Birmingham Part Two and The Cronx Brewery

My main reason for going to Birmingham was to visit a friend who lives in Moseley to celebrate her birthday. Moseley is a suburb on a hill looking over Birmingham city centre. This way my first visit there and I wasn't sure what to expect. It's actually quite a well off little suburb, apparently popular with factory bosses back in the day because they could look down at their industrial paradise high up from their grand houses. These days it's more doctors and solicitors looking down at the city while counting their riches, and The Guardian did an article on the area claiming that the Russians might move in once High Speed 2 is up and running. Somehow I don't think the Oligarchs are going to schlep it out to Birmingham but stranger things have happened.

The party was excellent although I'm starting to feel my age as I was nodding off by 3a.m. I don't think the ales I had consumed before hand helped matters. The next morning I felt surprisingly chipper and me and The Lovely Jemma headed off into Moseley centre for that finest tradition of hangover cures - the Wetherspoons Breakfast. The Elizabeth of York is a modern two floor 'Spoons inside, with the downstairs a little dark and claustrophobic because of the  overhanging second floor. The breakfast was fine and although I didn't get to try the beer, the typical early morning elderly clientèle all seemed to be enjoying their morning pints of Fosters and Stella. I didn't see anybody supping a whisky chaser with their pint though - they're not as hardcore here as the Manchester Wetherspoons breakfast customers.

Suitably refuelled from breakfast we had a look down the high street. We counted five pubs in the area - clearly the citizens of Moseley enjoy a drink. We popped in to the Prince of Wales at the end of the high street as we had heard good things about the place. At 12p.m we were the only customers in there so we got to enjoy the well kept and impressive interior in peace. This is a fine looking pub with two very comfortable snugs, one with a small serving area. Follow the fine tiled corridor to the outside area and you'll find a hut selling cigars, and also one of these:

The snug that nearly killed me

Yes there's a tiki bar in the garden. It was amazing - a huge space with all the tacky tiki crap you'd expect - masks, washed up boats, and cocktails with terrible tiki theme puns in their name served from a beach hut. Me and TLJ made a vow to come back one evening in summer to try this place - I imagine it's a blast. Back inside I enjoyed a Oakham Bishops Farewall in one of the snugs. It was a relaxing, quiet pint until the fireplace started belching out smoke and the fire alarm went off. The staff sorted it out pretty quickly and we left shortly thereafter. You know a pub is good when I'm nearly asphyxiated there and I still look forward to coming back.

Returning to Birmingham city centre we went to The Old Contemptibles for a relaxing lunch before heading back to London. This Nicholson's pub follows the standard formula - dark oak furnishing, comfortable pub classics on the food menu, varied if boring selection of well kept ales. I tried a Vale Longitude, which was in good condition with a delicate fruity flavour. My fish and chips dinner was filling if uninspiring. In fact uninspiring describes this place pretty well. It did the job but I wouldn't be rushing back. Well fed and watered we headed back to London. I enjoyed my time in Birmingham and I didn't spot one "craft" pub while on my travels - the pubs we visited just seemed to concentrate on being welcoming and serving a good selection of beers rather than trying to impress with fifty different types of IPA.

Happy punters enjoying their beers

Just a quick mention of the Cronx Brewery open day last weekend. What a pleasure this was, and it actually gave the rather grim Croydon estate of New Addington a reason to exist. This young start up brewery organised an entertaining open day with good beer and great BBQ food. While munching on a delicious pulled pork sandwich I enjoyed a Cronx Single Hop Cascade which was a well hopped and very yummy tipple. Fellow Croydon brewery Clarence & Fredericks had a guest beer on and their Cascadian Black was superb, well hopped and a hint of sourness in the finish giving it an edge. The only disappointment was the Entire Chilli Porter which apart from the chilli tingle at the end didn't taste of much at all. Sadly I didn't get to see any of the live bands but overall it was a great day and with the warehouse setting, trendy BBQ, live music and craft beer I felt I was more in Hackney rather than the cultural void that is New Addington. Good to see Cronx can organise a piss up in their own brewery.

Where the magic happens

Birmingham - Part One

Me and The Lovely Jemma were in Birmingham last weekend. It's been a long time since I was last there, and my only memories from my last visit was the terrifying shopping experience of the Bullring and walking around for nearly 90 minutes trying to find the Birmingham Academy to see some "up and coming" local bands attempt to win some award. As is the case with any "faces of the future" competitions I attend none of these bands went on to future success.

