B.O.W.W.O.W.

Beer of the Week: a good summer hiking ale - "Stirling Summer" from the Bridge of Allan brewery - served real ale at the Strathyre Inn. Mild and sweet with hops like a summer breeze to take the malty weight off. Though this week's beer was consumed in Strathyre after a day of munro bagging, the unofficial and extemporaneous category of 'pub of the week' would go to the Drover's Inn in the wee WHW stopping point of Inverarnen (just north of Loch Lomond). If you ever find yourself driving up into the highlands in the west of Scotland, do not pass this place by - an ancient stony mass of a building, roughly hewn with an interior blackened from the large fire that the kilt-clad staff continues to stoke with shovels of coal ... and enough clan weaponry and dead animal heads to conjure Mel Gibson's battle cry. Decent food too.


Whisky of the Week: cask strength Laphroaig 10 year: not subtle or smooth by any means - strong, peaty, medicinal - the prescription for a June-July stuck in 50 degree temps.