Crossing the Forth to the Larbert Beer Festival: 30th March 2013

I try to fit walks around some of the larger local Beer Festivals and so had already developed some tentative plans for a walk around Larbert before the Cromarty Brewing beer cancellation issue at the Larbert Beer Festival had 'blown-up' - see here and here. I seriously thought about not going but because those plans had been made and then subsequently because I'd seen a Facebook post from Kinneil Brew Hoose brewer Stuart Simpson regarding an interesting pub in nearby Kincardine, I decided that it was still worthwhile heading out that way (and even without Cromarty, the proposed beer-list was very good).


View Kincardine in a larger map

Outward transport was as follows:-
  Bus: Glasgow Buchanan St to Kincardine (Stagecoach X24/26/27 - 10, 30, 50 on the hour)

I actually managed to get into the centre of Glasgow at a decent time and caught the 10:10am bus out of Buchanan St Bus Station heading to St Andrews. This only stops at Cumbernauld and with the new M80 extension fully open this got me into Kincardine far quicker than any train/bus combination through Larbert or Falkirk. After a quick look around the shops dotted around Kincardine it was only just after 11:00am when I found The Unicorn bar/restaurant/hotel situated in the quiet centre of town.

The place dates back to 1639 and was the birthplace of one of the most famous (and most overlooked) Scottish scientists - Sir James Dewar, inventor of the Dewar or Vacuum Flask (I remember a great school physics experiment with a Dewar Flask, dry ice and flower petals) and also the co-inventor of cordite.

The inside certainly doesn't look 17th Century with the front room being a modern brasserie-type place serving breakfast and tea/coffee until 12noon, and then light lunches afterwards. The small bar only had taps for Stella & Guinness (and they were promoting the Diageo-owned (and pretty awful) Jeremiah Weed Brews), but there were bottles of Harviestoun Schiehallion and Bitter & Twisted available behind the bar.

However since it was just past 11:00am I decided to go for a Mocha rather than a beer and ordered a bacon roll to go with this. The bar was festooned with lots of small Easter decorations and there were also home made Easter eggs and home baking available (and which seemed to very popular judging by the number of people coming in for them). The Mocha when it came was probably once of the best I've had - lots of chunky, dark, bitter chocolate which slowly melted in bottom of the glass, but I think I should probably have had a scone with it rather than the bacon roll.

Full of sugar and chocolate I left The Unicorn and walked past a number of small sets of cottages towards the northern bank of the Forth. I think if I hadn't known about it beforehand I would probably have walked past the Railway Tavern - all that was visible from the outside was a metal cigarette box and a small sign with J Dobie, Licensee above the narrow doorway.

The current licensee and owner, Ronnie Dobie, was just opening up when went I went past so I let him get things sorted and then entered this incredible time-warp of a place. The bar is on the left of the doorway corridor and is up there with the smallest bar I've ever seen (I think Ronnie mentioned that 32 people packed in shoulder to shoulder was the absolute limit for the bar, and it's full most weekends). There are only 2 chairs at the bar, an immaculate bakelite bartop, a decent selection of spirits on what seemed to be homemade shelves and a lot of lovely pewter tankards.

Ronnie let me go behind the bar to take a photo of the front of the bar with its 4 red bench seats, red-painted heavy-duty fireplace, old pictures of the bar & a selection of customers and an amazing cabinet full of alcoholic miniatures.

The lounge room on the right hand side of the corridor is (perhaps) slightly bigger, with 2 tables including an extending 5 leg table used for cards, dominoes etc... and the room can also be booked for Stag Dos and other functions. Note that the buzzer marked 'Ring for Attention' still works.

