The Drinking Man's Guide To Scotland - A View From The Bar

Gaymers Cider, Prague, William Grant Whisky, Glenfiddich and a 40th Birthday

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 06:52:11 -0800

Work is still keeping me very busy ! Not long After getting back from Miami, (please see previous blog post), I was on my way to Shepton Mallet in Somerset. I was working there for a few days at the Gaymer's old English factory, I was working for C & C, the company that own Gaymers. We not only worked at the factory but we also held an event at Gaymers own cider house, see the pictures below.

The Cider house was very nice and so was the cider ! I managed to sample most of the Gaymers range and a few more local, craft ciders. The Gaymers tastes great but is probably a bit too gassy for me. The local ciders were not carbonated and tasted of pure apple, very drinkable, probably a bit too drinkable as they pack a punch with a high ABV. These pictures were taken before the event started, during the event the place was filled with C & C management and we enjoyed a whole hog roast.

A few days after Shepton I was on my way to work at a pharmacological conference and exhibition in Prague. I was there for nine days but due to the amount of work involved I didn't get much time for going out on the town. I did find a great bar close to our hotel and loved the Pilsner Urquell, Bernard and the Kozel beers. The other bar we found, close to the Prague Hilton, was not only a bar but a shooting range as well ! (sorry, I can't remember its name) It was very much a locals bar but served good beer and great food at cheap prices. it was very relaxed but would not be to everyone's taste. I also went to see the King Charles the 5th bridge, If you are in Prague I think it is a legal requirement !

When I got home after working in Prague I was very tired and a bit grumpy as we didn't get much sleep !

Three days later I started on a road show for William Grant & Sons Ltd. I was looking forward to this as it took me to some distilleries that I'd not been to yet. We started at the distillery in Girvan, went to the distribution center in Glasgow and finished in the Glenfiddich distillery in Dufftown. I actually stayed overnight in one of the Glenfiddich distillery cottages. It was great to wake up in the morning surrounded by beautiful scenery and smell the whisky in the air. The first two pictures are from Girvan, the next two are from Glasgow and the final pictures below are from the Genfiddich Distillery.

Just last week my beautiful wife turned 40.

As well as a family get together on her birthday we celebrated this big event by going away together for the weekend, (yes we actually went somewhere together !). Our children stayed with my mum and we headed to Inverness and a great 4 star hotel called "The Kingsmill". On the way up the A9 we stopped at Moulin and had lunch at the Moulin Hotel. We tried to visit the brewery, but it was shut. In Inverness we went to "Hootanany", which is a fantastic pub in the center of town. They have a lot of Black Isle Brewer beers on tap, (you must try the Black Isle Organic Porter, its one of the best beers I've had this year !), they also have lots of live traditional music and we danced the evening away. We ate at "The Mustard Seed", which is a bit more expensive but the food and ambiance is worth it.

On the way back home we went to Culloden, as it was the anniversary of the famous battle. (16th April 1746)

That's all for this blog, see you next time.

Cheers !

March on........

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 01:08:30 -0800

This is March and time is marching on........ The first thing I must do is apologise for not updating the blog in February, but when you see what I've been up to you'll probably realize why !

Work is incredibly busy, I've been working away from home a lot over the last six weeks. The first trip was to Liverpool where I was working at the ACC arena for a week. This was a great conference to work on and I had a number of chances to go out and see what Liverpool has to offer. I went to the Cavern pub on the Sunday night with a good friend, J.B., and we saw an excellent band and had a few Guinness and some more local ales. Over the course of the week we went to various other pubs around the Mathew Street area, including the oldest pub in Liverpool, "Ye Hole in Ye Wall", where I had a pint of "Silver Moon" which is a porter and was beautifully smooth. At the end of the week we went to the Cavern Club, (you know the one - where The Beatles used to play), and saw another band, it was a good night out but not as lively as the Cavern pub across the road. The picture on the right is J.B. and me in the Cavern Club.

When I got back home from Liverpool I only had a few days at home before my next job so I decided to have a day out with my family.

We went to the Wallace Monument in Stirling, we took in the views and had a great packed lunch out in the open, then we went onto Stirling Castle. Both of these places are well worth a visit. We spent hours in the castle and could have spent more time there but decided to call it a day and go and get some food. On our way out I stopped at the gift shop and saw that they had a reasonable choice of whiskys, check out the pictures below. The first two pictures were taken at the Wallace Monument, the next two were taken at Stirling Castle.

Just outside Stirling Castle is a pub called "The Portcullis", this is where we went for a meal. I would really recommend this place as they had some great real ales, the menu was large and the food was great ! they even let me behind the bar for a few photo's. There will be a review of this pub on the site soon !

A day later I was on a plane to Miami.

