Visiting 30 places around the country, many impressed with their warmth and variety, but one outshone all others
Travelling to 30 destinations to find the best beer in Britain sounds like a dream gig – until someone inevitably asks you which was your favourite. Should you just go with the obvious, Sheffield, Manchester, Bristol, the places nobody’s going to disagree with? Or the surprising, like Cheltenham, Thanet or Chester?
Perhaps there’s somewhere that combines both. It seems a bit of a cheat, but if you bundle Leith in with Edinburgh, as we did while researching a new book, Beer Breaks in Britain, you’ve got it. Leith is like a surprise second layer in a box of chocolates, in which, unlike most boxes, the chocolates are all different to the top layer.
You might need to tack on an extra day to explore the Scottish capital’s seaside suburb properly, but you’ll go home feeling you’ve tasted enough on your trip to stuff you with the vast variety Britain’s beer scene, from traditional cask ales to brightly-hopped IPAs and surprising sours, has to offer.
Other cities might provide a similar variety, thanks to the craft revolution that’s brought new breweries and new beer styles to almost every corner of the UK. But I found Edinburgh to have the strongest sense of place. Whichever pub or bar, or taproom you’re in, you never forget you’re in Edinburgh.
There’s a certain level of service there, a care for the customer and the beer, that I found to be consistently a notch above the rest. These are the venues that confirmed to me why the Scottish capital outshines all other towns and cities on a beer tour of Britain.
Arriving at Edinburgh Waverley Station, a short stroll across Princes Street will take you to the Guildford Arms, a pub that’s lost none of its late-Victorian opulence. Glance up at the gorgeous rococo ceiling before turning your gaze to the bar, where the range of cask and craft beers will make you feel you could spend all day here.
The Malt and Hops in Leith (Photo: Visit Scotland)
But no. Because you’re not far from Rose Street, New Town’s pedestrianised artery, once the city’s most famous pub crawl and still busy with bars and restaurants. The pick here is the Abbotsford, where the grand, island bar bristles with handpumps and taps.
Then on to the Oxford Bar, haunt of Inspector Rebus (along with his creator Ian Rankin, who you might even bump into here) and further into the backstreets, the criminally under-celebrated Kay’s Bar, a quirky hideaway bathed in red light and frequented by friendly locals.
Beneath the tourist-mobbed Royal Mile, the Salt Horse is a modern little beer café that provides a haven from the crowds as well as a terrific range of craft on tap and in the fridges.
Sandy Bells, behind the National Museum, is a more traditional local, well known for its folk sessions, while Cold Town House spans three floors of a former church on the corner of Grassmarket. Climb up to the roof garden for a view of the Castle while you sip on Cold Town’s own brews.
Near the greenery of The Meadows, the Cloisters Bar is housed in an old parsonage, while next to Haymarket station, you can drink in the Edwardian splendour of Ryrie’s Bar. Around the corner, behind a narrow shop front, you’ll find the Wee Vault, where you can sample a wide range of Vault City Brewery’s sour beers.
Phil Mellows is the co-author of the new book Beer Breaks in Britain: 30 places to explore and drink good beer
It’s at this point that you feel that swelling, glorious realisation that you’ve still got a layer of Edinburgh beer venues to explore.
Leith, of course, has its own identity, serving as the port for Scotland’s capital where the waters of the Firth of Forth flow into the North Sea.
If walking rather than taking the tram, you can break for refreshment at the bright and airy Old Eastway Tap or detour via the beer garden at gluten-free Bellfield Brewery – and if your luck is in you’ll see what The Proclaimers meant when they sang about Sunshine on Leith as the late afternoon light gleams on the still harbour waters.
Leith is home to no fewer than four craft breweries. Newbarns is probably the best-known, found down an unpromising alleyway behind Bob’s Garage, where you’ll find all the hip folk chilling in the taproom.
Leith on the outskirts of Edinburgh (Photo: Phil Mellows)
Moonwake occupies an old warehouse deeper into docklands, the colourful taproom on a mezzanine overlooking the brewhouse, while Pilot opens its doors for tours and tastings on Saturdays.
Campervan began business brewing in a campervan – craft beer is full of tales like this – and now not only has a proper brewery and taproom but a bar on the waterfront called Lost in Leith where it ages beers in giant oak barrels known as foeders.
Leith has great pubs, too. The quirky Carriers Quarters, the comfy Malt & Hops, Teuchter’s Landing, which seems to lean out over the water’s edge, Innis & Gunn and best of all The Dreadnought. It’s a little walk, heading away from Leith’s main attractions, to what looks like an ordinary corner boozer. But the beers are better than that, featuring ales from County Durham’s Brass Castle Brewery (run by the landlord’s brother). It also has a thing for customising pumps in weird ways.
Teuchters Landing in Leith (Photo: Visit Scotland/Kenny Lam)
There’s a warm welcome here. Too warm for some, who smeared the walls with homophobic graffiti in anger at the pub daring to serve the full complement of sexualities and genders. True to its name, the Dreadnought stood firm against bigots and shouted about it, too.
These are the wonderful kind of places that beer takes you. While researching Beer Breaks in Britain, each destination revealed its own unique character, and it’s impossible to love one more than another. Until someone really twists your drinking arm.
Phil Mellows is the co-author of new book Beer Breaks in Britain: 30 places to explore and drink good beer (Bloomsbury Conway, £20.00). Available to buy now.