May 10- Stone Tap Takeover

Today, a few guys from Stone Brewing in California were over with loads of beer. They came in and took over every tap in the place. That’s right, no BrewDog on tap in our own pub. Awesome. As much as I love our beers I have had them so regularly I love trying new stuff (as you might have guessed from my epic beer list). It all started fairly calm. Got down to Edinburgh and met Chris at the station. We headed back to his place to drop my stuff off and then headed out for a walk in Hollyrood park. It was a beautiful day so we took advantage.

We then went into a cool little pub for an amazing burger and a pint. After that we headed out for a few more pints around the city before getting to the bar. When we did, it was packed.

Almost no where to stand and long lines for beer. We got a can of punk to share while we waited for the Stone stuff to come on. A total of 13 beers were there, 9 of which I hadn’t tried. I had a big task ahead. When they finally got on we waited a while and then got a round. It had begun. After about 2 beers Greg from stone got up and made a speech. It was very well done with lines like

“For too long we have been oppressed”

“The man has been telling us what is good”

with very little, if not no mention of beer itself. Beer geek gospel. Hilarious.

Then, as promised by James he jumped into the crowd. I was told I had to catch him and my job required me to help if need be. Now this might just be me but jumping into a crowd of slightly drunk beer geeks with pints in their hands is a bad idea. He lived.

Then we kept drinking. Chatted with Ian who is setting up Stone Europe and a few other people. Colin, a fellow Canadian, was introduced to me by James and we chatted for a long while. Turns out he is a Heriot-Watt Masters student so I felt I’d give him advice from a BrewDog perspective on how to make beer. High ABV, loads of hops and preferably a bit of dry hopping on top. I’m not sure he was on board but he is up for a trial next month so he will be soon.

Then we left with Franzy (look at his state) for a quick jack and coke and Jager shots at another pub before getting to Chris’s flat.

 Franzy passed out and I went to bed. Chris made a curry. It was a good breakfast the next morning.

All in all it was a great night and I’m sure there will be at least a few more coming up in the next 3.5 months.