Fall In Love With Halo

Have you tried Halo before?

It’s one of our summer favourites and we want everyone to love it as much as we do!

Halo At A Glance

4.9% ABV
Classic Czech Pilsner
Best after road cycling
Enjoy with skinny fries, fried white fish, tomato and mozzarella salad

What is a Czech pilsner?

A pilsner is a light and refreshing beer style that originated in the city of Pilsen in 1842. Up until then, Czech beer was made with rye or wheat. This made beers that spoiled quickly, were expensive and tasted sour. In 1842, Josef Groll brought Bavarian and English barley brewing techniques and paired them with local ingredients and the soft water of the river Radbuza, which led to a lovely crisp beer called the Pilsner!

What is the difference between a pilsner and a lager?

Similar to squares and rectangles, all pilsners are lagers but not all lagers are pilsners.

A lager is a style of beer that is bottom fermented. This means the beer is fermented in colder temperatures so that the yeast feeds slowly at the bottom of the barrel instead of quickly at the top, like most other beers. After fermentation, these beers need a long rest period to finish developing. This rest period is called lagering and is how the style gets its name. Traditionally, this method was done by leaving the beer in caves, although nowadays it is much easier to do in a temperature-controlled tank for a few months.

Pilsners are a specific type of lager that use different malts and yeasts from a regular lager to produce a light and hoppy flavour.

Why did we start brewing Halo?

We started brewing Halo because we wanted to try brewing a proper bottom fermented beer, as Lighthouse is actually a hybrid beer and doesn’t quite conform to regular lager standards.

Although there are plenty of caves around Lossiemouth, we decided lagering in our temperature-controlled tanks would be a better way to produce it. This produced a great result, and Stuart, our head brewer himself, prefers a Halo to a Lighthouse.

Our first batch was brewed in December of 2019 and we continue to brew Halo around December. It’s the calmest period for the brewery, which means they have plenty of tanks open. And with it needing a few months to rest after fermenting, it gives it plenty of time to finish up before a summer release.

What beer is Halo similar to?

Being a lager, Lighthouse is the beer Halo is most similar to. If you enjoy a pint of Lighthouse on a warm, summer day then you should definitely try Halo!

If you like Aurora (Northern Light Pale Ale) or Mistral (Gluten Free Pale Ale) then you also may enjoy Halo! While the flavours are different, Halo leaves you with more of a bready, sourdough flavour, they are all light and thirst-quenching beers that are great in the heat.