2015 is going to be a BIG year for beer in Scotland.

It's already kicked off with a bang by the formation of The Brewers' Association of Scotland (TBAS), and we're only just beginning our second month of the year! I therefore thought I'd compile a list of breweries who had a pretty great 2014 and are set for an even greater year ahead.

Pilot

You must have been hiding under a rock if you live in Edinburgh and haven't heard of Pilot. The brewery has an amazing capability to match flavours together, its Ultraviolot beer which gained quite a bit of publicity being a shining example. It's a wheat beer brewed with actual parma violets (which I've heard had to be painstakingly opened packet by packet). Now, I'm not really much of a fan of wheat beer orparma violets so I was a bit sceptical. I ordered a half more just to tick it off my list more than anything, but ended up back at the bar for another full pint! Very nicely balanced and neither the wheat nor parma violets were too overpowering. It also wasn't overly sweet which I'd worried about. They've informed me that bottling is one of the main themes of the upcoming year with all their previous brews focusing on draught in pubs throughout Edinburgh. They also plan to expand to double their capacity since at present they're working to the max with a constant demand for more! They also have lots of exciting collaboration plans ahead which I'm very much looking forward to! Keep up the great work guys.

Jaw Brew

Jaw only broke onto the brewing scene midway through 2014 and what a year they had! With 2 SIBA silver awards for Drift (a dark ale) and Fathom (a golden ale) under their belt, 2015 looks like it has big things in store. Like most breweries, it started with a passion for home brewing that ended with a 'hey, people would actually want to buy this!' epiphany. Jaw Brew currently have three beers which are all bottle conditioned and are available on cask and bottle in selected pubs and bottle shops around Glasgow. They have a full list of stockists on their website. I'm currently enjoying Drop, 'a hoppy pale ale' as I write this, a lovely, refreshing ale which poured with a nicely foamed head. You can certainly taste the bitterness from the hops as they add an interesting twist to the ale.

Elixir

Elixir is an exciting partnership that emerged between Cloisters bar manager Barry, and Ben, the "beer geek and experimental home brewer". Experimental is definitely the word I'd use to describe the pairs' brewing with previous ingredients including tablet, tonic wine, irn bru and paprika to name but a few! They've created a huge variety of different beers for their size and specialise in doing bespoke ones for various bars in Edinburgh. Bottles of their less experimental brews are popping up in shops all over Scotland and I'm really excited to see what other combinations they come up with. Sugar Lumps (one of the less crazy beers) is an imperial stout and collaboration with Ben Hislop, a friend of the pair. It's absolutely delicious! It pours almost black in colour and is incredibly smooth thanks to the oats. They've also added both dememera and Belgian candi sugar to balance out the bitterness of the dark malts to produce a perfectly balanced stout. Go careful with this one though as it does come in at a rather hefty 7.7% ABV.

Burnside Brewery

Located in the heart of the Mearns, where Lewis Grassic Gibbon based his eponymous Sunset Song, the brothers at Burnside have designed their own brewery and have done so with big expansion plans in mind. There was a flurry of excitement towards the end of last year with the launch of two new brews - After Dark, an oatmeal stout and a limited edition Christmas beer 'Liquid Cake'. This year is kicking off to a fantastic start too with a charity craft beer evening planned for February 20th in Stonehaven to raise money for Cot Death Scotland and Meningitis UK. I'm beginning to see Burnside more and more around Scotland so look out for them in a bottle shop near you. Mad Dogz is a particular favourite of mine, it's a light IPA, and couldn't be more perfect to enjoy on a summer's day looking out over the beautiful North East coast.

Eden Brewery

As well as producing some pretty great beers, Eden decided to branch into spirits last year. They've started with a range of gins and what I'm going to call 'baby whiskies'. A Scotch whisky can't be named as such until it's been aged for 3 years, so until it's old enough they're calling it a 'spirit'. St Andrews Blonde is my favourite of their standard line of beers (they also have a range of oak casked and Aristeuein beers which tend to be limited edition). The blonde is extremely light and citrusy balanced out with a bitter finish. They also have a beer club you can join which gives you priority for limited edition beers, invitations to launch events, merchandise and lots of other benefits.  I'm looking forward to seeing how the branch out into spirits goes for Eden and how their beers develop as a result.

Windswept Brewing Co

Windswept are another new duo to the scene with the brewery only opening two years ago. The former RAF pilots are based in Lossiemouth and have a small team and a Brewster heading up the brewing! They're available on draft and in 500ml bottles throughout Scotland and their Wolf in particular makes for a very nice pint. It's named after the wold of Badenoch and pours a reddish/golden colour with a lovely, thick head. It has a very warming flavour with lots of caramel and dried fruits. A nice alternative to a stout on a cold night in a cosy pub. Things are very exciting for Windswept at the moment as they've recently begun their exporting adventure as well as being available for distribution throughout all of the UK.