Barney’s Beer makes limited edition Idlewild IPA

Idlewild will release their eighth album in February. Picture: John Devlin

Barney’s Beer, based at Summerhall in the city’s Southside, is brewing ‘Scottish Fiction IPA’, named after the band’s song Scottish Fiction which featured a spoken word segment from the late Edwin Morgan.

The beer will be available in Scotland as a limited edition batch to coincide with the release of Everything Ever Written, the band’s eighth record.

The eponymous Barney revealed that the group had approached him as they looked for a symbiotic way to celebrate the record’s launch.

Barney - who has worked with artist John Byrne and composer Will Pickvance - said: “When the band approached me to collaborate on a beer I invited them down to the brewery to have a taste of some beers and throw around some ideas.

We’re not new to artistic collaborations so it was great to have the whole band’s input and come up with something that reflects the ideas behind Everything Ever Written.”

Written on the island of Mull and recorded in Edinburgh, Everything Ever Written marks the band’s return to music after a five-year hiatus.

Late last year, the band assembled at the brewery to match up a beer with the album.

Scottish Fiction IPA is made with Scottish malt and American hops, to ‘mirror the album’s musical ingredients - Scottish Folk, Hebridean pyschedelica, americana and American alternative rock’.

Singer Roddy Woomble added: “Idlewild are a band of committed and enthusiastic craft beer and ale drinkers and Barneys beer has been a favourite for quite a while.

“The fact that Barney’s beer and Idlewild both hail from Edinburgh makes a collaboration like this extra special.”

The limited batch of 1250 bottles will be available at independent beer and wine retailers, and will be available on cask for a short period.

The bottles will also come with a QR code allowing access to a free download of a new acoustic performance of one of Idlewild’s earlist tracks, A Film for the Future.

The label also features a play on words on the band’s first full-length album Hope is Important with the message ‘Hops is important’.