Carriages @ Brentwood Hotel, Aberdeen

Another cellar bar, this time underneath a hotel. Notably upmarket for central Aberdeen, I felt compelled to wipe my feet on the way in. Enter to a small, late 90s feel refit area (mahogany effect lacquer?) which opens out to a lovely tight curved bar and a carpeted lounge off left showing the rugby at a sensible volume. Very comfortable, I liked the plush fabric banquettes and seating alongside some glass partitioning, with a selection of daily papers to settle yourself in. Fairly quiet compared to the nearby pubs, I guess it’s being a hotel bar means the rowdies won’t be tempted. Eight pumps with seven on (which seems somewhat ambitious for Aberdeen); Tim Taylor Landlord, Golden Best, Fullers London Pride, GK IPA, Caledonian Deuchars and Broughton Hopopotamus which was in very good nick and cost less than I expected given the surroundings. Noted that all ales and Tennants are £2.50pp Fri to Sun. Although it lacked the intrinsic charm of somewhere like the Prince of Wales or Grill and also only had one beer I was really interested in trying, this is a good little place and worth sampling,

This basement bar in the Brentwood Hotel drew me here thanks to its reputation for offering a good selection of ales, but turned out to be a fairly underwhelming experience. The bar is set in a spacious two-part room with a flight of stairs leading you down into the main bar area to the right with the servery along the rear wall. The bar has a lovely sweeping dark wood counter contrasted with a rather plain bar back broken midway by a mirrored pillar. The room has polished stone tile flooring in the main plus a few carpeted seating sections. Curved banquettes run around the front of the room with standard chairs and a few comfier tub chairs elsewhere. The nicest spot looked to be in front of a fireplace to the left of the bar, although this annoyingly had a TV screen above it which was tuned to one of those argumentative daytime talk shows with the sound clearly audible despite me being the only customer. A few clear glass partitioning screens were dotted through the room, including one with the bar’s name etched into it. The left hand side of the room can be reached by passing either side of the fireplace and seemed to have more of a lounge feel to it, providing ample additional seating in a space that looks much more welcoming than anything I’d expect to find in your average hotel bar. Book shelves covered part of the walls whilst old paintings and photos were hung throughout and a large screen was showing a tennis match with the sound off and an annoying pop soundtrack taking its place. A restaurant was signposted through a door to the right, presumably this is only available to guests though. Four of the eight handpulls were out of action on this midweek evening visit, leaving four to pick from – Black Sheep Bitter, Fullers London Pride, Taylors Landlord and Swanley Scapa Special. I asked for a half of the later which the barman drew with a single pull of the hand pump before vanishing, leaving his colleague to deal with the inevitable top-up. It was in middling to poor shape, so I was glad I’d only opted for a half after all. This place didn’t really do much for me, partly because it was completely empty for almost all of my duration and partly because it was all too apparent that I was drinking in a hotel bar. The dubious beer quality tipped the balance and I would say this one could be comfortably passed up when considering a crawl around town as there are many far better places not too far away.

Official page of Carriages, contains sample menu and wine list - www.brentwood-hotel.co.uk

Carriage’s is a basement bar situated underneath the Brentwood Hotel although you wouldn’t guess due to the lack of any helpful signage. All CAMRA roads in Aberdeen seem to lead here as it is one of the foremost outlets for Real Ale in the city and has won multiple awards. The bar itself is comfy enough, neat and tidy but quite faceless with low ceilings, plain décor and not exactly oozing character. It had all the ambience of a library on my visit, a mid Sunday evening session (with the World Cup being shown on the 2 flat screen TV’s), where there were barely half a dozen people present. There were 10 ales on the go during my visit but the selection was quite disappointing; Youngs Ordinary, Black Sheep Best, Fullers London Pride, Caledonian Deuchars, Wells Bombardier, Adnams Broadside, Brains SA, Arran AB, Caledonian 80/- and Orkney Dark Island, the majority of which are fairly commonplace. The 2 I tried were very good quality wise but at £3.15 a pint, not particularly cheap. Given its glowing reputation, I found the place quite disappointing in several aspects although it is hard not to include it when undertaking a beer tour of the city.

Official page of Carriages, contains sample menu and wine list - www.brentwood-hotel.co.uk