The Edinburgh Craft Beer Festival takes place for the first time in The Biscuit Factory in Leith, Friday 26-Sun 28 May. The 5pm Dining blog raised a glass with the organisers.
‘We want to bring together as much of the best beer that we can for three awesome days,’ is how organiser Greg Wells sums up his plans for Edinburgh Craft Beer Festival.
As mission statements go, it has much to admire.
And with more than 30 breweries from the Americas, the UK, Europe and New Zealand in attendance, the cream of the global craft brewing scene will be represented at the event.
Craft beers from around the world
Speaking at a bloggers’ launch in Edinburgh’s Salt Horse Beer Shop and Bar, Greg underlines the fact that the craft brewing movement is an international one.
However, as he also notes, ‘in almost every good craft brewery you will find a Scottish brewer’.
Greg is, of course exaggerating for comic effect, but, thanks in a large part to the brewing and distilling course at Heriot Watt, there is more than a grain of truth to the joke.
Which partially explains why after running the London Craft Beer Festival for five years, Greg and his business partner, Dan Sylvester, decided to expand into Edinburgh.
It is all good news for Central Belt beer lovers.
There will be some 200 beers available to try. These range from old favourites to new brews and festival specials.
Scottish brewers at Edinburgh Craft Beef Festival
Scottish brewers at the event include Cromarty Brewing Co, Pilot and Tempest. There will also be legendary names from around the world such as California’s Sierra Nevada and Denmark’s Mikkeller HQ.
And if you really want to go esoteric, try a beer from Ægir Bryggeri. They are from Flåm, in central Norway near the arctic circle.
Food comes courtesy of The Pitt Streetfood Yard. Vendors include Buffalo Truck, Eat Sweets, Edinburgh Pizza Geeks and Umani.
Great DJ line-up
Having ticked the boxes for beer and beer food, Edinburgh Craft Beer Festival only needs one more component to complete the picture: music.
And they have pulled out all the stops. Over the course of the weekend, visitors can look forward to DJ sets from Young Fathers, Bombay Bicycle Club, Belle and Sebastian, Idlewild and Olugbenga from Metronomy.
You can buy tickets at £38 per person plus booking fee for one session or £105 for the entire weekend.
Tickets include entry to the festival, a souvenir glass and as many taster glasses of beer as you can responsibly handle.
Edinburgh Craft Beer Festival takes place in The Biscuit Factory, 26–28 May. Tix from here.
