BrewDog opening in Edinburgh

This afternoon Fraserburgh’s BrewDog announced that their second bar would be opening in Edinburgh, following the Aberdeen flagship that began trading in October. After a search of several cities, the unlikely facade of the old Chasers Bar in the Cowgate was chosen. I say unlikely – being based in Edinburgh we’ve seen Little Saigon* in full effect over the years – but maybe it fits the BrewDog ethos. There’ll be plenty of lager drinkers down there to convert, that’s for sure. But it will do tremendously well being in a recognised drinking corridor, and is close enough to Hollyrood 9A for the craft beer fans to join them together into a big-abv crawl. BrewDog Edinburgh is scheduled to open in April 2011, and we’ll be there to cover the opening night.



(* description of the Cowgate from Ian Rankin’s Dead Souls…)

“There were clubs still open . . . teenagers spilling on to the road. The police had names for the Cowgate when it got like this: Little Saigon; the blood bank; Hell on Earth. Even the patrol cars went in twos. Whoops and yells: a couple of girls in short dresses. One lad was down on his knees in the road, begging to be noticed.”