I worked at a pharmaceutical conference there for nine days. We only had a couple of chances to go out as this was a full on conference. Below are some photo's and a video. the first photo was taken during the build and is in the main room, the beach photo was taken as we, me and J.B., walked to work in the morning and the video shows the out door venue for the gala dinner.

On the few occasions we did get out we went to a few bars and a club. The first bar we found was on Lincoln Drive and it was a German bar, as I wanted to drink more than a 330ml bottle at a time we got a few large beers. We moved to a club on Ocean Drive called the Clevlander which was loud and lively. Most of the beers I came across in America were the usual suspects, Bud, Miller, San Miguel, etc with a lot of "light" versions - but my favorite was Samuel Adams. A few days later, on my way home, at the airport, I had my last Samual Adams of the trip at Bongos Cuban Cafe.

When I got back from Miami, on the 25th of Feb I had a whole two days to recover from the jet lag before I was on the road again. This time I was working in Glasgow and Manchester - on a medical roadshow. When in Glasgow I took some of the crew to "The Horseshoe Bar" and also to Waxy O'Connors, where we enjoyed the beer and the Glasgow hospitality. I introduced some of them to "Bitter and Twisted", by the Harviestoun Brewery, which went down very well !

In Manchester we didn't have time to go into town, we were working at an airport hotel, but we did get invited to the gala dinner. On my way home I had a couple of cheeky pints, Guinness, at the airport.

I am writing this blog at the SECC in Glasgow where I'm currently working at a Diabetes conference and there is more travel on the way !!! - see next months blog .

Sales of my book "The Tartan Pint" have been disappointing, this may be due to the fact it is only available as a download. However, I was recently working at a book sellers event and managed to talk to some publishers about it. One of the publishers is interested in it so there may be a paperback edition on its way - although this may take some time.

Until next time !!!

P.S. if you have any comments about the blog, or any questions, or just want to get in touch then please contact me. You can do this through the contacts page on the web site.

Cheers, Alastair

The Book "The Tartan Pint" Has Arrived !!!

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:30:15 -0800

After working on this project for almost a year it is now ready and available for down load from Amazon. "The Tartan Pint" is an E book and is all about the great breweries and fantastic beers that Scotland has to offer. It gives you information about the breweries, including web addresses, facebook, telephone numbers and a brief description of the history or the people behind them. There is a list of almost all the beers they produce along with pump clip images and tasting notes, where available. The book is split into the 14 geographical area's of Scotland from Shetland to Dumfries and Galloway with a brief description of the area and a list of the breweries located in that area. there are also a few other chapters about beer history, beer tasting and beer styles, i.e. the definition of lager, bitter, porters, etc....

This is a great book and will give you an overview, (blaggers guide), to beer in Scotland. It also touches on the fact that craft brewing is growing all over the world and that beers tastes and styles are changing and developing. Check it out, tell your friends about it and get your copy !

I Hope that everyone had a great Christmas and New Year. I usually work at New Year, the last couple of years I've worked as a camera man on the Waverly Stage at Edinburgh's Hogmany party, but this year I had a break and spent some time with family and friends. We celebrated the new year at my house with barbecued steaks and brought in the bells with a glass of single malt. It was just great to catch up and be together on such a happy occasion, as you can see below. I took the picture, and yes, the bottle of Kelpie is mine. From Left to right is: Christine, (my wife), James Grant, Gillian Grant, Carolyn Young and Kenny Young..

After the festive period I, like so many of you, went back to work. I've been travelling up and down the country on road shows and at events. Its amazing how time fly's as its now nearing the end of January and were one month into the year already !

A couple of nights ago we celebrated Burns night at home with some friends. As well as the haggis we had a few other treats to share. We bought a small keg of "Copper Cascade" from the Stewart Brewery, this is a beautiful full bodied red ale - so good it didn't last long.

As you can see from the pictures above we also had a bottle of elderberry wine from the Cairn O' Mohr winery. This went down very well with dessert and especially well with the cheese board. It's very different to most main stream wine as its a fruit wine, quite sweet and has a very strong flavour of berries, I like it, but can't drink much of it due to the sweetness. My brother, Steven, brought one of his favourite whiskies, Old Pultney, and shared it with us. This is a beautiful flavored malt with a salty aftertaste. Although It took us a while before we could persuade him to let go of the bottle !

Please head on over to Amazon and download your copy of The Tartan Pint". If you have any questions or queries about the book then please contact me.

See Ya next time !!!

Busy Busy BUSY !!!

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 09:52:13 -0800

November has been crazy busy ! I've been traveling a lot with work and it's taken me to the Highlands of Scotland right down to the south of ireland, via middle England.

