The Dram Team: Auchentoshan & Ale in Glasgow

Auchentoshan

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Thelma and Louise. Laurel and Hardy. Jean Claude van Damme and Dennis Rodman. The double act is one of the great cultural traditions – take one thing, find a second that complements it perfectly, tie the two together and hey presto, you've got a third, even better thing. Of course, the principle applies to the world of food and drink as well, and the pairing of Auchentoshan whisky and ale is a great example of a good partnership elevating both parties. Take oaky, smooth whisky and add crisp, hoppy beer and you've done that trick from earlier of making something extraordinary.

Of course, sometimes you need to throw some other elements into the mix – elements such as 'people' and 'nice chairs'. That's where the great bar scene in Auchentoshan's home city of Glasgow comes in. With Auchentoshan distilled in the city since the 1820s, the whisky has seen its fair share of drinking dens over the years, but it's fair to say that Glasgow's bars are in pretty rude health right now, each plowing their own furrow. 

At Redmond's on Duke Street in Dennistoun, the focus is on creating a neighbourhood space with a strong sense of community and identity. "We play vinyl all day, every day," they say. "We try and do some quirky stuff with our food – the provenance of the ingredients is a big priority – and we rotate our craft beer fridge range every week too. If you came in for the first time, you might have your interest piqued by batch cocktails (all made in house), and gins and whiskies that we change every week, too."

Over at Drygate in the east of the city centre, the drinking experience is key. Drygate is dubbed as 'the UK's first experiential brewery,' and the bar at the fully-operational microbrewery features 26 different draft beers at any one time. It's hard to get fresher beer when the brewery is at the other side of the room.

Bag O'Nails, next to Kelvinhall subway in the city's West End, aims to be a hub for the people of Partick and the West End. As such, it wears a number of different hats – it's a bar, a restaurant, and a live music venue, and a general home from home for its regulars. The bar was, in the words of Bar O'Nails' Gerry Tartaglia, "born out of the ashes of a spot that has long been associated with bars of some sort. The site has housed a bar as far back as most can remember."

Innis & Gunn's latest Beer Kitchen bar may be a fairly recent addition to the nightlife of Ashton Lane in the West End, but it's already starting to bed in to the city's beer scene with the help of a bar staff who know their way around a pint (in the best possible sense). "Some of the staff have worked with craft beer for years, while some are new to it," they tell us, "but the one thing they all have in common is their passion to learn more. Each time we get a new beer in, the staff are lining up to try it for themselves. There’s a real interest and enthusiasm there that we can spot through all parts of the team, and which is then in turn shared with our customers."

That enthusiasm, and desire to go the extra mile to get things done properly, is a common thread throughout Glasgow's bar scene and in the story of Auchentoshan. Most Scottish whiskies are distilled twice, but Auchentoshan is triple-distilled; it's a move that adds a bit of extra time, effort and expense to proceedings, but the result is a whisky that’s smooth, fruity and packed with citrus oomph. As with most things in life, when it comes to drinks you get out what you put in, and a bit of extra inventiveness and give-it-a-bash attitude never goes amiss.

That spirit of making and doing for yourself can be found in the Beer Kitchen, where, as they put it: "When someone walks into the bar for the first time they will notice our onsite craft brewery, where we brew beers exclusive to Ashton Lane to be served straight from fresh beer tanks onsite. Our craft brewery is highly visible and we encourage people to have a look and talk to our Head Brewer, Digger." There's also something of the unconventional about the Beer Kitchen, with the option for beer dispensed through a unique-to-glasgow fruit infuser that's regularly filled with new and intriguing fruits.

Now, we would be remiss if we overlooked the fact that there is a bar in Glasgow that's infusing beer with fruit, a fact that would have drawn genuine confusion a few decades ago, and not just in Glasgow. The drinks scene has evolved at lightning pace in the new millenium, as has the city itself. As Glasgow has changed over time, its nightlife has evolved and grown, but as is often the case, when moving forwards you sometimes end up embracing the past.

At Bag O' Nails, this meant a refurb that revealed original fixtures like roof beams, and a decor that mixes the classic (a locally-made copper bar top, polished daily) with the contemporary (surrealist illustrations by local West End artist Jim Byars). The Drygate building, meanwhile, is a revived 1960s monolith, with its original structure and seven-peaked sawtooth roof all preserved in its restoration. Inside, work by local artists and graduates of Glasgow School of Art adorns the walls, helping root the bar firmly in contemporary Glasgow culture.

And it's that contemporary Glasgow scene that plays host to the Auchentoshan and Ale, the whisky's signature serve which marries the malt with ale, honey and citrus. It's a great way to try out a popular local drink produced in the city for hundreds of years, and its local providence doesn't exactly go unnoticed. As Redmond's put it: "When we get Auchentoshan in, it doesn't last long! Its great to have on the shelf because it's basically our local whisky (a nice talking point with the backpackers and Air BnB-ers we get in...). The 12-year-old is a cracking whisky, but the Three Wood is the favourite amongst [our] staff and punters."

The Auchentoshan Three Wood Single Malt is also favoured by the team at Drygate, for its "floral nose with sweet & smooth chocolate, hazelnut and oak notes finishing with a hint of sherry, grapes and dried fruit." The uncompromising but welcoming nature of the whisky is what's drawn the Drygate team to regularly include it in their Beer Club: Hawf n Hawf nights, pairing craft beers from around the globe with a craft spirit. We're told the Three Wood has paired particularly well with Drygate's mosaic IPA Seven Peaks, with the crisp hoppy beer contrasting nicely with the smooth, fruity whisky. Local greats playing nice together; always lovely to see.

The Beer Kitchen team follow similar principles to their Drygate contemporaries with their 'hoptails' – cocktails built with beer. The team say that the goal of their hoptails is to "find a way to elevate the flavours" of beers and spirits, pairing Innis & Gunn Original with the whisky to "highlight the flavours that oak brings to the table in both whisky and beer."

The Beer Kitchen crew also feel that the whisky's local nature gives it an edge: "We’ve hosted a couple of events now with Auchentoshan, so our team have had a chance to work closely with the product, learn how to use it and know what it works best with. I think they appreciate the authenticity of Auchentoshan – it’s a great single malt that comes from a local distillery just on our doorstep."

At Bag O' Nails, the focus is on both quality and quantity; provide plenty of options, make sure they're all excellent. As they put it: "We take pride in our ever-evolving bottled beer selection and our spirits are the same, with a gantry that would give you a stiff neck; we like to cover bases from all across the world. We are particularly proud of our bourbon selection with bottles that cannot be found anywhere else in the West."

The bar staff are regularly working on their own cocktail creations to vye for a place on the menu, with one such cocktail being the Auchentoshan and Ale riff, the Glasgow Warrior. The drink is action-packed – a double shot of Auchentoshan American Oak, shaken with fresh lemon juice, Seville orange marmalade, Angostura bitters and a homemade ginger syrup, topped off with the Gladeye IPA from fellow local drinks heroes Drygate.

The Auchentoshan American Oak's citrus notes make for a great compliment to the orange and lemon flavours, and the team at Bag O' Nails are keen to support their local whisky, having visited the distillery for themselves. Well, what's the use of living in a big city if you don't pop round to see your pals every once in a while, eh?