The first thing I noticed after getting off the train was that Brum seems to be taking a page out of nearby Coventry's book and is knocking everything down and starting again, although Birmingham hasn't had a helping hand from the Nazis in the demolition.. The area around New Street station in particular is awash with building sites, and although I'm sure it will all look great when it's finished it's a bit of a mess at the moment.

I wasn't going to let the sound of drilling, mixing and sweary builders get me down though. Two minutes walk from Birmingham New Street is the Post Office Vaults, our first stop on a mini ale trail I'd devised. Things got off to a good start when the blackboard advertising the pub just had "beer" written on it over and over again, like the insane ramblings of a pissed up madman. Inside the place is nothing remarkable. They haven't really disguised the fact that it is a former post office vault but there are a couple of minor attempts at decoration with some empty beer bottles along the walls and hops hanging from the ceiling. Free Wi-Fi was avaialble courtesy of the Greggs bakery next door. I'm not sure why Greggs even has wi-fi as I imagine most patrons want to get away from the stench of stale pastry and hot fat as quickly as possible so they can gobble down their overpriced and not very good sausage rolls, but there you go.

A small serving area belies the tremendous amount of drink on offer, including a fine selection of foreign beers. Naturally I avoided these as I have no idea about beers from abroad except for some Belgium Trappist offerings and a smattering of American beers. I couldn't find a beer menu to help guide me through the bottles so instead I went for a selection from their cask ales. Hobsons Mild was nothing special but a decent sup, getting correct all the elements of a mild with a slight chocolate and mocha flavour but not attempting to push the boundaries. Rat Brewery's The Rat of Khan was much better. A hoppy treat with nice floral flavours but not overpowering. Really terrible name for a beer though.

The Lovely Jemma requested a cider and I asked the friendly barman what was on offer. "We have a sparkling cider on draught" replied the friendly barman. "Oh" I replied, a bit disappointed and thinking they don't really care about cider here. "Oh and there's the twelve ciders here" he remarked as he moved out the way revealing a cannily placed blackboard listing the ciders on offer. I then noticed all the certificates from CAMRA lining the walls awarding their real cider selection. Clearly this is a place that cares about the disgusting boozy apple drink so well worth popping in if you're demented and like cider.

Next on the list was the Wellington, affectionately known as "The Wellie" according to the Good Beer Guide and "The Welly" according to Twitter. Next to the large serving area there was a plasma screen listing the beers, and a message politely asking patrons to order by pump number. The beer I wanted to try was second on the list and I decided to order it by name, because I would have found it weird and even a bit unpleasant asking the barman to provide me with "a pint of number two please."

I opted for the Black Country Ales BFG and me and TLJ departed upstairs to enjoy our booze. There was a collection of games including both Jenga and a knock off "stacking wooden blocks game" stashed in the corner looking unloved so we opted for a game of chess. While I was loosing horribly I couldn't help but think that the upstairs of the pub had a vibe that reminded me of The Harp in London, but on a larger scale. Good ale selection, mix of young and old clientèle, and similar traditional furnishing. The pint of BFG was great, and kept in good condition. Overall this was a lovely place, but as a Pub of the Year winner I wasn't wowed by it the same way as other winners have done.

The final pub of the evening was The Briar Rose, a Wetherspoons which I thought was in the Good Beer Guide but turns out it's not - the one in the guide was across town. Still it was OK in here, and it provided the basic Spoons function of providing a pint and a quick meal. It even goes one step further and offers rooms to sleep in as this is a Wetherspoons Lodge. The ale selection was pretty decent and the Titanic Full Steam Ahead was in good nick. My steak and kidney pudding had been reheated professionally and promptly and went down a treat. As it was a Friday night the bar was packed but the place is massive and we managed to snag a table at the back. It was a low key end to a pleasant if low key mini pub crawl.

Next week I'll be talking about the Prince of Wales in the "upmarket" (for Birmingham) suburb of Moseley and The Old Contemptibles back in the town centre. I also had the pleasure of visiting the Cronx Brewery open day this weekend so I'll probably write a few words about that. There will even be pictures! That's something to look forward to.