For readers of this paper, Scotland - like Czechoslovakia in the 1930s - is a small, faraway country of which we know little, at least where beer is concerned. It has its own distinctive beer styles, maltier and less hoppy than English beers. Many of them have such curious names as 60, 70 and 80 Shilling as a result of a 19th-century system of invoicing.
But at the very time Scotland has achieved a measure of independence and has a government that would like to make a clean break with the rest of our island, Scottish beer is gaining greater recognition south of the border.
Scotland's leading cask beer, Deuchars IPA, is now truly a national brand. Looking through the new edition of the Good Beer Guide, it's remarkable to find the beer available as far away as the English West Country, vying for attention with the likes of John Smith's and Tetley's.
Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) owns
John Smith's and has its fingers in Edinburgh's Caledonian Brewery, which produces Deuchars. In 2004, the Edinburgh site was bought by S&N, but the Caledonian Brewing Co operates it on their behalf. Caledonian has kept control of its brands and a rolling programme of seasonal beers.
When I bumped into Steve Crawley, Caledonian's managing director in London last week, I congratulated him on the success of Deuchars on the national stage and suggested this was due to S&N's massive marketing clout. He quickly put me right. S&N does take and sell substantial amounts of Deuchars, but his own sales team markets the bulk of it.
That's good news. When S&N took over the Edinburgh site there were fears that the global giant might eventually close the brewery and transfer production to its John Smith's plant in Yorkshire.
But Steve Crawley, even though he's English, is a canny man, as they say in Scotland, and wouldn't allow that to happen. He controls and markets his own beers and even if S&N were to sell the site, which is worth a small fortune, he has another string to his bow. In 2006, Caledonian - independently of S&N - bought the Harviestoun Brewery in Scotland and could continue to produce the Caledonian brands there.
Crawley has notched up further success with Harviestoun's golden ale Bitter & Twisted, also seen more widely south of the border. Bitter & Twisted is more typical of the new breed of Scottish beers. They are paler and hoppier than traditional Scottish beers and as a result - like Deuchars - appeal more to English tastes.
The English are also making an impact on the Scottish pub scene. A few weeks ago, I was invited to a beer festival at the Lade Inn in Kilmahog, near Callander, Perthshire. The delightful pub, set in fine climbing and walking country, is run by Fred and Alison Wilde.
The Hertfordshire couple brought along a love of cask beer, as well as the ability to run an inn serving splendid food. It was a brave venture, running a beer festival in a part of Scotland where cask ale tends to be thin on the ground.
But the Wildes managed to attract a good crowd over several days for their festival. It spilled over from the pub into a marquee in the grounds, where the beer was kept properly chilled. The Lade has three house beers, Waylade, Ladeback and Ladeout, brewed for the Wildes by Traditional Scottish Ales, though Fred has not ruled out adding his own micro plant at the inn.
The festival also featured beers from Fyne Ales, Houston, Inveralmond, Orkney, Sinclair, Strathaven and other Scottish craft brewers.
The Scottish beer scene is vibrant and diverse and I hope the Edinburgh Government will not erect barriers to stop Sassenachs enjoying them.
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