Edinburgh Independent Beer Festival 2013 Crawl #1: 10th July 2013

Last year's Edinburgh Independent Beer Festival (EIBF) was a resounding success - it was great fun walking around these different pubs having some superb and (in a number of cases) very rare beers. Somehow I managed all 8 venues last year, but this time with 10 official EIBF pubs/bars + 3 others holding associated events I decided that visiting all of these in a single day would be seriously detrimental to health of my liver. So for the first of 2 visits to Edinburgh this week I'd planned to start off in the Vintage in Leith, and then it would be back up the centre of town for the Brodie's Beers #Haggisbasher and the Natural Selection Origin Beer Launch. I seldom drink at all on a school night, but with the next few days off work all these beery events in Edinburgh seemed like too good an opportunity to miss.


View EIBF 1 in a larger map

Outward transport was as follows:-
  Train: Glasgow Queen St to Edinburgh Waverley
  Bus: Top of Leith Walk to the Shore (16, Lothian Buses)

This time on arriving at Waverley Station I was able leave from the Calton Road entrance to get a bus from outside the St James Shopping Centre straight down to Leith; fast & easy compared to my journey last weekend along Princes Street. The Vintage is located at the corner of cobbled Henderson Street & Giles Street just up from the start of The Shore, and has only been open for a couple of months - the signage is a bit low key at the moment (possible deliberately so), but it's a nice sandstone building.

It's a venture masterminded by Darren Blackburn (who used to be the manager at the Caley Sample Room) with Williams Brothers stalwart Richard McLelland as Business Manager and other beery help from the Williams Brothers people. From a dining point-of-view they are very much focused on charcuterie, with an amazing & diverse selection of cured, salted & smoked meat dishes available as well as lots of veggie and seafood options - these can be eaten almost tapas-style with bread & chutneys or from the À la Carte menu. There are a good number of tables from the middle of the room back down to the rear, and it is from there that you can see and (more importantly) smell the aromas from the open kitchen as the chefs prepare the food for you (not that you can smell the chefs, of course!). Today I was really only in for the beer, but I definitely must give this type of food a go the next time I'm in Leith. At the front there is a lovely long shiny bar with a number of bar stools and there is a sofa or 2 & a couple of bench-style tables for those looking for non-food seating.

There are 10 keg taps (5 mostly Williams Brothers staples & 5 guests) and also 3 cask hand-pulls, one of which will always be an Elixir beer and today it was the Fremantle Doctor; the aroma of the Aussie citrus hops was almost matched by the taste, a lovely bitter pale ale. The EIBF beers were all listed in a clip-board flyer complete with always handy tasting notes and I decided that it would only be polite to start a tab and go through quite a few of them.

I started with the the Kernel Red Wine Aged Pale Ale; here the slight upfront bitterness of the pale ale was blitzed by masses of red wine, but it did settle down a bit as the drink warmed up. I continued onto the EIBF Collaboration Saison by Black Jack, Marble & Quantum; this was spicy with lots of mango & tropical fruits and a nice alcohol hit, and then finally a Steam Lager by Redwell which I thought had a very similar dry taste to WEST's Munich Red. Bizarrely enough an ex-WEST brewer now living in Germany just happened to be having lunch in the Vintage and it was interesting to have a chat with him about the state of German brewing (I don't think he's too impressed).

I paid my tab, thought about walking all the way up Leith Walk again, but decided that the bus was the better option. This took me back up to Calton Road, and I then walked under the far end of Waverley Station up to the Royal Mile, and then down St Marys Lane to The Holyrood 9A.

This was a most welcome oasis of cool air & tranquillity, with the main bar area fairly quiet when I walked in, but it certainly started to fill up as the afternoon wore on.

The Celt Experience guys whom I'd met a couple of weeks ago in Glasgow had gone through a Meet-the-Brewer the day before, so all the Celt Ogham speciality bottles were available (and are quite fantastic), but I also spied this interesting beer - Celt 613 Années, a red biére de garde (literally a 'beer for keeping') brewed in collaboration with French brewery Page 24. It's named after a Welsh/French alliance which happened 613 years ago when it seems everyone allied with France (or more specifically against the English). This was malty, sweet, spicy, definitely earthy with a bitter charcoal-like after-taste and lots of alcohol - very good indeed.

