MAY 25 - JUNE 1, 2025
DRAUGHT AND DRAMS
TOUR OVERVIEW
A country with the unicorn as its national animal must have a sense of humor, or wonder, or both. Occupying the relatively remote northern portion of Britain, Scotland is equally blessed and cursed to be home to the islands’ wildest, most dramatic geography: the glens, bens, burns, firths, and lochs of mystical legend. Its people are as fiercely independent and protective of their traditions as they are welcoming and eager to share.
As beer importers we enjoyed working with the upstart Scottish brewers, who managed to thrive under the shadow of the monolithic brewing culture of England. As students of the distillatory arts, we have been in awe of the insular and singular pedigree of Scottish whisky makers. “Scotch” and beer share common ingredients, but how do they divide up the land’s identity, and the affections of its drinkers? We’ll navigate some of Europe’s most stunning valleys, mountains, and rivers to find the answer
DAY 1
SUNDAY MAY 25, 2025
FÀILTE GU ALBA
Or to put it another way, “Welcome to Scotland!”
DAY 2
MONDAY MAY 26, 2025
HEADED TO THE HIGHLANDS
We’ll kick off our epic bus week with a short drive through Glasgow to Epochal Barrel-Fermented Ales. We’ll get a tour and bracing tasting of its barrel-fermented ales before heading north on another quick jaunt, this time to the historic city of Stirling and its dramatic castle. We’ll devote enough time to fully explore this major Scottish landmark and grab a snack lunch, and then we head into the Highlands.
The scenery becomes more and more dramatic at this point and soon we arrive at the quaint, picturesque village of Pitlochry, where a tour and sampling at the town’s Blair Atholl Distillery awaits. A cosy dinner at our town-center hotel, McKay’s, rounds off this eventful first full day.
DAY 3
TUESDAY MAY 27, 2025
ALL ALONG SPEYSIDE
Today we explore three different distilleries — one 19th, one 20th and one 21st century. After a restful night in Pitlochry we leave early in the morning and continue our trip north, into the Cairngorms. This initial drive offers the perfect combination of placid scenery watching and anticipation of the upcoming packed schedule. Once on the eastern border of Cairngorms National Park, we’ll pay a quick visit to Dalwhinnie Distillery — one of the highest situated in Scotland.
From there we cut through the park and head into Speyside. Here the Spey, Scotland’s second longest river, winds its way through an area that’s home to about 50 whisky distilleries. We’ll have a tour, tasting and lunch at one of the newest, the beautiful Cairn Distillery, before popping into the bar at The GlenAllachie to cap off this amazing triple-distillery day. We then check into our hotel in Elgin, where we’ll have a festive round-table dinner.
DAY 4
WEDNESDAY MAY 28, 2025
THE SOUL OF SPEYSIDE
Our epic full day in Speyside features a bit of everything. First we’ll have a morning tour at the amazing Speyside Cooperage to explore the crucial art of cask-making before visiting the Benriach Distillery for a tour and extended tasting session. We’ll then make a casual lunch stop in the central Elgin distillery Glen Moray.
Post-lunch, guests will have the option of a free afternoon in Elgin – possibly to visit the dramatic ruins of the old cathedral and the world’s most famous whisky shop, Gordon & MacPhail – or hopping back on the bus for a jam-packed optional road trip. We’ll hit the Benromach Distillery (possibly popping by the nearby Speyside Brewery too) as well the fascinating and ancient Duffus Castle ruins.
We return to Elgin on the earlyish side, as this will be a free night to hit the town for dinner and drinks, and if history repeats itself there will later be a fun gathering at the Sunninghill Hotel’s cosy pub.
DAY 5
THURSDAY MAY 29, 2025
THE MANY TASTES OF SCOTLAND
We’ll cap off our Highlands whisky journey with a morning tour of one of Scotland’s few remaining traditional, independent distilleries, the formidable and dramatically-situated Glenfarclas.
Following the tour and tasting there, we’ll have a short, scenic drive before arriving at Aviemore and the tiny Kinrara Distillery, where we can cleanse our by-now-expert whisky palates with a fun tasting of house made gins!
Then it’s on to beer, with a specially-arranged visit and sampling at the tiny brewery Wasted Degrees just outside the village of Blair Atholl. By evening we’ll need some hearty food. But our dinner destination, Moulin, is also a brewpub, so we get to hit a second brewery on this big tasting day. Another overnight in Pitlochry follows.
DAY 6
FRIDAY MAY 30, 2025
THE WORLD’S MOST SCENIC FEST
FyneFest arguably boasts the world’s most beautiful and dramatic location for a beer event, set as it is in a lovely valley surrounded by Highland mountains. And the impressive wall of world-class cask handpumps, multiple satellite tents featuring local bands, and awesome food trucks serving first-rate goodies put this fest right over the top. We’ll have an early and a late bus back to our lakeside hotel, though many of us won’t ever want to leave…
DAY 7
SATURDAY MAY 31, 2025
FROM LOCH TO HARBOR
DAY 8
SUNDAY JUNE 1, 2025
MAR SIN LEIBH AN DRÀSDA
Edinburgh is a major travel hub. Our hotel located right near its main station offers easy access to the airport for flights home or to other locations around Europe, or to trains destined for other cities in Scotland or England.
The city itself is also well worth a few extra days’ exploration. Your ICBT guides will spend the day and evening of June 20 in town, and guests are cordially invited to join us for any daytime jaunts or nighttime bar crawls. But whichever day we go our separate ways, we’ll end our shared adventure the way we began it, with a bit of Gaelic — Mar sin leibh an drasda — “Goodbye for now.”
EXTRAS
MULTIPLE DATES
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE...
Inner Circle attracts not only casual beer fans but homebrewers, professional tasting judges, beverage industry notables, and seasoned world travelers. As such our guest lists represent a wide variety of interests and interest levels. Our experience has shown that some folks are happy with a casual, fun but informative overview of the regions we visit, while others want to dig ever deeper into the technical or tasting side, or simply explore more of the area on the itinerary.
For these folks, we present optional venues and events (free or at flat cost) within the tour timeframe or as part of additional pre-or-post-tour days.
More information to come soon
For Scotland ’24 we are offering:
- JUNE 14 – a pre-tour walk to some of the major sites in Glasgow
- JUNE 17 – an intensive whisky talk and tasting by a local expert
- JUNE 19 – a gin distillery visit
- JUNE 20 – a sightseeing/tasting extra half-day post-tour in Edinburgh.
SCOTLAND 2025 TOUR PRICING
$2800
PER PERSON, BASED ON DOUBLE OCCUPANCY
(ADD $400 FOR SINGLE OCCUPANCY)
**Tour prices are per person and do not include airfare.
*Single occupancy rooms are limited.
More information about the destinations
we'll visit on our tour
**Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information presented on this webpage. Inner Circle Beer Tours (ICBT) is not responsible for errors in or damages resulting from use of the information contained herein. Information contained on this webpage is subject to change without notice.**
