BrewDog Edinburgh’s 1st birthday

It’s exactly twelve months to the day since BrewDog Edinburgh opened its doors, signalling the start of the southward charge of the Fraserburgh concern’s bar empire. The second BrewDog tied house to open (behind the original in Aberdeen), the Edinburgh branch has since been followed by another in Glasgow, and then a whole host – either open or in the planning – in England. Edinburgh being our hometown, we were there at the ‘soft’ launch a year ago, powering through eleven high-gravity beers on a school night.

Fast forward those twelve months, and this is as good a time as any to reflect on what their arrival has meant to the Edinburgh beer scene. Following the Cowgate fire* that area of the city became even more run down than it already was, with a steady stream of stag and hen groups wandering up and down from the Grassmarket. I said at the time the location would always see a steady stream of customers – and even now BrewDog Edinburgh fills up very quickly at weekends (also; it’s pretty small).

Prior to converting the dilapidated Chasers cocktail bar, BrewDog had no permanent presence in the city, instead hosting launch events in places like Cloisters and Holyrood 9A whilst supplying plenty of other pubs. Since then, quite obviously, the events have transferred to their own bar – but also (and this is only a personal observation) their number of outlets across the city have reduced. This makes sense, to get BrewDog fans – of which there are many – spending their money in BrewDog bars rather than those of the competition. (BrewDog even print their own money these days).

Actually, other than the excellent Holyrood 9A, there really wasn’t anything like the BrewDog bar here before it opened. Brauhaus served a range of imported bottles, 9A had a good mix of kegged lagers – but that was about it. Surely it’s no co-incidence that over the past year both of those bars have raised their game significantly when it comes to beer choice – last week Brauhaus had a De Molen import on keg, for example. Holyrood had the ultra-rare Harviestoun Ola Dubh 12 on cask.

This could all be down to the increased availability of these interesting beers, of course, but BrewDog Edinburgh started to give people a focus for a different type of drinking. As we discovered on the opening night, instead of buying four pints in a round we ended up buying a bottle and four glasses. To be honest, other than trying each new beer they release, I can’t remember the last time I drank a BrewDog beer in their Edinburgh bar – the imports are usually too good to pass up. You pay a premium for this method, of course – an eye-watering £12 for a 330ml bottle of Kernel Imperial Brown Stout springs to mind.

But, as ever, people will pay a premium for quality products served well. I’d challenge any ‘hater’ to visit BrewDog Edinburgh and chat to the staff, and not be surprised. Extremely well-trained, they are surely the friendliest bar staff in the city. Flying in the face of all the PR twaddle about being uncompromising and punk, the people that work there are fantastic. Boy, are they ever patient too – as I overheard first hand when the bloke next to me asked for a pint of Guinness. He got something better, in the end, of course.

Anyway, the bottom line is that it’s different enough to fit in well, and it’s great to have the choice of going to somewhere like it. Cask ale may not be on the menu – the writing was on the wall for Trashy Blonde long ago – but the bar has become a must-visit on Edinburgh’s beer tourist trail. There may be significant competition on the horizon, but I think BrewDog Edinburgh has a long future ahead of it, and long may it stay open.

*Which we were a part of – on a night out with London-based BeerCaster Andy, he suggested going to a Jazz club (it was a majority decision). On arrival, there were flames billowing out of the door, leading Andy to utter one of his classic all-time understatements – “Oh, it’s on fire.” We ended up in the City Café before being evacuated by the police, and leaving to a wall of heat from the bottom of the hill. Despite all the damage though, thankfully nobody was hurt.