Beer Tripping in Scotland
For our Winter Trip this year, Pam and I made a pilgrimage to Scotland. The impetus was to go see our middle kid who was studying abroad at St Andrews this semester, but we took the opportunity to visit and see a large swath of Bonnie Scotland and of course we sampled many local craft beer and regional whisky varieties on the way.
Here is a rough estimation of our trip, which entailed me attempting to drive for the first week of the trip and ended with a couple of day trips by train.
Here is a list of our favorite spots, activities and places to go by location. So, without further ado, enjoy my slideshow.
Aberdeen
After a quick stop to see our daughter and a castle at The University of St Andrews, we made our way through driving snow to Aberdeen.
The Old Workshop – The Old Workshop was our first stop. This is a relatively new, incredibly cool underground cave bar on Shiprow Village. The owner keeps a well curated beer selection, but they also get a heavy cocktail crowd, which tends to be the focus. This is probably the coolest place in Aberdeen.
Fierce Bar Aberdeen – This was the first day in Scotland, so I was jet lagged and exhausted from driving on the wrong side of the car and road in heavy snow. Nevertheless, we stumbled and slid our way over to Fierce Brewing based on reputation and it was delightful. The snow was falling rapidly and it felt like drinking in a snow globe. Their seasonal Very Big Moose Imperial Stout series was the highlight.
Speyside
The next morning we drove, very slowly, through the snow and ice to the Speyside region near Craigallachie to see a friend who lives near there. Since we were snowed in the first night was dinner a lot of Whisky. Worth noting here is that Craigallachie Whisky is likely the best Scotch you have never heard of.
The Macallan Estate – I could not go to Scotland without a pilgrimage to The Macallan Distillery. The building is amazing, when you enter it feels like a Cathedral to Whisky. I had a sampling of the absolutely incredible Edition series and given enough time and money, I would have stayed for much longer.
Spey Valley Brewery – As a beer guy, this is the place to go in Speyside and it was easily one of the top highlights of our trip. Our local friend was acquainted with the owner and he arranged our visit and we quickly sampled some of the best beer of the trip. David was very accommodating and we took home a large amount of beer, several of which Pam will be reviewing on The Beerists podcast in the coming weeks. This was one of the top two places we visited for beer in Scotland.
Isle of Skye
Portree Bars – The Isle of Skye is beautiful and scenic and an absolute must see adventure, however the beer scene in Portree and Uig is the worst we experienced on the trip. Also, Skye Brewing makes some of the worst beer I have had ever. Avoid! This is the right time and location to drink Whisky.
Inverness
After driving around much of Skye and stopping at several castles, we drove up Loch Ness and stayed the night in Inverness.
MacGregor’s Bar – This is one of the oldest bars in Inverness and it is well known for having daily live Scottish music events in the taproom. It was very crowded this particular night but the traditional music was fantastic and I had a Belhaven Stout that was lovely. I would have loved to have gone back when it was a little more accessible.
Black Isle Brewing Co – While in Inverness we visited the Black Isle Brewing Co taproom. It is a 100% organic brewery using local farms and suppliers. It was pretty easy to find out that the brewery was organic because they tell you on every open wall and piece of marketing. They are very proud of that fact. The beer was all high quality and solid, but I honestly thought the pizza at this taproom was the highlight.
Glasgow
Jumping ahead a little for our trip to Glasgow. After a long drive to Edinburgh to drop off the car and check into our hotel for the second half of the trip, we embarked on a day trip by train to Glasgow.
Shilling Brewing Company – The focus of our trip was to see some museum and cathedrals, but it was raining very hard this day, so instead we shortened the sightseeing and popped into SBC for a couple of pints. This brewery has won multiple awards for best taproom and it really is a beautiful location and venue right in the heart of Glasgow. I had a Stouty McStoutface that was great and Pam had the Red Ale. Highly recommend.
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is where we spent the final 8 days of our trip, with the exception of a couple of quick day trips to Glasgow and Stirling. In Edinburgh, we had time to see all the many tourist and beer related sights that one could hope for and one beer bar in particular was an absolute stand out.
