Edinburgh Beer Weekly 02/08 – 09/09
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?
Sunday 2nd
The Cauld Reekie Trail
The Stockbridge Tap, 2-6 Raeburn Place / The Bow Bar, 80 West Bow / Cloisters Bar, 26 Brougham St
Stockbridge Tap Twitter feed / Bow Bar Twitter feed / Cloisters Twitter feed
The beery week begins when the pubs open today, as three of the city’s best have teamed up with the good people at Stewart Brewing to host an event with a difference; centred around one of Edinburgh’s most under-rated beers. The fantastic Cauld Reekie – Stewart’s 6.2% stout – has been unleashed a little early this year, in a multitude of forms. Each of the pubs has three specially brewed variants, and all nine are on the taps from today. And they are:- Raspberry, Lapsang Tea, Chilli (xtra hot!), Tiramisu, Black Forest, Peanut Butter, Mint Choc Chip, Kola Cube and a Kegged – Extra Cauld – version. With nothing better to do this cold August Sunday, why not wander between three fantastic locals and try some interesting flavours not normally experienced in a stout?
Wednesday 5th
Yeastie Boys UK Beer Launch
The Hanging Bat, 133 Lothian Rd
Yeastie Boys UK Twitter feed
So, quite obviously it’s not just the UK currently undergoing a craft beer renaissance – plenty of other global beer drinkers are now considering matching glassware for the first time, and wondering what beer to pair with their dinner each and every evening. One such rising star is New Zealand, home to some seriously fantastic beermakers (a genuine comment, not intended to be patronising). Trouble is, for those that want to, how to get their beer to export markets in great condition? Well, they could do what the Yeastie Boys are doing, and brew their beers here in the UK. This Wednesday, beers from that brewery will be pouring in earnest at the Hanging Bat, and members of the Yeastie Boys will be on-hand to talk about how and why they have taken this enormous – but welcome – decision.
Thursday 6th
Meet the Brewer – Six Degrees North
The Hanging Bat, 133 Lothian Rd
Six Degrees North Twitter feed / Further Info / Tickets here (£11)
You may as well bring a sleeping bag, as the next evening it’s back to the Bat for another event – this time, the Belgian Brewers of Scotland are in town for the return leg of a bar takeover. A while ago, the Bat crew headed up to Aberdeen and took over the excellent SixNorth bar in the city – and now, the favour is being returned. Expect a huge range of Belgian beer – both from the low countries and from Stonehaven – and for the £11 ticket price you get three beers and the amazing Carbonnade (stew in a bread bowl) – which I have tried at SixNorth in Aberdeen and can’t recommend enough. Rob and the team from the brewery will be in attendance to discuss how their brewery is getting on.
Friday 7th [to Sunday 9th]
Foodies Festival
Inverleith Park
Official website 3-day ticket £20, 1-day £13 (conc £16;£11)
Finally, on Friday (and continuing throughout the weekend) is the Foodies Festival in Inverleith Park. Aside from all the food and other related events, there’s a lot to be said for those heading over purely for the beer. Award-winning writer Melissa Cole will be hosting a tutored tasting each day – and a beer and food matching event – and there will be mobile beer trucks from Stewart Brewing and the debut al fresco appearance of Paul Gibson’s Campervan Brewery, following the official launch of his beers last week in Stockbridge. Let’s hope the sun co-operates!
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!
