Belated Happy New Year to all - hope you had a good one too. I've been round the usual haunts in Deeside over the festive season - the Legion and the Douglas in Banchory are still the best for quality, variety and reliability. The Stag has been pretty good as well, but, with only one pump, you can occasionally be unlucky - but it does have the best coal fire for miles around - very welcoming!
At the Burnett Arms, with 2 handpumps serving Deuchar's and a Deeside beer, you would think you would always be able to get ale of sorts, but, unfortunately, that's not always the case - a couple of times recently there's been nothing available. The local jungle drums have been hinting that Scott Skinner's has improved, but I haven't plucked up the courage to try it for myself yet - my annual visit is due soon, however.
The Learney Arms in Torphins has been pretty reliable of late and the Potarch is still serving Cairngorm's Sheepshagger's Gold - always good quality, but with a price warning - £3.50 per pint last week - I had assumed this was after the VAT increase, but they told me they haven't implemented any increase for this yet - that's still to happen! The day of the £4 pint is getting ever closer - no wonder other measures are now under consideration - although why an Australian schooner has been chosen, I'll never know. I guess it would have been a step too far for a Con (/Lib) Government to even contemplate finally adopting a metric measure like a half litre - perhaps seeing this as a step closer to Europeanisation.
I guess price point is the key - a schooner measure could potentially turn even a £3.60 pint back down to £2.50 for your glass of beer, whereas a half litre would still be well above £3 a glass. This may be of interest to some consumers, but I can't imagine too many publicans will take kindly to selling glasses of beer at lower prices. One to watch.
I've just spent the weekend in Aviemore - very much Cairngorm country - and quite rightly so. On Facebook, there's a Cause titled Support Your Local Brewery - well, surely you have to? Oh, wait a minute, perhaps not if you live in or near the Broch, judging by recent correspondence on the CAMRA Yahoo site.
Anyway, Dalfaber had both Trade Winds and Santa's Sledgehammer on - and excellent they were too. On Saturday morning, we walked up to the town centre and eventually on to the Old Bridge Inn for lunch, passing the brewery on our way:
OBI was excellent as usual - Black Gold and Winter Flurry went down well.
We just had time to take in the Cairngorm Hotel in the evening - two pumps serving Cairngorm Gold and Stag. Is it just me, or does anyone else think the former is more than a little bland and lacking character?
On Sunday morning, we fought our way through the snow blizzards enveloping Aviemore and headed south to the Moulin Inn, near Pitlochry - always a nice spot for Sunday lunch. With me driving, it had to be Moulin Light, but I did have a quick taste of Braveheart as well.
Hopefully this week will be our last taste of Scotland's winter for a while - we're heading Down Under, so I'll be downing a few tinnies soon - perhaps (briefly) in company with the Barmy Army. First stop, however, is Hong Kong - been checking out the brewpubs online already - but if anyone has any recommendations, we'd love to try them out.
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