Jim Barr, our correspondent from Ayrshire Scotland, has forwarded some great notes on five brews from the old country, three of which are organic.

• Harviestoun Bitter and Twisted: Apparently Champion Beer of Britain, 2003 in its cask conditioned form. This is a honey coloured beer with a lot of flavour, “hoppy and vanilla-ish” said the wife. Sharp with soft edges to it, bitter but in an extremely pleasant way, and a pinch at £ 5.00 for 4 bottles from Morrison’s. 4.2%abv. The bottle says its bottled with a 1/3 less carbon dioxide than most beers which results in a fresher more natural beer. Who am I to disagree, it was a great beer. Here is Harviestoun's home on the web.
• Caledonian Golden Promise Organic: Claims to be the world’s first truly organic beer. Nice pale gold colour, is the best I can say about, both the wife and I thought it was disappointing, insipid even. Not a lot of flavour at all, I wouldn’t buy it again. Here is the page on the web for this brew.
• Black Isle Yellowhammer Organic Bitter: From the highlands of Scotland, produced by a micro-brewery near Inverness, what a difference between these two organic ales. This was superb, dark, toffee flavoured, slightly sweet, soft and a big flavour. I will go out of my way to buy this stuff again, and to try some of their other beers. 4.0%abv. Check out the website here.
• Innis & Gunn Oak Aged Beer: Honey coloured Edinburgh brewed, caramel flavoured beer but a bit too sweet for my liking, in the 330ml bottle, its okay but I really couldn‘t swallow a lot of it. 6.6%abv. They, too, are on the web.
• Broughton Border Gold:Yet another organic beer, golden colour with a taste I would have expected of a darker brew. A burnt sugar, sort of treacle like flavour, with a tart after-taste, full hoppy flavour, not at all unpleasant. A site to check out as well.