Shilling Brewing Co

 

This time round I made a visit to Shilling Brewing Co, a bar and brewery right in the city centre about a minutes’ walk from Buchanan Street. The bar was recommended by my flatmate whose general judgement and choices are often very questionable, however, I enjoyed my night at Shilling in what was a very different experience compared to the other bars I visited in prior posts.

The bar is set in a very impressive and grand old building and would not really strike you as somewhere that would be popular with students at first glance, however, Shilling’s main lure for myself was the student deals provided. For non-students you are looking at paying average to expensive prices for a wide variety of home brewed beers along with popular well known beer brands but for students, deals provided are at much more enticing low prices. The student discount can be applied to any of the in house brewed beers, a pint which costs over £5 is just £3.60 for students and along with this, all pizzas are half price for students. So, for about £7, you can have yourself a pizza and a house brewed beer- a nice change from Tennent’s. Disappointingly, on the night of our visit, the kitchen was closed which does lose Shilling some marks however I am reliably informed that when available, the pizza is very good. These prices are about as good as you will find in the City Centre compared to similar alternatives in the area, so I find it surprising that I had not heard more about Shilling in the past.

I visited with a few friends from work, who were all fairly impressed with Shilling, however there was frustration caused by the lack of Pizza. My friend Louie says it’s “Not the sort of place of usually go but would maybe return for a couple.” Not the most insightful comment and fairly poor grammar however on the night he was far more enthusiastic and certainly left in high spirits.

This is somewhere I would visit again, there was a good atmosphere and a great selection of beers but is a very different vibe to bars from previous posts, the crowd, despite the student deals on offer is mostly older (late 20s/30s) and the very grand interior is something I think could actually throw students off as it is seen as a less casual venue. Overall, this was a positive experience, and the only real negative takeaway was the kitchen being closed but this does mean I can return in the future to sample the pizza. I will be back.