Vessel.

Vessel

Pilot brewed in Leith for twelve years before opening a bar, and when they did they put it in the New Town.

Why go

Matt Johnson and Patrick Jones met in 2011 studying for Masters degrees in Brewing and Distilling at Heriot-Watt, started in Johnson's garage, and moved a second-hand brewhouse to an industrial estate in Leith.4 Vessel is the first room they have ever run themselves, opened on 22 May 2025 after twelve years of brewing.1 Jones gave the reason for the wait plainly: We've wanted to open our own place since day one, but we wanted to be in a position to open exactly what we wanted. Pilot fines and filters nothing, and in 2014 became the first brewery in Scotland to drop isinglass, a clarifier made from sturgeon swim-bladders. Pilot's own reasons are the vegan question, since its use makes it almost impossible for vegans to know which beers are safe for them to drink, and flavor, since by its account isinglass strips out flavour/aroma as it goes.4 Eight taps of unfined, unfiltered beer poured by the people who brewed it is the argument for standing here. There is no cask.3 The rest of the list is cocktails and wine bought from what DRAM calls the brewery's industry friends.1 The fit-out was done largely in house, which Jones described as its own education: Thirteen years ago, when we were studying brewing, I don't think Matt and I imagined that one day we'd be debating the perfect shade of yellow for a coffee machine.1

Order this / avoid

• Order: the Dockside Gimlet. Pink peppercorn cordial, and Natasha Corfield's verdict on it was one word long: a triumph.2
• Order: the Melbarita, which takes Pilot's own Peach Melba Sour and builds a margarita on it. Corfield called it well balanced with the perfect blend of sharp citrus and sweetness.2
• Order: off the keg wall if you want the point of the place. All eight lines are the brewery's own, unfined and unfiltered, and the range runs core beers alongside what Pilot calls its irregulars.4
• Avoid: the Cherry Sherry Cob, at least on the version Corfield drank. It lacked the tart, sour cherry flavour I was hoping for.2

What locals & experts say

• Natasha Corfield, CLASS (July 2025): the only bylined review of the bar, and she went drink by drink. Her close: With Pilot's cult following, I can see this bar carving its niche in the competitive food and drink scene, making it a superb addition to the capital. On the space itself: The design is meticulous, featuring retro art, a terracotta bar and a delightful peach and green palette.2
• CAMRA, Edinburgh & South East Scotland branch, surveyed June 2025: the practical read, and blunt about what is missing. Eight keg taps, all Pilot... Hula Hoops and other retro snacks available plus Love Hearts with the bill! The same record states there is no real ale.3
• On the food, nothing. No critic has eaten here and written about it. DRAM records sharing plates and Corfield records the bar's own promise of "vibrant small plates", and nobody has named a single dish.
• Patrick Jones, Pilot co-founder, on what the bar is for (2025): It's a beautiful space where you can come and work with a coffee during the day, grab lunch with friends, or stay and have a beer or two into the night. He called it a small slice of Leith in the heart of Edinburgh.1

Good to know

• Opened: 22 May 2025, which makes this one of the newest rooms in the New Town drinking set.
• Booking: walk in. Nobody publishes a reservations policy.
• Hours: CAMRA records a noon opening. No closing time is published anywhere reachable, so check before you plan a late one, and note that Jones describes the room as running from daytime coffee through to evening beer.
• Access: up steps from the pavement, with no step-free route reported. The unit was the East Finch restaurant before this.
• Price: nobody publishes one. The bar's own site is unreadable and the one review prints no figures.
• Getting there: 73 Hanover Street, a minute off George Street and about ten minutes' walk from Waverley.
• Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 22 July 2025, no re-inspection pending. Twelve months old and current.5

Verdict

could-visit — RUNG DID NOT MOVE. could-visit in all three rounds. Nothing was added in pass 3 and three claims were withdrawn, all of them craft claims, so the case is narrower than the one round 2 scored. What the bar is remains exactly what it was: Pilot brewed in Leith for twelve years and this is the first room Matt Johnson and Patrick Jones have ever run, eight keg taps with the brewery's own beer on all eight, no cask at all. The production depth behind those taps is genuine and checkable: two Heriot-Watt Masters in Brewing and Distilling who met in 2011, a garage start, a second-hand brewhouse, no finings and no filtration across the range, first in Scotland off isinglass in 2014, exclusively Scottish-grown base malt, brewed and packaged in house. That is a real answer to the depth half of the craft test and it is the reason this clears listed. It does not reach should-visit and the gap is not close. Weighed on craft, the work here belongs to the brewery and not to the bar: eight taps from one brewery is a lineup that cannot move, no cask, and not one critic has ever judged the beer in this room. The one bylined verdict on the bar is Natasha Corfield's in CLASS on 22 July 2025, written at eight weeks old, and it is about cocktails and the room. Corfield's judgment is real because it carries a miss with the hits, the Dockside Gimlet 'a triumph' and the Melbarita 'well balanced' against a Cherry Sherry Cob that 'lacked the tart, sour cherry flavour I was hoping for'. One review, no dish named by anyone, no price published anywhere, no closing time. Go if you are on Hanover Street and want unfined beer poured by the people who made it. That is a whole reason and it is one reason.