I love a good brand. If you’ve been reading my blogs for a few years you’ll know I’m easily seduced by nice clean branding, a good company ethos and honest social media. BrewDog nail all of those things as well as providing the only beer I actually like to drink. So you can imagine I was beyond buzzing to find out they were knocking down ‘the runt of the Belhaven pack’ and putting a brand new BrewDog right in the centre of my beloved Stirling. 

I got straight on the emails to the new manager and organised for myself and some of the lovely new members of my Stirling Bloggers group to head along for a sneaky preview. We were to be BrewDog guinea pigs and it’s safe to say we all left feeling full, tipsy and very pleased.  

  

 

  
I’ve been a fan for a few years now, having my first half of Punk IPA (a good starting point for newbies!) at their Kelvingrove-facing bar in Glasgow’s West End. I was immediately hooked on just how damn cool everything about the place was. The staff knew their shit, the beers actually tasted like beer not watery nonsense and the food was super tasty. All of these things have been brought to the Stirling branch and more. Darren and his team were welcoming and happy to chat to some of our BrewDog virgins about the (young!) history of the brand, as well as making some great recommendations at the bar.

  

  
 I had to start off with a lovely cool half pint of my favourite  Punk IPA but I got more and more adventurous after a wee chat with the bar staff. I sipped away at tasters of their milk stout and ended up with a medium strength and slightly festive, Candy Kaiser (or as I accidentally described it, ‘Tasty Vicar’…) I can’t wait to head back in and try a full pint of the stout that really tasted like espresso and coconut, my faaaaves. 

Can we just take a second to look at this awesome photo that ‘lcblair23’ on Instagram took, feat. the back of my head and our wee beer crew. I hope she doesn’t mind me sharing it!

  
The beer is perfectly complemented with some cracking pub food in the form of pies from Pieminister, a local company who deliver them fresh, as well as stews, toasties and my favourite, cheese & charcuterie boards. Get the minty mushy peas with your pie, you won’t regret it. They also brew Dear Green coffee which is soooo good, but I can’t imagine not having beer in there. Maybe I’ll be popping in for a take away flat white if I’m picking stuff up from their neighbours at Mailboxes before work…

   

  

 

  

  

Beer cocktails! You know I’m going to be all over the Espresso Stoutini.

  
 
 

The whole place is a breath of fresh air for Stirling, the decor makes it feel very young and studenty and the pricing (which I have no problem with) keeps out the annoying weans and old jakes. They even have a Walking Dead pinball machine, they do takeaway on all their beers aaaaand they are dog friendly! It was lovely to meet Ingvild and Sophie too, even if we were all being typical anti-social looking bloggers. I can’t wait to spend a fair few winter evenings in there, making friends with the lovely staff and working my way through that beer menu. 15 taps? I accept the challenge. 

 Give the guys a follow on Twitter & Instagram  @BrewDogStirling

(P.S. Excuse the messiness of this post, the WordPress iPad app is painful to use. I’ll tidy it up when I’m back home)