Seven of the best from Edinburgh Beer Box

Brewers in the Scottish capital have been thinking ‘inside the box’ during lockdown, with a curated beer selection that demonstrates their talent, writes Peter Ranscombe. FROM historic names like Caledonian, McEwan’s and Younger’s through to the modern wave of micro-breweries, the words “Edinburgh” and “beer” go together like a cheeky wee “hauf an’ hauf”. Although…

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Whisky barrel-aged beers turned into cocktails

BARTENDER Dillon Barrie has created eight cocktails using four of The Clan Brewing Co’s craft beers that have been aged in single malt whisky casks. Barrie, who set up cocktail events and hospitality consultancy firm Raise The Bar Glasgow in 2018, has posted his recipes for the cocktails on his social media channels and those…

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There’s a new beer delivery service in town…

Peter Ranscombe puts The Beer Town’s new delivery service through its paces with a quartet of lighter Scottish brews. REMEMBER pubs? Those were the places where we used to go for a pint of beer and to moan about the fitba. I miss pubs. But one of the few bright spots during the lockdown has been…

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Nine of the best from Barney’s Beer

Peter Ranscombe tastes through the range from Barney’s Beer, which is now being distributed UK-wide for the first time. ONE of the weirdest parts of lockdown for me was not attending this year’s Edinburgh Science Festival. I’ve covered the event for a nearly a decade for The Lancet’s specialist medical journals and even appeared on…

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Morningside’s holy corner gets foodie makeover

HOLY corner in Edinburgh’s Morningside district has been transformed into a marketplace for foodies thanks to one of the area’s newest arrivals. Food and drink venue McLarens on the Corner opened in a former bank just weeks before the lockdown began. Now, the site has teamed up with its siblings from pub chain Signature Group…

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Haud yer Wheesht: listen tae low-alcohol lockdown libations

Wanting to cut down on your alcohol intake during the lockdown and beyond? Peter Ranscombe has some suggestions. I DON’T know if it’s just my imagination or if it’s a guilty conscience, but my blue glass recycling box sounds like it’s been clinking just that wee bit more during lockdown. If the number of memes…

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Loch Lomond and the Water of Life

In a welcome reminder that there will be economic life after the lockdown, Glen Luss Distillery has announced an initial round of crowdfunding for the company’s new micro-distillery at Luss on Loch Lomond. When it opens in May 2021, it will be the first distillery and brewery within the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National…

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Small Beer could make a big difference during lockdown

Looking for a lighter lockdown libation? Peter Ranscombe may just have found the solution, courtesy of Small Beer. IT’S the holy grail for craft brewers – making a beer that’s packed full of flavour but without blowing the drinker’s head off. Brewing a strong beer that’s flavoursome is relatively simple, which is why many pints…

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Buy a drink to thank our hard-working NHS staff

Social enterprise and beer brand, Brewgooder, is hoping to facilitate a national ‘round’, inviting Scots to help them get packs of beer to the nation’s NHS workers to say thank you. The craft beer company, which already donates all of its profits to clean water projects, has created ‘One On Us’ – a platform for…

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The inside story of the rise of Brewdog

The genesis of a Scottish brewer is being told on our TV screens this week. In 2007, two men and a dog set out to beat the behemoths of brewing. James Watt and Martin Dickie first met at Peterhead Academy in the northeast of Scotland and within 10 years the close friends turned their craft…

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