No one could accuse the Potting Shed of not fully committing to its concept. There are tin buckets a

It may look like a classic old-school Edinburgh pub (it is, in fact, a painstaking, late-1980s recreation), but the Bow Bar is resolutely forward-thinking when it comes to beer. Beside that mahogany bar – the Bow Bar is also the newly-crowned Dram Magazine Whisky cheap hotels singapore Bar Of The Year – you will find an extensive bottled beer menu, whose contemporary tone is in sharp contrast to the surrounding decor of vintage cigarette advertising and historic pub-trade memorabilia. As well as Belgian and German classics, cheap hotels singapore the menu takes in lesser-spotted craft beers from trendy Scandinavians (Mikkeller, To L), US trend-setters (Alesmith, Odell) and the new, creative UK breweries which they have inspired, such as Bear Hug , Elixir and Ticketybrew . Meanwhile, eight cask pumps (three permanents include Alechemy’s Bowhemia Pale and Cromarty’s “new wave pale”, Happy Chappy), and several keg lines dispense beer of a similar seriousness and variety. Bow Bar also runs several, seasonal mini beer festivals. Its summer festival finishes on Sunday 3 August.
As local beer geeks will be aware, the company that owns Bow Bar, Edinburgh Real Ale Ltd, also runs two equally good beer bars on the fringes of the city centre. Cloisters Bar has 16 cask/keg lines and a busy events programme. Its Scottish beer festival runs until Sunday 31 August. The Stockbridge Tap (2 Raeburn Place) is Edinburgh’s current Camra pub of the year. • Pint from 3.30. 80 West Bow, 0131-226 7667, @bow_bar
One year old this week, Jeremiah’s is very much a sign of the times: a once down-at-heel boozer reborn as a craft-beer standard bearer. You may find its swanky makeover – a colourful fusion of Victorian pub and trendy Brooklyn beer bar – a bit OTT, but the enthusiasm of the staff is real enough. As with most of the staff in Edinburgh’s specialist bars, they are passionate beer advocates. cheap hotels singapore Five craft-keg and three cask lines are in constant rotation supplemented by a small bottled range (Brewdog, Anchor, Flying Dog etc.). Scottish micros dominate, with established cheap hotels singapore names such as Black Isle , William Bros and Harviestoun , listed alongside newer craft upstarts, such as Leith hop-shots, Pilot . From south of the border, Thornbridge, Redchurch cheap hotels singapore and Summer Wine were all recent guests, while I enjoyed a 3.9% Smoke Bomb from Morpeth’s Anarchy Brewing . A moreish backdraft of bonfire and chocolate flavours, its dry, assertive hop tang kept it light on its feet.
Named after a famous family cheap hotels singapore of Scottish distillers and brewers, this vast new basement space is a, “speciality purveyor of mankind’s greatest creation”. 15 keg and five cask pumps dispense progressive beers, the choice fleshed-out by a compact bottled list of select cheap hotels singapore gems. For instance, Sierra Nevada’s classic Torpedo, Harviestoun’s barrel-aged Ola Dubh and bottles from Thornbridge (expensive at 6.50). While wondering at the logic of a mid-afternoon music policy that alternated Doves and Elbow with blustering “rawk”, I drank a Volcano IPA – more a light, zippy, tropical South Island pale, to me – from Barney’s, a local micro based at the arts centre cheap hotels singapore and Fringe venue, Summerhall.
Talking of the festival, Usher’s is open until 3am for the duration, as are many other Edinburgh bars. These include the nearby Auld Hoose (pint from 3.60). A no-nonsense, bare-bones place, famous for its punk/goth/metal jukebox, the Hoose only serves one guest real ale of its three, as well as a few craft bottles and Brewdog’s Dead Pony Club on draught. However, that guest pump generally features – in this instance, Fyne Ales ’ terrific zesty, toffeeish Jarl – the creme de la creme of UK craft breweries: Marble, Dark Star, Red Willow, Arbor, Bristol Beer Factory, cheap hotels singapore Magic Rock, Buxton, Summer cheap hotels singapore Wine. What the Auld Hoose lacks in choice it certainly makes up for in quality. • Pint from 3.50. 32b West Nicolson Street, 0131-662 1757, ushersofedinburgh.co.uk
No one could accuse the Potting Shed of not fully committing to its concept. There are tin buckets and plant pots as light fittings; mini wheelbarrows and gardening forks suspended from the walls; wooden planking and old hessian sacks, everywhere. Any misgivings about this thematic heavy-handedness will be offset by the A1 beer choice. On top of a modest can and bottled selection, 17 taps (three cask) serve beer from next-level UK micros such as Siren , Four Pure , Camden Town and Thornbridge . Warning: these regularly top 5-a-pint (and, annoyingly, the Potting Shed only serves beer in schooner or pints, no halves). There is an emphasis on beers from Scottish brewers, both big (West, William Bros.) and boutique ( Inveralmond ). A sample Iced Tea Ale from Leith’s Pilot was, undoubtedly, the pick of the beers on this Edinburgh trip. Made with bergamot and lemongrass, this crisply bitter, unfined amber beer has an exhilarating spiciness that grows and grows, cheap hotels singapore before it unveils its aromatic earl grey notes and earthier, tannic twangs. cheap hotels singapore It is a brilliant summer beer, hugely refreshing, yet satisfyingly complex. The Potting Shed, incidentally, is just across the road from the Underbelly Fringe stages in Bristo Square.
