The Ideal Birmingham Pub Crawl, or is it Beer Crawl?

Given the pubs that Birmingham has, what would be the best achievable pub crawl?

More specifically, since I prioritise beer over surroundings/decor/atmos etc, what would be the ideal beer crawl in Brum?

Here's an imagined (but rooted in reality) attempt.

Starting slightly north of the centre, I'm kicking off with a pint of Oakham Citra in the Bartons Arms.  This is a double whammy, as the pub is a beautifully restored Victorian gem, with lovely tiles; and... it's owned by Oakham, who are one of my favourite/the best breweries in the country.  Citra is a deliciously crisp, hoppy and piquantly fruity beer, with a tickle across the tongue. Lip-smackingly moreish.

Next, a short bus ride away from the Bartons is the Bull - a small, homely, genuine old pub in the Gun Quarter.  Here, I'd probably plump for an Acorn Barnsley Bitter, which seems to be consistently available.  The comforting genuineness of the bitter, would echo the surroundings nicely.

Next I'd swing up to the Jewellery Quarter, to tick off the Lord Clifden, Brown Lion, Rose Villa Tavern, the Drop Forge and Red Lion (in that order).  In those pubs I'd hope to be able to sample [halves obviously] of Bathams (in the Clifdo), Complete Muppetry or Jewellery Porter (in the Brown), Thornbridge Kipling (in the RVT), a Malvern Hills Black Pear (in the Forge), and finally a Purity Mad Goose (in the Red).  Why those beers?  Well, because they are, respectively: i) a pleasure to drink and should always be sampled when available, which it usually is at the Clifdo and Red Lion; ii) the best of Two Towers' current range; iii) Bitters 'n' Twisted pubs usually carry Thornbridge beers, and they are always good; iv) usually on offer around Brum, and a pleasant Golden ale; and v) the best of Purity's 3 ubiquitous Golden ales.

A detour would be required to get to the Black Eagle, and once there, I'd hope for a Brewdog Trashy Blonde.

Heading back to the centre, I'd hope for a pint of Moor Somerland Gold in the Shakespeare [Summer Row], then an Otley Thai-Bo at the Old Contemptibles.  2 x Nicholsons' pubs, with 2 x of the better breweries on their Spring ale roster.

On the homeward stretch, I'd swing by the Old Joint Stock and umm and arr about whether to have a Chiswick Bitter (toasty and tart), a Bengal Lancer (quite hoppy) or a London Porter (rich and roasty).  The Porter would probably win.

In the nearby Wellington, the rotating ales make it difficult to pin down a guaranteed choice, but Wye Valley HPA IS always on, so that would 'do' me.

In the Post Office Vaults there are lots of bottles that I KNOW will be in the fridge on any given day, and a good number of them would tempt me on EVERY given day.  On current form, I think I would have to plump for a De Molen Amerikaans, which has the best aroma EVER.  However, having chosen Amerikaans, I would obviously have to live with NOT having chosen Rodenbach Grand Cru or Lindemans Cuvee Rene Gueuze - but those are the kind of tough choices I make every day.

Before the final leg, I'd head to the Victoria and certainly sample a Thornbridge Jaipur if possible. 

Final 2 stops would be in Digbeth.  First up the Lamp Tavern, where I would hope to sample an Everards Tiger, which is not only a delicious Bitter, but also a small taste of home.  And then the Anchor, which has a retinue of ales which rotate at a similar speed to the Wellington: therefore I would cross my finger and hope to sample a Gargoyles Citra or a Steel City Vane Tempest.

After that I would be fit to drop.

But what conclusions can we draw from this imagined crawl?  Well, firstly that the sort of breweries guaranteed to be available on any given day, in our best pubs, are not really members of the burgeoning 'Craft Beer' scene.  My ideal Brum pub crawl would not allow me to sample Summer Wine, Magic Rock or Buxton.  But, on the positive side, it would allow me to sample some nice Golden ales.  Lots of Golden ales.  Mainly Golden ales in fact.  Golden ales seem to be doing rather well in Birmingham.

The other conclusion, is a rather more obvious one, and that is that Birmingham has lots of lovely drinking venues.  Rather more than you might imagine in fact.  And perhaps more than we realise - which is a sign of improvement is it not?   

In the style of Tony Hart, why not come up with you own imaginary pub crawl, using this ever improving Birmingham Pub Guide via Google Maps?

A quick sortie: through gin palace and seat of learning

Today, unable to sit idle on an afternoon of annual leave, I plunged headfirst into some Birmingham pubs that I rarely get to - all in the name of my Birmingham Pub Map project, which is now nearing the completion of phase 1.

My first port of call was The Gunmakers Arms, located in, wait for it, the Gun Quarter now officially to be renamed St.George and St.Chad.

But here's a sordid confession: upon arriving, I daren't go in.  You see it was the middle of the afternoon, the windows were covered from the inside and it's not exactly in a busy area.  So I took the coward's way out and declined to push open the door and enter.  This is apparently a Slovakian run pub, which advertises it's National affiliations with a flag on the outside, and lists it's drink prices on a blackboard outside, including real ale.  If you have been in, please let me know what it's like, but as an ungregarious, solitary boozer, today was not the day for me to peer inside.  Not that I have anything against Slovakia you understand, in fact if a dyslexic currency salesperson at Marks and Sparks had had their way, I may almost have gone there on holiday once.

So, scuttling briskly from the Gunmakers, I ducked into the always lovely Bull, which is 5 seconds away.  This pub is a marvel of homespun, traditional charm and always has einen well presented bit of booze on tap, in this case Acorn Barnsley Bitter, which was as rugged and lovable as Gene Hackman.

Next up was the Sacks of Potatoes, located fairly and squarely in the centre of Aston University's campus.  I last came here when I was an actual student, which was an eye-wateringly long time ago.  I admit that I expected this to be full of trendy herberts supping WKD and snakebite or something, but clearly today's student is much more savvy than I ever was/am.  6 real ales were on offer here including 4 guests.  I felt like a bit of an old letch propping up the bar, so I necked a tasty Sadlers Honey Fuggle and an odd Wentworth Rock-Spalt and slung my hook.

This was all happening mid-afternoon, sadly too early for the Wellington beer fest, which was kicking off at 5.00; so I consoled myself with a brief nosey inside the Jekyll and Hyde.  This place is quite smart, a bit trendy and therefore probably demands a slightly cooler clientele than what I am.  Unfortunately my visit coincided with zero Thornbridge beers being on, even though I know that they have been offering 3 err offerings from that brewer during the week.  I nursed a half of Freedom Stout, whilst marvelling at the range of gins/gin cocktails and gin-tasting events which the J&H offer.  I tell you, if I liked drinking gin, I would certainly gravitate to this place and drink some gin.

After that I headed homeward boundish.

Kings Heath and Moseley beckon tomorrow, for some concluding beer map visits.