Beer in Edinburgh Scotland, and Dublin Ireland.

Hi,

I'm going to Edinburgh on Monday the 22nd. And then Dublin later that week.

So, I'm looking for some great beer related things to do.

Great tours, great pubs, etc.... And yes, I am aware of a particularly well known stout brewery in Dublin.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

The Bull and Castle and The Porterhouse in Dublin come highly recommended but I've never been...

I have heard that the tour of the Jameson distillery is fantastic, however I have not done the tour! I did a musical pub crawl one night in Dublin (Temple Bar) and had a fantastic time! Enjoy all the great pubs and night life. I am not a Smithwicks fan, but it was a completely different beer there (in taste). Same goes for Guinness.

Have a great time!

dave

I lived in Scotland for several years and was in Dublin 2007.

For Edinburgh you should stay around the Grassmarket area. In Dublin, obviously you should do the Guiness brewery tour and get your free pint at the bar at the top of the brewery. Which overlooks the city. To be honest the center of Dublin is very touristy. You will find some bars with live music around the Temple Bar area.

Oh and in Edinburgh there are a few good whiskey tours on the royal mile, the walk up to the castle...

I hope to go to Dublin this year. Have been to Edinburgh a couple of times and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Take the Literary Pub Tour. When I was there, it met in the Grassmarket at the White Hart inn. Just ask someone in any of the pubs and they should be able to tell you where to go. The tour is a guided (and very entertaining and informative) walking tour that will take you to 7 or 8 pubs over the course of, if I remember, two or three hours, with time for a pint (or a half if you're slow) at each. Just take advantage of the restrooms any time you think you might need to... some of the stops in between pubs entail a story or two before the next opportunity!

You will absolutely love Edinburgh. Go see the castle as well, but my favorite part of the whole city is the Grassmarket. I could (and did) spend days there.

Edit: If you're still looking for a place to stay, I really liked the Apex hotel in the Grassmarket. Check out their website for deals; also look at lastminute.co.uk

Edit again: Here's a Grassmarket brochure.

Edinburgh is amazing. I second the Literary pub tour and grassmarket area. Last time I was there I was just backpacking alone and wound up there without any plans and found out there was some major rugby thing going on and not a hotel room available in the whole city. Met some old guy who lived about a mile south of the grassmarket area and he let me stay at his house for 3 days. That alone was way better than any of the tours and he loved to share his whisky and tell stories

Although I don't recommend shacking up with a stranger. Oh, and you do have to go see the castle as well.

Is the grassmarket area the place with the big black skeletal tower and the little valley with the subway popping out for a small distance? I stayed in Edinburgh for a day last year and it is defintely a very cool place to walk around and explore.

Absolutely go to Porterhouse in Dublin. They ROCK. There are a few as it's a chain. The Oyster Stout is amazing. They have something like 10 or 11 beers and most of them are very tasty. Think I liked all of them a lot except 2. It's also a nice space with live music.

Porterhouse

I was at the Temple Bar location a few times. The live music is pretty good. It fills up a bit at night but you can usually find a place at the bar. If you want peace and quiet, go during the day.

Went to some other historic locations like the Bull and Castle, but I preferred Porterhouse myself. Better beer.

Thanks for all the good advice! Keep it coming!

Have a McEwan's Scotch Ale if you can find it in Scotland. They don't import it into the US anymore

ksocia said:

Have a McEwan's Scotch Ale if you can find it in Scotland. They don't import it into the US anymore

Click to expand...

I can still find this in Canada though. I should pick it up, never had it I don't think.

When I was in Scotland I wasn't yet a big beer drinker and was with a bunch of nondrinkers, so I didn't do anything beer-related (stayed across the street from the Tennent's brewery in Glasgow, though; the Necropolis smells like beer). +1 on the castle, though, and make sure you find when they fire the cannons (1pm maybe?). There are a bunch of pubs around the Royal Mile but I'm not sure how many are 'authentic' really and how many are general bars that play up the Scottishness a bit. Stay at a B&B on Skye... now that's fun! (though the entire goddamn island closes at like 8pm, so eat up early)

Don't know enough about Edinburgh scene to give any specific recommendations - my approach was just to look for hand pumps and get whatever they had. Usually scotch or 70/- (70 shilling) but sometimes IPA etc.

If you like whiskey there is an awesome whiskey place just up the hill from the grass market - I'll try and find the name of it.

Dublin, and most of Ireland, is guinness, guinness and more guinness. Which is not too bad, because it's very drinkable over there (and a bit lower alcohol - so you can stay on the session a bit longer). I like beamish too which you can find in some places. Usually it's guinnness, killians (called smithwicks), harp lager and one or two imports (stella, heiniken, etc.).

In Ireland I always get the impression that guinness is the BMC over there - they sponsor everything, their signs are everywhere. Only saving grace is that the beer is a good deal better than BMC.

Here is a link from the Irish Craft Brewer website of pubs stocking craft beer in Dublin Irish Craft Brewer - Pubs that stock Irish Craft Beer

I like the Bull and Castle. It has a nice beer menu. It's also less than a 10 minute walk form the Guinness brewery. I really like the award winning Galway Hooker available there on draught Irish Pale Ale - Galway Hooker Beer

Good point Diablo. There is craft beer in Ireland, just probably needs a bit of research on that site to locate it.

I'd love to have a Galway Hooker, but I'm travelling with my wife.

One other thing:

In the Guinness gift shop, they sell a 7% abv version of Guinness in bottles that's pretty tasty. Worth picking up a few of those.

If you have netflix, you can watch this on "Watch Instantly"

Netflix Online Movie Rentals - Rent DVDs, Classic Films to DVD New Releases

The historic pubs of Dublin.
A nice watch, especially if you're on a mission to go to pubs in Dublin.

When I was in Dublin, it was fun just to go into an off-the-beaten-path watering hole and shoot the **** with the old guys and watch the magic of the bartenders lining up all of those pints!

Deacon Brodies is a good one. On the castle side of the Royal Mile. Also my cousin's work Local is in Register street right by Waverly Station. It's about the size of my bathroom. It's a bar, on your right when you walk in, with room for about three stools and then a bench to your left with two wee round tables. That's it.

Oh I'm talking about Edinburgh.

Rudeboy

Thanks fro all the advice. I'm back home now.

In no particular order I went to:

Edinburgh
The Scotch Whisky Experience tour (did a 4 glass tasting)
Several pubs on the Royal Mile
The Bow Bar, near the Grassmarket
Milnes of Rose Street
CAMRA's Scottish Ale Festival - which i REALLY wish I had discovered earlier than I did.
The Beehive Inn
Bought a BrewDog IPA and BrewDog Paradox, an Imperial Stout aged in whisky casks from Springbank

Dublin
Guinness Tour
Multiple pints of Guiness with lunch and dinners
Pubs in Temple Bar - kindy touristy
Porterhouse - for lunch and dinner on the same day, and drank the plain porter and the TSB (Turner's Sticklebract Bitter)


Stopover in Frankfurt
Radeberger Pilsner (My first ever german beer in germany - even though it was at the airport)

It was a blast!