Historic brewing region
Scotland
A distinct British brewing region with its own malt-forward ale tradition and a historical shilling-based strength naming system.
In United Kingdom.
Why it matters to beer
Scottish brewing developed with less access to hops than English brewing and correspondingly restrained hop rates, producing maltier, rounder beers. Strength was traditionally denoted in shillings — 60/-, 70/-, 80/- — reflecting a nineteenth-century invoice price per barrel rather than any measured property of the beer.
Styles from here
Beers brewed here
- Belhaven Scottish Ale
The most widely exported Scottish ale, and the practical reference for a tradition otherwise met mostly in writing.
- Caledonian Deuchars IPA
An Edinburgh pale ale that carried Scottish cask beer to English bars, and a lesson in what the letters IPA mean in Britain.
- Orkney Dark Island
A dark Scottish ale in continuous national distribution, which is rarer than the number of Scottish styles in a guidebook suggests.
- Traquair House Ale
A Scottish strong ale fermented in eighteenth-century oak vessels rediscovered in 1965.
Breweries
Belhaven Brewery · Caledonian Brewery · Swannay Brewery · Traquair House Brewery
Elsewhere in the country
Burton-on-Trent · London · Yorkshire · Kent
Last reviewed 2026-08-15.