It was a night of epic proportions. The sort of night you find yourself thinking about over and over again, muttering to yourself, ‘did that really happen’? We’ve given ourselves a thorough shake and thrown some cold water in our faces, and, thankfully, we weren’t dreaming. It’s all true, resting in a silver tank in a brewery not too far from our Edinburgh HQ there exists a Hot Rum Cow beer.

Following months of intensive research (drinking), bluesky-thinking and deliberating with the team at Stewart Brewing we whittled the choice down to two. A hand-picked team of drinkers, thinkers and Hot Rum Cow readers visited Stewart’s brewery for a blind tasting session and voted on the one to be unleashed upon a parched world.

In an honourable second place was a 6.2% Choc-Chilli Stout. Its smoked chipotle chilli pepper kick couldn’t swing the vote.

This meant the outright winner was the 7.9% Rye-IPA. It pours burnt orange with citrus and tropical fruit on the nose and is brewed with Amarillo, Chinook and Galaxy hops. Our tasters said it’s the sort of beer they could imagine enjoying one too many of at a summer barbecue. We agreed and now we have a beer fit to bear the name.

If you joined us on the night, you’ll know what a good show Stewart Brewing put on. Keep your eyes peeled for more details coming soon and pick up a copy of issue five in March for the full story.

---

---