Best Craft Beer Bars in Edinburgh

Edinburgh doesn't need to try hard to convince you it's a serious drinking city. The whisky industry has taken care of that reputation for 300 years. But the craft beer scene that has assembled itself across Leith, the New Town, and Stockbridge over the past decade is not riding those coattails. It exists on its own terms, and at its best — inside the tap rooms of Innis and Gunn, the keg bars of Leith Walk, the converted warehouses of the port — it is producing beer that ranks with the best in Britain.

Edinburgh has 11 dedicated craft beer venues worth your time, plus a further six pubs that maintain a serious tap selection alongside their cask ales and whiskies. The anchor of the scene is BrewDog's original bar, opened in 2010 on Cowgate — before the brand became ubiquitous, this was a genuine statement of intent. Today the scene has diversified considerably, with smaller operations like Hanging Bat, Salt Café, and Stewart Brewing's tap room offering more focused, less commercial experiences.

Our Edinburgh bar guide covers the full city drinking landscape, and our Edinburgh craft beer listings give you addresses and hours for every serious tap room in the city. This article is the editorial take: the bars that genuinely moved us and the ones worth planning an evening around.

1. The Hanging Bat — Edinburgh's Essential Tap Room

The Hanging Bat

New Town $$ Mon–Thu 3pm–midnight, Fri–Sun noon–1am

Eighteen taps, zero compromise. The Hanging Bat has been the benchmark for Edinburgh craft beer since it opened on Lothian Road, and the selection has only got sharper with age. The Scottish breweries represented here — Stewart, Pilot, Overtone, Fierce — read like a best-of compilation for the country's independent scene. The bar staff can tell you when each keg was delivered and what you should pair it with. That level of care is rare anywhere in the world.

2. Salt Café — Small Format, Maximum Focus

Salt Café

Stockbridge $$ Tue–Sun noon–11pm

A neighbourhood café by day and a serious beer destination by evening. Salt runs 12 taps with a rotating selection that is refreshed every Tuesday morning. The bias is toward Scottish and Scandinavian craft — the collaboration beers between Scottish and Norwegian brewers they stock are particularly good and almost impossible to find elsewhere. The space seats 30 and feels intimate in the best sense. Book for Friday evenings.

3. Stewart Brewing Tap Room — The Source

Stewart Brewing Tap Room

Loanhead $ Fri 5pm–10pm, Sat noon–10pm, Sun noon–8pm

A short bus ride from the city centre and worth every minute. Stewart Brewing operates out of a purpose-built facility in Loanhead and the tap room attached to the brewery is the only place you will find their full range on draft — including seasonal and experimental beers that never leave the site. The 80 Shilling is as good as any Scottish ale currently being brewed, and the guided tasting on Saturday afternoons is the best beer education available in Edinburgh.

4. Pilot Beer — Leith's Anchor

Pilot Beer Leith

Leith $$ Wed–Sun 4pm–11pm

Pilot began as a brewing project in a Leith industrial unit and became one of the most respected Scottish brewers within three years of its first batch. The tap room they opened beside the brewery in 2019 is a stripped-back, honest space — concrete floors, steel tanks visible through a glass partition, beer served in proper glassware. Their Session IPA and Mango Milkshake Pale are the beers to start with, but the seasonal dark ales are exceptional in winter.

5. Leith Tap — The Deep Dive

Leith Tap

Leith $ Daily 1pm–1am

A no-frills tap room on Leith Walk that runs 20 kegs alongside an equally well-maintained cask selection. The Leith Tap has built its reputation on rotating its selection faster than any comparable bar in Scotland — 60 different beers per month is their stated standard, and they maintain it. The regulars here are serious drinkers who treat the tap list like a menu to be worked through systematically. Highly recommended for anyone who takes craft beer as a subject rather than a lifestyle accessory.

Edinburgh vs the Rest of Scotland

The craft beer scene in Edinburgh has a different character to Glasgow's, which is looser, more experimental, and more influenced by the city's connection to music culture. Edinburgh's bars tend toward the serious and considered. The emphasis is on provenance, on the relationship between the brewer and the bar, on serving conditions. You see it in the glassware choices, in the temperature discipline, in the way the staff at Hanging Bat or Salt Café talk about what's on the taps.

Glasgow is perhaps more exciting in an unpredictable way. But Edinburgh is more reliable. When a bar here recommends something, you can trust the advice. That consistency is worth a lot across a multi-bar evening when the difference between a good beer and a damaged one is the difference between a great night and a forgettable one.

For the comparison between Scotland's two main cities from a bar perspective, our Edinburgh vs Dublin bar comparison is a useful reference point. And for the broader European context, our London craft beer bars guide shows how Edinburgh's scene sits relative to Britain's largest beer market.

Neighbourhoods for Craft Beer in Edinburgh

Leith is the first neighbourhood any serious craft beer visitor should explore. The port area has attracted several of the city's best breweries and their associated tap rooms — the maritime setting suits the industrial-scale brewing equipment, and the neighbourhood's lack of tourist infrastructure means the bars serve locals first. Walk from Ocean Terminal toward Easter Road on a Friday evening and you will pass three or four excellent craft venues.

The New Town is more polished but no less committed. The stretch between Lothian Road and Broughton Street contains the Hanging Bat, two good bottle shops, and several pubs with above-average craft selections. Stockbridge, which sits between the New Town and the Botanic Gardens, is where the neighbourhood bars with serious beer programs are concentrated — Salt Café is the best, but several others are worth investigating.