Unquenchable Scottish thirst for World Cup beer pushes Boston bars to the limit

BOSTON, June 17 : Bars in Boston are gearing up for a second tidal wave of drinking by Scotland's Tartan Army of football fans who nearly drained some pubs of all their beer in the first weekend of their World Cup occupation of the city.

When Scotland beat Haiti 1-0 on Saturday in their first World Cup appearance since 1998, bar staff had to scramble for emergency supplies to satisfy the country's famously raucous and thirsty fans who have packed into Boston by the tens of thousands.

"I've been in this business for over 30 years, and I've never seen anything like this," Billy DeCain, general manager of the Sam Adams Tap Room in the city centre, said. 

At one point last weekend, the bar had to call in a special truck delivery from a Sam Adams brewery to cope with the seemingly insatiable demand for beer from the Scots, and even then DeCain worried that they might have to resort to selling only cans.

"We just about made it through. If we didn't have those emergency deliveries it would have been a tall task," he said on Wednesday, as fans sipped on pints as they killed time before Friday's match against Morocco.

Like the Haiti game, the match will take place at the vast stadium home of the New England Patriots American football team in the suburban town of Foxborough.

'ON ADRENALINE ALL WEEKEND'

DeCain said for Americans the equivalent level of excitement would be if their favourite American football team reached the Super Bowl for the first time.

"You're on adrenaline all weekend, and you could definitely see that," he said of the Scots and their first World Cup adventure in almost 30 years. "Do they ever sleep? Do they ever get tired? They were back at it the next day at 11 a.m."

The celebratory energy of the Tartan Army in