Edinburgh Beer Weekly 22/06 – 28/06
Welcome to the latest Edinburgh Beer Weekly! Every Sunday I’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 the 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 me 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 Tuesday 30th]
IPA Challenge at the Bow Bar
The Bow Bar, 80 West Bow
Further details
Following on from last week, the Bow Bar’s IPA Challenge is still in full effect. Twenty-four India Pale Ales will be on offer until the middle of next week, on both cask and keg, to be sampled blind (i.e. with no pump clips, just abv-range). You’ll have a scorecard to tot up how you like them, and the Bow will count all the scores before revealing, truly, what is the favourite IPA of Edinburgh drinkers. Will Tempest win again? And who will finish last?
Monday 22nd 7:00pm
Meat the Brewer – Fallen Brew Co
Spit/Fire, 26B Dublin St
Further Information. Tickets £25 available here.
To start the seven beery days ahead, how about a suckling pig feast? Spit/Fire are unleashing the full power of their rotisserie and will be serving a banquet-style stuffed hog (or two) with numerous sides, all paired with beer. That will be supplied by Paul Fallen, and throughout the evening he’ll be talking through five of his beers and his overall brewing philosophy. One of the beers on offer will be brand new – Off the Rails, a gose brewed in collaboration with the Hanging Bat Brew Co. If great beer and roast suckling pig are your thing, tickets are still available.
Monday 22nd 8:00pm
The Unsung Hero at Appellation
Appellation Wines, 43 Dalry Road
Appellation Wines website tickets £10
Also to begin the week, Appellation Wines Dalry branch are hosting a tasting devoted to the backbone of beer – malt. Sure, hops take all the glory – particularly with the modern ‘craft’ beers – but without those grains, you wouldn’t be drinking beer at all. Head along and discover how differing malt bills equate to different beers at the end of the process.
Tuesday 23rd
Meet the Brewer – The Kernel
The Hanging Bat, 133 Lothian Rd
Tickets SOLD OUT (see below)
The latest in the series of Meet the Brewer events to take place at the Hanging Bat rolls around this week – and it features one of the UK’s greatest beermaking success stories. Evin O’Riordain from the Kernel Brewery will be in town, and will be bringing all kinds of treats with him for people to sample. The rise of the Kernel is a very good analogy for the increase in enthusiasm and interest in modern brewing – and although there aren’t any places left for the talk (the tickets sold out within two hours), the beers will be on for Bat customers, so head down and try the products of one of the stars of modern British brewing. Expect it to be busy!
Tuesday 23rd 7:00pm
Fyne Ales Dinner at Aizle
Aizle, 107 St Leonard’s St
Aizle website / Fyne Ales Twitter tickets £45 reservations@aizle.co.uk
There are only four spaces left (at time of going to print clicking publish) at a fantastic-sounding beer pairing event on Tuesday. Fyne Ales need no introduction; they are one of the best breweries in the UK. And Aizle is the List’s Newcomer Restaurant of the Year. Operating without a menu – merely a series of featured ingredients, it has already become a fixture on the Edinburgh scene. And this Tuesday both are combining on a five-course pairing menu, which features six Fyne Ales beers through the course of the evening. Tickets are £45, and are available by following the links above.
Wednesday 24th 8:00pm
The Kernel Pairing dinner at Blackfriars
Blackfriars, 57-61 Blackfriars St
Further Information. Tickets £45 available here.
This is very definitely the week for amazing beer and food pairing in Edinburgh. On Thursday, the talents of the Blackfriars team (and they have many) will be matched with another brewery that needs no introduction – London’s the Kernel. Evin will be up in Edinburgh and will be leading the pairing event whilst giving everyone a chance to catch up on what is new at the Kernel. The menu looks amazing – check the link above – and there are, amazingly, still tickets available.
Thursday 25th 6:00pm
Meet the Brewer – Carbon Smith
BrewDog Edinburgh, The Cowgate.
Further Information
On Thursday the Cowgate hosts a MTB involving one of Edinburgh’s smallest – but most effective – new breweries. Carbon Smith have upscaled from bedroom to an actual brewery, but they still produce some amazing small-batch beers with some hugely inventive recipes. If you’ve never tried any of their beers, BrewDog Edinburgh will be serving up six of them, as well as giving you the chance to chat to the Carbon Smith guys in person. Just look for the big dog.
