Leith Heavy

He started it. Tweeting a link to some photos of the former proprietor of The Oxford, Willie Ross. In one of them, Willie's pouring a pint and the tap next to it had an unfamiliar pump clip. I could read Leith Heavy but nothing else. I replied to Ian's tweet asking if he knew anything about the Leith Heavy - I'd be interested in the recipe. He didn't but he retweeted the question and a few people replied. One of them, Scobes (formerly of this parish) piped up, "I've got it. It was Nancy's dad that brewed it". Well, that's a turn-up.

I was telling this story to a mate and his response, not unreasonably, was, "yeah but why do you want to make a heavy from the 1980s? It'll be horrible". To which I replied, half joking, "aye, but what if Ian Rankin pulls the first pint in The Oxford?". 

So I met Scobes, in The Oxford of course. While we were chatting, I found the old twitter thread and replied to Ian Rankin, "fancy pulling the first pint of the Leith Heavy in 35 years?". And he said, "If I'm around - see my Twitter bio for contact details. Good luck!"

And today it all came together. And it's a lovely pint too.

The big poster's an original from 1982 that the current proprietor had stashed in a cupboard.

Which has overshadowed Ewan's birthday a wee bit. Sorry Ewan.