Welcome to this week’s Fyne Folk, our blog introducing Fyne Ales team members and talking to them about their experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic. We want to introduce you to the folk who make our brewery what it is, and share their stories from lockdown, how they’ve been coping and what their hopes are for a post-pandemic brewery and world.

This week’s interview is with our Brewery Tap supervisor, Stewart. If you’ve visited our corner of Scotland in the last couple of years there’s a good chance that you’ve been greeted by Stewart’s cheery face – he’s the one who pours your pints, leads your tours and answers your questions when you come to see us in Glen Fyne. Stewart returned to the brewery when the courtyard reopened in July after a few months away on furlough – find out what he got up to below.

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Let’s start by talking about your time away from the brewery – how did you find life on furlough?

It was very quiet. I live in quite a rural area, so it felt like there wasn’t really very much to do – walk the dogs an awful lot, drink too much beer, wash the car – I missed seeing my friends and my family, of course, but it wasn’t like I was missing out on lots of social life – it was just like having a lot more days off than usual.

Only thing I missed socially was the hockey – I’m a big Glasgow Clan ice hockey fan, the end of last season was cut off by the pandemic and the new season has been delayed and it’s all up in the air what will happen with so many of the players going back to the US and Canada. I did manage to get in contact with my partner’s favourite player, Nolan Laporte, who sent her a nice message on her birthday during lockdown, which was quite a nice thing to be able to do.

So you didn’t pick up any new hobbies?

For whatever reason, I decided to buy a nitro car. I bought it second hand, spent six weeks trying to get it to run, got it running twice and then decided it wasn’t for me and sold it. I don’t think I quite realised how technical they are – it was the gearbox that broke on it and I thought ‘well, that’s it dead’, but we managed to fix it and ended up selling it for more than I paid for it, so it wasn’t a complete waste.

You mentioned drinking too much beer – what were you drinking?

I drank a lot of lager – we had such good weather and there’s a wee shop in my village that gets some interesting beers and lagers from Europe so I visited there quite a bit, and mini-kegs of Fyne Lager were my go-to.

I was really excited when we brought Elegy out – I really like strong dark beers so it’s right up my street and I had a good few of those.

You’ve been back for a few weeks now, since the courtyard reopened, how has it been coming back, has it been very different?

I will say I missed work – I absolutely love my job, and I really missed the team, I missed the customers in the Brewery Tap. I love talking to people, meeting new people, hearing their stories – and I like to be helpful and it was a shock to the system not being able to go to work and help people.

So it was good to come back – a lot has changed from the way it was before, but it’s great having people back at the brewery, enjoying beers and chatting. I think we’ve got a good set up – with the outdoor seating, table service, distancing and cleaning, we’re doing it properly.

And how has the response been from customers?

Customers have been absolutely fantastic – very patient, following the rules with masks and giving their details. For a lot of people I think they’re just happy to be out and have nice somewhere to sit and enjoy a beer.

It started off a lot busier than we’d anticipated – we opened the shop first then we waited a little while to start doing pints on site again but as soon as we opened people were wanting to come up and see us. But then of course we had the landslide and that’s obviously affected people getting to the brewery, even though the diversion is only 15-20 minutes now, it’s put some people off. We’re still doing okay now, but it’s maybe not quite as busy as it was when the road was open.

I should probably say thank you to everyone who has been up to see us so far, and if you’re thinking of visiting, definitely, come in, get a beer, get some chat. We’ve got an amazing, safe, beer garden and amazing beers, so please bring your kids, bring your dogs, come in and say hi, if you’re just passing by and fancy a few beers to takeaway or you want me to do some running about for you and bring you some cask pints or a coffee – I’ll be very happy to see you!

It seems like there’s a lot more folk visiting from elsewhere in the UK, compared to international visitors we’d normally see this time of year.

Oh aye, a lot more. People are obviously embracing the whole staycation thing – I know a lot of people will be scared to go abroad because of the potential to have to quarantine when they come back, but I think it’s brilliant that so many people are wanting to explore the amazing places we have here, especially in Scotland.

All the tourist places around here have been supporting each other – we obviously supply beer to the hotels and pubs and I know the sales guys have been helping them a lot, but we’ve been all been trying to work together, like we’re not doing any food at the minute, but we’ve said to people they can bring takeaway food from our neighbours at Loch Fyne Oysters or the Tree Shop and bring here and enjoy it with a beer in the courtyard and stuff like that.

We’ve been finishing these interviews by asking about the future for Fyne Ales and the beer industry, and there’s been a lot of different responses – some people hopeful, some folk a bit more worried – which way do you go?

I’m a very positive person, so I’m leaning towards hope – being here almost every day and seeing how much beer we’re sending out to pubs just now and how busy we’ve been in the shop and the courtyard, with the brewery back up and running – it feels like we’re doing okay. As long as everybody’s following the guidelines and taking things seriously, and drinking beer, I’m going to stay hopeful.

FYNE ALES ONLINE SHOP