Drinking in Edinburgh: An #EBBC13 roundup

First beers of the weekend in the
Red Squirrel, which became a regular haunt

Last weekend was spent at the beer bloggers conference in Edinburgh. We had all manner of interesting sessions to attend and certainly no shortage of beer. (I tried 65 new beers over the three days!) But it wasn't just a chance to score free beer, there was also some serious ideas sharing going on too.A number of people have posted some of their thoughts, here are some of my own  

(and I'll try not to make it seem like a beer diary!*).

Robert and Craig consider which beer is best in the Bow Bar

One of the highlights of such an event for me is to be able to meet up with friends old and new and "talk shop". We're in a room where everyone understands the language of beer, to such an extent that we're no longer really aware that there is a fair amount of jargon used in beer writing. Susanne reminded us that we need to be mindful that our audience aren't all beer geeks like the rest of us and that we should reflect that in our writing. Perhaps one of the reasons wine has grown its market share so rapidly is that despite being a highly technical subject, none of that is put on the bottle, whereas therecan be a tendency for "craft beer to sound like a chemistry experiment" (Garret Oliver) with IBUs, EBCs, etc. 

Matt from Pilgrim and Progress and Beer Norway's Christer
discussing the finer points of beer rating at Stewart's

But at the same time, we shouldn't talk down to our audience. In all likelihood they know more than us, certainly their palate could be more experienced than ours. Try to find the similarities between beer and other beverages to give people a reference point. Never assume that a beer is "too much" for someone as we have "no idea what they can handle" (Garret Oliver outlining how he'll take whatever beers he fancies to a beer tasting because unless someone has a chance to try something, how do we know whether they like it or not?)

JohnMartin presents...The Shilling System

We also had a great session on the history of Scottish beer from John Martin (Scottish Brewing Archive Association), especially they fairly confusing shilling system and discussions in similarities between Scottish beer and continental brewing styles among other juicy tidbits. Who knew that the first lager brewer in the UK was John Muir in Scotland? Tax protests aren't a new thing either; long before the beer duty escalator the treaty of the union was delayed due to the English trying to impose a malt tax on the Scots and later 9 people died in the riots that ensued following a rise in malt duty.

The Shilling System Today

Designation	Name	Strength (ABV%)	Example
60/-	Light	<3.5	Belhaven
70/-	Heavy	3.5-4.0	Tinpot
80/-	Export	4.0-5.5	Stewart
90/-	Wee Heavy	>5.5	Luckie

Wouldn't mind a fireplace like this
at home - Edinburgh council chambers

Edinburgh has some fantastic buildings both old - from the vaulted ceilings of our conference venue, the Ghillie Dhu and the wood panelled interior of the old council chambers to the brand spanking new Stewart's brewery that we had a chance to visit on the Friday night. Our hosts Jo and Steve Stewart's enthusiasm really reflects their position in the vanguard in the newly emerging Scottish craft brewing sector. I see new breweries opening up on an almost weekly basis...now if only Northern Ireland could get a few new breweries open up...

Reuben enjoying a Brodies in Cask and Barrel Southside.

Pubs too are not in short supply. I'd been in a number during last year's Edinburgh Independents Beer Festival but the shabby chic of theHanging Bat and the old school polished wood and mirrors plus half island bar of the Cask and Barrel southside were particular highlights this year. See Robert's Beer Lens blog for some better (i.e. not taken on a phone!) examples.

As an aside, Edinburgh seems to be trying to compete for the most unusual toilet accessories. The Hanging Bat has half keg sinks and the urinals in the Ghillie Dhu... well see for yourself (right).

Mr Oliver enjoying a self-poured Pilsner

Some tips for reaching a wider audience include using Pinterest and Instagram as a lot of people are visually stimulated. We need to write for our audiences but first and foremost we should make ourselves happy. I'll leave you with another Garret Oliver quote "if you aren't making people happy you're doing everything wrong and for all the wrong reasons". Something to bear in mind whether a brewer or a blogger.

Massive thanks to everyone who presented sessions, donated beer, organised food or muled beer for me over the weekend, much appreciated. Fab work once again from the conference organisers, for another conference summary you could do worse than zephyr adventure's own thoughts on the weekend.

*I may post a roundup of the very enjoyable pre-conference pub crawl pub amble and evening activties if I feel like it, though I didn't really take many pictures, ratebeer tells of the many fantastic beers enjoyed anyway.

Topping Out with Edinburgh's Newest Brewery

Edinburgh used to be one of the biggest brewing cities in the country, but over the years this has been whittled away by fires, mergers, closures and bankruptcies. Today there are only a handful remianing but last week's Edinburgh Independents Beer Festival saw the launch of a new concern at Cloisters.

If you've never been to Cloisters then you must make it a priority, a pub in a converted church replete with spiral staircase with a range of cask beers from Scotland and further afield. An ideal location to host a brewery launch...except on the hottest ever day in Scotland. Arriving the next day the staff are still shattered from the night before but still take the time to chat to us and text the next bar on our route to find out what's on - now that's service.

