Lost in Leith
Three ten-hectolitre oak foeders stand at the back of the archway, bought new from a cooperage near Cognac because the second-hand ones were the wrong size and came with a waiting list.2
Why go
Paul Gibson founded Campervan Brewery, and this room opened in March 2020 as the place his wood and mixed-fermentation work would live.23 The vessels are Allary Tonnellerie, 10hl each, and the brewery calls them the main attraction on its own page.4 They are in the drinking room, on show, and a visitor in March 2024 found experimental beer maturing inside them while people drank around them.1 Nothing published since describes a beer coming out of them, so treat the programme as documented up to 2024 and unconfirmed after it. Gibson's reasoning for buying new instead of hunting old wine vessels is on the record with the trade: the used ones are hard to verify, usually need a cooper to rebuild, and the European cooperages that repurpose them run long waiting lists.2
The bar in front of the wood ran to 18 taps when it was last counted, in March 2024, and Campervan's own beer is a small share of them.1 The cider list runs to four named producers, Ross on Wye, Ascension, Dudda's Tun and Oliver's.3
The building is an old whisky bond on Commercial Quay, next door to The Kitchin, with exposed brick archways inside and tables along the strip of dock water outside.1 A kitchen was added at some point after opening and serves hot pies and sides through a cafe hatch.4
Order this / avoid
- Order: Extra Black, Campervan's porter, since this is the brewery's own bar. Imran Rahman-Jones calls the beer
divine
and one of the staples that made the brewery's name around the city, and in the same review he sends readers up to the Dreadnought in Newhaven for the best pint of it he has had outside the brewery.1 - Order: something off the sour and dessert end of the guest list. His pick was Yonder's S'more,
a big, chocolatey, sweet marshmallow stout,
at GBP 5.65 for two thirds of a pint as priced in March 2024.1 - Order: a cider, and read the four names on the list before you decide.3
- Avoid: coming for a hand-pulled pint. CAMRA's record puts it plainly:
Regrettably NO REAL ALE but sells Real Cider.
3
What locals & experts say
- Imran Rahman-Jones, Edinburgh Pub Reviews (2024), writes the city's fortnightly bylined pub review and lands on the risk this room runs before he lands on the beer:
Its exposed brick archways and extensive (and expensive) craft beer selection threaten pretension, as does the fact that it calls itself a 'bar and fermenteria'. Luckily, the beer is great.
1 He opens the same piece by declaring his own bias, having won the Wednesday quiz the week before and walked out with the crate of beer that was the prize, which is worth knowing when you read the warm half of his verdict. - Paul Gibson, founder and brewer, to Good Beer Hunting (2020), on why a foeder and not a barrel:
Arguably foeders is craft beer growing up, and looking back to the time when beer was matured in large wooden vats which allows more focus on yeast and bacteria vs spirits or wine as an added flavoring.
2 That is the argument the three vessels at the back of this room are making: the wood holds the beer while the bugs do the flavor work. - CAMRA Edinburgh & South East Scotland files the bar under beer and names the ciders, and its record is where the flat refusal on cask comes from. The branch has not walked the premises recently; the last-surveyed field on the record is empty.3
- Scottish Beer Awards, Small Brewery of the Year 2023. The award belongs to Campervan the brewery, and this bar is one of its two rooms.1
Good to know
- Hygiene: no Food Hygiene Information Scheme record exists for this bar.5
- Hours: 4pm to 10pm Monday and Tuesday, 4pm to midnight Wednesday to Friday, noon to midnight Saturday, noon to 10pm Sunday. Midnight is as late as it gets.4
- Kitchen: 5pm to 9pm every day, ordered at the hatch.4
- Booking: walk in. Private hire is a separate thing and the numbers say how big the room is: 40 to 80 for part of it at any time of year, up to 130 for the whole of it between October and April, Sunday to Thursday.4
- Price: the one published figure is GBP 5.65 for two thirds of a pint of a guest imperial stout, read in March 2024. Nothing current is on the venue's own page.
- Outside: tables run either side of the water on Commercial Quay and fill when the sun is on them.1
- The name: every listing carries "Lost In Leith Bar & Fermentaria" and the operator's own page now heads it "Bar & Kitchen". The foeders are still described as the main attraction on that same page.
- Getting there: Commercial Quay in Leith, next door to The Kitchin, a short walk from the Shore.
Verdict
could-visit — A brewery's own bar with three ten-hectolitre oak foeders standing in the drinking room, bought new from Tonnellerie Allary near Cognac because the second-hand ones were the wrong size and came with a waiting list, and with the founder's argument for the vessel on the record: wood as a vessel so the yeast and bacteria do the flavor work. That is a real craft position and it is the reason to come. The bar in front of it ran to eighteen taps when it was last counted and the cider list carries four named producers, so the buying is serious in both directions. What holds it off the detour is that the case is thinner than the hook suggests. The only bylined critic discloses he had won a crate of beer in the pub quiz the week before, his verdict on the room opens by saying it threatens pretension, and in the same piece he sends readers elsewhere for the best pour of the house porter. Nothing dated after 2024 describes a beer actually coming out of those foeders, and no venue-subject award exists; the Scottish Beer Awards win belongs to the brewery. Go if you are on the Shore, and go for the wood and the cider list.