Beer At Byron

I don’t normally talk about food and drink on this blog (I’m far more comfortable talking about clothes) but I recently went to a Beer and Burgers event at Byron which I wanted to share with you. The timing was perfect as the husband is home just now and a beer and burger tasting is probably his dream night out, so obviously he came along as my plus one

The event was held at the new Byron Burger restaurant on Lothian Road here in Edinburgh. We’ve been to Byron before but never to one of their Edinburgh restaurants so I was excited to see inside. When we arrived at the restaurant we were welcomed with a can of lager, which makes a nice change from all the prosecco you get at fashion/beauty events. Now I have a bit of a confession to make – I’m not much of a beer/lager drinker, but I’m open to giving it a try (the things I’ll do in the name of blogging). As I already said the husband was there as my plus one and was more than happy to take any drink off my hands if I wasn’t keen. Luckily his services weren’t needed as the light, cold lager was just what I needed after a hot stuffy bus ride to get there.

After everyone had arrived, we were introduced to Byron and learned a little bit about their history and where the connection with craft beer came from. Did you know it was one of their customers (who happened to own a bar) who suggested they introduced to craft beer to the menu? One thing led to another and the original Byron Lager was created (if you ask me having your own beer is petty cool). It was then onto the important part of the evening, tasting the food.

Our beer and burger sampling meal started with Buffalo Chicken Wings, which are coated in Byron’s own hot sauce (which you can buy in the restaurant). The wings were spicy but not too spicy (although if you aren’t a fan of spicy food maybe best to avoid), they came with an amazing blue cheese dip which went perfectly with the hot wings. To drink we were given another of Bryon’s own drinks, their pale ale (hazy, hoppy and citrus flavours). As I said earlier I’m not much of a beer drinker and would normally avoid anything described as an ale. Ale creates an image of heavy pints, normally drank by older men in pubs. I couldn’t be farther from the truth with this pale ale, it’s much lighter than you expect and is really easy to drink. It really was the perfect drink to go with the chicken wings.

After the burgers we got to try out some of Byron’s fries, we had bacon and cheese topped fries. Now this is the only dish of the evening I wasn’t sure about. The fries themselves were really nice and would be good with the burgers, but the cheese and bacon topping was a bit odd. The cheese tasted like that ‘fake’ American style cheese, even though it was made with a mix of real cheeses. However saying that I still ate most of it, could be something to do with the 4 beers I’d drunk. To go with the bacon and cheese topped chips we were given a Sierra Nevada Hop Hunter (fresh tangerine and pineapple flavours). I wasn’t too keen on this beer, as I found it a bit heavy and strong for my taste, however, this was my husband’s favourite beer of the evening.