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November 16, 2018

As the 5pm Dining blog has frequently noted, there has been an explosion of new gin brands coming out of Scotland.

You could spend many a happy hour investigating them in one of the country's top gin bars. We're thinking 56 North in Edinburgh or Gin71 in Glasgow.

Alternatively, you could invest £12.99 and buy a copy of Gin Galore - A Journey to the Source of Scotland's Gin.

Published by Edinburgh's Black and White Publishing house and written by Sean Murphy, the book looks at 50 different Scottish gins: where they come from; who makes them and how best to serve them.

A true gin enthusiast, Sean visited fifty Scottish distilleries to discover each one's secrets.

As well as being a Scottish Gin Awards judge, he writes about Scotland's drinks for the Scotsman and also works behind the bar at the world-famous Pot Still in Glasgow.

Craft Beer Experience

Organiser Richard Servranckx eyes up a beer.

Organiser Richard Servranckx eyes up a beer.

If beer is more your bag, then make tracks for the Edinburgh Craft Beer Experience which is taking place at Assembly Roxy until Saturday 17th November.

We have written about it in depth here and their website has a full beer list along with all the other information you might need.

We can recommend the Breakfast Toast from Dundee's 71 Brewing and the Dynamo IPA from Six°North.

While on the subject of Six°North, they are planning to open their fifth site on Union Street in Dundee come December.

Dynamo Dundee will feature 24 taps, with beer supplied by brewers from across Scotland and further afield as well as the beers brewed by themselves.

The company’s other bars are in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stonehaven.

Aberdeen: a three dog town

BrewDog at Union Square.

BrewDog at Union Square. Pic: BrewDog

Sticking with the east coast but moving further north, the BrewDog boys have launched their third bar in the city.

It is the brewery's 37th bar in the UK and is located on the upper floor of the city's Union Square Shopping Centre.

Zipping back down the road to Edinburgh, Juniper Bar on Princes Street has just unveiled its winter cocktail list.

We're chock full of the cold so can confidently recommend the Cockburn's Walk as a winter warmer.

It blends Pickering's Gin, Cockburn's Port, raspberry liqueur, cherry syrup, lime juice and Fee Brothers Chocolate Bitters.

And if you start to feel peckish after a couple of cocktails then the adjacent Twenty Princes Street Restaurant always has interesting menus.

As well as a wide range of steaks cooked on a charcoal-burning Josper, they serve main courses like the salt-baked sea bass with buttered leeks, a smoked haddock croquette, roasted garlic and Parmesan potato plus a white wine and chive velouté.

Juniper has some tasty new additions to its bar book.

Juniper has some tasty new additions to its bar book. Pic: Juniper