Dead Poet Socialising

Burns Night, Saturday, if that means anything at all to you – and if not, well, as you were.
Happy birthday Rabbie Burns, and many happy returns to a great Indian Pale AleHappy birthday Rabbie Burns, and many happy returns to a great Indian Pale Ale
Happy birthday Rabbie Burns, and many happy returns to a great Indian Pale Ale

Any reveller out and about in the town that evening should at least expect to brush up against this Scottish celebration here and there on their travels.

Several Preston drinking dens are having a stab at marking the umpteen 100th birthday of the Bard of Ayrshire in one way or another.

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Maybe you will pass within sniff range of a steaming plate of haggis-infused scran – such as the special menu available until Sunday in all good Wetherspoons – as it traverses the bar en route from hob to gob.

That or come across the odd date appropriate Scottish guest wherever real ales are enjoyed.

And why not? There is a good deal to be said for Scottish beer, grub and, truth be told, the Scots themselves.

Call me a romantic old fool (delete as felt appropriate) by all means, but any nation willing to embrace an annual boozy shindig in commemoration of a poet is okay in my book.

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Sooner do that than daub a flag on your stupid puss and get leathered in honour of some once appropriated religious icon who, like as not, either never existed in the first place or has since been stupendously oversold.

Anyhow, if your luck is really in at some juncture a cask of the Caledonian capital’s greatest gift to humanity (narrowly defeating the Encyclopædia Britannica and the philosopher David Hume) will pass within supping range between now and Sunday.

If so, trust me – you ARE due a Deuchars.

Widely available (Ashton’s Lane Ends and the Station Hotel being two Preston pubs offering a well-pulled and tended pint), draining a pot of Deuchars Indian Pale Ale surely ranks among the very finest ways to spend time on licensed premises.

Winner of more than 40 awards, a CAMRA Supreme Champion Beer of Britain and World Champion Cask Ale, this refreshing pale beer has a habit of evaporating within minutes (five at the most over the Summer months) of being placed in your hand.

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Hoppy, fruity, soft malted with a clean bitter aftertaste which makes you want, to paraphrase another more typical national hero (a bearded warrior king) to try, try, try it again.

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