Ruby Mild (the current Champion Beer of Britain) so that should keep everyone happy.

Other ales in the cellar include Crofter’s Pale Ale, Black Cuillin, Red Cuillin, Trade Winds, Stag and the old favourite Deuchar’s IPA.

Even more exciting than beer, we have 2, yes TWO, quizzes to announce. First one will be on Saturday 15th May, the night before our annual Golf Day, and the 2nd will be on Friday 4th June which will be a Charity Quiz on behalf of our friends up at Borlum Farm. Both will be scheduled to start by 9pm at the latest, so get here before 8.30pm to ensure you have somewhere to sit.

An excellent evening last night when we hosted a meeting of the Drumnadrochit Chamber of Commerce with 2 talks. One from Keith Williams of the Ness and Beauly Fisheries Trust, and the other from Martin Douglas of the Loch Ness RNLI. Both talks were very interesting, and enjoyable,  and everyone left better informed than when they arrived. Hopefully everyone enjoyed the pizzas and nibbles we provided afterwards too!

On the ale front we’ve just taken delivery of a brand new special ale from Marstons – EPA – which uses their new Fast Cask system. We’ll see over the weekend whether it makes any difference to the flavour. The cask was brought all the way up here from Cockermouth in the Lake District which is great dedication to Customer Service so hopefully it’ll be worth all the effort! On at the moment we have Black Cuillin, An Teallach Ale, Boondoggle from Ringwood and Orkney Best. Still to come we have Dark Munro, Young Pretender, Red Cuillin, Crofters Pale Ale, Northern Light, Dark Island, Golden Amber and a few ales from Kelburn Brewery.

In order to combat any worries people have about the volcanic ash we’ve ordered in plenty of excellent ales. We haven’t experienced any cancellations as yet but some guests had to stay on for an extra day, which was nice for them! In the last couple of weeks the beers from Skye have been on particularly good form. We have a Blaven in the cellar at the moment so that should ensure a visit from Jon at the Fiddlers. Other ales coming on this week will be Trade Winds, Black Cuillin, Red Cuillin, St Magnus, Dark Munro, Orkney Best and Red MacGregor.

In other news, it looks like our MP Danny Alexander has done a good job on the Lib Dem manifesto. He’s an unofficial Friend of the Benleva so hopefully he’ll get back in. The daffodils are out along the driveway now so I guess that means that spring has arrived and the week of summer will surely not be far behind. Our Monday night Poker is going from strength to strength with a cunning league system now in operation.

A new website has come to our attention – Traveline Scotland – and it actually looks quite good. The Scottish equivalent of the tfl site in London.

Work has also started on our wee cottage out the back. Further progress will be reported soon…

The Benleva Golf Outing will take place on Sunday 16th May at Fort Augustus Golf Club.
Bacon rolls and beer will be available before tee off, beer will be available throught the day and then back to the Benleva for prizegiving, food and more beer.
Anyone interested in playing should contact the bar for details.