Cold Town Alc Free IPA

Cold Town feels like Edinburgh looked at its brewing history, added modern craft beer energy, then decided to build a brewery directly above a pizza restaurant because honestly that’s just sensible planning.

Named after Calton Hill’s old nickname “The Cold Town”, the brewery launched in 2018 and quickly became one of the city’s most recognisable modern beer brands. Based at Cold Town House in the Grassmarket, the brewery combines fresh beer, rooftop views and enough pizza to dramatically improve most people’s life decisions.

The beer lineup leans modern and approachable. Pales, lagers, session IPAs and seasonal specials all feature heavily, usually brewed with freshness and drinkability front and centre rather than trying to become aggressively experimental hop soup. The Cold Town Lager especially has become a proper Edinburgh staple.

What makes Cold Town especially enjoyable is the atmosphere surrounding the whole project. It feels social and relaxed rather than deeply serious about beer in an intimidating way. You can absolutely nerd out over brewing details if you want, but equally you can just sit on a rooftop with friends and accidentally stay there far longer than intended.

The brewery also fits nicely into Edinburgh’s newer wave of independent beer culture, where local brewing moved far beyond traditional cask ale without completely abandoning drinkability in favour of pure hype.

And honestly, fresh lager with pizza while looking over Edinburgh rooftops remains a fairly difficult evening to improve upon.