Spey Valley Brewery

Microbrewery in Mulben, Moray, Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Established in 2012

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Mulben Keith AB55 6YB, Mulben, Scotland
Description
Spey Valley Brewery was the first commercial “micro” brewery to be located in the heart of Speyside, creating the finest hand-crafted beers from the same water as Speyside’s world renowned malt whiskies.

The company was founded in 2007 by a distiller, David MacDonald, and a local farmer, Innes MacPherson, who set out to produce world-class beers on the farm in Mulben. Initially brewing from a tiny pilot plant, for the first four years the brewery survived on the owners’ day jobs and focused exclusively upon getting the recipes and the products right. Distribution was deliberately confined to a limited number of informed, local buyers and it wasn’t until 2011 that the first commercial casks arrived on the market.

The first product – Spey Stout – was enthusiastically received by consumers and critically acclaimed throughout the wider brewing world. Encouraged by this early success, the company expanded production in 2012 and began distributing more widely throughout the North East and further afield. In early 2016, production moved to a dedicated unit – still on the farm! – that has seen Spey Valley Brewery become the largest brewery in the local area.

Brewery closed in 2020 and relaunched in Summer 2023 with a different beer lineup.

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5.3
Appearance - 5 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 5 | Overall - 5

It's brown. Like amber-brown, and bright. Wrong colour for an imperial stout. Estery yeast profile, maybe some phenols on there. So not enticing but whatever. The palate, however, is a bit of a miss. That is to say there's a thin body, more issues with the phenols, just comes across weak and I really don't know what direction it's going other than throwing in some random bubble gum.

Tried on 13 Sep 2025 at 05:11


5.9
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 5.5 | Texture - 5 | Overall - 6

330mL bottle. Pours dark brown with a white head. Gentle brown sugars and bready malts on the nose. Flavour has thin brown bread malts and a weird sweet estery character. This isn't really coming together for me.

Tried from Bottle from Sherbrooke Liquor Store on 12 Sep 2025 at 13:29


7.4
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 8

330mL bottle, pours a clear copper orange with a small beige head. Nose has plenty of toffee, caramel malt, soft whiskey barrel notes, and maybe a hint of hop resins in back but pretty faded. Flavour is surprisingly cohesive, with lots of lightly smoky whiskey barrels, bready malt, toffee, and again, maybe a touch of faded hops. I’ve never understood the point of barrel-aging IPAs, but I admit that this turned out very well. More of a whiskey barrel aged strong ale than anything identifiably hop-forward.

Tried from Bottle from The Gull Liquor Store on 19 Aug 2025 at 03:56


6.3
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6.5 | Flavor - 6.5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

330 ml bottle. Pours a dark brown with a little fizz that disappears quickly. Aromas of cola and woody roasted malts. Flavors follow same with additional sugar. Thin.

Tried from Bottle on 18 Jul 2025 at 22:50


7.5
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5

330 ml bottle. Pours a mahogany color with light head. Aromas of Christmas cake, raisins, dusty oak and toasted malts. Flavors follow same with notable oak and alcohol and a bit of limes. Interesting and a step up from Innis & Gunn

Tried from Bottle from The Gull Liquor Store on 17 Jul 2025 at 03:23


7.1
Appearance - 7 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5

Cask at The Grill, Aberdeen. It pours. lear deep brown with a fluffy khaki head. The aroma is rather soft, sweet, sticky, toasty grains, molasses, malt loaf and sticky dried fruits. The taste is hides the alcohol well... It's pretty smooth, bitter - sweet character, roasty, chocolate,.raisin, sultana, molasses and malt loaf which dries out towards the finish. Medium body and soft carbonation. Not a huge amount of depth to it, but it sure drank easy for the abv.

Tried from Cask at The Grill Aberdeen on 09 Jul 2025 at 19:49


7.9
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Bottle thanks to allmyvinyl.
Appearance - deep brown to black and opaque. Thin and very quickly disappearing head.
Nose - dark chocolate and nits, generally Toblerone feel.
Taste - yep, Toblerone and a touch of burnt toffee and honeycomb.
Palate - creamy, smooth and full bodied with a balanced linger.
Overall - good stuff.

Tried from Bottle on 08 Jun 2025 at 21:28


6.3
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 6

Cask at Bexley Beer Fest. Aroma is light - there is some sweet citrus amd malts in there somewhere. Sweet. Slightly citrusy. Light. Slick to watery. Soft carbonation. Long dry finnish l..Acceptable.

Tried from Cask on 09 May 2025 at 22:23


7.1
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7 | Flavor - 7 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7

Cask at the Bull Inn, Paisley. Pours clear amber with a thick white head. Toffee, hazelnut, mixed dried fruit. Decent pint.

Tried on 16 Mar 2025 at 11:36


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7.1
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 6 | Flavor - 7.5 | Texture - 7 | Overall - 7.5

The Cafe Royal is a wonderfully ornate time-warp of a pub in Edinburgh, but bog standard rugby special pump clips like the one from the beer I ordered there look out of place. Thankfully the ale itself was a quality traditional effort, so pulled my argument back from the brink.

Tried from Cask at Cafe Royal Circle Bar on 03 Feb 2025 at 20:04