Going back into the bar I made that fatal mistake made by tall people in an old pub and battered my head on the underside of the door - *ouch* and cue laughter from both of us. I definitely needed a beer after that and Ronnie provides the choice of Tennents 60/-, 70/- or Lager from the triple-tap brass font (there's no cellar available for a cask of real ale). However recently he has started selling bottles from the Kinneil Brew Hoose in Bo'ness (Pennvael Amber, Caer Edin Dark & Kincardine Sunset) so I took a bottle of the Kincardine Sunset (a lovely, mellow orangey citrus bitterness) and chatted away with Ronnie for half an hour or so about his family (the pub has been in his family for 4 generations), opening times (only Saturday lunchtime and from 6:30pm in the evenings), the change in beer duty, Glasgow & Kincardine pubs etc... I really had a great time and many thanks to Ronnie for this.

However I needed to get on my way and reluctantly decided to give the Auld Hoose, just down the road from the Railway Tavern, a miss and instead climbed the steps directly opposite to the start of the Kincardine Bridge, built in 1936. The higher central section used to be a swing bridge allowing ships upstream to Alloa, but this hasn't been in use since 1988.

Crossing the Kincardine Bridge gave me great views of the new road bridge slightly upstream, the Clackmannanshire Bridge, completed in 2008 and used for traffic to/from Perth and the M90.

I needed to cross the approach roads to the Clackmannanshire Bridge and it was a lot easier to do this at the main roundabout where there is an island rather than attempt to cross 4 lanes of traffic. This then led me to a decent cycle path and towards one of the large pylons taking electricity across the Forth from the nearby Longannet Power Station. Here I followed a track along the the foreshore of the Forth - the views here are not the best, it's mostly reclaimed farmland and mud-flats with an industrial complex near Alloa just about visible through the haze in the distance.

I took the marked 'Path' and headed inland into the outskirts of the village of Airth to the main road to Stirling and walked up to the T-junction just outside the village to a helpful National Trust for Scotland signpost. About 10 minutes later along a single track road I came to a small car park and the Walled Garden for the Dunmore Estate which holds The Pineapple. Seen from the manicured lawn of the garden this really is a fantastically bizarre folly - a summer house with a roof built to convey the pointed segments and spiky leaves of a flowering pineapple, since this was perceived as an exotic and rarely seen fruit (and hence the 'privilege' of the wealthy) back in the 18th Century when it was built. The structure was a lot larger and the stonework more impressively intricate than I had thought it would be and I believe the summer house can be rented out from the Landmark Trust.

I got out of the way of my fellow tourists looking for the perfect photograph and walked back down to the village of Airth past some interesting terraced houses to old Airth Main Street. The old Market Cross is located here in front of the Elphinstone Inn.

There was no-one in the first room I came to (the larger lounge with pool table), but when I opened the double doors I found a group of guys watching the Football in the smaller bar. There wasn't any interesting beer available so I made do with a half of Belhaven Best and sat with this until the bus was due across the road (it kept me out of the swirling snow for a while).

The bus was fairly late (I had even resorted to phoning the local Airth Taxi which was out on a pick-up) but it did eventually arrive and sped through Carron and Stenhousenuir to get me to the Dobbie Hall and the Larbert Beer Festival in actually pretty good time.

Even mid-Saturday afternoon the Festival was quite busy and the most popular beers were just starting to go off - I managed to snare the Alechemy Mosaic Burst (spicy & bitter/sweet), but missed the DemonBrew Firehead (which might not be brewed again for a while - see here). As per last year it was good to see that some more obscure English beers were available (quite a few Mallinsons single-hop beers were on) and the Penzance Brewing Co. Potion No. 9 was very zesty & refreshing (and one I'm not likely to see again too often). As always the volunteers were great and the large cross-off beer 'money-card' worked well (thankfully it's a lot more difficult to lose this compared to tokens).

I did manage to speak to one of the Festival organisers and it does seem that CAMRA's Scottish Regional Director is on a mission to make brewers differentiate between keg and cask variants of their beer (even if the beer is from the same gyle) by some sort of pump-clip colour change or name change/addition. As stated before I just think this seems very petty when new, local Scottish microbreweries and the great beer they produce should be encouraged as much as possible - only my humble opinion.

