anuran

"I'll have a pint of.. what do you call that?"
"Deuchars."
"Duh, That's the English way of saying it. How do you say it in Scatchland?"
"DEUCHARS."
"No, you're ENGLISH. That's ENGLISH. I want to hear it in SCATCH"
"Oh, for fu - Fiona! Say Deuchars in Scottish!"
Fiona: "- ck's sake. DEUCHARS!"
me: "gaaaahthat's £2.50 please."

"In the letter about Deuchars in MA Scotland (20 May, 2003), it is not quite true to say that Deuchars was “originally” brewed at Duddingston. Robert Deuchar - who came from Fife – was the owner of the Sandyford Brewery in Newcastle upon Tyne when he bought the New Brewery in Duddingston in 1899, after the company that founded it had collapsed.

He used the New Brewery to brew Edinburgh ales for his customers in the north east of England. A year later, in 1900, Deuchar also bought Simson & McPherson Ltd, which owned two breweries – one in Melrose, and the other, the St Mary’s brewery, in Holyrood Road, Edinburgh.
Deuchar gradually closed all other breweries, including the one in Newcastle (which shut in 1941), to concentrate output in Duddingston.
Farquar Deuchar, Robert Deuchar’s son and the main shareholder in the company, died in 1950 and it was bought by Newcastle Breweries at the end of 1953.

Newcastle Breweries carried on brewing at Duddingston until 1961, when it merged with Scottish Brewers to form S&N. That company failed to maintain its rights to the Deuchars’ trademark, which enabled Caledonian to adopt it."

from Deuchar's main page, nicely contradicting the story that it was first brewed by a Lanlord at The Bow Bar, before the recipe was bought by Caledonian some time in the 80s (given that until 1986, the Bow Bar was some horrible 80s theme pub).

"In the early days of the era when Russell Sharp ran the Caledonian Brewery, he discovered that Scottish & Newcastle had failed to protect the rights to the Deuchars name, which once graced two separate brewing companies that became part of S&N long ago.

So, cheekily, he chose the name for a new brew he was about to test. Originally he called it “R&D Deuchars” because the recipe was the result of “research and development”.

The initials were dropped and Deuchars IPA went on to become a great favourite, tongue-twisting name or not. "

Now, I need to find out if this Russell Guy ever had anything to do with the Bow so my knowledge is utter and complete. Incidentally, the main park in Morpeth is called Farquar Deuchar Park.

A band came in after playing at the Liquid Rooms. Me and Fiona looked them up on the list of bands.

BLACK SABBATH (TRIBUTE)

"We'll have a pint of Tennants, two purple J20s, a pint of coke and a pint of blackcurant & water."

ROCK 3 FINGERED ROCK SALUTE WOOOOOOO!

I decided that as I'm not working til Saturday, this week I will climb Ben Nevis.