Established as a family-run brewery in 2015, Edinburgh Beer Factory is a big part of the Edinburgh’s recent brewing renaissance, with the UK’s first lager brewed in the Scottish capital during 1835. Most of the original 19th Century breweries have since ceased trading, yet a new wave of exciting independent breweries has begun to celebrate the city’s unique brewing heritage.
Now with over 20 team members, the multi-award winning brewery aims to inject all that is best about Edinburgh into its beers, heavily inspired by Eduardo Paolozzi. Widely regarded as the Father of Pop Art, the Edinburgh-born artist believed in creating art from ordinary, every day objects; ultimately creating the ‘Sublime in the Everyday’ (particularly renowned for his Tottenham Court Road mosaics). Having decided that all its beers should be inspired by the work of Eduardo Paolozzi, The Edinburgh Beer Factory pays a charitable donation to the Paolozzi Foundation for every bottle and pint sold.
Paolozzi Lager, the brewery’s headline beer, champions a style that’s a definitive everyday beer, often taken for granted, yet it’s one of the most complex from a brewing perspective. Bottled with a label featuring Eduardo Paolozzi’s ‘Illumination and the Eye’, Paolozzi Lager is an un-pasteurised Munich helles style lager brewed with 100 per cent barley malt and ‘Munichised’ water; cold conditioned for five-to-six weeks following fermentation.
On pour from the bottle, Paolozzi Lager is pale gold and effervescent. Aromas of white bread are instantly prevalent alongside light citrusy hops, lemon zest, sweet notes of honey and biscuit, plus some feint grassiness. Bread continues on the palate with a whisper of rye and some restrained nuttiness alongside further citrus notes of lemon zest. With fair carbonation, medium-light body and a creamy mouth feel, Paolozzi Lager is surprisingly easy-drinking considering its relatively high ABV (5.2 per cent), concluded with a clean, bitter-sweet finish.
The Paolozzi Gift Pack from Edinburgh Beer Factory (photographed) includes three-bottles, a glass, beer mats and poster (£15) and is available here.
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