The White Stag, Callander

One of those long roadside hotels that's seemingly been cobbled together from a row of cottages, the last one on the right is now destined to become a microbrewery. Entering through the hotel reception, there's a dining room on the left and the public bar on the right, though in fact this also has its own door leading in from (or out to) the small garden at the side of the road. The owners are a Scottish woman, who seems to make a point of having a quiet word with each of her customers in a getting-to-know-you sort of way, and her husband who is from Essex and formerly ran the Leigh-on-Sea brewery. (I got talking to him when the lass who served me poured my pint with too large a head - she's Scottish and didn't know any better - and he stepped in and topped it up.) They moved here in the autumn of 2020 and their planning application for the brewery was on the point of being approved when a last minute change to a lower capacity plant - one barrel instead of three - led to a six month hiatus in the planning department of the local council, so they still haven't got the go ahead. The hotel and pub seem to be doing very nicely though. I was pleased to find a beer on the bar that was in top condition and very much to my taste: Newt Brew Organic Pale 5%, from Musselburgh, a new one for me. I was told that they also have a beer on key keg, which is being served through a font that was left by Guinness - despite being asked to take it away - after they stopped doing Hop House 13. I consider this pub to be a bit of a find.

Voted CAMRA Forth Valley Pub of the Year 2018