With four hours ’till the CAMRA Weekend opened to mere mortals I took the 20 minute journey to Perth, home of three GBG ticks AND a Brew Dog bar.
Unlike BRAPA, there aren’t many towns left to visit with more than a lone new Guide pub to visit now (though there’s NINE in Plymouth).
The train journey is just long enough to enjoy grown adults arguing over the pronunciation of nearby Scone (it’s Skooone).
Perth, you’ll remember, is the station where we were rudely awoken at en route to Aberdeen last month. It looks a bit different at midday than at 5.30am.
On my only previous stop here, in July 1999, Mrs RM and I took a two month old James to see overperforming St Johnstone v Hearts (1-4) at McDiarmid Park. At the final whistle Mrs RM reclaimed the £6 I’d (inadvertently) been charged to take a baby in, which is why I married her.
I didn’t remember anything about the city, and it looked very handsome under blue skies.
“The Ayr of the East” I noted, at a stroke condemning both towns with faint praise.
Pub No.1 is an unusual looking thing. I stand for a second, dreaming of a Shakin’ Stevens Green Door pun before realising it’s the Green Room (Wee Inn).
And what was wrong with original name, anyway ?
Goodness me, it’s dark inside.
But it was immediately obvious this was a bit special, even before I saw the Tayside Pub of the Year award.
Not because of the gorgeous Tennents pump,
or the microbrews,
or even the Red Bull.
No, it was the welcome from the young barman. Cheery, interesting and interested, enthusiastic.
He really sold the pub, as well as the beers. I told him to expect a busy weekend with a 1,000 CAMRA members up the road.
Then I started chatting to a couple of fellow ale afficionados.
One nice lady showed me her GBG BrewDog passport, with stamps at BD bars all over the world. She was on her way to the hipster AGM, along with 14,000 other Punks. Except she wasn’t a hipster. Or a Punk. Just a beer lover.
The M’oR was cool and rich, an NBSS 3+ in a land of NBSS 2s, but the wonderful coal fire was worth an extra point.
I could have stayed there all afternoon, particularly when the next couple in flashed cards and got that essential 23p discount that keeps us all CAMRA members.
Wonderful barman, essential pub, inessential cushions.
retiredmartin 
Yes, welcoming and a good pint of Strathbraan made it my second best Perth pub last December.
That nice ‘beer lover’ lady, not a hipster, with a BrewDog passport might have been the one sat opposite me on the Waverley to Piccadilly train three days later.
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How long ago do you think your CAMRA discount on beer repaid the cost of your membership? Even at that low a savings amount I would believe you have broken even by this point.
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Interesting question. There were no discounts on beer, Spoons or otherwise, when I joined.
I didn’t join (£250 or so 25 years ago) just for the benefits.
But the newsletter was a good read, I got the GBG £5 cheaper, and priority free admission to my local beer festival, the only one I attended.
I suspect the GBG and other books in early years almost paid for the membership.
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Pity you didn’t join when it was only £70
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I was 5.
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> (though there’s NINE in Plymouth).
Isn’t that good ? Economies of scale ?
Sounds like a campervan job !
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Yes that’s great. Don’t fancy leaving our campervan on the Hoe, though.
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I am pretty sure St Johnstone once refused to allow a baby into the ground, or more accurately the baby’s bottle. I would like to think that was you (not you the baby, you the parent). Decent pub that one. Can’t help but feel you are missing all the reliable beer quality entries by only doing the new. It’s a hazard of the prolific ticker.
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You’re right about missing the best pubs when you can only do newbies, which often disappoint.
I did have a session in Edinburgh with Paul on the Monday morning that remedied that.
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