Shilling Brewing Company, Glasgow

This is a large, slightly soulless brew-pub in the heart of the city, showcasing beers from the eponymous Shilling Brew Company. The pub occupies an impressive building but its grandeur means that it is like being in a large ‘90’s drinking barn and as such, it is difficult to generate any atmosphere unless it’s packed out. You enter through a somewhat pointless glass porch into a vast, vinyl floored room with an extremely high ceiling. The servery is located all the way over to the left and has a modern counter which includes some weird green, backlit taps, a large beer board surrounded by pump clips at the far end and some of the brewing kit to the left, with more equipment visible through the windows above. High tables and stools run through the centre of the room with banquettes to the rear and a few secluded seating spots in partially screened areas behind. A raised area over to the right sees banquettes and chairs under a rather insane looking unicorn mural, whilst the whole pub has these amazing art nouveau windows running around it. There is a big screen on the back wall showing a load of dull promotional material and various large boards listing more of the same corporate nonsense offer the only real form of décor. Stairs lead down to the toilets and on your way, you pass through some huge strong room-style doors, which suggest this building was probably once a bank (perhaps the brewery name also hints at this?). There is no cask ale here but an extensive keg range including lots of house beers and plenty of guests means you’re spoilt for choice. Bewildered by the array of options, I asked the friendly barman to help me select a beer, but he didn’t seem particularly confident in doing so and we struggled to find what I was looking for. I eventually settled on a pint of Shilling Transporter which was nice enough but way too cold on a freezing January evening. This is quite an impressive enterprise with a big selling point in the fact that it brews it beer on site. However, I was a little underwhelmed, with the lack of cask, puzzled staff and large, cold interior all putting me off a bit. Worth a look to give the homebrew a try and to admire the interior, but one visit was sufficient for me.

Brew-pub set up in an imposing former bank building, furnished and decorated in a much more modern style than most such conversions. If you hadn't missed the historical point, there are also the former bank vault doors downstairs by the toilets. More to the point, much of the brew-plant is visible behind the counter, and they make much of the short distance between production and dispense. Four of their own beers are on offer at any one time - Unicorn IPA, The Icarus Project pale ale, Glasgow Red and Black Star Teleporter (all at £4.20) - when I visited. However, there are also up to 27 other craft beers available from the three founts of nine keg taps. Impressive.