Return travel:-
  Train: Larbert to Glasgow Queen St (02, 32 on the hour)

Along the Three Towns coast (Ardrossan, Saltcoats & Stevenson): 16th March 2013

I hadn't been able to get out for a decent walk outwith Glasgow for some time so when I was finally able to do so I wanted to head to somewhere where I could watch the last of the 2013 6 Nations rugby games and preferably somewhere where there was some decent beer. Thankfully this flyer from the Ardrossan Accies Rugby Club seemed to suggest that here was a place where this was a more than likely possibility so I decided to head off to the Three Towns area of the North Ayrshire coast.

View Ardrossan in a larger map

Outward travel was as follows:-
  Glasgow Central to Ardrossan South Beach (18, 48 on the hour)

Literally only a stumble across the road from the car park of South Beach train station is the Lauriston Hotel, blessed with great panoramic views of the main promenade, the expanse of South Bay and the Isle of Arran (when visible).

I made a quick (and hopefully nonchalant) inspection through the large front windows, noted that the large modern conservatory seemed pretty quiet early on a Saturday afternoon and so I instead entered the adjoining Lauriston Bar through its separate doorway at the left-hand side of the building. This opened up to a long, fairly narrow wood-clad bar with lots of bar stools and 4 large square tables opposite the bar area. The first impression today was that I had dropped into a Guinness promotion - the place was packed full of St Patrick's Day 'tat' - flyers, ribbons, hats, wrist-bands, balloons and probably lots more besides. It was also packed full of people - a group of guys on a stag doo had commandeered a couple of the tables & most of the front of the bar to watch the early football, so there was a fair amount of banter flying back and forth. There was only Caley Deuchars IPA on hand-pull (as well as Tennents, John Smiths Smooth, Strongbow and Tartan Special(!?)), so I took a half of this, ordered the soup-of-the-day (and some Guinness crisps, curiosity overcame me) and took the last table at the back of the bar. Behind all of the green and black 'tat' were a lot of nautical themed objects - barometers, clocks, displays of knots & model ships and there was also a remembrance memorial picture & a poem to HMS Dasher, an aircraft carrier which sank off Ardrossan in 1943.

When my soup came I also noticed the nautical theme on the table tops - interesting old navigation maps (on mine the 'Western Approach to the Firth of Clyde'). And the soup was excellent, thick & spicy roast pepper with crème fraîche, and (OK, I admit it) the malty toffeeness of the Guinness crisps went down quite well with it.

I left the stag-doo to the rest of their St Pats themed afternoon & evening and walked the short distance past the railway station and the Holm Plantation park to the clubhouse of the Ardrossan Academicals Rugby Football Club.

It had just opened at 12:30 so it was still (very) quiet, but the guy manning the entrance for the glasses and tickets had indicated that it had been pretty busy on Friday evening so the event (only its 2nd time of running) seems to be a definite success (not surprising at £2.50/pint). The beer casks were racked as 2 groups of 6 on gravity dispense and comprised Kelburn Jaguar & Dark Moor, Loch Lomond Ale of Leven & West Highland Way, Strathaven Avondale & Old Mortality, Ayr Leezie Lundie & Jolly Beggars, Fyne Avalanche & Vital Spark and Houston Slainte & Zywiec - a more than acceptable selection of local beer.

The 2 guys who were manning the beer stand had also worked at the Troon Beer Festival last year so we got chatting about the situation at the forthcoming Larbert Beer Festival where Cromarty Brewing's Red Rocker beer order had been cancelled due to a CAMRA rule which warns against the possibility to 'mislead the drinker' between cask and keg versions of the same beer (see blogs here and here). Interestingly enough it seems the Troon Beer Festival had the same issue with Harviestoun Schiehallion last year and so did not take this (though they did take Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted, also seen frequently on keg). I just find it very petty (and not supportive of some excellent Scottish breweries) and I can only hope that this does not lead to more cask beer cancellations at future CAMRA Festivals. As kick-off time for the rugby approached the clubhouse certainly got a lot busier and it was good to have a few 1/2's of decent gravity-fed beer (I quite liked the Polish hop(s) in the Houston Zywiec giving it an interesting mineral-like pils flavour) and also watch the occasional person have their photograph taken in front of a palm tree & beach back-drop and send it to their friends.

