Cold Town House, Edinburgh’s castle view bar, has been crowned Scotland’s best beer destination for the first time at this year’s Scottish Beer Awards.
Cold Town House
The judging panel praised the first-class staff training, the development of The Grassmarket Beer Festival, celebrating the Scottish brewing community, and the launch of ‘Ex-beer-iences’, as well as the beer-focused décor.
As the home of Cold Town Beer, the team also came away with a gold medal for best pilsner for their Doddie Beir, and a silver medal for Crisp Craft Lager.
Doddie Beir was created in honour of rugby hero, Doddie Weir. Every pint of Doddie Beir drunk and every can purchased supports the My Name’s Doddie Foundation, helping to fund research into finding a cure for MND. To date, Cold Town Beer has donated more than £30,000 to the foundation, and it is committed to contributing at least £11,000 over the next two years.
“It’s such an honour to be celebrating triple award success as part of this year’s Scottish Beer Awards,” said Ian Kennedy, head of production at the brewery.
Hayley Ransome, head brewer at Cold Town Beer, with head of production Ian Kennedy at the Scottish Beer Awards
“Since opening our doors in 2019, Cold Town House quickly made its name as the home of Cold Town Beer, as well as one of Scotland’s most popular craft beer bars and live entertainment venues. We’re also really proud to have our very own taproom and iconic roof terrace with stunning views of Edinburgh Castle.”
Head brewer Hayley Ransome added: “The Grassmarket is the original home of craft brewing in Edinburgh, dating back to the 18th century, so we’re determined to continue celebrating that heritage at Cold Town House with our core Cold Town Beer range and Doddie Beir during the Six Nations in November, as well as introducing some fresh and innovative creations for today’s craft beer drinker.”
Cold Town Beer has its own in-house product development strategy. Customers are invited into a ‘test kitchen’ to trial new beers before the fast-sellers are rolled out to the wider market. This approach is enabling the Cold Town Beer team to use direct customer feedback and data to shape its product range.
