Dean Tavern, Dalkeith

Will Larter left this review about Dean Tavern

This would have been unexpected if I hadn't been recommended by a friend and if I hadn't bought my train tickets specifically to come here. But even so, it is an unexpected building, with a feel somewhere between a Wesleyan chapel and a working men's club, but with a classy bar counter in dark wood with brass rails for elbows and feet, and hooks for your jacket or bag. Wow. All it needs are some cask beers, but two of the three singles are naked, and the only one with a pump clip says "hazy pale". What to do? Well, obviously you grin and bear it, but it's difficult to enthuse about a beer that pours frothy but with a head that disappears in the time it takes to find a beer mat to put your glass down on. A beer with the look of a failed home brew or a very serious urine sample, or if we're being generous, a tropical fruit juice with no added sugar. This is a lovely pub, but the brewers (Stewart x Charles Faram) should find themselves some other way of expressing their creative urges.

On 7^th January 2025 - rating: 6
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