Edinburgh Beer Weekly 11/11 – 17/11
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 11th 8:00pm
Hop to It! at Appellation CB
Appellation Wines, 43 Dalry Road
Appellation Wines website tickets £10
Monday’s Appellation Wines beer tasting takes place at Comely Bank, and once again revolves around the humble hop. Ash and the team will be taking a closer look at highly-hopped beers from around the world, and demonstrating how the different blends create differing flavours. Turn up, pin back the ears, and go for it.
Tuesday 12th
Harviestoun Vertical Tasting 7:30pm
The Hanging Bat, 133 Lothian Rd
Further Information Tickets £20 (Purchase here).
This week is a very special week for the Hanging Bat on Lothian Road – it’s their first birthday. The fact that it seems a lot longer since the doors opened is a testament to how well the bar and its staff have been received by the Edinburgh beer scene. Well, as you’d expect, this week they have plenty of events on, building to the official birthday party on Sunday the 17th (see below). First up, a vertical tasting of Harviestoun’s Ola Dubh range, each one matched to chocolate provided by Bruntsfield’s Chocolate Tree. As if the chance of drinking Ola’s 12-30 isn’t enough…
Wednesday 13th
Pairing dinner; Bia Bistrot and Stewart Brewing
Bia Bistrot, 19 Colinton Rd
Full menu tickets £30 (phone 0131 4528453)
Holy Corner’s Bia Bistrot is one of Edinburgh’s best-kept secrets when it comes to food. The husband and wife team of Roisin & Matthias Llorente have a firm following already – just try booking a table at short notice and you’ll understand. On Wednesday, they are teaming up with Stewart Brewing for a matching dinner featuring five courses and five beers. The menu looks superb, and with the reputation of the kitchen, will be well worth attending.
Thursday 14th [to Sunday 17th]
Eden at St Andrews Showcase
The Guildford Arms, 1 West Register St
Guildford Arms Twitter feed
Starting this Thursday (and continuing all weekend) – the Guildford Arms will be featuring beers from the Eden Brewery at St Andrews, one of the plethora of recent breweries opened up in the Kingdom of Fife. On the bar – 19thBrew, Clock Brew, St Andrews Blonde and the hugely under-rated Shipwreck IPA. The beers will all be on at £2.50 a pint, so get there early!
Thursday 14th [7:00pm]
Edinburgh Homebrew Club
Brewstore, 61 South Clerk St
Brewstore Twitter feed
On Thursday, there’s one of the regular meetings of the Edinburgh homebrew club, which takes place at the city’s spiritual centre of the art – Brewstore on South Clerk Street. Since opening, Brewstore has been a mecca for amateur brewers, dishing out advice and ingredients aplenty. As such, it’s a natural fit for the homebrewing society – so if you’re currently dabbling in making beer at home, or would like to have a go, head along on Thursday and get some friendly feedback. Samples are welcome, if you have them to bring (BYOHb).
Friday 15th [to Sunday 17th]
2nd Summerhall beer festival
1 Summerhall
Further information / Barney’s Beer on Twitter Tickets £8
The first Summerhall beer festival, back in the midst of a blazing May weekend, was very well-received, so it’s no surprise the event is taking place again. The arts venue that encompasses Barney’s Brewery has a mix of indoor and outdoor drinking areas, and alongside his staples, once again Barney has produced two new beers – a Lapsang Souchong-infused porter, and a brand new extra pale ale. Also on offer, beers from Germany, the US and Sweden, as well as the rest of the UK. Food and live music will also be available. The festival opens 6:30pm-12am Friday and Saturday, and as a family day on Sunday – 2pm-8pm (kids go free). Head to the website link above for further details and full ticket information.
Saturday 16th
Meet the Brewer – Buxton 5:00pm
The Hanging Bat, 133 Lothian Rd
Further Information Tickets SOLD OUT (see below)
The day before their official birthday, the Hanging Bat are having their penultimate Meet the Brewer event for 2012. It involves a brewery that has upped the ante massively this year; Buxton. With all the elements now in place, they are set for a truly massive 2014. Head down to the Bat and chat to the guys from the Peaks (before or afterwards, tickets for the event are actually sold out), and to get through as many of their beers as you can (see list in link). But not too many, as your drinking week doesn’t end there…
Saturday 16th
Cromarty/Tempest Collaboration launch/takeover
26 Cloisters Bar, Brougham St Cloisters Bar on Twitter
In between the Lothian Road events, there’s reason to scamper the short distance up the road to Brougham St on the Saturday. Cloisters Bar are hosting the launch of a very special beer brewed by two Scottish breweries right at the tops of their collective game; Cromarty and Tempest. Listed as a ‘dark, Belgian, pine-cone ale’, it will be pouring alongside five beers from the former, and four from the latter. (Cromarty Ghost Town Porter, anyone? Tempest Red Eye Flight?). The event then serves to kick off Cloisters’ two-week Winter Beer Festival, which runs to the 27th and features 50 cask ales and 8 kegs. Keep all eyes glued Cloisters’ Twitter feed for details of what beers will be on when, but expect highlights to include Alechemy’s twin big-hitters Panacea (7.5%) and the Almighty Mofo (7.1%), a christmas collab between Great Heck and Steel City (Yule Twig, 5.2%) and the very limited Oakham Green Hop Harvest.
Sunday 17th
1st Birthday party – The Hanging Bat 5:00pm
The Hanging Bat, 133 Lothian Rd
Further Information FREE
Hard to believe now, but the Hanging Bat did really once look like this. Since then, they have gone from strength to strength, winning awards and becoming one of the best bars in the UK (is that hyperbolic? I don’t think so). Anyhow, their official birthday party will be brimming with top-class beer, made up of their favourites from the last year, or barrel-aged beers made just for the event. Check the link above for the beer list, merely the words ‘Habour Aji Limon cask’ should make you want to queue up the night before (i.e. after the Buxton event).
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!
