Might as well keep going; I want Russ to have something to correct read when he gets home.
If I ever get to the end of the Scottish trip, there’s eight Black Country pubs and nine in the Peak District to write up. One of them a new classic.
No classics at St Andrews, except the ones studied by the Finlay-Hendersons and de Durisdeers in years past.
Lest you think I’m just jealous that I didn’t go to University, here’s an extract from Wiki explaining the rituals of the Raisin Weekend at St Andrews.
“At midday all the First-Years gather in Quad of St Salvator’s College to compare their receipts and also to be open to challenge from older students who may look for errors in the Latin of the receipt (an almost inevitable occurrence).
Upon detection of such error(s) the bearer may be required to sing the Gaudie. In recent years the gathering has culminated in a shaving foam fight”.
Anyways. The coast and cathedral are worth the walk round the Scores, where the average house costs over £2m, which would almost buy Accrington.
My second pub is the closest the town gets to an Edinburgh or Glasgow level classic.
Central Bar is absolutely gorgeous, perhaps reminiscent of the State Bar.
“A great selection of beers” says WhatPub, with all the worries that brings. And that’s on top of all the keg, ciders, wines and gins that normal drinkers now prefer over cask.
I’ll take a meagre choice of one fast-selling beer please.
At least I can compare how well that Stewarts 80/ compares from pub to pub.
Well, the glass is warmer than in the St Andrews Tap. But that’s not good, is it ? Less watery, more sour. NBSS 1.5 it is. It’s getting worse folks.
I guess, ooh, 12 years ago or so there would have been some Old Boys in here at opening with a half of 80/ and whisky chaser. No longer.
And yes, standardised Greene King menus on every table. No reserved signs, but it’s a Scottish GK diner.
Naff music, duff beer (£4.40 a pint, too), great mirrors, lovely looking pub. Just like the Fishermans in Broughty and the Ship in Perth, ruined by Bury St Edmund’s finest.
Can anything redeem St Andrews ?
retiredmartin 
It is quite a handsome pub, though.
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It is indeed. Like quite a few pubs in West London, it no longer feels much like a pub, though.
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Have you ever encountered a publican who privately agreed with you that it’s better to have just 1 or 2 beers in top form, not a huge range, all of them selling too slowly to be in good condition? I wonder if there are many who share your philosophy, but are forced to keep up with the trend of “loads of beers to choose from.”
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Plenty of people on this blog have said there are publicans who think that, Mark. I suppose if you’re a manager of a big pub chain like Greene King you tend to follow central guidelines. The number of beers in a typical Greene King pub have doubled over the last decade or so, just as sales fall. Conversely, Sam Smiths have thttps://whatpub.com/pubs/FIF/2/central-bar-st-andrewsreaken their sole cask bitter off the bar if it doesn’t sell vast volumes.
You’d think that the wastage through having beers unsold after 3 days would convince publicans to reduce their range, but perhaps they just leave them on for longer.
I wouldn’t presume to tell a pub how to run their business, though a Welsh landlady in a favourite pub of mine did tell me she’d need to have a third beer to be in the Beer Guide, which if true was disgraceful and rather encapsulates my relationship with CAMRA, which talks about quantity but rarely about quality.
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For my taste, I only ever want one beer I like in a pub, and I’m happy to drink it all afternoon if it meets the ‘like’ criteria. If we extrapolate this to other peoples tastes too, we might say three beers is the optimum, a bitter/ale kind of thing, a pale hop-monster, and something dark (mild for preference). Everybodys happy! Any more than that constitutes a busy specialist beer pub, of which most towns have room for at most maybe half a dozen, most villages none. Ever.
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If it weren’t for your prose, I’d be heading to St Andrews tomorrow.
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And the beer is less than impressive even with, presumably, loads of AGM attendees having visited within the previous 24 hours.
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