Edinburgh Beer Weekly 22/10 – 28/10
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?
Monday 22nd [to Sunday 18th Nov]
Nicholson’s Autumn Beer Festival The Haymarket Bar, 11-14a West Maitland St
Official website / Festival beer list [pdf]
Following on from the flurry of beer festivals last week, there’s no let up in the city over the next seven days. On Monday, the Nicholson’s Autumn Beer Festival kicks off across their six Edinburgh pubs, with sixty beers on offer throughout the next four weeks. Head down to the Kenilworth, Mitre, Conan Doyle, Greyfriars Bobby’s, Deacon Brodies or the Haymarket Bar (or a combination of them), to get with the festival spirit. Beers include the rare house brews produced with Nethergate – Lamplighter and Three Mills Pale Ale, alongside plenty of seasonal ales – check out the pdf link above for the full list. Over the weekend, extra beers will be on, courtesy of an additional temporary bar [photo C Garvie]
Monday 22nd 8pm
Bitters and Ambers Appellation Wines, 43 Dalry Road
Appellation Wines website tickets £7
Appellation’s style tasting series has moved away from the stronger IPA’s and Imperials, and arrives at the classic British Bitter. They may not generate the column inches, but bitters and ambers are arguably harder to make than a malt-forward hop bomb, as there’s less room to hide. Head down to Dalry on Monday – possibly combining with a trip to the Haymarket – as Ash takes you through some of the best of British.
Wednesday 24th
JD Wetherspoons Beer Festival Various Locations
Further Information / Festival Beer List [pdf]
Self-billed as the ‘World’s Biggest Real Ale Festival’, on Wednesday the latest in Spoons’s regular beer festivals kicks off at their locations across the city. Fifty different beers will be on over the nineteen days, and as per usual there’s an international flavour to some of the specials on offer. Eight out of the ten foreign brewers involved came to the UK in person to see their beer cask-conditioned specially for the event. To get through as many as possible, third-pints will be on offer throughout.
Thursday 25th [to Sunday 4th Nov]
Guildford Arms Beer Festival The Guildford Arms, 1 West Register St
Facebook page
The festivals continue apace as the week goes on – from Thursday attention turns to the Guildford Arms, as it becomes their turn to put on a host of beers for the pleasures of the Edinburgh drinker. The Guildford’s festivals usually have a regional theme, and this upcoming event was originally intended as a showcase for Cumbrian beer. However, problems with a distributor (which I’m guessing may have been Waverley TBS) has meant a last minute re-jigging. So, it’s now a Cumbrian and North Yorkshire beer festival, with 20 of the former, and 35 of the latter. Enjoy!
Thursday 25th 7:30pm
Tryst Tap Takeover No1 High St, High St
Website
Also on Thursday, No1 High Street are hosting a tap takeover and meet the brewer event with the affable John McGarva of Tryst Brewery. Starting at 7:30pm, John will be on hand to answer questions and talk about his beers – so head on down to chat to one of the most under-rated brewers in Scotland. Send an email to Graham at No1 High St for more information – no1highstreet@hotmail.co.uk – or call 0131 556 5758.
Thursday 25th
Pulp Fiction Launch Cloisters Bar, 26 Brougham St
Elixir website
Elixir Brewing Company are ratcheting up their operations fairly quickly – only the other week their debut beer appeared on Edinburgh bars for the first time. Benedictine Groove even made the front page of the Evening News, so what will happen to their second beer, only time will tell. Look for Benjii and Barry to appear on Newsnight, or something. Anyway, their follow up is Pulp Fiction, a 4.8% spiced pumpkin ale – and it launches on Thursday at Cloisters. Benedictine Groove will also be on, so if you missed it the first time around, you know where to go…
Sunday 28th 4pm
Beer School at Holyrood 9A Holyrood 9A, Holyrood Road
Twitter Feed FREE
The final event this week takes place at the Holyrood 9A, as they hold another session of their recently-launched Beer School. If you like beer, but have always wondered exactly how it’s made, or what the differences are between cask and keg – then head down at 4pm on Sunday afternoon to find out. Kerry and Caroline have put together a friendly introduction to help ensure you’ll never be bamboozled again. Included as part of the lesson – the chance to taste some of these different styles of beer, to help understand the differences. Feel free to stay on afterwards for some homework!
Sunday 28th
Pumpkin Carving Competition Holyrood 9A, Holyrood Road
Further details
Also at Holyrood 9A on Sunday, running to the 31st is the opportunity to get seriously creative with the vegetable of the season. Sponsored by Williams Brothers, the Holyrood are hosting a pumpkin carving competition. The first fifty (!) they receive will earn the carver a free pint of Williams beer – and the winning entry (which will be announced on Halloween at 8pm) will receive vouchers for two beers and two burgers. So, sharpen those carving knives and get to it, Edinburgh!
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!
