The phrase “Great minds think alike” was certainly the case on a cold winter night earlier this year. As I sat in the house drinking from a Craig Allan glass the idea of doing a collaboration brew with the old friend came to me. A quick email later and it transpired that Craig had just thought the same thing! Craig used to live on the Black Isle but moved out to France where he now produces an awesome range of beers.

Next the beer style was discussed and guess what, we were both thinking the same thing - a Saison (French farmhouse ale for those who are unfamiliar). However a few difficulties were discovered in attempting to organise logistics for a specific yeast strain whilst we had a set date Craig could make it over and I was away for the weeks before the brewday. Therefore we decided to use our house yeast strain and create a new beer style – the Unstout. A pitch black beer with a creamy white head (the “stout” part) coupled with very low alcohol content and a massive American hop charge (the “Un” part).