When it comes to gifting Christmas presents people will actually use, you can’t go wrong with some lovely Scottish beer.
Forget the festive jumpers and silly socks, if you’re anything like me, what you really want to see wrapped up under your Christmas tree are some fancy stouts, IPAs and pilsners.
So if you’ve got someone in your life obsessed with beer, here’s my recommendations for six fantastic bottleshops and websites across Scotland selling the very best of Scotland’s excellent craft beer.
Get those letters to Santa written up, and tell him to pop by these beer sellers on his way to your chimney this Christmas…
1. Devenick Drinks Co, Chapelton in Aberdeenshire
Devenick Drinks Co popped up a few years ago with a mission of selling local beer, coffee and spirits to discerning drinkers in the north-east of Scotland.
Starting up initially as a website, they’ve since expanded their operation and opened up a bottleshop named Hops, Beans and Spirits in the new community of Chapelton in Aberdeenshire.
On the beer side of their business, they sell loads of products from Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, but you can find plenty of beers on their shelves and on their website from all across Scotland.
You can expect the likes of Brew Toon from Peterhead, as well as 71 Brewing from Dundee, and breweries from further south like Cold Town in Edinburgh and Overtone from Glasgow.
But what I like best is their wide selection from smaller breweries, like Reid’s Gold from Stonehaven.
Find out more on their website here.
2.Discovery Beers, Dundee
Discovery Beers in Dundee has brought the city a huge selection of beers from all across Scotland, and the world.
Based at Perth Road, the dedicated craft beer shop offers brews for both sit in and take away, and in a remarkably wide variety.
For true aficionados, they offer some big bottles of beer which are quite hard to get your hands on in Scotland, such as special releases from the Belgian brewery 3 Fonteinen.
But they, of course, also sell loads of great Scottish brews, like Dundee breweries 71 Brewing, Law Brewing and Holy Goat, plus others like Aberdeen’s Fierce Beer, and Newbarns Brewing from Edinburgh.
If you’re after something a bit special this year, their offering of Belgian and also German beers really is remarkable.
They only offer collections right now, but say deliveries are on the horizon on their website.
3. Moonshine, Inverness
I first visited Moonshine in the Victorian Market in Inverness last month, and was very impressed.
Not only do they offer drinks to enjoy on site, their selection of cans and bottles stuffing their fridges in the corner of the market’s new food court area is huge.
They’ve got loads and loads of breweries from across the country, and a great deal of Highland and Moray beer, too, of course.
You can expect to pick up great beers from the likes of Black Isle from the Black Isle, Dog Falls from Inverness and Windswept from Lossiemouth, as well as brews from elsewhere in Scotland, like Edinburgh’s Vault City.
You can’t order from their website, but they’re open every day from 10am to 8pm if you’re in Inverness and fancy a buying yourself a bagful of bevvies for Christmas.
Find out more about Moonshine on their social media.
4. Craft Beer Bottle Shop, Perth
Truly this is a shop that does what it says on the tin.
Open since 2018 on Perth’s South Methven Street, it sells more than 100 different cans and bottles of all kinds of beer from throughout the UK and across the world.
Plus, they’ve got four taps on site pouring a rotating range of beers, so there will always be something new to try.
You’ll find some proper “deep dive” beer selections here, with all sorts of releases from specialist brewies like Holy Goat from Dundee you might not be able to get elsewhere.
Plus, all the new funky releases from Scottish and UK breweries, such as four varieties of Caribbean chocolate cake stout from Siren Craft Brewing.
Who knew there would even be one?
And what’s more, Craft Beer Bottle Shop also offers nationwide shipping on their website, so you don’t even have to be a Perth local to enjoy what they’ve got to offer.
Check out their website and beer selection.
5. Hop Shop, Westhill in Aberdeenshire
Behind the unassuming doors of a petrol station in Westhill lies a craft beer shop of dreams.
Hop Shop, based at Westhill Service Station, offers one of the biggest selections of beer in one place I’ve seen outside of Belgium.
Truly a treasure trove, not only do they sell all sorts of bottles and cans, but even draft beer for takeaway, entire kegs for the Perfect Draft home pour system, and all sorts of glassware.
They’ve got a massive variety of Scottish beer in their fridges and on their shelves from all across the north-east, the Highlands, islands, and the rest of the country.
And even, increasingly a rarity in bottleshops nowadays, some exceedingly fancy beers from America on occasion, as well as classics from Belgium.
If you’re after a wide variety of beers, you can’t go wrong at Hop Shop, plus, they also offer nationwide shipping on their website, with free mainland shipping if you’re dedicated enough to beer to spend more than £70 on an order.
6. Fraser’s Fruit and Veg, Dundee
You might not expect to see a greengrocer and deli in a list of great places to buy craft beer in Scotland, but Fraser’s Fruit and Veg on Perth Road in Dundee is one of the best places in the city for some quality brews.
The shop keeps its own dedicated beer fridge chock full of classic beers and new releases from up-and-coming and well-established breweries from all across Scotland.
It also might be one of the only fridges I know with its own dedicated Instagram account.
Some of the cans and bottles of Scottish beer you can find on sale include those from local breweries like Holy Goat in Dundee, as well as top UK breweries like Cloudwater from Manchester.
It’s a smaller selection of beers than others in this list, for sure, but extremely well-curated.
You can find them at 300A Perth Road, Dundee.
Kieran is a former craft beer barman and publishes his beer column every Tuesday online. You can also read his column in the P&J’s Food and Drink magazine, which you can find inside your Press and Journal newspaper every Saturday.
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