By then I needed some food to soak up all this beer (even though I hadn't touched a pint glass) so went for one of their blackened chicken burgers with straight fries - the garlic mayonnaise on this was lovely on this and seemed to contrast with the earthiness of the 613 Années quite well.

Time, however, was moving on and I just had enough of it to walk down The Pleasance, stop at Great Grog for a couple of bottled beers (I just can't help myself if I'm nearby), and then head across Preston Street to the Cask and Barrel (Southside) for the start of the Brodie's Beers #Haggisbasher.

The Cask and Barrel (Southside) is Edinburgh CAMRA's current pub-of-the-year and even in a city of great pubs it's easy to see why - a sweeping centre island bar, masses of mirrors & beer related signs, no distraction from the beer by any substantial food, and friendly staff who know what they're doing. The Brodie's Beers were just coming on as I arrived and if it wasn't for the all the surrounding Scottish beer & spirit décor (OK - and the accents) I could almost imagine myself being in East London.

I did manage of a number of these Brodie's Beers (the Citra is pretty damn close to Fyne Ales Jarl for sheer refreshing grapefruit drinkability), but the interesting one was the London Blueberry Sour aged in Bordeaux Casks. It was certainly sour, but the blueberries had given it a great fruity body & taste, which then signed off with a more acidic bite - a really fantastic sour. One of the Brodie's brewers (sorry - missed the name) was around to chat and Quality Control the state of the beer (he was a Heriott Watt graduate and used to work in the Cask & Barrel, hence the choice of the pub), but even he couldn't believe the great condition of the beers. Über Brodie's fan @CAGarvie was also present resplendent in pink bowler hat and pink Brodie's T-shirt - sunglasses were almost required indoors for this sight.

Once again the clock was ticking and I needed to head back towards the city-centre. However just around the corner from the Cask and Barrel (probably all of 30 seconds) was another EIBF pub/bar, the Southern.

Here there were a couple of interesting beers available - Adnams Jack Brand-'branded' Clump Sagin (Rye IPA), a quite light rye IPA, but it was very smooth, with a nice bitter after-taste, and then there was the monster that was the Kernel Imperial Brown Stout aged in Glen Garioch casks. This was incredibly smooth, almost milk chocolate stout-like, then there was an intense hit of fairly sweet whisky liqueur (almost Bailey's-like), which thankfully toned down enough to allow the nutty broon ale to just about come through in the finish. I really liked this, but at 10.3% abv it was seriously lethal stuff.

Still pretty stunned from the Kernel Brown Stout, I drowned about 1/2 a litre of water on my walk back up Nicolson Street and then managed to find the steps down from College Street into the depths of the Cowgate with Bannerman's Bar just on my right hand side. With a reputation more for live music than beer I hadn't been in for a good few years.

I assume the Natural Selection Origin launch had just happened since everyone had migrated towards the low ceilinged bar. There were cask, keg & bottled variants of this year's beer available, so I took 1/2 of the cask and 1/2 of the keg (purely for comparison purposes only). There was no doubt this was a rye beer, there was definitely quite a bit of yeasty murkiness in there, but there was also a lot of peppery spiciness and a good bitter kick at the end from the galaxy hops - I quite liked it. Interestingly I actually preferred the keg variant, I think the slight keg fizz helped cut through the rye a bit more. There were quite a few of this year's 'student' brewers milling about looking as pleased as punch (or at least a beer) and it was good to chat with them and find out that the keg variant was completely unfiltered & unpasteurised, with just a just a slight CO2 fizz added - nicely done guys!

From Bannerman's I had only a short stagger west along the Cowgate to BrewDog Edinburgh; I think all the outside murals are new from the last time I visited.

