December's visit to the "vampires" provided an opportunity to try out Bier, the former Old Rope Walk on a side turning between Bold Street and Renshaw Street. In its old guise it was an ordinary street corner boozer, purveying only keg beer, decorated in standard pub style.
Bier, on the other hand, aims to specialise in beer. They have six handpumps, and I selected Ringwood Boondoggle, which was very nice. The barman had some difficulty getting anything near a pint into the dimpled mug, apologising that they're all like that today, we've just changed the gas. Hmmm. They also serve unusual draft lagers, and have a beer menu full of imported bottles.
The singular interior decoration consists of white ceramic tiles on a couple of walls, with the rest of the walls and all the woodwork painted battleship grey. Sounds awful, perhaps, but I like it.