I wanted to have a bit of a walk along the long expanse of South Beach promenade and so left the Accies clubhouse fairly early. The promenade still has a number of classic seaside holiday features - large amusement arcade, swing/play park, bandstand and even a crazy golf course (although I don't know if this is still in use).

Further on towards Saltcoats I was just able to see the remains of the saltwater pools that were once part of the Lido bathing complex and also the observation tower on the sea wall which heralds the start of the mass of Braes rocks before Saltcoats harbour - it's a good bracing walk all the way out there.

I decided to head into the main streets of Saltcoats and couldn't really miss the JD Wetherspoon pub, The Salt Cot - this large building used to be the La Scala cinema and entertainment venue until its conversion in 1999.

As per most Wetherspoons on a damp, cold afternoon it was busy with a diverse mixture of people on a number of different seating levels. The 5 hand-pulls had Arran Dark, Ruddles, TSA Glencoe Stout, Batemans XXXB & Deuchars IPA (I should have stayed at the Beer festival) so I took a half of the Arran Dark and sat down for a few minutes. There were a few local 1920's/30's prints about but the most striking print was a large one of a Pierrot troupe who had played at La Scala back in 1924.

As I walked back to the coast along Saltcoats Hamilton Street there was the usual number of small amusement arcades, cafes & take-aways. This one caught my eye - the The Kandy Bar.

It had been awarded Best Scotch Pie 2011 so there was no real choice but to give one a try. And it was good, a nice decent crust, but I've definitely had Scotch Pies with a tastier, more peppery & spicier filling.

Next I wanted to walk along Seaview Road and the path at the water's edge towards Stevenson. It is here that the electrified railway line is really close to the shore (although not as close as us pedestrians). This is the view that is always used on the National News when there is a serious westerly storm & the waves break over the sea barriers and onto the passing trains.

From here it was a walk of a couple of miles past a large caravan holiday park into the lower part of Stevenson and further on into Ardeer. Most of this peninsula is still taken up by what used to be known as the British Dynamite Factory, established by Alfred Nobel in 1873, although it was subsequently renamed and taken over by ICI, and is now part of a Japanese conglomerate called the Inabata Group. Part of the complex seems somewhat run-down, but it's certainly still operational.

Further south along the beach & foreshore I hoped to find an interesting mural, and I could glimpse this and something else from a fair distance away. Bizarrely enough the something else actually turned out to be a silver Subaru Impreza - a couple of young guys had driven out to take their (huge) dog for a walk along the beach. How they had managed to drive across a couple miles of rocky scrubland & beach I don't know - I was impressed.

The mural of Robert Burns is painted directly on the breakwater wall and is approximately 25 feet high by 16 feet across. I think when the Ardeer Youth Group initially planned it it was going to be a lot larger but they couldn't get permission for this. Obviously it's now had some graffiti and some alterations but I'm guessing Mr Burns wouldn't be too bothered about the sunglasses.

I then retraced my steps over the beach & the common-land to walk into Stevenson proper. I went past a fair number of pubs on the way, but I wanted to try the Champion Shell Inn just off the Main Street, a place I'd hadn't been into for probably well over a decade.

It definitely used to sell cask ales (as is advertised by the original hanging sign outside) but inside there were none to be found. I took a Ginger Grouse instead as an alternative since 1/ I hadn't tried it before, 2/ it wasn't a Guinness and 3/ there is still some sort of sponsorship tie-up with the Scotland Rugby team - it was vaguely refreshing but I probably won't ever have another. The pub itself was fine - nicely decorated with a dining area & lounge on the left, bar on the right, and a supposedly haunted function room at the back. The TV was showing the rugby and I managed to alternate my attention between this and some of the prints & items on display on the walls, in particular this one of some mining explosives & detonators - a nice reference to the local Ardeer works.