Jeremiah’s Taproom – Jeremiah’s taproom was less than a block from our hotel and I decided to make it my local for the week, meaning that I came here all except one day I think and tried basically everything they had to offer. 20 Craft Taps and another dozen or so standard taps, plenty of bottles and great food (think really good burger bar). It was a worthy local for our week in town.
Royal Mile Area Pubs – Lumping these together because we went to a lot of them. They are all pretty decent, if perhaps a little indistinguishable from each other. They have individual quirks but frankly the beer was fairly uniform across all of them depending on who the sponsoring conglomerate (Nicholson, Belhaven, Old Town Pubs, etc) was for each establishment. The specific ones I specifically remember visiting were The World’s End, The Royal Mile Tavern, Halfway House (small but my favorite of these), The Conan Doyle (slightly off the Royal Mile) and Deacon Brodie’s Tavern. All were very good, but trended heavily touristy and after awhile all felt very similar.
The Jolly Judge – This was the exception to the above rule. The Jolly Judge is also a Royal Mile Pub just off a side “close”. It had a significantly better more, deliberate beer selection with knowledgeable staff and a very laid back, relaxing atmosphere. It was a perfect break from all the walking and revelry of the day.
The Bow Bar – The Bow Bar was another standout. Like The Jolly Judge it had a well selected set of cask and tap pours, but it also offered an amazing bottle selection. The other major thing to note about this pub is that it is on Victoria Street, which is the inspiration for Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. So, expect a thousand witch and wizard cosplayers on your way to this pub.
The Keller – Very trendy, German Inspired beer hall near St James Square. I mention this place, specifically because it was a party. Great music, great beer selection that trended a little more German and general European compare to many other pubs. Worth going to for a change of pace.
Fierce Edinburgh (Rose Street) – Fierce seems to be the most well known, well distributed craft beer in Scotland (with one exception that I will touch on at the end). It was available at most bars and rightfully so, everything I had was good, and I tried almost everything. Rose Street is a trendy little street near the castle with a lot of taverns and local shops. Definitely worth a visit.
The Globe – This may be the worst bar in Scotland. It bills itself as the expat bar, so the only reason to go here is if there is an American Football game that you can’t miss or you are really nostalgic for Coors Lite (which was on tap).
Salt Horse – And in complete contrast, Salt Horse is the best beer in Scotland, bar none. Its a taproom on one side, with a bottle shop next door that you can also access by going down and in between the two locations. Owen (seen below) was extremely knowledgeable, energetic and just interesting to talk to. We made it a point to come back to this taproom on multiple occasions. They consistently offered beer that I could not find anywhere else in the country and had a bottle list that rivaled anything I have seen anywhere in the world. Along with Spey Valley Brewing, this was the other one of the two must see, top tier beer experiences that we had in Scotland. It is worth a visit on its own.
Edinburgh – Leith
On our final day of the trip, we took the tram to Leith, a community in the north of Edinburgh that has many great breweries and beer bars. Unfortunately they are all closed on Mondays through Wednesdays, so we missed Campervan, Moonwake and Newbarns which were all definitely on our list. Something for next time, I guess. Here are a couple of things we were able to see on our rainy final day.
Malt & Hops – Very low key bar on the Leith River with several beer specials and rotating casks and taps. The hop theme was everywhere with the place being decorated in hop vines and hop specific wall art. The staff was friendly and the place was fun and unassuming.
Teuchter’s Landing – This place was an interesting, slightly touristy location on the Firth of Forth. Large food menu and beer selection, but their whisky selection stood out most. They had hundreds of Whisky selections on the wall to choose from all ordered by location and style. It was impressive.
Dreadnought – Dreadnought is a very fun, LGBTQ friendly bar that we visited last in the Leith area. They had a great beer selection (Casks and Taps), many dogs and very friendly patrons and staff. We likely would have stayed longer if not for the pending downpour and need to get closer to the hotel. The other thing that I enjoyed at Dreadnought was the 2nd image you see below that takes a well deserved jab at the one extremely well known brewery that we did not visit in Scotland.
It was a fantastic trip with beautiful sites, surprisingly fantastic food (haggis is great, legitimately), and a solid if not fully mature craft beer selection. I highly recommend a visit.
