Expensive taste of Northern Monk

Take four brewers, have them hike to the summit of the 4,000-foot high Ben Nevis and then have them brew up an Imperial Stout there after lugging the 90Kg of brewing equipment up to the top of the Scottish mountain.

Return back down the mountain with the brew and store it for two months in a Ben Nevis Whisky Distillery barrel from Fort William.

Then launch the beer as the highest altitude-brewed beer in British history at 11% ABV and auction it off starting at £1,000 a (330ml) pop.

This barrel-aged Imperial Stout also makes use of ingredients foraged from Ben Nevis itself and includes blackberries collected on the ascent as well as ‘dew of Ben Nevis’ water.

And so it was for the four concerned – Northern Monk’s Founder, Russell Bisset, his Head Brewer Brian Dickson, Brewer Tom Bisset and Paul Hayes of Northern Monk’s expedition patron Haze Outdoors.

They auctioned off the first bottles of its limited-edition Ben Nevis beer at an event in the Northern Monk’s Manchester Refectory recently together with a video screening of the epic climb/brew.

All proceeds from the sale of the limited edition of just 50 bottles of the beer are being donated to the ‘For The North Foundation’ – a grant scheme inaugurated by Northern Monk “designed to benefit the North, its people and its communities”.