#ECBF19 is WRAPPED!

Edinburgh, another awesome weekend with you guys to add to the list! We were stoked to welcome you guys back to the Biscuit Factory in Leith on the 24th and 25th May to enjoy some of the very best craft beer, food and music on offer from some of our favourite people.

Cheers to the brewers!

We were joined once again this year by some of our favourite breweries, both nationally and locally. The Thursday evening saw the brewer’s welcome drinks at the Salt Horse over on Blackfriars Street where our pals Cloudwater had put on a tap takeover, it was so good to catch up with everyone and get ourselves pumped for the weekend ahead.

Thanks to our friends who travelled by plane and oversees to bring some of the tastiest brews on offer and pour beer for you all, from Stone & Wood in the US to Mikkeller in Denmark, it really was an international mix. But we’d also love to thank our buddies locally – namely Fierce, our #ECBF19 glass sponsor, who also hosted the Friday night drinks at their new taproom (which had opened that day!) over on Rose Street. Definitely go check it out, not only have they got some cracking beers, but the space is amazing and well worth a pint or two, or three…you know how it goes.

We were also pouring our #ECBF19 festival beer, a collab with ourselves and Pilot. Mel N Mint is a refreshing semi-sour, packed full of watermelon, mint, and hibiscus. Not only was this available to enjoy at the festival, but our VIPs got a can of the good stuff to take away home in their goodie bags – we’d love to hear what you thought of it!

More than just a beer festival

A shoutout also goes to this year’s food and drink partners. Serious Pig brought some serious snacks with them, including snackling (awesome pork crackling, very reminiscent of a Sunday roast) and snacking salami, perfect for grabbing in between tasters. Following the trend we’ve seen in drinks over the last year we were delighted to have Big Drop with us, who debuted their low ABV beers at the festival this year, along with Square Root who brought some of their delicious sodas up from London as well as their non-alcoholic gin & tonic, which was perfect to enjoy in the sunshine on the Friday.

Food! Glorious food!

The We Are Beer team definitely very much enjoyed getting stuck into this year’s foodie treats. Some highlights being Korean flavoured chicken burgers from the Buffalo truck, confit chicken buns from Aizle, chicken udon noodles heaped with chilli, coriander and dumplings from the Harijuku Kitchen, peanut butter coated beef burgers from Stooge Burger and fresh, fragrant shawarma from the Shawarma Shack. The food village was packed for the majority of the weekend so we’re thinking you guys enjoyed it as much as we did! We’re writing this before we’ve had lunch and now we’re starving – fail.

Bringing the party

We were lucky to have some more world-class DJ’s spin the decks at our Friday and Saturday sessions this year – huge thanks to DJ Yoda, Belle & Sebastian and Gentleman’s Dub Club, the perfect addition to festival fun. Beer in hand? Check. Banger mixed into banger after banger? Double check. Happy days.

Hip-to-the-hop

One of our favourite highlights from the evening was the Hip Hop Karaoke, you guys KILLED it. Shout out to everyone for getting involved, even the breweries…!

So that’s another year done. We’ll see you next year for #ECBF20!

But before we head off, here’s our beer picks of this year’s festival…

Greg – Pilot Mel N Mint

Dan – Fierce Blackcurrant Tart

Tom – Mothership Watermelon Gose

Kay – Cloudwater Kir Royale Slushie

Jaime – Big Drop Pale

Charlie – Collective Arts x Verdant 5AM

Cheers to that. We’d love to hear your highlights too, so be sure to share them with us in the comments.

Team #ECBF19