BrewDog were playing host to Brodie's Beers #Haggisbasher part 2, having had some collaborative brewing history with James Brodie a couple months ago (the lovely sour Brodie's v Brewdog Berliner Weiße). There were a good 7 Brodie's Beers on the guest taps (all cask of course, ha - if only!). I went for a London Sour Fruits Of The Forest and boy was this sour, far more so than the Blueberry Sour at the Cask and Barrel - the sweeter berry fruit flavours just about came through as the kegged beer warmed up.

If I'd had a bit more sense I'd have stayed for one of 2 more of the Brodie's Beers (I'm not likely to often get the chance to try a Brett IPA again), but instead I decided to try to get to another of the EIBF pubs. I walked to the end of the Cowgate, through the Grassmarket and up the steps between Kings Stables Road and Castle Terrace - there are so many of these short cuts in Edinburgh.

This got me back onto Lothian Road and I headed to the Red Squirrel, my 3rd Fuller Thomson bar of the day.

They were showcasing the non-Scottish beers, but I didn't find anything too interesting that I hadn't had before on the blackboard. However they were just lulling me into a false sense of (in)security and the friendly staff pointed in the direction of Tiny Rebel Flux; a quite a sweet, dark fruit flavoured brew with a nice bitter after-taste - it was like an old fashioned 70/- with a clean, bitter bite - good stuff.

By now it was time to head to my last stop of the day just slightly further up Lothian Road, the Shortlist Magazine Pints & Pistachios 2013 Nominated The Hanging Bat (it certainly got my vote).

This was holding Brodie's Beers #Haggisbasher part 3 and I tried the the Blueberry Sour on keg (there was not that much between the cask and keg versions, fruit beers go pretty well on keg), and then the Oyster Tea Stout as a night-cap with lots of tannin & chocolate - good stuff indeed. Here it was good to meet fellow beer enthusiast @Stravale and relax for a few minutes in the recently opened 'Secret Bat Beer Garden'.

All told a great day out in Edinburgh - thanks especially to Brodie's Beers for coming through from London and for A New Wave and the pubs & bars for putting on such a great event.

Return transport:-
  Train: Edinburgh Haymarket to Glasgow Queen St

Edinburgh South Side and 30 Days of IPA: 7th April 2012

I had to go to Edinburgh this weekend to pick up a couple of items and thought I could combine this with one of my favourite short walks, a clamber up Arthur's Seat, and also look to see if there were a couple of interesting beers at the 30 Days of IPA event which was happening in a number of pubs around Edinburgh way during April.

View Edinburgh - South Side in a larger map

Outward travel was as follows:-
  Train: Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh Waverley

It's easy enough to get to Arthur's Seat - take the rear (south) exit from Waverley Station, cross the Royal Mile, go past the Pleasance buildings, continue onto Dalkieth Road until the Commonwealth Pool and then hike a left turn into Holyrood Park and Queen's Drive until the crag of Arthur's Seat looms above you.

The easiest ascent is from the Dunsapie Loch (east) side - it's a part grassy, part muddy path with some steps and rocks at the end, but straight forward enough. Today it only took about 20 minutes from the Loch, but the exertion was enough for me to have sweated most of the previous night's beers out of my system (thankfully I had a change of T-shirt). The 360 degree view is just superb, even on on fairly hazy day like today, with views out to the Forth Bridges, across to Fife, Berwick Law and out along the Pentland Hills.

I went for the slightly steeper decent via the spiralling set of cut steps in the west side of the crag which took me back to the Commonwealth Pool area with only a short walk to West Preston Street to quench my thirst at the Cask and Barrel (South Side).

