Fact or fiction - some historians believe that it was the Celts who brought brewing to the British Isles, while others claim it was the Picts with their Heather Ale - a source of inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s 19th Century poem of the same name.

Whatever the historical accuracy it’s likely that by the time the Romans arrived in Scotland the locals were already enjoying fermented grain-based brews made from such ingredients as corn weed ('darnel') or coarse barley ('bigg'), and flavoured with heather shoots, rowan berries and bog myrtle. Other native plants also used in early Scottish beers for bittering were gorse and broom - plants known to intoxicate the sheep that feasted on their green tips and yellow flowers!

Wormwood was used in brewing and was highly prized for its hallucinogenic properties. Heather - which plays host to a fungus known as ergot, the precursor of LSD - probably bestowed ale with very similar side effects.

Onions, wood pulp, chicken entrails….in fact, anything the brewer could get their hands on would often end up in the beer! Apart from the doubtful qualities of these early beers, the results - not surprisingly - were often harmful and the government intervened. Round about the 15th Century, in what was probably the first consumer protection law, it was decreed that beer should only be brewed from malted cereals, water, yeast and hops. The superior quality of these beers won over drinkers, leading to the death of earlier concoctions.