Same barley. Same water. Often the same maltings. A distillery wash is a beer without the hops — so a Scotsman talking about beer isn't the detour it sounds like.

Ten Scottish beers that matter. A heather ale brewed the way it was before hops ever reached this country. A beer named after a real Viking earl. A tax bracket that turned into a style. A beer invented by accident, from barrels the whisky trade was about to throw away. And one aged in dated Highland Park casks, which will teach you more about what wood does than any whisky tasting.

Number one was brewed in the oldest inhabited house in Scotland, in equipment that sat forgotten under a pile of junk for 150 years — until somebody found it while spring cleaning in 1965.

Tell me what I've left out. An Edinburgh name is missing and somebody's going to be furious.

Slàinte.

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