Good Beer Guide 2013

The 40th edition of the real ale drinker's bible landed with a thud on my doormat this morning, hot off the presses.  In Merseyside twenty pubs have been dropped since last year, and twenty-two added.

The Roscoe Head is one of only seven pubs to have been listed in all forty editions, and I was particularly pleased to see a personal favourite of mine, The Crown on Lime Street, has been restored to the guide.

To find out the rest of the list, you'll have to buy a copy from CAMRA.

Maghull

There's a new Wetherspoon's in Maghull, which must be a good excuse for a visit to this suburban town to the north of Liverpool, so I started in the Red House, which doesn't look very red I have to say!  Here I found a rather fine two room 1950s style Walker's House almost completely unchanged since my previous visit in 2004.  It still retains some original leaded glass above the counter.

There were no other customers in the place as the barmaid poured me a pint of Cask Tetley, which has always been one of my favourite beers.  I can't remember where this comes from since the closure of the Tetley brewery in Leeds, but I am pleased to report that it still tastes pretty much the same.

Apparently the pub is between managers at the moment, and the barmaid's boss is looking after it temporarily.  She complained that there was nothing to do except read a magazine and watch the Olympics on the telly, with no customers at all.  Last Saturday no-one came in until three, she said, so at least I improved matters today!

Next, a short stroll in simultaneous light rain and sunshine to what is probably the reason the Red House is so empty.  Wetherspoon's Frank Hornby opened earlier this year in what was previously the Everest.  The 'spoons redecoration is in modern style, with a Meccano theme with "industrial" lampshades held together with large nuts and bolts.  The chromed steel gantries above the bar are fun but I'll be wanting compensation if I accidentally head butt a suspended wineglass while getting served.  As usual in a Wetherspoon's, it was busy with lots of locals enjoying the cheap food and drink.

I must tell a little story about the Everest.  Way back in the early days of the pub guide, I was collecting lists of pubs from friends before going to visit them, and Ernie, who lived in Maghull, named a number of the pubs in the area for me.  I wonder why it's called the Everest, I asked, and he replied that Sir Edmund Hillary had lived in Maghull and this had been his local, so I included this piece of information in the guide.  Ten years later it finally occurred to me that I might have been misled, so I typed Edmund Hillary Maghull into Google and was somewhat annoyed to find the only information linking the two was the entry in my pub guide.  Hmph!

Onwards through the subway under the main road that divides Maghull in half, to the Hare & Hounds.  This large pub/restaurant is now a member of the Ember Inns chain, and is decorated in their standard contemporary style.  There were five real ales on tap and I had a good pint of Yorkshire Gold from the Leeds Brewery (Who, post Tetley, can claim to be the largest brewery in Leeds.)

Finally, I turned homewards, towards the station and into the Great Mogul next door.  They had Cask Tetley on, so I enjoyed another spot on pint in this nicely decorated pub where the majority of the customers seemed to be dining.

New Brighton

I chose a rather grey muggy day yesterday to head under the Mersey to the sea-side at New Brighton.  I was surprised to find the waterfront has been substantially redeveloped, with new restaurants, a supermarket and a casino, but I ignored all these attractions and headed first to the Queens Royal Hotel.  The outside was off-puttingly covered in scaffolding, but the hotel bar merits a Good Beer Guide entry and so obviously needed visiting.  I found a very comfortable nicely decorated bar with four hand pumps and I enjoyed an excellent pint of Hawkshead Windermere Pale.  The menu looked good, but I resisted.

I continued my stroll round the sea front and then turned towards the town centre, passing Redcaps, now closed, before calling in to the Ship Hotel.  Definitely the down-market end of spectrum, a little scruffy inside but still clean and tidy.  They'd run out of Guinness (except in cans) so I had a lager for a change, and sat on a comfortable sofa watching a steady trickle of regulars coming in and out.  This is undoubtedly a local pub for local people, everyone who came in knew everyone else and the two bar staff.

