Now this is more like it.
What I have here is autumn in a bottle.
It’s a walk through countryside, wrapped up warm, smelling the air.
Pouring into my glass a fireside brandy red and glinting in the light I could just tell that was what coming was something a bit special.
Deep red malts and bone dry hops contrive to make you reach for your favourite jumper.
I’ve mentioned beers tasting like leaves or woodland before and I take them all back as none of them taste as much like leafy woodland as Red Kite does.
In fact this beer tastes remarkably like the place in which it’s brewed.
There’s windswept highland bracken, gorse sap dryness, pine tree resins and crisp autumnal leaf litter.
You also get a big dollop of heather honey, toasted oatcakes, clear clean water and the feintest wisp of whisky smoke.
I’ve not been to Inverness for nearly ten years now but I’ll be making a beeline for the Black Isle Brewery next time I’m in Scotland.