Living my entire life in Scotland means I have never wholeheartedly engaged with the phrase "It never rains but it pours".

I feel I have seen every precipitate permutation from a subtle smirr to the full soaked-to-the-skin-in-moments fury of so many cats and dogs. Still, last week contained no shortage of either raining or pouring as we welcomed various visitors out of the rain and into to the shop for tastings at quite a rate.

We – both staff and customers – got to try everything from beautiful Belgian sours to big barrel-aged Scottish stouts, providing a welcome antidote to the egregious elements for a while at least.

Petrus Aged Pale (£3.80/7.3%/330ml)

On Thursday night I sat in on a tasting and blending session of various beers in the Petrus range. A very fun time was had, with some interesting and/or terrifying blends being produced by the end of the night. This is the "mother beer" though, the one which is used in varying quantity to produce all of the beers in the range and which brings a very distinctive sour and complex quality. I love it as beer in its own right though, tart and vinous on the nose with a real puckering palate, more wine and Manzanilla sherry notes, crisp Granny Smith and zesty citrus flavours and a long refreshing finish. Outstanding.

Tempest The Alligator Man (£5.20/9.2%/330ml)

Earlier that same day Shannon from Tempest paid us a visit and opened some very delicious bottles for us to try. This – their new double IPA – certainly proved to be a hit, leaving a glaring hole on a shelf I would swear I had filled just moments before. Hazy orange to the eyes and nose, with a little earthy note to balance out the juicy juicy juice. Some DIPAs can be overly sweet, but this manages to have plenty of rich malt character and more of the juiciness that the nose promised without any of that cloying quality, possibly due to the lovely long bitter bite in the finish.

Uerige Doppel Sticke (£5.00/8.5%/330ml)

Nobody was kind enough to give me a taste of this one for nothing, so I had to buy it myself. The lengths I go to in my quest to recommend the best beers, I don’t know. Not even a hint of gratitude, it’s just as well I’m as selfless as I am. This is a big turbo-charged altbier, ramping up the malt bill and the hop character for a fun ride through caramel country, with booze-soaked dried fruits, a little tiffin, stewed toffee apple (yes, I realise that’s not a thing but it’s in my tasting notes so it must be true) and a peppery spice in the finish.

White Hag The White Sow (£2.40/5.2%/330ml)

We used this one as a blending ingredient during the Petrus tasting and I created a very enjoyable chocolate cherry bomb by adding just a touch of this to their aged red. Experiments aside though, I think it probably stands better on its own. There’s as much well-fired coffee here as there is the advertised chocolate, alongside nuts and dark fruit and the "nitro" element makes it super smooth and easy drinking.

Brewdog Semi-Skimmed Occultist (£2.40/8.0%/330ml)

This Milk Coffee Chocolate Vanilla Oatmeal Stout certainly says all of the words on the can that I’m often looking for in a beer, but I worried it was maybe trying to pack too much in. In the end it had all that and more with all that it advertised alongside a little liquorice and coconut. Definitely a sweet stout, but with some lovely umami notes that stop it from becoming cloying.