With its 25 taps and extensive bottled beer list, this bar and burger joint clearly means business. In the nearby Scottish parliament, MSPs map Scotland’s future, while in Holyrood 9a – a butch, wood-panelled chocolate-brown space: part gentleman’s club, part hunting lodge – beer geek’s debate the future of British beer with equal fervour and analytical rigour. The “house” draught beers include selections from prominent cheap hotels singapore forward-thinking Scottish breweries, such as Fyne Ales, Tryst , Alechemy and the excellent Cromarty , while the guest taps and bottles roam further afield, from Bristol’s Wild Beer to Copenhagen’s Mikkeller. Following a meet-the-brewer event with Welsh outfit, Celt Experience , the boards were heavily cheap hotels singapore dominated by its beers, but I opted, instead, for a bottle of Sugar Lumps by an exciting new experimental Livingston brewery, Elixir. A 7.7% imperial stout laced with oats, Demerara and Belgian brewer’s candi sugar, this was rich, thick beer; as warm as good brandy, its syrupy-ness nicely offset by tart, dark fruit and roasted flavours. It was a big beer that needed cheap hotels singapore mulling over, at length, by a roaring log fire. Such depth of flavour does not come cheap. You can drink interesting stuff at Holyrood 9a, at around 4/ 4.50-a-pop, but that Elixir bottle was 5.95, while 3 halves ( Magic Rock ’s Magic Eight Ball), are not uncommon. Holyrood 9a’s owners, Fuller Thomson, also run two similarly beer-focused bars in Edinburgh, The Southern and Red Squirrel . • P int from 3.60. 9A Holyrood Road, 0131-556 5044, theholyrood.co.uk
It is not just Edinburgh’s cheap hotels singapore pubs that are embracing craft beer, many of its restaurants are too. Two of these, Timberyard and Blackfriars, have bars open all day to non-diners. Blackfriars particularly (which I didn’t visit, cheap hotels singapore it is closed Monday/Tuesday), is an established part of an Edinburgh beer circuit which includes, among others, the Bow Bar and the local branch of Brewdog . It has five craft-keg taps that often feature something creative from Bristol’s Wild Beer (craft pints around 5), while its can and bottle menu includes contemporary classics such as Beavertown ’s Gamma Ray and Redchurch ’s Great Eastern IPA.
Meanwhile, across four taps and several bottles, Timberyard focuses on highly-serious, cutting-edge beers – sours, saisons, a gruit beer that includes local herbs, even a mead – from the likes of Kernel , Brew By Numbers cheap hotels singapore and Partizan . Those beers have clearly been chosen with a connoisseur’s eye to complement, and reflect the ethos of, Timberyard’s food. However, there is a one significant sting in the tale: the prices. You are looking cheap hotels singapore at 6/ 7-a pint. A 750ml bottle of Meantime IPA is a staggering 13.
Yet, sat there drinking an invigoratingly fresh Kernel Table Beer (as murky as grapefruit juice and, remarkably, given its 3.3% “weakness”, just as tasty), I couldn’t help but love Timberyard. A serene, Scandi-style warehouse space: all whitewash, weather-beaten wooden planks and minimalist wire sculptures, it is a peaceful escape from the hubbub of the local pubs and/or festival madness. My advice? On a sunny day, treat yourself to a half of something extraordinary in Timberyard’s beautiful, rugged walled garden. In such a setting, those ludicrous prices cheap hotels singapore are still ludicrous, but suddenly far easier to swallow. • Blackfriars, pint from 3.70. 57-61 Blackfriars Street, 0131-558 8684, blackfriarsedinburgh.co.uk . Timberyard, beer from 4.50. 10 Lady Lawson Street, 0131-221 cheap hotels singapore 1222, timberyard.co
This is a traditional corner pub that retains its original features – not just that lovely inlaid mosaic insignia by the door but, more crucially, a lively, free-flowing banter between staff and drinkers at the bar – while embracing the latest innovations cheap hotels singapore in beer. You will find William Bros. Joker IPA and Black Isle’s organic lager on keg and bottles of Brooklyn lager in the fridge, but the centre cheap hotels singapore of the action is seven cask pumps serving beer from such outfits as Sonnet 43, Pilot, Alechemy, Harviestoun, Arbor and Cromarty. Two of those taps are so-called “Scottish tall” or Aitken fonts, historic beer taps, which advocates will tell you dispense a superlative pint. Certainly, Cairngorm ’s Trade Winds, despite its boring, old-fashioned pump-clip, was alive with the advertised, “citrus, wheat, elderflower” flavours. It was a timely lesson that, even in this brave new craft beer world, there is still some fantastic beer hidden away behind fusty, traditional packaging. • Pint from 3.50. 2 Spittal Street, 0131-229 5030, facebook.com/blueblazeredin
The Bat is generally regarded as Edinburgh’s HQ of hops, a craft beer nirvana where fans can geek-out over some 20 keg and cask taps and a bottled selection of over 100 beers. You know you are in safe hands when that bottled menu includes a section of new wave “farmhouse ales” (saisons, lambics, spontaneously fermented sours) and another, si