The founder of the Highland Brewing Company, Rob Hill, started out as an aerospace engineer before becoming involved in the world of making beer, as David Hartley discovers
Keeping it real in Orkney
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The phone call is from a London publican. He has just tasted a pint of Dark Munro at Britain’s biggest show for the licensed trade and he is keen to buy in supplies.
“That’s our first order direct from a pub in the capital,” said Rob Hill, the founder, brewer, sales manager and general dogsbody at the Highland Brewing Company.
The call puts a smile on the face of a man who fulfilled a lifetime’s dream when he started beer production at a former creamery in Orkney.
These are tough times for small, independent brewers. With worldwide shortages of hops and malting barley, the price for these vital commodities has gone through the roof.
Then there is the extra 4p a pint in duty announced in the Budget – and its potential impact on sales – and the high transport costs involved in getting beer from Orkney to customers in mainland Britain.
“It is worrying, to say the least,” said Glasgow-born Mr Hill, who set up in business on his own after losing his job at another brewery in the islands. “What keeps me going is the enthusiasm everyone has for the beers I’m brewing. Once anyone tastes them, they seem to be hooked.”
The taste of real ale has been an abiding passion ever since his teens.
He said: “My friends would take six packs of lager to parties. I’d bring some Theakston’s Old Peculiar and ramble on about the quality and the depth of flavour.
“It was the same when we went to pubs. They’d say: ‘Don’t analyse it – drink it’, but I’d want to take my time and work out what made a brilliant pint taste so good.”
Mr Hill trained as an aerospace engineer and, although the skills and discipline involved have proved handy in creating his brewery, he soon realised he was not cut out make his living in the aviation industry.
Aged 21, he spotted an advert for an assistant brewer at Moorhouse’s Brewery in Burnley, phoned for details and was interviewed later the same day.
“I was into cars in those days,” he said. “I had a big American Chevrolet Camaro. I think the head brewer wanted to go for a ride in it, and that’s why I landed the job.”
Within days, he knew for certain that this was the career for him.
“At the end of the week he (the head brewer) took me into the sample room and let me try a beer I’d made myself. It was an incredible feeling – something I’ll never forget.”
Richard Wintle is retired these days, but Mr Hill still keeps in touch with the head brewer who was the perfect teacher when it came to fine art of creating good beer.
“He taught me how adding just a handful of extra hops, at just the right time, can make a small but significant difference to the taste.
“Throughout my career I’ve always loved tweaking and fine tuning the beers I’m brewing. You do it bit by bit because you don’t want to confront the customer with sudden change.
“It’s a subtle process, but get it right and it can result in a big rise in sales.”
Listen to Mr Hill talking about a beer’s balance, depth, and complexity, and for all the world you could be in the company of a wine connoisseur with the finest of palates.
He said: “Take Dark Munro, for instance. First there’s sweet chocolate at the front of the tongue, then an ever-so-slight hint of hop in the middle, followed by dryness – just a suggestion – at the end.”
Said in the northern tones he developed growing up in Lancashire, there is nothing pretentious about all this.
A good palate is the brewer’s most important asset, and at the Highland Brewing Company’s Swannay Brewery, he Mr Hill had the chance to put his to good use, creating seven new ales from scratch.
To demonstrate the start of the process, he rubs a hop called Spalt Select on the palm of his hand, releasing an aroma that scents the air. He will blend several when designing a beer, and apply a similar selection process to the malt he uses.
“Some hops are citrusy, some are peppery or perfumed, others again are flowery, or spicy and earthy. One malted barley gives you an astringent dryness. Another is incredibly nutty and another might have a biscuity flavour. It’s all about finding the right balance.
“The parameters are enormous; far greater, I believe, than in wine making. There’s myriad ingredients to choose from and small breweries have made full use of them to produce some wonderful beers over the past 20 years or so.”
In all, Mr Hill spent about 13 years at Moorhouse’s, ending up as head brewer.
He was starting to think about a new challenge when, after taking the bus to a local beer festival, he tasted an ale brewed many hundreds of miles away in Orkney.
A few months later he noticed a job advert in a brewing magazine placed by the Orkney Brewery.
Mr Hill was offered the post by Roger White, who founded the brewery, and moved north with his wife and two young sons. He said: “Roger was brilliant to work for. He gave me a great deal of freedom to develop the beers we produced and encouraged something I pride myself on: making beer that’s consistently good.
“It’s all about blending. You don’t want it to be too bitter, or too sweet, but somewhere in the middle. In other words, you want to make the beer that appeals to the most people. That’s a challenge, as is making it consistently well balanced.”
When the brewery was taken over, Mr Hill suddenly found himself made redundant. “It was the first time in my life I’d been out of work and it came as quite a shock. It was an incredibly stressful time; by far the worst year in my life.”
After brewing, his other passion in life is fly fishing.
He spent time on Orkney’s famous trout lochs, coming to terms with the loss of his job and planning for the future.
With the support of his family, he decided to go it alone by creating his own brewery in outbuildings at Swannay Farm in Orkney’s West Mainland, where a superb farmhouse cheese was once produced.
David Grant, his old boss at Moorhouse’s, came to his aid, encouraging Mr Hill to use the Burnley brewery to make the initial consignment of Scapa Special, the first beer sold under the Highland Brewing Company label.
Mr Grant also sourced the first equipment to be installed at the newly opened Swannay Brewery, allowing beer production to get under way there in January 2006.
Mr Hill said: “I’m enjoying the complete freedom that comes with being your own boss. It’s something I’ve always wanted. It comes with a lot of pressure and a lot of responsibilities, but the feedback has been nothing short of electrifying.”
Orkney is a key market for the brewery’s ales, with other customers in Inverness, Aberdeen and the central belt.
This, he believes, will be an anxious year, after a huge spike in the price of hops and malting barley on the world commodity markets, and that “body blow” from Chancellor Alistair Darling.
Mr Hill said: “If he’s trying to cut harmful drinking, why not target alcopops rather than go for a blanket tax increase? Real ales tend to be drunk socially by people who appreciate their flavours and fine qualities.
“They should be celebrated and not punished in a way that will affect small breweries across the country.”