For the launch seems to have been well attended for Top Out* with standing room only, but myself and Reuben popped in the next day to sample the two cask beers. I was immediately attracted by the stand out oversized pump clips shouting at me with their elegant design. I listened and bought a half of each.

Staple Pale Ale (4%) was first up a decent session quaffer with apricots on the nose, sweet with mangoes and a hint of butterscotch that doesn't detract from the overall beer and a dry finish that leaves the tongue gasping for more.

Even better is the Smoked porter weighing in at 5.6%, the level of which is spot on, with arich bacon savoury character on the nose, reappearing again in the finish as a dry umami note cavorting with chocolate, oak and roast barley. It finishes fairly dry, but with enough residual sweetness to balance. This would be fantastic with all kinds of food.

After an afternoon visiting some other pubs, we split a bottle of Dark Abbey, the 8.9% bruiser of a Belgian strong ale. However this is unlike any dubbel inspired ale I've ever tried (I actually liked it for starters!) Rich coffee and yeast esters dance on the nose. Its a hazy ruby brown with rich, demerara, plum sweetness,finishing with what seems to be a trademark dryness- possibly a more voracious yeast strain eating up as much sugar as possible. At £6 a bottle its more expensive than some comparable Belgian's but I enjoyed it much more.

With these beers Edinburgh goes some way to regaining the status it once enjoyed.

Top Out
@TopOutBrew
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*Top Out are based out in Loanhead as are Edinburgh Stalwarts Stewart - 9 years old this year (whose new premises we had the good fortune to visit during the beer blogger's conference).

Pre-Preconference pub-crawl pub amble

With a little over a week to go until the big beery weekend in Edinburgh, I thought I'd propose a pre pub-crawl stroll on the Thursday for anyone arriving early in Edinburgh. My flight gets in at 9AM; so I have plenty of time to kill. The evening crawl takes in some fantastic pubs, but Edinburgh has plenty more available, including a number of venues participating in the Edinburgh Independents Beer Festival (@EIBF)(caution, mammoth post!). My rough plan of attack for the day:

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A Meet 12noon in the Bow Bar for a quick half (we'll get a chance to come back here later/ before dinner Friday)

1 mile walk

B 12:45 lunch at Chop Chop (awesome trad Chinese food) Haymarket

1 mile walk

C 2:00 Caley Sample Rooms for  a few beers (Harbour meet the brewer the night before)

Taxi/walk 3 miles

D Visit Botanic Gardens (free entry) for post dinner stroll if weather up to it

walk 0.5 miles

E 4pm ish Stockbridge Tap (hopefully some weird beard cask/ beavertown keg remaining from the tuesday)

walk 0.5 miles

F/G 5pm Kays Bar/ Cambridge bar/ Bramble

By this time I reckon  we'll be getting hungry again; so onwards!

0.5miles
I 6pm Illegal Jacks for Burritos which is well placed for catching up with the others on the evening tour. Its next door to the Hanging Bat and a short stroll to Cloisters (J), Bow Bar, Brewdog and The Red Squirrel (H)!

Other bars/ pubs may be fitted in depending on how long we spend at other places! If that doesn't whet your appetite enough then take a look at my round up of last year's EIBF.

The original whisky barrel aged beer

A new limited edition Ola Dubh has just been released from Harviestoun, aged in a 1991 Highland Park whisky cask. 20,000 bottles are available in various places around the country and also soon from the Harviestoun website. The plan is to release a single age-statement batch of Ola Dubh every year from now on, with the "core range" of 12, 16 and 18 to continue.

The 10.5% imperial porter is a full 2.5% stronger than its previous (not necessarily older!) siblings with a sweeter flavour due to the previous use of the barrels for sherry.  

"delicious smoky-sherry notes on the palate, the flavours deriving at least as much from the whisky-infused-wood as the spirit itself."  

The release comes 5 years after he initial launch of the Ola Dubh range, the first beer in the UK to be aged in whisky barrels from a named supplier and traceable to the batch. The original 40 and 30 y/o releases are currently the best in Scotland on rate beer and bested only by Old Chimneys Good King Henry Special Reserve in the whole of the UK.

I wrote about some of the previous releases for the inaugural international stout day in 2011 and if I find a bottle of this one I'll certainly get my thoughts up on here! 22 years old will put it between the 16 and 30 year old varieties; so I wonder how will that reflect in the taste. Let me know if you get to try this before I do! 

Fun Facts: 1991 was also the year the first website was launched, Terry Pratchett released his 11th Discworld novel Reaper man and Freddie Mercury died of AIDs. I turned 5 years old (unconnected to previous facts!) 

This release coincides with the 30th anniversary year of the inception of the brewery.  In that time its been through a number of changes, but the current head brewer Stuart Cail has been with them for the last 18 years. 

That's who those of us attending EBBC will be lucky enough to hear give a talk on whisky cask ageing, which along with the keynote speech by Garret Oliver will be one of my main highlights of the weekends. There may also be a sweetener in the deal, but you'll have to come along to find out what it is! 