Return travel:-
  Train: Stevenson to Glasgow Central (15, 45 on hour)

Looking for Craft Beer in Glasgow's West End: 16th February 2013

I try hard not to use the 'Craft Beer' term - as far as I'm concerned there's really only Beer which (thankfully) everyone has a different subjective opinion about, but there's no doubt the term is seeping into the mainstream beer/bar/pub culture. This week in Glasgow saw the opening of munro's on Great Western Road, a self-proclaimed Craft Beer Bar, so I thought I'd take the opportunity of visiting it and also some of its brethern of a similar nature in and around Glasgow's West End.


View Glasgow Craft in a larger map

Outward Transport was as follows:-
  Subway: St George's Cross

I normally find that an SPT Roundabout ticket is the best way to get in & around the West End - travel by low-level (or high-level) train into Glasgow then get an 'almost free' day-pass Subway ticket (and then try the SubCrawl if you are young and have an iron constitution). From St. George's Cross subway station it's only 3 blocks or so (where did that come from - obviously too much NCIS) to the corner of Rupert Street and the site of munro's (the lower-case is deliberate) on the always busy thoroughfare of Great Western Road.

This used to be a pub called the Captains Rest which specialised in local music gigs most nights, but it was bought by Maclay Inns late last year and transformed into munro's over the course of 3 months and approx. £400,000. This first Saturday lunchtime the place was really quite busy - all the retro diner-type window tables at the front and at the left side were taken and there was a steady stream of customers at the centrally located super-shiny bright bar.

A blackboard lists the 4 craft beers (Harviestoun Schiehallion + 3 guests (today WEST Munich Red, Williams Cesaer Augustus & Magic Rock Cannonball), for between £3.80 - £4.80) and 4 cask ales (Caley Deuchars IPA + 3 guests (today Stewart Pentland IPA, Taylor's Landlord and a cask cider (Thatcher's Heritage), for between £3.20 - £3.80). It would perhaps have been good to have had no permanent beers at all, but this is a (more than) reasonable choice and if 1 or 2 are a bit too ubiquitous then there's no reason to choose them. They also do 3x 1/3rd tasters of the keg or cask beers so I chose the 3 guest kegs, ordered a sweet-chilli chicken sandwich and sat down at a small table in the centre of the bar area to peruse the bottle menu and look at the rest of the bar. It's definitely the right hand side of the bar that's a bit more interesting - complete with persian rug, large mirror, lampshade, stripped-back bare-brick walls & fire, it's almost like someone's extended living room! They've also used a couple of huge round cable reels as tables and a number of car tyres to hold some of the ceiling light fixings - this seems to throw back to the fact that the building used to be a car salesroom called Munro’s Motors back in the 1960's - I really quite like how this has all been done.

Also on some of the other shiny keg taps was the lovely Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier, WEST St Mungo, Estrella Damm, Tennents & Caledonian Best - I'm not sure if the £2.60/pint cost of the latter is a reflection of its popularity or (more likely) due to the supplier relationship Maclay Inns now have with Tennents. The bottled beer selection included Brewdog Punk IPA and Macbeth Deeside (good to see) and a fairly OK selection from Europe and the USA, but nothing completely outstanding. What was outstanding though was the Magic Rock Cannonball - lots of citrus bitterness and a really bitterfruit aftertaste so I'm glad I had it after the other 2 beers. And the 3 1/3rds with a decent sandwich is just a perfect lunch for me.

It's a nice place and I enjoyed the visit - the staff were more than friendly, they show the big rugby & football matches, will be having a quiz night and it's already got a nice busy vibe. Give it a couple of more interesting beers on at the same time and it should turn out to be a must-stop venue along Great Western Road.

