St. Andrews Brewing Co.

We arrived in St Andrews and immediately took to wandering around the city because A. It’s absolutely stunning & B. We were kind of hungry!
After wandering in the BRISK and WINDY/​RAINY weather for awhile, we almost became desperate to just find a restaurant to warm up in… We peered through The St Andrews Brewing Co’s window, saw a fire roasting and immediately bombarded in like elephants. As long as there is salmon and a burger option on the menu, my fiancé and I are happy.
Alas, when we ordered our food, it turns out the salmon was NOT available (even though I even saw on the chalkboard when I walked in, that is was… And it was utterly scrumptious too, by the way… THANKS FOR THE TEASE). Nothing else on the menu looked good to me so I modified a menu item and asked for pulled turkey meat with a side salad. My fiancé ordered their cheeseburger/​beer combo (surprise surprise– he and I are such creatures of habit, ha ha)…
When he got his beer, he was expecting a cold brew but nope, it was WARM and an IPA, a beer type he hates with a passion… So strike two for this joint (strike one for offering the «ghost salmon»)…
Our food, when it arrived, looked tasty… However my eyes were slightly disappointed because the portion of turkey I got was pretty small… Normal probably for any NORMAL human being who doesn’t have the raging appetite of a family of 12… And my fiancé definitely noticed, saying once I finished eating: «order more food because I know THAT isn’t going to fill you up.» I caught myself telling him, «it’s okay, I’ll just wait til later,» which, if you’ve read my other reviews… Is CRAZY TALK for me! But seriously, why waste eating on something that isn’t over the moon amazing?
How was his burger? Not the best… And lazily put together. Sure the meat was cooked decently, but then they threw on TWO SLABS on unmelted cheese (with rind), and a thick as walls bun… And called it good. He finished it, but I know he wasn’t pleased.
So really, I’m not entirely sure why you should come in here, other than to warm up on a cold wintery day… However if you like WARM IPA beer and hunks of cheese, then you’ll adore this place!
Oh… The service is really nice though, so I almost feel badly not giving this place a better rating, but hey, I must speak the truth!

Great beers, and wonderful atmosphere to enjoy them in. Get the burger with pulled pork and haggis bonbons!

I wouldn’t come back here for free beer. The beers themselves span from gross at worst to boring at best, and the service doesn’t know enough about beer to fix their errors. In short, we left within 15 – 20 minutes without finishing either of the sub-​par pints that we had ordered.
The rye pale ale I had smelled of vomit. This is neither exaggeration nor simile. If you had blindfolded me, held that pint glass under my nose, and asked me to guess what was in it, I would have said vomit. So I did what pretty much anyone with vomit beer does — I brought it back to the bar.
At the bar, I told the kind young lady that I suspected my beer had a foul odor and I would like her opinion. You can imagine my surprise when she sniffed it and then asked me what the problem was. I mean, are they used to smelling pukey pints at this place? When I told her it smells like puke, she replied, «That’s not very nice!» as though I had pulled on my boots that morning with the mission of breaking her 19 year-​old heart.
To add insult to my injury, she then said, «That’s just the hops you’re smelling.» This answer shocked me in its gall and ignorance. First, as a homebrewer and as a guy who’s been drinking beer since before this young lady could tie her shoes, I know what hops smell like — and they don’t smell like vomit — and I know what DOES smell like vomit — contaminated beer! Whatever introductory or continuing training SABC offers their staff, it has apparently not included the words «butyric acid», «clostridium», or «pedicoccus», which are all big no-no’s in brewing because they a) make your beer taste like vomit, and b) are signs of contamination. Instead of insulting my intelligence, she should have considered the possibility that something had gone wrong with that beer, whether during production, aging, packaging, or serving.
She did, to her credit, offer me a draught of something else. However, I wasn’t interested in taking my chances on getting another pukey pint and my tastes of another one of their beers left me negatively impressed. The person I was there with was drinking an oat stout — a STOUT! — that had less flavour than watery porridge. Desiring neither contaminated nor boring beer, I declined the young lady’s offer.
Like I said, I wouldn’t come here again for free beer.

Quite nice! Good beer selection. Very friendly and helpful staff. We enjoyed a few 7% beers with an order of delicious hummus served with hot pita toasts and an order of wings. The wings are small but tasty! We loved the casual atmosphere here and there is plenty of additional seating upstairs. If we lived here this would be one of our regular hang outs!

Awesome place with the most knowedgable gents behind the bar who are quick to pour/​pull a taste of their favorite beer! Such a beautiful space; light and airy with the most beautiful bar which was sourced locally! My husband found home here!

Great knowledge of local and imported craft beers! They even had a cigar city siren collaboration on draught! Being from Florida, it was nice to see a hometown cigar city brew in Scotland! Wonderful staff, cool environment, awesome music. It’s like a quirky coffee shop for beers. Located in the beautiful town of St. Andrews, it’s a welcome treat from all the tourists and shops.

After ordering food… I regrettably have to take away a star from my previous review. the pub is great and cozy. there is a large selection of beers on tap (and in bottles). but the food was lacklustre and disappointing. to the point we sent back the mac & cheese (because to be honest, I’ve had better stuff out of a packet)…
To their credit, they were very gracious and offered to let us order something else in its place. our second choice of chorizo garbanzo was much better though one felt it was mostly garbanzo… the paprika fries looked good but lacked crunch and any real paprika flavour and the chicken wings. well. they were wings.
Food seems to be a new thing they are doing, so hopefully with time, they’ll improve but in the meantime. don’t let it put you off heading in for a drink!

Inspired by our brewery tour at the nearby Eden Brewery, we were keen to see what the St Andrews Brewery offered in town. On their website we found the address and didn’t know what to expect there, but we were pleasantly surprised to find a lovely pub. They had a large selection of their own and many other craft beers on tap, and many many more available in bottles. We each decided to go for a taster flight of three ¹⁄₃ pints of beers on tap of our choice under 7% ABV and it was a hard decision. It was nice to have the chance to sample three porters and ales and I generally enjoyed the laid-​back atmosphere of the place on a rainy Saturday evening. My companions weren’t too wowed by the food they ordered, but they do have a nice selection of things to choose from. There’s a beer hall hidden away upstairs, too, and the pub has a lot to offer.