LOCAL BEER
A CRAFTY PINT It’s a good time to be a beer drinker in the city. David Kirkwood tracks down the city’s brewing legends
I
t’s taken a while, but craft beer mania has well and truly landed in Glasgow (tragically, so have the beards, but you can’t have everything). These days, however, from bars in the East End to cafés in the Southside, Joker and Punk IPA jostle for fridge space alongside the mainstream lagers. The breweries behind these products are certainly the most prominent in town. Aberdeenshire’s BrewDog opened their Finnieston pub in 2011, while Alloa’s Williams Bros Brewing Co. followed suit with Inn Deep, their own West End site. Then there was Drygate. This ambitious Williams co-venture with Tennent’s gave Glasgow a destination brewpub, shop and restaurant adjoining the latter’s famous Wellpark Brewery. There has been understandable scepticism about the influence of a major player, but it’s beyond doubt that the choice and standard of beers in the city has improved markedly in recent times. So what beer can Glasgow call its own? The Red T of Tennent’s Lager casts a long shadow, a pint playfully scorned yet sipped with affection citywide. We also have WEST, a Bavarian brewpub on Glasgow Green that produces in line with German purity laws – their tankard glass is a familiar sight in many a bar, and in their St Mungo’s Lager they have their own distinctive standard bearer for the city. ■ drygate.com; westbeer.com
TAKING THE PLUNGE Keen home brewers Alison and Mark Hazell of Jaw Brew took the plunge after being told how good their offerings were, launching their first two beers (a pale ale called Hop, and a golden one, Drift) in Julyy 2014. They won two silver awards at the Society of Independent y. Brewers awards almost immediately. e But it wasn’t as easy as all that. ‘The ot biggest difficulty was getting our foot ce, in the door,’ says Alison. Persistence, patience and public support built through farmers’ markets, as well as a healthy presence on social re media, won through, and now they’re stocked by several pubs in Glasgow.
■ jawbrew.co.uk 16 GLASGOW LARDER
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21/05/2015 15:0