It's a sister pub of the original Cask and Barrel in Broughton Street and has only been open a few years but it really has the look of place which has been around for quite some time with all the great brewery mirrors, stained glass and olde framed beer advertisements. This afternoon the bar area was busy with the TVs showing Celtic's SPL Championship winning rout of Kilmarnock (so I couldn't get too many pictures). There are 8 hand-pulls with Tempest, Tryst, Fyne Ales, Moorhouse's and Highland (amongst others) available today but since I'd just had the Tempest Unforgiven in Glasgow the previous evening I went instead for the Highland Orkney Best - a great light, refreshing, lemony-flavoured low abv (only 3.6%) pint which knocks spots off its Belhaven namesake. The 2 staff were great as well, really polite & chatty and happy to let me take away a couple of Tryst Hop Trial beers (Stella & Cascade) from the fridge - it really was a pleasure to be in the place.

On leaving the Cask and Barrel I walked up Clerk Street towards the City Centre and was struck by the number of pubs displaying the availability of 'Cask Ales' or should I say 'Award Winning Cask Ales' - The Abbey, McEwans Ale House, the Greenmantle and that's not even counting the soon to be re-furbished The Southern - it really is good to have that choice.

When I reached West Nicolson Street I turned left and found a couple of pubs in the Counting House building at the end of the street - The Blind Poet and The Pear Tree House.

I decided to try the Pear Tree and was impressed by the inside - a rectangular island bar, wood paneling, lots of comfy sofas and views out to the huge beer garden - this must be a definite sun-trap during the summer time.

They had some balloons out and a display board up for 30 Days of IPA with the location of all the breweries involved, some information on the beers available and some general IPA information - it was all pretty informative and well done. I was hoping they might have had Caledonian's Deuchars Imperial Pale Ale available - a souped-up version of the standard Deuchars IPA at a higher abv and made with some American hops but it was not on at that time - a definite shame. Instead they had Tryst Raj IPA, Knops IPA and Worthington White Shield (with the latter being a batch specifically made for the 30 Days of IPA event). I had tried White Shield a number of times in bottled format and always thought it was a bit bland and too carbonated, but on cask it was wonderfully smooth, a great balance of bitterness and malt flavours - very good indeed and I'm really glad I caught it. Let's hope Molson-Coors leave it well alone for years to come.

I could really only manage a couple of further pubs this afternoon so next it was a walk up to the Royal Mile (dodging the families coming out of the Gruffalo Live event at the Festival Theatre) and into the stream of Easter Weekend tourists - it was seriously busy. I walked with the flow of people down the High Street into Canongate until the eponymous The Canons' Gait.

It's part of the same group that has the Guilford Arms and the Abbotsford and during the day it unashamedly goes for the tourist market with good food deals on display and the possibility of tea/coffee and cake far(ish) away from the maddening crowd. It's a bright modern, minimalistic place inside, however there are up to 6 handpulls with a more than decent choice (including detailed tasting notes) and also Tempest Long White Cloud on keg and Weihenstephaner in bottles - not bad for a tourist trap! I went for the Cromarty Brewed Awakening, a great coffee porter and let the efficient staff go about their business of serving the customers.

Finally I needed to get to a bar slightly closer to the Station and walked down to the parallel running Holyrood Road to The Holyrood 9A.

It's a Fuller Thomson place as per Bruadar in Glasgow and Drouthy's in Dundee so have the standard 4 cask ales and 15 or so kegged beers (with a number of changing guests). Today there was 'only' Tempest Citra and Black Isle Yellowhammer on cask (how times change), but the kegged guest lineup was impressive, albeit heavy on the alcohol and the wallet - Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter, Nøgne Ø Imperial Porter, Brewdog Hardcore IPA and Hardknott Queboid. I had half of the latter and it was pretty good, with the Belgian yeast definitely getting through, but I think the barmaid must have poured away most of a pint to get me a fairly full glass.

There's definitely something Tardis-like about the place with high ceilings and just a general feeling of spaciousness. There's a pretty big lounge-style side room and a busy rear restaurant, but the front is nice and relaxed with papers available (and no TV that I could see). It's certainly the most impressive Fuller Thomson establishment that I've been to and, from a beer geek point-of-view, you have to say we are definitely lucky that they seem to be making so called 'craft' beer such an integral part of their bars.

Return travel:-
  Train: Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Queen Street

Also see the Beercast's Guide to Edinburgh Pubs here