Fintry
The Clachan Hotel
Fintry, Stirlingshire.
In the NEWS 1978…
No Boom At The Inn…
Beer Doesn’t Go Down With Drinkers…
The new owners of a Stirlingshire pub is facing a boycott from local drinkers, because he has changed the beer.
Trouble has been brewing in Fintry ever since Stirling builder Tom Ogilvie took over the Clachan Hotel earlier this year.
The change promptly resulted in the disappearance of McEwans Export and Tennent’s lager, once famed among discerning drinkers from as far away as Kirkintilloch. But the new brew, Drybrough’s didn’t go down well. And that according to the locals, started the “drift down the road” to the Fintry Inn, which offers McEwan’s Export.
PETITION
The matter came to a head when Fintry Insurance man, Sandy Shaw, decided to raise a petition demanding the reinstatement of the much loved brew at the Clachan. He enlisted the aid of Kirkintilloch dentist Tom Macadam and his brother Murray, an accountant from Killearn.
Within a few days 200 signatures had been collected. In reply to the petition, the new owner said he was hoping to extend the range of pints available at the bar in the near future.
But the snag is that when the new beers do appear they will also be Drybrough, That’s because the Torbrew Hotel group, of which the Clachan is a member, is semi-tied to the brewery.
TASTE
The new manager, Steel Jamieson, said, “I thought the whole thing was a bit of a joke. The trouble is that at the moment we only have room for one beer and one lager and that’s Drybroughs.”
But Torbrew Hotels manager, Bob Willman, doesn’t think it’s just a laughing matter. “Obviously, we take it seriously but at present we are bound to take Drybrough’s,” he said.
Drybrough’s distribution manager, George Blake, who admits that the beer in his own local isn’t actually Drybrough’s, says it’s all a matter of taste. “I’m sure they’ll get used to it in time,” he said.
But there’s a ray of hope for Fintry drinkers. The tie with Drybrough’s doesn’t rule out the re-introduction of other brews once the present arrangement comes to an end.