A Note from the Author
Few breweries have impressed me with their progress over the past three years so much as Fierce Beer. I remember well the first time I tasted their beers; co-founder Dave Grant had kindly sent me some samples of some of their first ever commercial brews. Although it may surprise you to hear it, at the time, those beers didn’t leave a lasting impression, especially compared to how fond of their beers I am now.
They were by no means bad, but the unusual nature of them—habanero spiced pale ales and a very early iteration of Cranachan Killer, a raspberry infused pale—was hard to ignore. Despite them not quite clicking with me back then, what they did achieve was to pique my curiosity enough for me to contact Dave and offer him some feedback.
The result of that conversation ended with me agreeing to meet Dave and Louise Grant at a tap takeover Fierce was hosting at The Rake in South London a few weeks later. Not only did I get to try some of the revised—and much improved—recipes but I also got to hear about the vision for their brewery first hand. Such was their enthusiasm and openness to my feedback, that I’ve remained curious and we’ve stayed in touch ever since.
I first visited their Aberdeen facility in October 2017, tagging on a quick stop at their operation while I was in town to interview the owner of another local brewery. Fierce were much smaller then than they are now, but the beers they poured for me during this visit had come on in serious leaps and bounds compared the beers I’d tried barely a year earlier. In the following months I watched as they continued to go from strength to strength with each new release.
And so it came to pass that in March 2019 I was invited back to Aberdeen. This time however, I was there to visit Fierce exclusively and work on an exciting project with them that encapsulated a lot of photography, and the piece you’re about to read, which they commissioned me to produce.
The project has taken me several months to complete—longer than I had planned for or anticipated—something about starting my own publication springs to mind. Now though, I’m very happy to share the story of Fierce Beer with you all. Even as this young Scottish brewery continues to grow and evolve, take home numerous awards, make big expansion plans and begin a dedicated journey into mixed fermentation brewing, I hope this serves as a lasting snapshot that is a window not just into the world of Fierce Beer, but Scottish craft brewing as a whole.
This post is intended to showcase some recent photography and consultancy I was commissioned to produce by Fierce Beer in Spring 2019.
—Matthew Curtis, October 2019
