Five of Edinburgh's best craft beers

Based out on the southern outskirts of Edinburgh and founded in 2004 by Steve and Jo Stewart, Stewart Brewing is one of the city’s biggest new brewing success stories. In 11 years they’ve grown from a husband-and-wife cottage industry to staffing 25 employees and operating a large custom-built facility which includes the UK’s first experimental brew-it-yourself Craft Beer Kitchen and an 18 tap Growler Fill Station (allowing patrons to take home brews straight from the keg). Their delectable selection ranges from core brews including Hollyrood (geddit?) pale ale and the aptly-named Edinburgh Gold continental bier - it's their Radical Road triple hopped pale ale that's their signature though, a robust, well-balanced session IPA with a nicely bitter finish.

The Innis & Gunn story begins with a happy accident. After being approached by a major whisky brand to help them season their oak casks with beer, Master Brewer Dougal Sharp delivered a custom recipe and technique which worked with spectacular results in more ways than one. When workers out of curiosity tasted the discarded beer post-seasoning, it proved a revelation – smooth and sweet, with hints of vanilla and oak. Sharp set to work perfecting the recipe, and the utterly distinct and multi-award winning Innis & Gunn original was born. Several other ‘beers with character’, as they call them, have followed since including Rum Finish, Toasted Oak IPA and even a craft lager.

Founded and operated by veteran brewer Andrew Barnett in the Summerhall former vet school, and on the site of the historic Summerhall Brewery (demolished circa 1913), Barney’s is a micro-brewery literally rooted in tradition. There’s no pasteurisation or filtration in the process, which is 100% natural. All of Barney's beers – including the humbly-named Good Ordinary Pale Ale plus a lager, a red beer and a dark porter – are cask-conditioned or bottle-conditioned. The Volcano IPA – an American-style beer with a hoppy kick – is a good place to start, though culture vultures may be interested in tracking down one-off special brews created with local luminaries like John Byrne and Idlewild.