Next, on to the Commercial, but it isn't called the Commercial any more, it's now the Harbour.  Nothing much else seems to have changed, there's a small bar side with a couple of bits of peeling paintwork giving it a slightly tatty feel, and in great contrast a well appointed and well cared for lounge side.  This used to belong to Cains Brewery but was sold off in one of their financial crises.  The four hand pumps were only offering one real ale and I had a spot on pint of Black Sheep.  Apparently the best route from the bar to the gents is via the street!

Just across the road from the Harbour is the imposing building that houses the Perch Rock.  I remember when I last visited, in 1999, being served a pint of pure vinegar which purported to be John Smith's cask ale.  This time I had Otter Bitter and it was excellent.  The pub has a rather odd layout with a very narrow front bar across the front of the building.  My 1999 visit recorded two lounge rooms behind with no bar counter but I have to admit I didn't go and check these this time.  Instead I sat in "Bob's Corner" at the end of the bar, luckily Bob wasn't in.  Once again, a local's pub, everyone in the busy bar knew everyone else.  (Cheat - This picture was taken on a previous trip some years ago!)

Surprises In Town

A workmate was looking at my pub guide and asked what I thought of the Cavern Pub, and I had to admit I'd never been in.  So after visiting the blood donor centre today I headed down to Mathew Street to check the place out.

And I found a rather good cellar bar with walls covered  in music memorabilia, with, much to my surprise, two hand pumps on the bar.  Not the sort of place I would expect to find decent beer, but I enjoyed a spot on pint of Black Sheep.  The barmaid had apparently never used a hand pump before, and she had to get instruction from her colleague.  There's a stage for live music, but no-one was performing on a Thursday afternoon.

Just a little way along Mathew Street and I was in for another surprise - A brand new pub called Glass Onion, where the board outside advertised bitter, lager, Guinness and mild all at £1.50 a pint!  Inside it is a plain corridor bar and as you can imagine at these prices, the customers are a little on the down-market side.  There weren't actually any fights while I was there, but there were a couple of vociferous arguments!  I sat unobtrusively in the corner, getting a little worried when the seven foot tall (OK, a slight exaggeration.) bloke who the barmaid had just annoyed by refusing to serve him sat down next to me.  He soon left to try another pub.

It must be a good few years since Guinness was available at this price.  Can they really be making a profit?

I was trying to remember what was here before, and a quick Google seems to show that it was formerly part of Hardy's, which now has a shorter frontage, I think.

Inn

Caesar's Palace, the long standing restaurant at the bottom of Renshaw Street, has been carved in two.  The larger part is a refurbished restaurant, now called Caesar's, and the smaller part, nearer to the Adelphi, has become a new pub called Inn.  The decor, turquoise seats, brushed aluminium surfaces, slate wall panels etc. etc. makes the place look like a trendy bar, but further examination reveals that it's definitely a beer oriented pub.

The three hand pumps offered two beers from the Liverpool Craft Brewery, and a real cider.  I enjoyed a dimpled mug of Summer Ale, which to be honest didn't seem very summery, just a nice bitter.  A long line of fonts offers a wide range of less common beers from Europe and America and if that's not enough choice for you, the beer menu lists umpteen bottles.

As I sat in splendid isolation - I was the only customer on Wednesday lunchtime - I eyed up the array of empty beer bottles on a high shelf.  Not bad, but the collection in my hall is better!  I turned my attention to the bottles behind the bar, and spotted some Sink The Bismarck from Scottish brewery Brewdog which at 41% (No, I haven't missed a decimal point, that's forty-one percent alcohol.) claims to be the strongest beer in the world.  Unfortunately they'd sold out, so I still haven't tried it.  (I was in Brewdog's own bar in Manchester on Saturday and they'd run out as well so I had to settle for a 32% brew instead.)

So, in conclusion, a rather good attempt at doing something different from the standard plastic pub that we see all over the place.  Let's hope it's a success, but they need to get more customers through the door - Perhaps when the redevelopment of Lewis's across the road is completed more people will come in here.  Another notch on the stats, taking the score of Merseyside pubs visited to 1,134.

