From http://iansaleadventures.blogspot.com/
Discovered yet another golf club with ale last week - Alford had Ossian, served from one of those fancy fountain style fonts. Pouring the beer was the former proprietor of the Forbes Arms, who now apparently works as bar steward there, having sold the hotel a while ago. I'm told the Forbes Arms is shut - although I never had the chance to go see.
Another wonderful cask of Betty Stogs on at Banchory golf club this weekend, but the Douglas were serving a very poor pint of Macbeth (complete with "Golden Ale" pump clip), along with passable Red MacGregor and Deuchar's.
Ian,
ReplyDeleteI've become progressively more concerned about Deeside over the past few months. Both quality and consistency seemed to have suffered. I've had Nechtan tasting of air freshener and a cardboard Macbeth.
In parallel the recipes seem to have been 'tweaked'. Where Lulach was once uncompromisingly bitter it's now just bland.
Sadly, you're no longer quite sure what will arrive when you order a pint so I now always ask for a taster.
What a shame for a brewery who showed so much promise. Let's hope they can hit their stride again
PS. Really liked the old style pump clips.They really stood out on the bat - the new ones are, at best, anonymous.
PPS. If you see a Burnside beer on the bar they're well worth a try. Nothing too adventurous but solid, well-crafted ales.