Black Hound Stout

The Royal Borough of Linlithgow is one of the oldest towns in Scotland, and the bithplace of Mary Queen of Scots. The town emblem is a Black Hound, and represents a courageous black greyhound that swam daily to an island in the middle of the Loch (lake) that lies in front of the royal palace. The hound’s master had been imprisoned on the island and sentenced to starve to death for his crime. The faithful hound took food to her master , with the help of his friends and family, and thus saved his life.The town took this symbol of loyalty and bravery as its own, and men and women born in Linlithgow proudly call themselves “Black Bitches” in honor of that remarkable hound.

The oldest pub in Linlithgow, and one of the oldest in Scotland, is also named the Black Bitch Tavern, and was owned by our brewer, Ramsay Borthwick’s, great-grandparents. During the Second World war, his grandmother, a “Black Bitch” herself, ran the pub and kept the ale flowing in those dark days.
Black Hound Stout honors that courageous dog, as well as the many traditions passed on through the generations, inspiring this brew. -Cheers-