I was working in Inverness at the start of the month and I managed to take in a few pubs when I was there. check out the reviews of The Castle Tavern, Johnny Foxes, Gunsmiths and Hootananny. The best pub I was in in Inverness has to be Hootananny, I was there with my cousin Eilidh and her fiance Stuart on a Saturday afternoon and the place was packed, with a band playing traditional Scottish music and people dancing. I joined in with the dancing and also enjoyed a few real ales from the Black Isle Brewery. I heartily recommend this bar if you are in town. Check out the pictures below of Hootannany:

I arrived home from Inverness late on A Sunday night and early on the following morning I was heading to middle England, just south of Bristol to a place called "Shepton Mallet". This is where Gaymers Old English Cider is made, along with a few other ciders. I was working for a company called C & C and went to the cider mill. Shepton is a pleasant little place and we stayed at "The Thatched Cottage". It's a great little hotel and has a well stocked bar and friendly staff

On the 18th of November I was at the Beehive in Edinburgh for the S.I.B.A. bottled beer competition. I was judging in the Porters and golden ales category and in the speciality ales category. I loved being at this event meeting and talking to people with a love for all things beer and brewing. The event was very well run and I tasted about 18 different beers. I met brewers, bloggers, pub managers and well known faces from S.I.B.A. The event took about four hours and the effort that went into judging the beers took me by surprise, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Check out the pictures from the event:

The Beehive Inn - Edinburgh

Walter Dunlop, (TinPot Brewery), and me.

Fiona, the head brewer and owner of "The Loch Lomond Brewery"

Bob Knopps, of the Knopps Beer Company.

Dean, a brewpub manager, and myself out having a few beers after the competition finished.

The Sunday after the S.I.B.A. event I was heading to southern Ireland on another leg of the C & C employee road show. We went to Clonmel to the Magners Cider Mill and bottling plant. It was loud !!! they bottle 60,000 per hour !!! Check out the short video below:

Work is starting to calm down, which means I will soon have enough time to finish my book, "The tartan Pint", which I hope to have ready for Christmas. I hope that you will find this of interest and buy it and read it ! I'm also having some fun designing a few drinking T Shirts which I hope you will like.

Until the next time.................

Bring it on !

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 08:52:27 -0800

I had an Email the other day that made me more excited than a grow man should be, I was invited by S.I.B.A., (Society of Independent Brewers), to be a beer judge at their Scottish events ! The first one that I am going to judge at is the bottled beer competition on the 18th of November and it will be held at "The Beehive" in Edinburgh. I am really looking forward to this event and trying my taste buds out on some great new Scottish beers. i will of course take my camera and write a report on this for the next issue of "A View From The Bar".

It's been a while since my last issue but I haven't been idle, I've reviewed some more pubs - check out the review of "Joseph Pearce", a pub on Edinburgh's Lieth Walk, or "Bread + Butter Bar Diner" an urban chic pub close to Glasgow's princess Square shopping center and also check out the review of one of Glasgow's most iconic bars "The Horse shoe", pictured below.

I started this web site about a year and a half ago as a hobby and an expression of my love for all things Scottish, beer, whisky, great pubs, festivals, etc. It has grown a lot since then both in size and in popularity, I get on average 220 hits a day.

I have now written a book called "TheTartan Pint" which should be on sale on the site in about two weeks time, (as a download E book), it will also be available on Amazon for I pad and Kindle. It is a comprehensive guide to ALL the Beers and Breweries Scotland has to offer. It has tasting notes and pictures of the pump clips for all the Beers and a brief description and history of the breweries.

I have put a lot of time and effort into this and hope that you will download it and enjoy it. It'll be priced at £2.49

I look forward to the next issue of "A View From The Bar" as there will be more surprises in store, until then, Cheers !!!

A Great Summer !!!

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:56:53 -0800

The summer is coming to an end and my thoughts are now about going back to work, but what a summer !

Great weather, great holidays and some great pubs and festivals.

I started my holidays by going camping near Glencoe, at Duror. On the way there we went to "The Drovers", on Loch Lomond. This is a very unusual pub that looks like the building is about to fall down and is full of old furniture and stuffed animals but feels great. I love this pub and would recommend it as one to visit, you won't forget it !

When we got to Duror we had a great time outdoors, but I did manage to get to a few pubs. The first pub I'd like to mention is "The Clachaig Inn". This pub is a brilliant place to go to with family or friends, its in Glencoe surrounded by beautiful scenery and has 3 bars, food, live music and a very welcoming atmosphere. When touring the area we also went to Oban and had a meal in "Cuan Mor", this is also where the Oban Bay Brewery is located. I tried to have a look around the brewery but unfortunately there was no one there that day to show us round.

The second week of the holidays we travelled to Loch Lomond and met up with some family at Rowardennan. If you are there you should try the "Clansman Bar" at the Rowardennan hotel. It's got a beer garden with a stunning view over Loch Lomond. You can also go wake boarding here, just walk down to the water from the bar and speak to the people with the speed boats, unfortunately I can't remember the company name !!!

