Britain’s most northerly brewery opened in December 1997 on the island of Unst in the Shetland isles. It is called the Valhalla Brewery. It has recently moved into much bigger premises on the island to cope with increasing demand. Valhalla is the name of the heaven of Viking warriors. When wounded and dying they believed they went to Valhalla where they were revived by a horn full of ale, which wa
s given to them at the gates of Valhalla by a Valkyrie, which were the hand maidens of the Norse god Odin, who ruled Valhalla. What better name for a microbrewery based in Shetland, renowned for its Up-Helly-Aa celebrations and steeped in Viking history. Our first ale is dark and malty with a 4.5% ABV named AULD ROCK, which is the exiles name for Shetland – after leaving, they referred to Shetland fondly as ‘the Auld Rock’. Our second ale was launched in April 1999 and this is light refreshing hoppy ale with a 3.8% ABV in cask form and 4.5% ABV in bottles. This was named WHITE WIFE in honour of a ghostly apparition, which appears in vehicles (usually being driven by lone males), on a lonely stretch of road, approximately, 2 miles south of the brewery. The last known sighting of her was by one of the brewers at Valhalla (incidentally this was 11 months before the brewery opened!)
Our third ale SIMMER DIM was created in March 2000. This is light golden bitter ale with a 4% ABV. ‘Simmer Dim’ means the hauntingly beautiful twilight time at midsummer when darkness never descends on the islands. The fourth and strongest of our ales is SJOLMET STOUT. This is a strong, very dark full-bodied stout, which is very smooth to drink. The word Sjolmet is an old Norn word for an animal with a very dark body, with light colouring on its head, hence Sjolmet stout - dark bodied with a light coloured foamy head. This stout won champion ale award at the Worcester Real ale festival in October 2002, against 174 other stouts, beers, ales & ciders. Our next creation is OLD SCATNESS. This is made to celebrate the now famous, Old Scatness Archaeological dig, near Sumburgh Airport at the south end of the Shetland Islands. This one is a 4% ABV, light bitter, made from oats, wheat & a small amount of BERE, which is an ancient type of Barley, grown in Shetland at the time of the early settlement at Scatness. The flavour of the brew is rounded off with pure heather honey to give a nice sweet Smokey finish. Our latest offering is ISLAND BERE, a beer whose main ingredient is BERE. As described above this ancient barley dates back some 5000 years and is still virtually unmodified. Bere has such a distinct and strong flavour that we had to also use a small amount of other malts to give a nice smooth clean finish. We believe that this is the first time that bere has been used commercially as the main ingredient in a beer. We use cascade hops which gives the beer a slight blackcurrant/liquorice aftertaste.
