For anyone still reading this old version of the blog, move on over to the brand spanking new Birmingham Post blogs site. It's absolutely lovely.
I'll be continuing to review the top pubs in the area, and maybe reprinting some of the old ones. You'll find my posts here. Cheers!
Well, this blogger has been celebrating the relaunch of the brand spanking new Birmingham Post website with a pint or two of ale (naturally).
The Post is a venerable Midland institution with a history stretching back into the Victoria era. As, it appears, is the Beacon.
Continue reading "The Beacon Hotel, Bilston Street, Sedgley" »
A less mature review than myself would take this opportunity to make a
"cocks" joke here. But I'm going to rise above the opportunity (tempting
though it is) so readers of all ages can enjoy this review, assuming it
makes it through your internet filth filter.
Shakespeare - a very astute man and a West Midlander to boot - once said of alcohol that it “increaseth the appetite but taketh away the ability”.*
Of course he was talking about sex, not using the internet, but I’ve come across that maxim anyway today.
The Mailbox: home to the BBC, trendy bars, restaurants, yuppie flats and all the other modern city-centre fripperies springing up across the city. Not the kind of place you'd turn to first to get a pint of ale, you'd think.
But that's reckoning without Pennyblacks, the ale jewel in the city living crown of the Mailbox.
I was pointed towards this small but multi-award winning pub by a reader (thanks Tony) who told me no pub search of Birmingham would be complete without a quick visit. But I've got to say I had a serious problem with this place.
In today's Birmingham Post (although not as yet on the website), came the news that international brewing conglomerate SABMiller was set to buy Dutch lager brewers Grolsch in a £580 million deal.
The world of international finance isn't really the remit of a writer looking at great pints of ale in Birmingham boozers, you might think. But the increasing conglomeration of beer companies across the globe is an ongoing issue that affects every brewer and drinker.
In the early '90s gameshow The Crystal Maze groups of depressingly keen outdoorsy types sprinted round an Essex aircraft hangar converted into a pastiche of various time periods - Aztec, Medieval, Futuristic etc - tryingto complete tasks in an attempt to win a pony-trekking holiday in Ullswater, or something else similarly dispiriting.
Just a short one this time. The OC, as it is known affectionately by at least some of its locals, is a spankingly-restored Victorian bordello of a pub drawing in workers from the surrounding offices.
Continue reading "The Old Contemptibles, Livery Street, B3" »
Up The Junction on a wet and windy weekday night, in one of the more salubrious corners of town, home to an old school friend lucky enough to have recently moved Birmingham.
And also home to the Junction, a curious club sandwich of a pub, jamming together a diner, bar and even a heated garden, although the less-than-tropical climes of Birmingham this evening forbids taking a look at that.