Later in the summer went to St Andrews and around Fife with my mate John. We tried a few great pubs, such as "The Dreel Tavern" in Anstruther, the "Ship Inn" in Elie and "The Central Bar" in St Andrews.

The Edinburgh Festival has now started and I spent a day there this week with my two brothers Steven and kenneth and my nephew Marc. We saw three shows, two good, one rubbish and went to a few good pubs such as "The Jolly Judge". I also came across the show below and thought a few of you out there might like it, it's called "The Dirty int, check out the video below:

I'm sorry it's on its side, that's the way I filmed it.

I finished my day at the festival with a few pints fro the Orkney brewery at "The Guildford Arms" . I took a little film as there as there was a jazz band playing, check it out below:

If you get the chance then I would urge you to go to the Edinburgh festival as there is something there for everybody. I think that there are about 20,000 performances planned this year, some expensive, some free and all prices in between.

See you soon ................

Scottish Real Ale Festival 2011

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 08:26:29 -0800

I went to the Scottish Real Ale Festival last Thursday with my good mate, Stuart. We both enjoyed the festival and drank some great beers. We also managed to talk to a few brewers from around Scotland. Check out the video below for a flavour of the event. Cheers !!!

Thistly Cross Cider festival

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:38:11 -0800

What a weekend ! I arrived at Thistly Cross on a sunny Friday afternoon and soon got into the spirit of things with a glass of the 14% Bowmore whisky cider. I was lucky enough to speak to Peter Stuart for a couple of minutes about how he started making cider and his vision for the future. There is a video of this on the Thistly Cross Cider page, filmed by my friend Kamil. Once the tent was up we made our way to the bar and we enjoyed a good few real ales from various breweries. One of the breweries was the Tempest Brewery from Kelso and I met Gavin Meiklejohn, the owner and head brewer. We sampled a few of his beers and my favourite was the Citra - well worth a try.

Gavin Meiklejohn and myself enjoying a few beers at the bar

I also met a few other brewers, such as the head brewer from Demon Brew, watch this space for more details ........

That night our wives arrived and joined us at the bar. Later we barbecued some beautiful meat, drank some great Cider and spent the night in our tent.

The next day we went to the battle re - anactment, which I enjoyed, then we headed to a local fish farm and bought some fish for the barbecue with Mark, who was a nice guy that we met at the festival. Then it was back to the bar to sample some more real ale's and great cider !!! The ceilidh later on that night was really enjoyable and a great end to the weekend. Check out the video below for a flavour of the event.

I left the festival on the Sunday and on the Monday was in London working. As you might guess, I did make time for a few beers. I went out to two pubs with my good friend Stewart. The pub below was in the City of Westminster and was old and surrounded by new office buildings. they had a few good ales and the staff were friendly.

However, my favorite pub in London is "The Ship Inn". This is just across the road and through a passage from monument station. It's my favorite for a whole lot of reasons !! most of which I'm not going into here, but they serve great food, great ale and it has an old world friendly feel to it. Many thanks to the manager and barman who made us feel very welcome on Monday night - despite the lack of blue cheese sauce for the steak - but the free pint more than made up for it.

I am now back home and drying out my liver in preparation for the next time !

Cheers

Alastair

Let the Festivals begin !!!

Thu, 19 May 2011 03:38:10 -0800

It's that time of year again when we start to think about going on holiday, the summer, getting away from it all. It's also the time when all the festivals start, i.e. beer festivals, whisky festivals and there are lots of them happening in Scotland. I plan to go to as many as I can and have started with the Paisley Beer Festival a couple of weeks ago. Check out the video below to get a flavour of the event:

After the beer festival john and I went on to two pubs in Paisley, "Hamishes Hoose" and the "The Last Post". We had a meal in Hamishes Hoose, we were feeling hungry after all the great beers at the festival ! then moved on to the Last post, which is a large Wetherspoons pub. Both are well worth a visit and are reviewed on the pub reviews page - Check out the reviews as there are lots of photo's and more information there about the pubs.

There are lots of festivals over the next couple of months, check out the festivals page of the web site - Festivals
I am planning to go to the "Thistly Cross Cider Festival" with my wife Christine on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th June 2011. This is held at the Belhaven fruit farm just outside Dunbar and has lots of Cider and great real ales from various breweries. There is also a Ceilidh and small camp site. I'm looking forward to it as we are meeting some friends, Julie and Kamil, and we are not taking out children !!!!!! - An adults weekend away. I will take some video and do a report for the blog.

See you again,

Alastair

Colonsay Brewery Beer Tasting

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:39:04 -0800

On the night of Tuesday the 26th of April I got together with my brother Steven and his good friend Simon. We tasted some of the beers from the Colonsay Brewery. The video below is the edited version, we spent hours enjoying these beers !! Enjoy.