Its not too late to sign up to EBBC (11th-13th July 2013); so head here and do so now. Its only £95 for the weekend, which may seem a lot, but given the average cost of a pint is somewhere north of £3 these days is only about 11pints worth, which you'll more than manage to recuperate over the weekend! On the same weekend is the second Edinburgh Independents Beer Fest and Annual CAMRA Scottish Real Ale Fest; so you'll be spoilt for choice. Hope tosee some of you there.

Edit: there's even more on that week than I'd realised, check out Rich's Blog, the Beercast for more details.

Harviestoun
@HarviestounBrew 
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A Veritable Brewfest

The weekend just passed was the inaugural Edinburgh Independents Beer Festival. The premise? An 8 pub beer festival with each pub featuring a different brewer/ brewers. A simple concept but one that no doubt took a lot of work from its organisers Craft Centric (aka the guys between the new Hanging at Beer Bar). That it went without any major hiccups is amazing enough, but coupled with perhaps the best selection of  up and coming UK brewers' beers available at any one time (yes, that includes London) its an astounding feat. The fact that I almost didn't find out about it means I appreciated it all the more. 

My original plan was to get to a couple of the pubs; as an afternoon's drinking wasn't really on the cards. Somehow we ended up visiting all 8 pubs in the space of about 5 hours: no mean feat when it involved about 7 miles walking between them! What follows (after the map) is a short run-down of the pubs and beers enjoyed.

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Travelling south from Waverley the first pub encountered is the Holyrood 9A. This is decidedly a food pub, with all tables set for dining but you're more than welcome to take a seat and just get drinks. 10 keg beers and 4 cask beers on offer and a fantastic range. Camden were the beers in residence Thankfully they offer thirds so its possible to try a few. An opportunity to try both wheat beer styles was not to be sniffed at and the wheat and Gent;eman's Wit were both enjoyed, if a little yeastier than usual. The lemon and bergamot made a real change to the usual orange and corriander and if they were to bottle this I'd get a 12pack.

After that we headed down to studentville and to the Southern a pub with another decent menu and hosts of Magic Rock beers for the weekend. We grabbed a half of the new hopped imperial wit Clown Juice, every bit as refreshing as I'd hoped and no way I'd have pegged it at 7%. That's another excellent special release from Rich, Stu et al.



A brisk stroll across the meadows sees you in Cloisters, a pub I've enjoyed on numerous occasions. Unfortunately for me no new beers to try as its Bristol Beer Factory in residence here but thankfully that means I get to try the fantastic ultimate stout on cask. A gorgeous Foreign Extra stout with rich creamy mouthfeel, sweetness and lots of roast in the finish. Thumbs up from Daisy too.

The plan next was to go to dinner but due to some(un)fortunate navigational errors we ended up at the Caley. When in Rome...
I tried the fantastic new USPA, a northern Hemisphere variation on the superlative NZPA. I think the original just pipped this but I'm a sucker for those antipodean hops.

After dinner in Haymarket's Chop Chop we sauntered over to Stockbridge to the eponymous Stockbridge Tap where a beast of a beer was on. In fact two beasts Moor's JJJ IPA and Magic Rock's Bourbon Barrel bearded lady, a half of each was in order. The JJJ is a definite contender for beer of the weekend, roch Tropical hops and lip-smacking bitterness, it was a treat to find it as its largely export only since the evils of HSBD.

Up a fecker of a hill and a couple of excitable squirrels and we find ourselves at the Cambridge, home of Macclesfield's Red Willow for the weekend. We arrive as the new Soulless is launched on cask and keg. Its a Black IPA and another good one from Toby. Smokeless on cask "dry-hopped" with chipotle is also fantastic.

Feeling a bit beered out but with just two pubs remianing we push on to newcomer Red Squirrel on Lothian Road. Its heaving with a Friday night crowd but there's some bench space left. Alechemy Black IPA is a little disappointing, lower ABV than usual for a BIPA and lacking the body its consequently a little watery. Lovibonds 69 IPA more than makes up for the disappointment however and a great introduction to the brewery.

On the home stretch now and its along Grassmarket and up West Bow to the Bow Bar. This is a fantastic old boozer filled with railerphanelia and largely standing-room only. We finish off the day with a bang, Summer-Wine's Half Wit, Kernel IPA Summit and Hawkshead Brodies Prime (beefed up Brodies reserve in a Bladnoch cask).

We headed back to Holyrood 9A for the Sunday finishing party. Enjoyable thirds of 12 beers from the majority of the breweries from the weekend and some tasty snacks from the menu. We'll certainly be returning for a meal one day when the pub is less rammed. Unfortunately very few brewers made it to the final event but it was good to meet Chris and Bruce, the guys behind the weekend and James, brewer at Summer Wine.

A fantastic array of beers and a lot of hard work. Thanks guys! All of the pubs are fantastic too, each with their own individual feels but all sharing the theme of great beer. I'm already looking forward to how the guys will best the event next year. Look out for the announcement sometime in the next couple of months for the date.








More write ups at The Beer Cast, Hippo Beers & This masterpiece from Craig.

*The ever-handy weekly What's on Guide from Edinburgh Stalwarts The Beer Cast put me right.