Shilling Brewing Company
The beer comes off eight conditioning tanks mounted behind the bar and into the glass without a cellar in between, and the pizza dough is raised with brewer's yeast alongside the baker's.
Why go
The building was a bank headquarters, then Hortons, and the conversion kept the original features while dropping a working microbrewery into the middle of the room. CAMRA's survey describes raised seating that overlooks the brewing kit and a separate dining area whose pizza kitchen "uses bakers and brewers yeast," which is the sort of detail that tells you the two halves of the business actually talk to each other. House beers run Unicorn IPA, Glasgow Red and Black Star Teleporter, with the rest of the wall given over to guest keg lines, the part Jeff sends people for. The 2024 Scottish Bar and Pub Awards named it Craft Beer Pub of the Year at the ceremony on 27 August 2024.
Order this / avoid
- Order: whatever is running from the tanks, since tank beer is as young and as unhandled as this city gets, then a pizza off the cupola oven; the house describes the result as
a light, thin pizza base that holds it's structural integrity.
Sunday to Thursday, noon to 4pm, four thirds cost £15.2 - Avoid: looking for cask. There are no handpulls here, and CAMRA's survey says so plainly.
What locals & experts say
- Scottish Bar and Pub Awards 2024 (Cold Town Craft Beer Pub of the Year): Shilling took the category at the awards held in Glasgow on 27 August 2024, per The Scotsman's winners list.3
- CAMRA (surveyed April 2022): a former bank headquarters running as pub and brewery together, eight conditioning tanks behind the bar, and a pizza dough that
uses bakers and brewers yeast.
1 - Local rec: Jeff's save, his note below, and his order is the guest list.
Good to know
- Timing: noon to 11pm Sunday through Thursday, to midnight Friday and Saturday, with the kitchen running through the evening.
- Booking: walk-in. Big groups fit, and brewery tours run for people who want the malt-and-hops version.
- Getting there: 92 West George Street, 300 meters from Queen Street station, an easy pre-dinner stop on the way through town.
Craft signals (beer: rotation)
The house tanks are the freshness story; the guest wall is the craft story. Untappd's verified venue stats log 11,732 distinct beers here against 64,293 check-ins and 482 a month, which is churn a fixed house range cannot produce4. The List counts more than 20 rotating lines weighted to Scottish brewers5. Craft Beer Pub of the Year at the 2024 Scottish Bar and Pub Awards is the third, and that one rewards what the bar pours.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Large craft beer selection and decent pizzas. Try the large guest beer selection."
Verdict
should-visit — Worth the detour, and the reason is the guest wall rather than the house tanks. Untappd's verified stats for the bar record 11,732 distinct beers logged and 482 check-ins a month, and The List counts more than 20 rotating lines weighted to Scottish breweries with at least one very strong stout on to finish a night. On top of that the beer poured off the eight conditioning tanks behind the bar never leaves the building, the pizza dough borrows the brewery's yeast, and the 2024 Scottish Bar and Pub Awards named it Craft Beer Pub of the Year, which is a judgment on the beer rather than the bank building it is in. Jeff's own note points at the guest selection, and weighing what is in the glass first, that guest list is a detour rather than a passing stop.