Going to Scotland, what should I drink?

Hi all,

I will be in Edinburgh for about 2 weeks at the end of June.



I'm looking to experience some great Scottish (by nationality, not specifically scottish-style, but that too!) beer! I'd also like to take some back home with me to share with some friends. Any recommendations for good pubs/brews in the Edinburgh area?

Slainte (that's not just Irish right? It's sort of pan-Celtic?)

Guilford arms for beer. Bannermans for atmosphere.
BrewDog for beer.

BrewDog and Harviestoun make great brews (Ola Dubh FTW!)

Maybe try a bit of Oban while your there as well.

Bucky
or
IrnBru

drink scotch

McEwans Scotch Ale from The Caledonia Brewery is damn near unobtainable for the most part (I did obtain some and was and still is in my top 5 favorite beers) it is amazing. But yeah.... id be checking out the whisky

Crud... McEwans is near unobtainable because it has ceased exporting to the US. Definately hit some of that up

Ian Rankin is "the UK's number 1 bestselling crime author". His detective character "Rebus" lives and works in Edinburgh. Rebus is very partial to a pint of Caledonian Deuchars' IPA (and so am I). the brewery is based in Edinburgh and has a huge range on offer as you'll see from their website. The website has a pub finder and last time I looked there were over 50 pubs in Edinburgh selling their beers.

Real Ale has never been particularly popular in Scotland (IMHO), but it's picking up.

Get a Rebus novel, it'll help you get into the mindset of modern Edinburgh and most of the places/pubs in the book are real.

Also, try and find some beers from some of the new Scottish Micros, some are really good.

If you could invest a few dollars and have an iPhone, then the UK CAMRA Good Beer Guide is available on the iTunes store. It lists 25 good pubs in Edinburgh, gives details about the beers, food accomodation etc. and with its new mapping feature can take you straight to the nearest good beer pub.

Caveat - when CAMRA talk about Good Beer they mean, almost exclusively, British Live Cask Ales.

There's also a few Wetherspoons pubs in Edinburgh, busy, noisy but usually good value with a wide range of beers.

brewdog ,caledonia, harviestouns, black isle, cairngorm, williams brother fowlers,to name but seven

if you want a list of breweries in the uk go herehttp://www.quaffale.org.uk/

if you look on the list of breweries listed a-z theres a bit that says map next to each alphabetical listing go through em and see how many scotish ones there are there quite a few

btw mcewans is utter pish... try a williams brothers brewery beer they make cracking unusual beers such as froach heather ale, kelpie seaweed beer, grozet gooseberry ale under the heather ales banner as well as their more standard brews under williams bros.brewdog are great, but nothing you havent tried in the states before harviestouns are a good brewery caledonian aint too shabby either, but mcewans? euuwwww

critch said:

btw mcewans is utter pish...

brewdog are great, but nothing you havent tried in the states before harviestouns are a good brewery caledonian aint too shabby either, but mcewans? euuwwww

Click to expand...

To each their own, liverneck

What I would give to enjoy a dram or two of Glen Morangie on the shores of Loch Shiel..

brewmcq said:

What I would give to enjoy a dram or two of Glen Morangie on the shores of Loch Shiel..

Click to expand...

Its a damn fine scotch on the sweet/malty side of the spectrum... got a bottle of Glenmorangie in the cupboard right now, no Loch Shiel though. If you ever see Glenmorangi Nectar D'or buy it

Some of the best beer and whisky I've ever had. McEwans was alright, got old after one pint, though. Brought back some brewdog and the Fraoch heather, lots of scotch. Caledonian IPA was frakkin' awesome, and I'm not usually an IPA fan but I had it on cask and OMG was it good!

I was surprised to see the locals drinking pints out of the outlandishly large and loud 'cold lager' taps. i guess I was there for the one week of summer, though.

Also had something called harvest ale from a cask in a place in Edinburgh called the Abbey (which became my local hangout. Great food and beer, 50 whiskies). No brewery name on the tap. I asked the bartender but between our two accents I didn't catch the name. It was the best beer I had in Scotland. Wish I could have shared a pint with you all. Thanks for the suggestions!

mcewens is pish....should have tried the harviestouns thats pretty damn good beer, the guy who owns it is the director of caladonian who make the deuchars ipa(3.8 ipa i ask you...)its a pleasant enough pint , brewery is now owned by heiniken. the harvest ale you had was probably belhaven harvest ale, now owned by gree(d)n king, so itll probably be closed in a few years.....there is some very good boozers in em'bra, its a friendly place with some stunning architecture

Cloisters Bar in Tollcross has some of the best real ale and has a 80 shilling made for them by a small scottish brewery (can't remember which one). Brew Dog bar is on the Cowgate and is amazing.

50-100 year old scotch---- if you can afford it

FWIW, I'm back now. But thanks for all the suggestions.