Under the Hammer, Aberdeen

This is a very pleasant basement bar set down the backstreets in what appears to be quite a nice part of the city. You descend an external staircase to reach the front door, which leads you into the tile-floored single room with exposed stone walls and a long servery to the rear. The bar has a dark wood counter and a nicely lit bar back, giving the place more of a pub-feel than it might otherwise have had. Padded banquettes can be found along the left-hand wall whilst some rock hard pews offer less comfortable seating to the right and standard tables and chairs fill the space between. Every table has a lit candle on it, set in an empty spirit bottle, which was quite a nice touch. The walls have been decorated with some contemporary photography and there was a board near the bar which read “Let me paint you”, which seemed to be some sort of portrait service offered by one of the bar staff! To the rear right there is a small nook popular with the pub’s regulars, which offers a drinking ledge, lots of flyers for local events and a few random pictures, some of which may well be the aforementioned portraits. Folk music played quietly in the background on my midweek evening visit and there was a very slow dribble of customers through the door, so the atmosphere was rather flat. There were three ales on the bar – Broughtons Winter’s Fire, Cromarty Happy Chappy and Fyne Ales Jarl. Whilst my experience was nowhere near as bad as Will’s, my pint of the Happy Chappy wasn’t exactly on top form and I did have to wonder at the pub’s inclusion in recent editions of the Good Beer Guide. The lone barmaid was supremely upbeat and spent much of her time engaging the locals in idle chit-chat. I thought this was a really nice looking bar with potential to be great on a livelier evening, but having had an indifferent pint and reading of further beer quality issues experienced by other visitors, I’ll perhaps be giving it a second thought before deciding to return.

Amusingly named by reference to the auction rooms in the building above, this is a basement bar par excellence. The tiled floor, bare stone walls and interesting background music seemed to promise so much. The bar counter is at the rear, with four hand pumps. The young woman at the bar broke off from the conversation she'd been having with her friend (boyfriend?) to serve me. When I immediately pointed out that the beer was not right she was reluctant to accept what I said. I explained that I'd had the same beer, Fyne Highlander, only a few days before, and it didn't taste like what she was selling me. Her friend joined in, tasting it for himself and agreeing it was off; she wasn't going to accept his word for it either, but grudgingly offered me a different beer anyway, while still maintaining there was nothing wrong with the first one. A few minutes later, on my return from the toilet, I noticed she had turned the pump clip around! Way to save face. My replacement beer, Fyne Jarl, was ok but not what I preferred of the beer choice on offer, and the reluctance to accept my reasonable and reasoned explanation of what was wrong with the beer left almost as sour a taste as the beer itself. Date of visit: 7th June 2018