Next I wanted to head further out west along The Boulevard. There's still a good & diverse selection of local, independent shops here, including cafés (standard & internet), delicatessens, organic fruit-and-veg shops and the odd off-license (including The Cave). In addition a couple of the local butchers were doing a fantastic trade due to the on-going horsemeat scandal (and were making sure everyone knew about it).

I walked over the actual Kelvinbridge (or Great Western Bridge) and could see my next port-of-call, Inn Deep, tucked in below the bridge on the banks of the River Kelvin (Subway stop - Kelvinbridge).

Previously this was the Big Blue Italian restuarant but was taken over in September of last year by the Williams Brothers Brewing Company and is run by the younger generation of the Williams Brothers family and friends. From Great Western Road I descended down a number of levels of multi-coloured flights of steps until I reached the lower level at the Kelvin. There is still the same 2 room layout as the Big Blue - a dining area on the right (I'd have to recommend the spicy 3 meat pizza - fantastic) which is also where the DJs spin those tunes on Friday & Saturday nights (Brian Stillwater tried his hand at this when he was over for a Williams Brothers collaborative beer project). They've recently had murals painted on all the walls by The Too Much Fun Club - lots of friendly creatures are depicted drinking beer - it's certainly distinctive!

In the main bar area on the left you can see the effect of the archway - long and narrow with a number of tables opposite the bar but still room enough to stand, chat to the staff and peruse the great selection of beer. The Williams Brothers people know their beer, so it's not surprising that the selection here is pretty impressive and has been since the opening day. On today from cask were Fyne Sanda Blonde, Red Willow Wreckless & Tempest Emanation Emanation Pale and as guests on keg Moor So'Hop, Marble Dobber (cue some 'hilarious' Glasgow twitter comments) and Williams Double Joker IPA. All of these are in addition to the permanent beers amongst which are Williams Black Ball Stout, Caesar Augustus, Draught & Maisel's Weisse and a decent amount of interesting UK and US bottles - it's just a really good selection of beer for the beer geek (amongst others). Just to be consistent I went for the 3 1/3rds of the guest kegs (more expensive than munro's) with the stand-out being the Double Joker IPA - a lot smoother than I remembered and very drinkable (read lethal) for 8.3%. However I do remember that they had the Marble Earl Grey IPA collaboration with Emelisse on a couple of weeks ago - it really was lovely stuff. It's also great to talk to the staff - they love their beer (and actually drink it) and if lucky, you also get a bit of an insight about what the Williams Brothers will be up to next.

I decided to leave Inn Deep through the windowed doors to the Kelvin walkway and passed a number of their outside tables (which I knew about) and also another archway full of tables, chairs and sofas (which I didn't know about) - these seem to be used mainly by cyclists and dog walkers.

I'd hoped to walk along the Kelvin walkway until the main section of Kelvingrove Park, but there's currently no direct access due to on-going maintenance and the building of ramps...

...so I decided to head up to Gibson Street and then turn into University Avenue, the location of the Glasgow University Union. Although I went to Dundee University there were always a number of 'away' days to the GUU and I remember (most of them) fondly.

I rejoined Kelvin Park on Kelvin Way and having managed to miss a group of kids having scooter races down the hill I crossed the Kelvin yet again with the sight of the front of Kelvingrove Museum (i.e. the Kelvin Park side) just visible through the trees.

From here it was only a couple of minutes along the end of Sauchiehall Street and into Argyll Street to the modern glass, dark paint & brick facade of BrewDog Glasgow (Subway stop - Kelvinhall).

I do like pubs with views over the sea, lochs or mountains, but if you have to sit in a pub in the middle of a city then the view from BrewDog Glasgow opposite the Argyll Street entrance of Kelvingrove Museum is hard to beat - I could probably sit here all day and watch the world go by.

