Scottish Food News – June 2017

We kick off with a very special visit from Tallinn's Põhjala Brewery to the Hanging Bat in Edinburgh. One of the leading craft breweries in the Baltics, Põhjala was founded six years ago by four Estonians and – shockingly – Aberdonian head brewer Chris Pilkington. Pilkington will be present at the Bat to talk through the brewery's beers (some of which have never reached these shores previously), so it's an ideal chance to get well ahead of the cool beer curve. 1 Jun, 7pm, £22, tickets via EventBrite

Over in Glasgow, the Hippo Taproom host the inaugural meeting of their Bottle Club. We'll skip past the 'first rule about bottle club...' jokes to tell you that this club is all about trying rare and limited edition bottles that the Hippo crew have been saving for special occasions. You'll try five great beers, and earn the sensation of being part of a super-secret beery inner circle. Win-win. 4 Jun, 2pm, £20, hippotaproom.co.uk

And now to dive into this month's batch of food and drink festivals. First up is Juniper Festival which returns to Edinburgh and Glasgow, bringing dozens of gins from across Scotland, the UK and beyond together in one place, thus making it disconcertingly easy to try them all. If you want more from your gin festival than just to try lots of delicious gins there are also talks, chances to meet the people behind the gins, as well as street food to power your gin-tasting and a bottle shop to help you continue at your leisure. 2-4 Jun, Summerhall, times vary, £21.50, summerhall.co.uk; 9-10 Jun, SWG3, times vary, £21.50, swg3.tv

If you aren't a big gin fan, don't worry – the inaugural Rum Festival at the Briggait in Glasgow has you covered. With over 100 rums on offer, if you can't find a delicious Caribbean spirit to love here, you're doing something wrong. 9 Jun, 6.30pm, 10 Jun, 12.30 or 6.30pm, £12.50, tickets via Eventbrite.  And if you don't like rum or gin, redeem yourself with a trip to the latest iteration of North Hop beer festival at SWG3. Craft beers from across Scotland, cocktails, cider, street food – truly, something for everyone. We hope. 16 Jun, 7pm, 17 Jun, 12 or 7pm, £17.50, tickets via northhop.co.uk

Stepping off the festival hamster wheel, Edinburgh Food Studio present a very special collaboration this month. Brooklyn Amici brings together Ben Reade of EFS with Brooklyn Brewery's head of culinary programming Andrew Gerson. The two were flatmates during their time together in Italy, where the duo hosted "countless dinner parties, the extravagance of which has rarely been seen," and they join forces again in Edinburgh this month for a very special tasting menu. The food will be matched with some of Brooklyn's infamous 'ghost bottle' limited-run beers, which we can personally attest to being a) delicious and b) absolute rocket fuel. 15, 16 & 17 Jun, 7.30pm, £65 (inc. 7-course meal and beer), book via edinburghfoodstudio.com

We finish this month by stepping back into the festival fold, for a pair of events at this year's West End Festival in Glasgow. First up is Gin Genie, a Bowie-soundtracked meeting of the Hillhead Gin Club that promises ‘talks, tastings and demonstrations of Scotland's finest gins.’ How precisely does one ‘demonstrate’ a gin? Only one way to find out, we suppose. At the same venue later in the week, Hip-hops sees craft beer aces New Wave bring together a host of brewers and beer experts together to talk beer, with a retro hip-hop accompaniment from the DJ booth. Sounds good to us. Gin Genie, 10 Jun, 12pm, Hillhead Bookclub, £10; Hip-hops, 15 Jun, 7pm, free; details at westendfestival.co.uk