Drinking less European beers?

Absolutely true. I guess I just meant it in the sense that Fullers is so prolific in London, that you really do see it in every state. For some of the smaller micro-breweries whose beers make it to London, I'd say there's a higher chance they're being served at a place that knows what they're doing.

 

I love English ales ales, however we do not have great access to them, and England's best resides on tap or cask anyways. I cannot live without my German imports (Frietgeist, Erdinger, Ayinger, Paulaner, Aecht Schlenkerla etc.) and I enjoy the security of having access to many Belgian imports for when I go in and out of Belgian phases.

I think you could do a better job in seeking out better quality abroad brews. You might find that your American craft views are clouded, if just a bit

 

Haha - didn't hit either, but perhaps I should have had a buckie for old times' sake. Had dinner with my dad at Crabshakk (which was fantastic - first restaurant I've been to in Glasgow for a long time) so tried the pub across the road - The Ben Nevis. Hit mostly whisky in there, though they did have something local on cask which was decent (forget the name though).

Biggest surprise for me in Scotland was in Ayrshire. I'm from the middle of nowhere (Stinchar Valley) and was back there for a wedding. Went into the Kings Arms in Barr for the first time in about 10 years and they had......a cask (from Ayr Brewing Company). I mean if there was anywhere in Scotland that you were guaranteed not to find cask beer, I would have always put Barr at number 1. That village has been surviving off Tennents and McEwans kegs since I moved there in 1985. A very nice surprise.

 

crabshakk is good. That area of Finneston has come on leaps and bounds over the last six or seven years or so, I assume mainly due to the BBC and STV setting up shop over the river and all the other companies hanging onto their coattails . Ibrox to the south of them has still managed to rebuff any improvement/gentrification

Yeah the Ben Nevis is more a whisky pub, last time i was there they maybe had deuchars and another, but that was probably a couple of years ago now come to think about it

Buckie is now in cans, god help us. I still don't get its allure, it's cheaper to buy a bottle of wine and dump a can of red bull into it and you'll get the same effect. You'd have thought the neds would have cottoned onto it now

 

In cans? Holy fuck that's not good news (though at least they don't have a free weapon in their hands after they finish drinking I suppose). As for cost effectiveness - maybe neds have a strong sense of tradition?

I stopped in Ibrox to fill the car up before dropping it off at the airport. Definitely had retained its old school charm haha. Yeah there were tons of nice looking bars and restaurants near crabshakk. A lot had changed and a lot had stayed the same. My wife is American - she couldn't believe some of the characters we saw driving into and out of Glasgow