Pub surveys

From http://iansaleadventures.blogspot.com/

The weather this weekend was kind enough to let me drive down darkest Deeside to finish the remaining pub surveys in the list of 21 that Dod had asked me to do this year, in advance of next Saturday's local CAMRA meeting at the Dutch Mill to decide on which pubs in our area go in to next year's GBG.

The timetable is set by CAMRA nationally but January and early February are not the best months to be doing pub surveys in this neck of the woods. Many of the more outlying pubs are either shut at this time of year, or have such restricted hours that it's difficult to find a suitable time to survey them - particularly when the weather plays up and the roads are difficult or impassable. Generally, even the ones that are open have a restricted range of ales on in the quieter winter months.

Nonetheless, I got round them all eventually - including 2 in the Broch and one in Balmedie. A number of the pubs I surveyed wouldn't be normal ports of call for me, but I was at least able to cast a vote for them, albeit I obviously didn't see some of them at their best.

Regrettably, I have to report one closure - The Feughside Inn. No surprise really, it's been struggling for a while and hasn't had any ale on at least the last 4 or 5 occasions I've been there. The owners have now made an application to convert to flats and 3 houses. Dave, the landlord, now has the unfortunate distinction of seeing his last 2 pubs close down - he used to be mine host at Crossroads, Lumphanan and that, of course, closed some time ago - albeit after he sold it.

Three of the places I visited were closed on Saturday lunchtime, although the Moorfield House Hotel in Braemar and Inver Hotel, Crathie at least opened up and allowed me to collect the survey data. I wasn't so fortunate when I tried to get in to the Deeside Hotel, Ballater.

I did Price Surveys at each of the 19 establishments that I got in to. There was a total of 28 ales on at these places from 13 different breweries, of which Inveralmond and Cairngorm were the most frequent (6 each). Deeside and Caledonian were represented 3 times and Fyne Ales 2. There were 8 Scottish breweries and 5 from England.

Trade Winds and Deuchar's (3 each) were the most popular individual brews and the Elizabethan in Fraserburgh was the pub which had the most ales on (3) at the time of my visit.

The average price of a pint of real ale was £3.23, which compares with the average price of £3.17 for a pint of standard (Tennent's) lager. The cheapest pint of ale is to be found in Fraserburgh. Cheers Cafe Bar & Tavern was selling Dale's Legover at £2.50 per pint and Raymond at the Elizabethan Bar & Lounge matches this price on all his real ales on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The dearest pint I found on my travels was at the Cock and Bull, Balmedie, who are charging the same £3.80 price for their ale (Burnside's 3-Bullz) as their standard lager.

That's about it - hopefully see a few of you at the Dutch Mill on Saturday.