Five years ago, most blokes under forty wouldn’t have been seen dead clutching anything other than a big name lager. Real ale was for your Dad and locally brewed craft ales were the province of nerds.
Craft ale
How things change. From the Hanging Bat, The Vintage and Scran and Scallie in Edinburgh to Inn Deep and Munro’s in Glasgow, craft ale bars have become as hip as it gets.
To be fair, I should mention the part that Brewdog have played in all of this but I guess I’m not the only one to find that their constant rebel punk postures are crossing the line between effective attention-grabbing and being annoyingly shrill. Good beers though.
American brewers
Anyway, the latest to join the ranks in Edinburgh is called Jake’s Place. Just opened on Market Street next to the backpackers’ hostel, it features four American beers on keg; four Scottish; four Scottish farmhouse ciders; some 30 bottled craft beers from Scotland and a further 30 from the US. Backing them all up are at least 30 different bourbon and rye whiskies along with a good selection of malts.
Apparently, Jake’s Place is the only Scottish stockist for the American brewers Old Dominion and Fordham. Neither means anything to me but those in the know, such as Richard of the excellent BeerCast, reckon that this is worth celebrating. Incidentally, this recent BeerCast examines the beers available and the decor at Jake’s Place in more detail.
Beer food
The bar’s Facebook page also promises beer food. It doesn’t specify what beer food might be but I’m pretty sure that I will like it.