Since last year, Albar have doubled their number of handpumps. Amongst the beers being dispensed is likely to be Albar Golden (5.2%), brewed for them at the Invercargill Brewery. Also on tap recently have been beers such as Cassels Milk Stout, Emerson's Bookbinder and Porter, and even Belhaven Best. Despite the barman's claims, it seems unlikely that this latter can have been cask-conditioned. Mind you, its lengthy journey from Scotland was all too evident in its taste! The other beers are generally reasonably good, so long as you check they haven't been sitting in the pipes for too long, where the beer warms up and goes stale. Inevitably, some of the beer tastes fresher and livelier than other beer. One assumes that some of the 'flatter', more bland beer dispensed by handpump isn't actually living at all, having been either pasteurised or filtered, or both. If so, this is regrettable since the bar's approach is a breath of fresh air around The Octagon. They and their beer deserve to be more heavily patronised which may, in turn, increase their turnover to justify running four handpumps.
