Banchory and Aboyne

From http://iansaleadventures.blogspot.com/

Golf club has got more Hyde's Tickety-Boo this week, plus Woodforde's Wherry. No sign of a return for any Deeside ales.

I was in the Boat Inn, Aboyne last night and it, too, was bereft of any Deeside ales - usually there's been at least one available. The choice last night was Ossian, Deuchar's and Belhaven 80/-. I chose Ossian, but it was the end of the barrel so I changed to Deuchar's - it was cold, tired looking, and tasted of nothing in particular - pretty disappointing. The Belhaven 80/- was slightly better.

Whilst waiting for all of our pints to be poured, Wilson (mandatory name for anyone who runs the Boat, it seems - that's 3 in a row!) spotted me eyeing up the rather insipid fare he'd just poured for me and made some light-hearted remark about me being another beer "connoisseur" (i.e. snob). He then proceeded to tell us a tale about a recent visit of 2 CAMRA members who had apparently been dropping off newsletters (not sure why - I'd already delivered a pile a few weeks ago). They had two half pints of beer apparently - so it definitely wasn't me!

Deuchar's and Ossian were 2 of the beers on at the time, but the cellarman had made a mistake on the Sunday and had crossed the lines - this error wasn't discovered until the casks were finished 3-4 days later. Nobody, not even the 2 CAMRA members, had commented or noticed that what they were drinking wasn't what it says on the label. The clear implication was that, in his mind, all the ales taste the same (he's a lager man) - why, even CAMRA members can't tell an Ossian from a Deuchar's!

Not a terribly encouraging attitude from somebody running what has been a regular GBG entry for many years - I hope this was just an off night. The Deuchar's I got last night was tasteless and, if it was the same when the other 2 members came in, then I'm not surprised that they apparently didn't notice that it wasn't Ossian/Deuchar's they were drinking.