St Andrews Brewing Co, Dundee

St Andrews Brewing’s first venture outside of St Andrews itself and they have picked a good spot as mentioned below. Situated in the fine historic Caird Hall building it has a good view over the Slessor Gardens towards the new V&A building and the £1bn Waterfront project. Internally it’s a modern bar area to the left, but most of the space is taken up with the in house restaurant. Fortunately the best spots being the booth seating by the extensive front glass windows is part of the bar seating area and this was a good spot to enjoy a couple of the St Andrews brews. Of the 20 taps 10 had St Andrews beers on them with the usual mix of styles including IPA,s, Stouts, Lagers, Pale Ales and a dreaded fruit based sour that these craft brewers seem apt to produce. And then on the other ten taps were guest brews mainly from other Scottish craft brewers I was unfamiliar with, but I did recognise a couple from Siren and Thornbridge. We tried a few of the St Andrews brews on the two occasions we utilised this bar during our stay in town and the general consensus was that their pale ales and IPA,s were fine but the stouts could have been better, especially the Oyster Stout I tried. For a fairly major town Dundee is certainly batting below its weight when it comes to decent cask and craft places in town so, despite its food focus, this is still a good addition.

On the shore side of the imposing Caird Hall, this newly opened bar and restaurant is a welcome addition to central Dundee. The spacious interior is in three parts: the main bar to the left (with a snug of sorts beside the entrance), a formal restaurant to the right and an intermediate seating / dining area (with its own island bar) in between. Smart modern furniture and decor throughout. A total of 20 craft beers and ciders are available on taps mounted on the main servery bar-back, with many (expensive) guests from far and wide - e.g. Boundary APA from Northern Ireland (£5.70) - in addition to several of its own products.

Official site of St Andrews Brewing Co Caird Hall - www.standrewsbrewingcompany.com

Official site of St Andrews Brewing Co Caird Hall - www.standrewsbrewingcompany.com