Old boozers. Real Ale gems. Place for old geezers. Where is my lager?! Charm of pubs almost lost anywhere else.
This is volume II, first article in the series could be found here. As first one was about my all time favourites, I would like to go for different approach here and go for a little bit of exploring. I’ve wanted to write about old traditional ale places in this article. It is mostly true, but I tend to get distracted and hungry, so there is a few other places there. Most of the old real ale pubs will be with no food or a bit dodgy British cuisine anyway. So I will put an asterisk * after pub name when it is off the topic, but still worth to mention in the article.
Roscoe Head
24 Roscoe St,Liverpool, Merseyside L1 2SX
#realale
Quite uninviting place from outside, tucked in back alley just off the Upper Duke street. When you go in, it won’t get very much better. Just another old pub with small bar and a few even smaller rooms. However, they’re rotating 6 (almost always) well picked real ales for prices between £3 and £4. This place got quite a cult status between ale fans and it is well earned, just for no nonsense ales for decent prices. Try to get a few and you even forget about worn out and shabby interior. This place tend to draw in quite interesting characters as well.
I’ve tasted Maverick American IPA, quite nice hopy fruity oldschool taste. Second one I’ve tried was Gladlyn Ale, which I did not fancy that much. Luckily I did not get a pint, but only half!
The Old Blind School*
24 Hardman Street,Liverpool L1 9AX
As name suggesting, it is located in a splendid former Victorian school for the blind. Opened less then a year ago, with quite nice modern touch when reconstructing
an interior of classic house. I’ve ended in here by accident, so I went for Guinness in bar downstairs, which was good, then had ribeye upstairs, which was all right.
There is a magnificent grand old staircase connecting those two. Men toilet is looking quite stylish as well. So this place is worth visiting just for interior, not really for very special food or beer.
The Caledonian
#realale #traditional
22 Caledonia St,Liverpool, Merseyside L7 7DX
Short walk north from the Roscoe Head, yet light years from city centre, this old pub retained much more classic atmosphere. Despite that, the craft beers here are quite modern. However, the crowd is not, they all seem to be older gentlemen with proper style. There was fairly large group meeting there playing music just for fun, with fiddles and even great player on the accordion.
The Dead Crafty Beer Company*
#hipster #craftbeer
This is very different beast altogether when compared to previous pub. Where the latter is very traditional, this one is the opposite. It is very new and fresh, hipster small place with whopping 20 dedicated taps for exciting craft keg beers. Barman is really a man at right place, very cool and chatty fella. This will be perfect place to stop for one or two after work or just place to start a night. They serve most of their beers in schooners, 2/3 of pint. I’ve tried a few beers and found two of them quite special. First was Siren and Cigar City brewery
Caribbean Choc Cake (7.4 %; UK Stout), which was really potent and very chocolatey, but not overly sweet nice dessert beer. Second one was Two Roads brewery Ol’ Factory (5.0% USA Pils), which was very very drinkable Czech style Pilsner from American hops. I had to have several of them, of course. So, only downside of this place are prices, as beers costing there £3.50 – £7.00; but not for the pint, but only 2/3. Simple math will translate this to £5.25-£10.50 for a pint, which is really a lot even for very special beers. So definitely place to try, but not one to go every day.
The Ship & Mitre
#realale #traditional #hipster
This pub is quite traditional, but it was actually founded in 2007, when current owner took over the business. They joined two original old pubs next to each other, The Flagship and The Mitre. So that explains the name. In those 9 years they got quite busy, won CAMRA Pub of Excellence and multiple Pub of the Year titles.
There is a reason for that, first biggest selection of hand-pulled ales in Merseyside, and collection about 200+ beers form all around the world as well. Inside you’ll find very friendly staff and locals forming together really welcoming atmosphere. You can even notice the remains of original art deco interior design features from 30s! They held quite often various events from Spirit tastings to beer festivals, pubquiz nights and so on and on. So there is enough for everybody to choose from. I noticed one more thing, in previous pubs it tends to be either really traditional with mostly older folk or hip ones for the younger crowd. This one´s magic trick is to seamlessly mix
both crowds together and everybody is quite happy with that. I’ve tried Fools Gold Golden Ale (4%; Fullerton Brewery), which was really drinkable, so I had to have 2. Next I went for something tiny bit lighter, more suitable for (British sic) summer and my alarm clock set to 6:30am next morning- Bondi Blonde (3.7%) – Australian Ale. I’ve found out later that it is actually brewed here in Liverpool at Stamps Brewery in Kirkdale. It was quite light and nice as well. I will be definitely back here and try some food next time, which looks good from what I have seen.
Peter Kavanagh’s
#realale #traditional
2-6 Egerton St,Liverpool, Merseyside L8 7LY
This is one of the fine grand old pubs, with good ales and as a bonus with live music gigs quite often. However, it is kinda far from city centre and it was raining all the time recently, so I haven’t got the chance to walk and test it yet. Hopefully soon then.
So Cheers!