Inside the first impression is definitely one of sparse modernism - exposed brick, industrial metalwork & mirrors with lots of bench seats at the left hand side, sofas and tables at the front and they've also added in some more separate booth-type tables at the right hand wall where all the beer books & retro games are shelved (with a couple being in use today). The bar at the back right-hand corner is full of dark BrewDog keg fonts but it's brightened up with drawings on the BrewDog & Guest blackboards, Beer-of-the-Week notices (Maui Coconut Porter), a long-and-winding display of empty BrewDog bottles and lots & lots of bottled beer in the backlit fridges. It was an all female staff today and they really were fantastic (I blame Mr Bruce Gray's enduring influence on this). They were enthusiastic and quite happy to chat about the beers & any forthcoming events, and I just love the way they deal with new customers; a typical dialogue goes as follows - 'Gis us a beer' - 'What type of beer do you like' - 'Oh, just any beer' - 'Why don't you try this light beer, then perhaps this fruity one or this maybe this dark one and see which one you like' - 'Yeah ? Go on then' - glug, glug, glug... 'Brilliant - pint of that first one cheers, doll' - and so another possible convert is recruited.

I don't come in too often (even though I'm an original BrewDog shareholder), but when I'm here and by myself I tend to try the newly released Brewdog beers and now go through an 'order one ahead' routine for the 1/2 or 1/3rds glasses. This means the 2nd beer has slightly warmed up by the time I get to it and also had a bit of the fizz knocked out of it - it's just the way I tend to prefer kegged beer.

Today I tried the Lichtenstein Pale Ale (which had a good balanced bitterness, but was just a tad fizzy, note it was the 1st beer I had), Jack Hammer IPA (a good bitter/citrus aroma and initial taste, but an extremely bitter aftertaste) and then there was also the new version of Hello My Name is Ingrid to try. This Scandinavian Cloudberry-based beer was one of my favourites from a couple of years ago (I put this in my Golden Pints Best Bottled Beer of 2011) and I was really looking forward to trying it again. I'd have it say it had possibly a tad sharper fruit-flavour than before with a slight fizzy marzipan aftertaste which was quite interesting - really nice but perhaps not as superb as before (at least compared to the bottle - I'll definitely have to look out my last bottle of the first revision of Ingrid for comparison). It's also good to see that BrewDog are starting to take a lot more British (and Scottish) guest beers - on today were Mikkeller Porter & Schneider Weisse TAP7, but also Magic Rock Clown Juice and Brodies Hackney Red, and sightings of Cromarty AKA IPA & Williams Double Joker have also been made in the last few months.

On leaving BrewDog Glasgow I made my way further along Argyll Street, past the Kelvin Hall and across (yet another) bridge over the Kelvin heading for Partick Cross. Just over the bridge is the Rank Hovis factory, the last of Partick's many grain stores & mills, which still houses those amazing shaking machines for milling the grain.

At Partick Cross I found the resurrected Bruadar (see my blog from last year for details), looking very similar to the previous incarnation (although it seems to have acquired the moniker 'Newadar'). This afternoon it was quite busy, full of people trying out the 2 for 1 offer on the diverse burger choice that is advertised - hopefully a good sign for the future.

**See end of blog for Update**

It's no longer managed by the Fuller Thomson group but is operating independantly under a lease from Belhaven. There are still pretty well the same fixtures and fittings, but upstairs is closed and is likely only to be used for functions. The beer choice has certainly been limited compared to that in the old Bruadar's heyday, but it was quite OK today - Punk IPA, West Hefeweizen and a Bruadar (read Belhaven) House Lager on keg, with Williams March of the Penguins, Joker IPA, Black Sheep Bitter and Greene King Yardbird Crafted Ale on cask.

I decided to try my first cask beer of the day and went for a 1/2 of the Greene King Yardbird Crafted Ale. This is the first in a series of Crafted Ales from the brewer in Bury St. Edmonds (and parent company of Belhaven) and there's also meant to be a US music tie-in in these (this time Charlie Parker etc...). The Yardbird is meant to be a US-style Pale Ale, but it's not all that pale and it really only tasted like a less smooth and more bitter version of Greene King IPA, slightly chalky, perhaps with some added citrus and not very pleasant at all. What I can't be sure of is how much the Bruadar cellar has affected it - a lot of cask ale from old Bruadar and one of the first beers I had from this new Bruadar did have a variable quality (to say the least) and as the Yardbird did improve slightly as I finished the glass, I'll probably have to try this again to be sure.

