Edinburgh Beer Weekly 09/07 – 15/07

Welcome to the latest Edinburgh Beer Weekly! Every Sunday we’ll be posting a preview of all the beery happenings in the city for the next seven days – so you won’t miss a thing. You can sign up to our subscription service, ensuring you’ll get a notification every Sunday when the Edinburgh Beer Weekly is published. Just enter your email address in the panel on our front page. Also, follow us on Twitter (@thebeercast) to keep right up to date throughout the week. There are so many great beery things going on at the moment – stay tuned to the BeerCast, and enjoy each and every one of them!

So – what’s happening in the Edinburgh beer scene over the next seven days?

Tuesday 10th 5:00-8:00pm
Greyfriars Bobby’s Relaunch
Greyfriars Bobby’s Bar, 30-34 Candlemaker Row
Nicholson’s website

It must be one of the most photographed buildings in the city, being in the background of every touristy snap of Greyfriars Bobby (I was once stopped by a bemused visitor who said “Excuse me, why is statue of dog?”). Next week the pub that bares his name is re-launching after a refurbishment and restoration – owners Nicholson’s have spent a fair bit of money bringing everything up to date. From 5pm on Tuesday, head down for nibbles and samples, and have a nose about to see what has changed inside.

Wednesday 11th 7:00pm
Natural Selection Brewing launch Anorak
The Stockbridge Tap, 2 Raeburn Place
Event Details
Several months of hard work (and a few days drinking on the Meadows) come to fruition on Wednesday, as the four students from the ICBD at Heriot-Watt release this year’s Natural Selection offering. The annual scheme involves Brewing and Distilling MSc postgrads, and sees them design, create and market their own beer from start to finish. Produced at Stewart Brewing in Loanhead, this year the quartet came up with a wheat beer – Anorak. The Stockbridge Tap will be showcasing the result, on cask, keg and bottle.

Wednesday 11th 6:30-7:30pm
Beer and chocolate pairing
Innis & Gunn popup bar, 32 PotterRow
Facebook event page

Also on Wednesday, one of Edinburgh’s most popular chocolatiers will be releasing four new flavours at a special beer pairing evening. Coco of Bruntsfield (and now, Broughton Street) are propping up the pop-up bar at Potterrow, and will be offering suggested matchings to Innis & Gunn beers. Contact Coco’s Twitter feed to book, or call 0131 228 4526. Rumours that the new chocolate flavours are stout, IPA, hefeweizen and imperial porter cannot be confirmed.

Thursday 12th [to Sunday 15th]
Edinburgh Independents Beer Festival
The Bow Bar, Caley Sample Room, The Cambridge Bar, Cloisters, Holyrood 9A, The Red Squirrel, The Southern, The Stockbridge Tap
Event website

Well, it looks like there’s one heck of a party arriving in town on Thursday. Over the following four days, eight of the city’s best pubs will be serving beer from at least a dozen of Britain’s most progressive breweries. Each pub will showcase a specific brewery or region (for example, the Bow Bar will be dishing out the Summer Wine) – but will also feature a one-off, rare beer from another producer. Confused? Don’t be – it’ll be great. Check back here on the BeerCast on Monday for a full preview and suggested method for coping.

Friday 13th 5:00-7:00pm
Saturday 14th 3:00-5:00pm
Harviestoun Wild Hop IPA Tasting
Innis & Gunn popup bar, 34 PotterRow
Harviestoun website

Whilst you’re wobbling from pub to pub as part of the Independent’s Festival, if you pass a branch of Vino Wines, or Drinkmonger in Bruntsfield, there will be yet more beer to sample. Harviestoun are running a series of events related to their new Wild Hop IPA (wild as in ‘crazy’, not hedgerow). On Friday there will be free tasters available at Vino Broughton Street and Drinkmonger, and on Saturday attention switches to the Vino branches in Comiston and the Grange.

The Edinburgh Beer Weekly will be published every Sunday here on the BeerCast. If you have an event in or around the city that you’d like to feature – please get in touch at the usual email address. Cheers!