Burgher Burger #10 Damien Rolain

Photography by Paul Johnston

Burgher Burger Beer #2 & #3

And so project Burgher Burger Beer continues in its quest to find the perfect beer to go with the perfect burger. So what have Harviestoun got micro-brewing for us this month?

We are excited to announce that they're offering up not one, but TWO beers this time (hence the rather complicated blog post title). Each is a version of a Traditional Ale. Harviestoun say there are two reasons for this:

1. Like the burger, traditional brown ales have been around in various guises for a long time. And like the burger, it's got a long history as something that pleases the masses (very much indeed), so they think brown ale and a burger are a match made in beer heaven.
2. The other reason is personal. Over the past 30 years, Harviestoun have very much specialised in making light, hoppy beers but they feel the time has come to flex their beer-y muscles and break out of this mould.

So after six weeks of hard brewing, Harviestoun want to hear what you think about their latest Burgher Burger Beer offering. Are they worthy to stand alongside the ulitmate burger? We obviously think they’re both excellent, but our opinions are meaningless compared to yours. We'll have some tasting notes on the table so that you can ruminate while you masticate, and we'll email you a survey the following day.* If you fill out the survey, you'll be entered in a draw to win a case of beer from Harviestoun's core range. Rumour has it that two people won cases of beer last month.

 Face Off: The Brewers

Oh!  One more thing… just in case you are wondering who brewed these different beers: one of them was made by Stuart (Harviestoun's head brewer of 16 years) and one of them by Christa (one of his young protégés)… so they’ll be waiting with bated breath to hear the outcome!

*Feel free to say "No, don't email me a bloody thing".

Burgher Burger #10 Damien Rolain

Next up we have Damien Rolain of The Mulroy.  Damien started cooking when he was 16 and was living in the south of France. He has travelled and worked in a few start Michelin restaurants in Paris, Avignon and two star Michelin near Cannes.

"What a great experience...the chef there was going to the fish market every day and coming back to the restaurant at around 10am, the fish was still moving in the box… haven't seen that elsewhere since."

Damien first came to Scotland in 1993 after finishing his national service in the French Army where he worked in the General's kitchen in Paris. He left Scotland after a year and half but quickly came back, this time to Edinburgh. He's worked in few restaurants here including as head chef at The Atrium, he's been head chef at The Mulroy since September 2011.

BB10 takes place at 7.30pm on 15 October, at Now Rest, Leith. The menu is:

Starter: Roast aubergine and tomato terrine, inverness crowdie cheese, piquillo coulis, cumin stick

Main: Oxtail, pork and nettle burger, sesame seed brioche bun, red onion ketchup and pomme dauphine

Dessert: Caramelized bramley apple tatin, borders vanilla ice cream, calvados caramel

Four Harviestoun Brewery beers are included in the ticket price of £35. One of the beers will be a Special Edition Burgher Burger Beer. Stay tuned to find out what Harviestoun have in store for us on that.

Tickets will be onsale this Friday, 28 September at 8pm on our Facebook Page.

Burgher Burger #9 Beer!

Here it is. Our Burgher Burger Beer brewed for us by Harviestoun Brewery in bottles designed by Jelly+Gin genius Carol Soutar. We launched our beer at BB9 last night (more photos of that later). Over the next seven BBs we'll be trying out different types of Burgher Burger Beer. Each one micro-brewed in batches of 100 especially for our Burghers. We're hoping at the end of if we'll have found the perfect beer to drink with the perfect burger... feedback on last nights wheat beer was pretty amazing. So if you like beer and you like burgers help us by coming along and eating burgers and drinking craft beer and telling us what you think- not a bad proposition.

Photos of Burgher Burger #9 can be viewed here and on our Facebook page. Thanks to Paula Robertson and Carol Soutar for taking them.

Next Burgher Burger is on 15 Oct.

Burgher Burger #8 goes posh

One-hundred and thirty people over two nights for champagne and burgers with Brian Canale and the team at The Pommery Champagne pop-up at The Signet Library. As one of the punters said "f*ck me, this is posh". We've nothing more to add to that.

More great photographs by Paul Johnston here.