Final thoughts on Scottish pubs, before I turn my attention to how I get to the Aberdeenshire pubs by public transport.
When I first spent significant time visiting Glasgow and Edinburgh in 2000 (cheap Ryanair to Prestwick), Caledonian Deuchars was ubiquitous and clearly being drunk in decent volumes. It had the sort of growing reputation enjoyed by Landlord or Summer Lightning down south – a quality beer to dominate Scotland’s real ale market. I had excellent Deuchars pretty much everywhere.
15 years on, and while Deuchars is still on most bars (certainly in Beer Guide pubs), and the official beer of the Fringe, I rarely saw it ordered while I was there.
Clearly lower turnover means lower quality, and although I persisted with it I only had one pint that would have persuaded me to have another. That was in the Teuchters in Leith, which I am missing already today.
