Hipster Crawl: Kings Heath to Moseley

Last Friday I continued the onerous task of improving my Birmingham Pub Map.  This sort of project is never really finished - it's like painting the Forth Bridge or summat.

So around lunchtime I headed over to my old stomping ground of Kings Heath/Moseley, to do a neat little run of pubs and see what treats they had for me.

I'll tell you what they had in for me: Purity.  And lots of it.

First port = the Hare and Hounds, which is certainly a lovely pub and certainly a whopping great pub.  I love the traditional interiors and the mismatched furniture, and it's certainly well off for live music; but during my visit it was very quiet.  They have a couple of handpulls and I enjoyed my pint of Mad Goose, which is [I think] Purity's best.  But if they are looking for a suggested area for improvement, they need a better range of beer.

From the H&H it was a one minute walk to Cherry Reds, a charming hipster cafe, with food at front and a teeny weeny bar at back.  This is exactly the sort of place to warm the heart: a tiny, independent start-up, happy to stock a handful of quality beers including a guest handpull and continental keg.  Bravo. Good luck to them.  More please.

Last Kings Heath stop-off was the Station, which doesn't really warrant a proper write up.

Shanks' pony duly delivered me to Moseley, whence I glowered through the window of the Junction, saw the handpumps on offer and did not enter.

One did enter the Fighting Cocks, which is another genuinely lovely and genuinely large boozer.  I love the decor and they offer a nice choice of some boozes.  Being me, I avoided the ones I've had (and enjoyed) before, and plumped instead for a pump clip entitled Top of the Hops.  I despise myself sometimes.  This errrm lad is brewed by Cropton, but they didn't seem to want to claim it, as they neglected to put their name on the label.  I can see why.  Good marketing appears to have trumped beer quality here.

Final port of crawl was the always reliable Prince of Wales in Moseley, which is an unspoilt pub, with a very large beer garden, for those long Summer evenings (of which this was resolutely not one).  There are about 10 handpulls on offer here, which is admirable indeed for a place located in trendyville, which is what Moseley is.  It has to be said that the beer choices aren't overly exciting, but I feel rather glib for pointing that out.  They did have Bishops Farewell, which is always a pleasure, and two house beers: Moseley Pale Ale and Sad Bastard.  I tried the former and wished I'd gone for the BF.  As with Top of the Hops, my compulsion for new beers drives me mad sometimes.

I love Moseley.  Genuinely.  But beer wise, the best of the day (by some margin) were the two Brodies beers I tried in the Wellington on the way back through town.  Good night.