Just spent a hectic weekend at the Fringe - a lot of shows, but not much time (or energy) to visit old haunts and favourite pubs. Stewart Brewing were doing an Ale Tasting at Leslie's Bar so we decided it might be worth going along to get our weekend off to a liquid start.
Jo and I had heard Steve Stewart at a previous Fringe, but this time, he left it to one of his new recruits - a biology undergrad from Edinburgh University who is apparently going to be joining as a brewer this summer. It was a fairly informal gathering and not exactly a crash course in brewing - more of an opportunity to advertise the business to the tourists - nice t-shirt:
Tremendous value, however - we had a half pint of each of their IPA, their Festival Ale (apparently just a late hopped IPA) and their signature 80/- (which still features at the Diggers as the nearest thing they could produce to the famous old McEwan's 80/- that the Diggers built its reputation on many years ago). Additionally, we were allowed a further 2 pints each of anything we liked, plus one of the Stewart Brewing glasses - all for just a tenner!
We grabbed a bite to eat between shows at Lazy Lohan's at the foot of the Royal Mile. Not expecting anything much in the way of beer in this little bistro, we were pleasantly surprised to find they had a small stock of a few of the Stewart bottled beers we hadn't been able to try earlier - including Hollyrood and St Giles:
Apart from that, we didn't get much opportunity to be too selective about our drinking - the odd snatched Deuchar's in the Union waiting to go in to the Gilded Balloon, preceded by a Goldihops and a Blonde Bombshell in the Doctor's - the nearest point to Udderbelly.
We went to Foodies at the Festival at Holyrood Park on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and spotted the specially designed Stewart Brewing wagon dispensing Festival and 80/-. Our ale tutor at Friday's session recognised us and gave me a free bottle of Hollyrood - very nice of him.
As an aside, I visited yet another golf club with two real ales last week - Kemnay had Landlord and one other (forgotten already!).
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