The Woolton Pub Crawl 2012

The Woolton Pub Crawl has been an annual event for many years, although I've only been involved since the late 1990s. It used to be a proper gruelling pub crawl, visiting twenty or more pubs starting in the Childwall Abbey at midday. (The best I managed myself was nineteen pubs.) Gradually over the years it has become more "sensible" and the outlying pubs have been dropped from the schedule, and a number have closed. The whole event is now much more of a reunion and get-together.

This year, in a break with tradition, the sequence was reversed, so we started at the Derby Arms, or at least that was the plan as the intrepid organising party stepped off the 89 bus just as the rain started. We headed down to the Derby Arms where a sign in the window said they were closed until 4pm, so we quickly marched on to the Gardeners Arms, managing to arrive just before the heavy rain. This well cared for two sided pub had six hand pumps and I started the crawl with a splendid pint of Hobgoblin. Mobile phones were busy as more participants discovered the Derby Arms was shut. Apart from us, the pub was very quiet, we must have substantially boosted their Saturday afternoon takings.

Fortunately the rain had pretty much finished for the day by the time we headed up the hill to the County Court, a little plainer inside than the Gardeners but well looked after and comfortable. Quite a lot more non-crawlers in here as I drank my Doom Bar.

Along Quarry Street past the Cobden, which was closed, and the Village Inn which is pretty much demolished inside with just the outside walls remaining. No great loss in the case of the Village Inn, it was full of kids and had no real ale last year.

Just a bit further along is the Victoria, a nice friendly quiet place where I had a decent pint of Bombardier if I remember correctly. I think it was empty apart from us.

Time to skip some non real ale pubs: The Grapes is a plain boozer, Cello's is a night club in a large shed, and the Coffee House has always been a bit of a dump. Oh, and the Coach and Horses is now a nursery. 

So, on to the Elephant for a longer stay while everyone caught up - I think some may have paused at the chippy - and two pints of Old Speckled Hen, coincidentally the cheapest beer of the crawl. This place has had a varied history since I first came to Woolton, and was a restaurant for a while, but it's back to being a pub now, and a jolly comfortable one too.

Next, on to the excellent White Horse, recently redecorated but otherwise unchanged, for another pint of something good. This place is always popular, but I managed to get a seat in the main room.

Downhill (purely geographically) towards Gateacre, to the Bear and Staff next. This place doesn't seem to change much, still a very pleasant pub serving good beer.

Finally, on to the Black Bull for a last pint in the very nicely done interior of this listed building. All in all an enjoyable day, and a chance to see a number of people I haven't seen since the last crawl. See you next year!

For those who want to try it, here's my recollection of a full crawl from years gone by:

Childwall Abbey

Falstaff (Now closed?)

Grange Manor(Now Crying Tree)

Gateacre Park Hotel (Now closed and demolished.)

English Rose

Brown Cow

Black Bull

Bear and Staff

White Horse

Elephant

Baby Elephant (Now Bubble Room)

Coffee House

Coach and Horses (Now closed)

Cello's (Was Chardonay's)

Grapes

Victoria

Village Inn (Now closed)

Cobden (Now closed)

County Court

Gardners Arms

Derby Arms
(But not necessarily in exactly that order.)

Clock Face

What's this? Another pub survey - three in five days? Actually, no, the main reason for my trip out on a sunny Thursday was to have a look at Dream, St. Helens' version of the Angel of the North, which is located on a wooded hill, the former site of Sutton Manor Colliery. Pity about the worker's van, spoiling my photos.

Having enjoyed a stroll in the sunshine round the park I might as well check out a pub so I headed to Clock Face and the never before visited Clock Face pub. Inside the impressive building I found a very nice pub comprising a bar, a lounge with a couple of side areas, and a restaurant. I entered the lounge side and found two hand pumps, one with a clip so I ordered a pint. It was immediately obvious that these hand pumps were purely decorative, as the barmaid disappeared to the bar side to fetch my beer. She returned with a pint with an enormous head on it, plus a half pint glass for topping up! I forget what the beer was but it was very good. The decor in the lounge side included a good collection of clocks, as you might expect. The place was quiet on a Thursday afternoon, with one regular sat at the bar, and a few people heading for the restaurant. I think there were more people in the bar side.

I also took a quick look at the rather fine building that contains the Green Dragon but unfortunately the place appears to be closed.