North of the Border

We've just got back from a lovely trip to the west coast of Scotland:  Oban, to be precise.  We go by train because - well, why wouldn't you?

For people who love beer as much as we do, I guess rural/coastal Scotland might seem to be an odd choice for a holiday - but we do also love scenery, walking, the odd hill, water and wildlife.

We knew, in our hearts, that we would have to manage our own beer hopes and aspirations - and that's fine.

We went north in two legs - stopping at Glasgow, but when you know you have to change trains at Euston it would be rude not to slip into the Euston Tap for a cheeky one en route.  So, we left Eastbourne on an earlier train, giving ourselves just long enough to enjoy a pint (and a non-train loo).  Needless to say, the beers we had (a Harbour IPA and something by Moor, I believe) were in tip-top condition, and the act of stopping itself means you don't feel the drag of travelling quite so much.

We arrive in Glasgow at 6.30pm on a Saturday evening and, like most cities, that makes it a bit of a noisy time to be looking for good beer and food.  Nevertheless we reacquainted ourselves with both "Cafe Gandolfi" for dinner and "Blackfriars" for post food beer.  Gandolfi was a bit lacking on beer (if only it were, it might well be the best place in the world) - So we had a local draught keg beer and a bottle of Arran blonde.  Both were fine but didn't quite hit the mark  Mind you, the best Finnan Haddock makes up for the beery shortcomings and we left perfectly satisfied with our choices.  Then we crossed the road to Blackfriars - it was heaving but we did manage to find a table at the back and enjoyed a couple of pints (to my shame, I have no idea what other than my first was a Citra-based beer which was black...) before the noise got to us and we called it a night. 

On Saturday we picked up a train for Oban and by 3.30pm we were there.  All lovely sunshine and fish restaurants.

The pubs we tried in the town were all pretty much fine but none of them offered much variety in terms of beer.  Mostly we drank Fyne ales (Jarl, Avalanche and Vital Spark) in pretty good condition and very good beers they are too - it was just a shame that there wasn't more choice.  In the Cuan Mor we couldn't have any of their own beer so we had a "craft" IPA which was nice enough but not good enough to go back to.

We did do a few little excursions - to Mull (the Craignure Inn having only bottled beers - although they were good); to Easedale (the utterly delightful Puffer Bar having good bottled beer which came as a surprise) and to Connell (the Oyster Inn having well-kept but fairly dull Deuchars IPA) but all in all, our fears about lack of great Real Ale were largely well-founded.  If this sounds overly-critical, it's not meant to be.  The tide of real/craft (or whatever) beer hasn't reached here yet and maybe it won't.  The town probably knows its audience (a lot of people passing through and the town is in a stunningly beautiful location) and maybe varied and exciting beer perhaps doesn't need to be a part of that offering.  It's a shame though.  We did ask ourselves, several times during the week, how well a micropub would be received...it's a thought that will keep repeating, I reckon.

Actually our highlight in beer was on the journey back, yesterday.  We couldn't buy a straight-through train ticket so we thought we'd build a bit of resilience into our plans by allowing a couple of hours between train changes in Glasgow.  It did allow us to go to somewhere we'd noticed on the way through the week before:  The Shilling Brewery.  From the moment we got inside we got the feeling we'd like the place.  Despite only having one beer on cask, the place was an utter treat - we could have chosen from a wide variety of kegged guest beers but we stuck with trying five of their own beers which were very good.  So good, in fact, that we actually considered buying an upgraded train ticket to stay longer.  Next time you're in Glasgow - give them a try.  We certainly shall.