It's definitely good to see Bruadar back (it's good to see any pub selling decent beer in these continuing difficult economic cirumstancs) but hopefully they can build on what they have at the moment to provide some more interesting beers. However it may be that there's just not the appetite from the management for this - sometimes playing 'somewhat' safe it is what is required to keep the cash-flow in the positive column.

Although I was tempted to finish my afternoon in the comfortable & familiar surroundings of the great Glasgow institution that is the Three Judges I decided instead to walk up Byres Road and further on to a small cluster of shops in the middle of Queen Margaret Drive to hopefully pick up a few interesting bottled beers at the recently opened Hippo Beers, the first specialist beer shop in Glasgow.

It's owned by beer enthusiasts Derek Hoy & Alec Knox and has only been open since late last November. From reading their blog, following their twitter feed and actually talking to the guys it's clear that opening up the shop of their dreams has been a time consuming, frustrating and expensive business but I have to say that I'm certainly really impressed about what they've achieved.

And the beer choice is by far the best in Glasgow as befits such as specialist shop (sorry Good Spirits Co & The Cave). There are some more expensive (and higer abv) beers from Thornbridge, Black Isle, Odell, Nøgne Ø, Mikkeller etc... at the front opposite the desk where I assume the guys can keep a look out for the odd Glasgow 'tea-leaf'...

... with a huge selection from Scotland, the rest of the UK, Belgium, Germany, the US & 'Everywhere Else' on the other shelves around the walls. The guys are quite happy to either offer advice or just stay stumm and let you make your own choice(s), but to-be-honest there are really no bad/boring beers on those shelves. They are certainly able to get a lot of the beers that are currently 'being talked about' on the various beer web-sites & blogs, and they're also a delivery stop for the majority of the new Scottish breweries (Cromarty, Tempest, Alechemy, Fallen, St Andrews etc...) when deliveries are being made to pubs in Glasgow.

Today I took away bottles of Red Willow Heartless, Old Dominion Oak-aged Stout, Bristol Beer Factory Seven, Arbor Motueka and a can of Snake Dog IPA for a forthcoming train journey - 5 really interesting beers that I'd never tried before.

And the best beer of the day? That actually came in the evening, Red Willow Heartless. A fantastic Chocolate Stout, with masses of cocoa powder on the aroma, and then a serious hit of dark chocolate & espresso coffee on the taste - lovely stuff and thanks Hippo Beers.

*UPDATE MARCH 2013*
Beer choice and beer quality (esp. the cask) at Bruadar is getting a lot better - this was the blackboard on a busy Friday evening...

... and the Magic Rock High Wire was quite superb.

*UPDATE APRIL 2013*
Bruadar closed in late April 2013 but has now re-opened under new management as the Inn @ The Cross. The beers are pretty well the same, but food will be changing to add more non-burger related meals (i.e. standard pub grub). They will also be opening te upstairs for Functions. Its twitter name is now @InnAtTheCross.

*UPDATE OCTOBER 2013*
The Inn @ The Cross closed in September 2013; their last Tweet was a cry for help regarding 'bad treatment' for 'a lease from Iona' (Iona Pub Parternship/G1 I assume). Some might say that part of Partick Cross is 'cursed' but the site has now re-opened as of late October 2013 as The Butterfly and the Pig (West End). The decor has changed somewhat to match their city centre establishment, and the food choice/selection has certainly improved (lots of nice cakes too), but the beer choice was fairly (very) limited when I popped in one Saturday in early November, with only Punk IPA standing-out. Hopefully that will improve as all the draught taps are still present.