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Scotland – natural home of tasty lager?

We picked up three great Scottish lagers last week from Utobeer. We were with friends, so we were pretending not to be sad and didn’t take any notes, which means we can’t give you much in the way of detailed descriptions. Nonetheless, they’re all recommended.

First we tried Latitude Pilsner, from the Atlas Brewery. We thought this was fruity and sherbety, and packed a good amount of flavour in for 3.9%. We wonder what the cask verson is like?

Next up was Hop Rocker from BrewDog. This is the first time we’ve had anything from BrewDog, but it certainly won’t be the last. This reminded us quite a lot of Brooklyn lager, although maybe not as intense — a good mixture of sweetness and bitter, nice balanced carbonation. The Beer Nut has recently reviewed it, here.

Finally, an old favourite – Harviestoun’s Schiehallion. We’ve always liked this one for its full flavour and wonderfully dry, perfumy finish.

Perhaps Scotland is the natural place for producing quality UK lagers? It’s a bit cooler than England (not that we’re roasting here at the moment!) and therefore well suited to lagering, and the water’s probably a bit better for it too.

Boak

PS — we note that Brew Dog are “in trouble” again — after being picked on by the Portman group for aggressive labelling, they’re now being attacked in the press for launching Tokyo, possibly Britain’s strongest beer at 12%. You can read their side of the story on their blog, here. Are they unlucky, or just shrewd at marketing?

We drank them at a bring-your-own Ethiopian restaurant in Shepherd’s Bush. Blimey, that’s some filling food. We’re still stuffed now.

5 replies on “Scotland – natural home of tasty lager?”

Scotland has a history of lager making that goes way back. I won’t bore you with the details which are readily found elsewhere, but breweries such as Aitkens, Tennents, Arrols and many more produced genuine continental lager back in the 19th century.

Scotland also way outstrips the rest of the UK for lager consumption and has since at least the 50’s. Is any of it any good? Maybe a very small percentage.

A bit OT but was the Ethiopian any good? What was the name? I’m looking for a good place closer to home and Shepherd’s Bush would fit the bill.

We don’t have much to compare it to, but our companions rate it. It was very cheap and very friendly, and the bring-your-own thing is great for beer geeks. I can’t remember what it’s called, though.

Boak — any idea?

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