St Andrews South Street, St. Andrews

Cafe-style bar on the ground floor, with a further room upstairs across the landing from the toilets. The bar is on the right-hand side of the ground floor room. There are a number of handpulls, but they appear to have ceased selling real ale. The only handpull clipped was for Thistly Cross Whisky Cask Cider. Craft beers were St Andrews Session IPA, Pale Ale, Yippie IPA, Tom Morris & Blindside Stout. This appears to be a fairly trendy place that will appeal to the younger university crowd. The staff were also young and possibly students themselves. The bar will undoubtedly appeal to some, but fell short of my lofty standards!

Official site of St Andrews South Street - www.standrewsbrewingcompany.com

Official site of St Andrews South Street - www.standrewsbrewingcompany.com

I approached this pub with optimism, and initial impressions were good. We got a friendly welcome and were plied with numerous tasters. There are two hand pumps, with a stout and a best bitter, but neither was from the house brewery. We explored further and tried some of their own beers, which in taster glasses seemed ok and we asked for a couple of halves. Ah, they only do pints and two-thirds, sorry. OK, then, so we had a couple of two-thirds - which cost £7.60, which averages out at £5.70 a pint! My beer was so cold I went back to the bar to ask for a smaller glass to pour it into, to give it a chance to approach room temperature - we had a bus to catch and I didn't want to drink it too quickly in case some of my fillings cracked and fell out. I got into a discussion with the barman/manager who had been friendly and helpful, pointing out that I couldn't see the point of brewing their own beer and then serving it so cold that it could have been McEwan's 80/-. He said that was how people expected it to be, and I was obviously not used to it if I normally drank real ale. We remained on friendly terms and he gave us a big smile on the way out, but I couldn't seriously recommend this place unless you like your beer at the same temperature as your ice creams. And have fairly deep pockets.