Devanha Brewery, Alford

[cmwood64]

I recently read a post from Dutto in another thread, in which he mentioned a brewery in Alford, Aberdeenshire that brewed a beer he loved.
Rather than hijack that thread I thought I would start a new one.
The brewery was called the Devanha Brewery and was active in the eighties. I also loved their beer. They had two beers which I recall, Devanha XXX and Devanha XB.
I have been trying to clone them, particularly the XXX, since I started all grain brewing.
I discovered that the Isle of Skye Brewery produced a version of Devanha XXX under licence from one of the original Devanha brewers, but it is also no longer in production.
I emailed them for some information and they gave me the recipe that they used. See below.

Here is the recipe we used the last time we brewed Devanha XXX. Obviously you will need to tweak the quantities unless you want nearly 6,000 pints which is what this will brew!

450kg Maris Otter
50kg Torrified Wheat
40kg Crystal
20kg Roast
2.35 DWB
.
Hops at Boil: 0.9kg Goldings
30 mins later: 0.9kg Goldings
40 mins later: 7.5kg Goldings

Additions added with the final aroma hops:
210gms Ultra (copper finings)
250gms Salt
135mls Zinc (yeast nutrient)
25kg Demerara Sugar.

Happy brewing!

I have tried several times to recreate this beer, but with little success so far. Obviously the yeast would play a big part and I have no way of obtaining the original yeast. Quite a few of my attempts have ended in disaster and I sometimes think it is jinxed! My most recent attempt was one of my best, but still nowhere near the original. (see recipe below). On this one I added the roast barley for the sparge only, no mashing. I oversparged slightly and ended up with 24 litres @ 1.042.

Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Pale Malt 5 EBC 6 lbs. 6.0 oz 2890 grams 76.9%
Torrefied Wheat 4 EBC 0 lbs. 11.2 oz 315 grams 8.5%
Crystal Malt 145 EBC 0 lbs. 9.1 oz 255 grams 6.9%
Roasted Barley 1225 EBC 0 lbs. 4.5 oz 125 grams 3.4%
Demerara Sugar 20 EBC 0 lbs. 5.6 oz 160 grams 4.3%


Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
EKG Whole 5.5 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 10 grams 14.3%
EKG Whole 5.5 % 60 mins 0 lbs. 0.4 oz 10 grams 14.3%
EKG Whole 5.5 % 15 mins 0 lbs. 1.8 oz 50 grams 71.4%


Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.044
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 4.4% ABV
Total Liquor: 35.4 Litres
Mash Liquor: 15.5 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 90.0 %
Bitterness: 24.05 EBU
Colour: 83 EBC

Cheers,
Martin

 

[peebee]

You are bound to get people wonder what DWB is. To save them looking it up: https://murphyandson.co.uk/store/liquor-treatments/428-dwb-165-20-kg.html

I lived in Dyce during the eighties. Devanha seems to have escaped my memory. Must have drunk it though?

 

[cmwood64]

Thanks peebee. Forgot to mention that.

I lived in Dyce in the eighties too, and am back living in Dyce since 2005.
Don't think any of the local pubs stocked it, possibly the Runway Inn in Stoneywood, but I recall drinking it mostly in Ma Cameron's in the city centre. Lovely pint. Unfortunately there were not enough real ale drinkers in Aberdeen back then and the company went out of business.

 

[peebee]

Ma Cameron's! That's a blast from the past!

Local pubs … in Dyce? Were there any? Used to live on Gladstone Place when the Queen visited a house up the road. But moved out a mile or two to East Woodlands in Kirkhill Forest, which I see is now a car park for the forest trails!

Used to brew beer at E. Woodlands, is the tap water still pH 3 up there?

 

[MyQul]

Do you have any information on the yeast? Breweries often lend/give their strain to other breweries so perhaps you might be able to find a the strain at another brewery.

Also, email the Isle of skye brewery and ask them is any of their beers are bottle conditioned and what with. If they are you may be able to get the yeast from a bottle of their beer

 

[rats_eyes]

I live in Aberdeen but missed Devanha as I arrived here in 1998. I'm sure that a chap from our local homebrew club recreated a Devanha beer which, if I remember correctly, was fantastic. I'm pretty sure it was a xxx, but memory is rubbish at the best of times

Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk

 

[cmwood64]

Peebee,
There are 2 pubs. The Greentrees and the Spider's Web. Greentrees has never had cask ale and the Spider's has only had cask in recent years. Ph of my tap water is about 7.2 I think.

Myqul,
I am pretty sure Isle of Skye don't do any bottle conditioned beers. I was up in Skye earlier this year, should have asked the pub for some dregs from a cask. I asked them about yeast at the time I got the recipe and they just said it was their own house yeast. Not sure what yeast Devanha used or even if it is still in use somewhere.

Rats-eyes
Is that the homebrew club which meets at Brewdog?

Sent from my LG-H870DS using Tapatalk

 

[rats_eyes]

Rats-eyes
Is that the homebrew club which meets at brew dog?

It is. Last Sunday of every month at 3pm in the gallowgate bar.


Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk

 

[sueblythewood]

The Kirkgate Bar stocked the Devanha Brewery beers from 82-85 with Dixie Taylor being half of the company. I unearthed the pump clip today.

 

[peebee]

The Kirkgate Bar stocked the Devanha Brewery beers from 82-85 with Dixie Taylor being half of the company. I unearthed the pump clip today.

After all this time you've resurrected this thread. Ahh ... the nostalgia! My time living in Dyce covered that 1982-85 period too. I even have memories of Devanha beers now (probably invented, brains are good at doing that).

All too much . The Nostalgiaaaaaaaaaaaa ... wheeeeeee ...

 

[Dissdress]

This isn't really relevant but I was just intrigued by a letter inserted into a small book I was given. I tried to trace the Brewery and stumbled on this thread.

I have a copy of "Real Ale in and around Edinburgh" dated 1986 which had belonged to an Andrew Reid who lived In Edinburgh. Tucked in the back was a hand written letter from James K Moffat, Head Brewer at Devanha Brewery, dated 26th January 1983. The address was Old Station Road Alford Grampian. The letter details the 14 outlets currently selling Devanha XXX. These were Camerons Inn, Prince of Wakes, Atheneum, Drift Inn, Runway Inn, Occidental Social Club all in Aberdeen, Bieldside Hotel Bieldside, Udney Arms Udney, Grant Arms Monymusk, Marine Hotel Stonehaven, Scott-Skinners Banchory, Three Craws Montrose, Forbes Arms and Vale Hotel both Alford.