Happy Hour - Hull Pub Explorations

What a good place to be...

Am I really going to throw predictable Housemartins references into the title?  Yes, of course I am.
This trip to Kingston-Upon-Hull was football orientated, with the KCOM being one of the last remaining Championship grounds I hadn't visited.  And I made sure to arrive with plenty of time to spare to explore a handful of the cities pubs.

The Minerva Hotel (Nelson Street, Hull, HU1 1XE)
Arriving late morning, we made our way down to the banks of Humber, with some unexpected splendid blue skies and sunshine.  In which The Minerva Hotel was looking glorious.

Smallest pub room in Britain?

Built in 1835, this would once have been a haunt for the dockers, but these days the dock to the side of it is filled with yachts and the pub serves a varied clientele.  
There are at least six separate areas to the pub, making it fun to explore as you try to pick your favourite spot.  
There's a great room to the left of the front door, wedge-shaped and bright, with the seats by the window offering views across the estuary.  
But we couldn't resist the tiny snug with space for three persons, at a push.  Signage in here claims that this is 'The smallest pub room in Britain'. Not sure about the validity of that claim, but it brings out the tragic tourist in me, posing for pictures sipping my beer sat here.  
The Minerva once had it's own brewery, but this was short-lived and the brewery now operates as a function room.  There was a good range of beers on the bar though, with three from the Revolutions Brewery, a good traditional Tetleys bitter and a blonde ale from the Yorkshire Brewing Company.

Chilli Devils (23 Arthur Street, Hull, HU3 6BH)
Appearing in the 2019 Good Beer Guide, this small bar was opened in 2017 by Ian Ibbetson who also has a business of the same name producing chilli sauces. 

 They proudly serve real ales and chilli-orientated dishes, plus there are chilli peppers growing along the windowsill and a list of globally inspired chilli dishes on the wall.
Yup, they like their chilli's.
Three ales were available on this visit, a porter, Elland Brewery's ever-reliable award winning 'Beyond the Pale' and, my pick, a  single-hop ale by Little Critters, hopped with Vic Secret.  This bitter pale ale worked well alongside a bowl of mildly spicy stew.  The 3 dishes available are all served from cauldrons at the back of the bar, so there's no waiting around for food to be served.
A great little relaxed place for some wholesome food and good ale.

Ye Olde White Hart (25 Silver Street, Hull, HU1 1JG)
There were four interesting looking pubs on the National Inventory of Historical Interiors list, but I only managed to visit this one this time around.
It is claimed the building on this site dates back to 1550, originally a grand house, prior to becoming a pub in the 1700's.  This was almost completely destroyed by a fire, leaving the Victorians to go to work on the elaborate interior that can be seen today.  

Like Oxford's Turf Tavern, it is tucked between the houses, off the road and accessed by one of two narrow alleyways.  There's two rooms on the ground floor, both with their own bar and both with enormous inglenook fireplaces.  Beers come from Theakston's and Caledonian Brewery plus a local guest ale.
I figured we could just about fit one more in before having to make our way to the match, so we heading just around the corner to The George Hotel.


The George Hotel (Land of Green Ginger, Hull, HU1 2EA)
This was once the tap room and gatehouse for the large, long-demolished George Hotel, so despite its name there is no hotel and you'll be disappointed if you come here looking for a bed.
You may also be disappointed if you come looking for England's Smallest Window.  It's an odd claim to fame - a slit in between the bricks, around 2½ x 25cm, which has been glazed over at some point in time. A gatekeeper would once have sat behind it, looking out to identify bona-fide hotel guests, then let them in through the adjacent archway.
The pub consists of one impressive wood panelled room, unspoilt and dating back to Georgian times, with real fires burning and plenty of custom on this Saturday afternoon.
Horse racing on the sole TV screen, which normally knocks points off a pub for me, but as it offered friendly service, a pleasant atmosphere and well-kept ale, they are excused.
And as if good beer and a record-breaking window were not enough it's located on a street called the Land of Green Ginger!  Which is ace!

England's smallest window, at The George Hotel

Beers downed at the George, it was time to trek across town to Hull City's Kingston Communications Stadium.


Having made the walk back into the centre, elated that I'd remarkably watched back-to-back Forest wins, we headed in the search of some fancy craft beer from Atom that had been spotted on Untappd earlier in the day.  This Hull brewery serve up their ales at the Corn Exchange (1-4 North Church Side, Hull, HU1 1RP).  It would have once been a multi-roomed pub, but has since been opened up and modernised, with 14 taps and 4 cask ales available.  With a great selection I would have usually stayed here for more, but we'd just missed the last order time for food and needed some nourishment.

Which took us a short walk to The Head of Steam (10 King Street, Hull, HU1 2JJ).
This had been a 'maybe' on my list of pubs, but on the hunt for pub grub, with a good menu, decent beer and one remaining table that we could bag, this proved to be a real winner.
Our plates of food were filling and tasty, the beer range was good and the pub was busy and lively without being uncomfortably packed.
Well worth a visit - and my 'You may as well pass' a hop-heavy 6.9% IPA, on cask and brewed by Abbeydale and Brew York was my beer of the day.

Next destination:The Lion & Key (48 High Street, Hull, HU1 1QE) which we'd passed earlier in the day but not had time to visit.

The Lion & Key, earlier in the day

Looking at Whatpub, their website still pictures this as Durty Nellys Irish pub.  It's now reverted to it's original name and is run by the neighbouring Cathead brewery.
This was packed to the rafters and doing a roaring trade when we arrived - bouncers on the door ushering in merry groups crawling the bars of the old town.
It has a spectacular pub interior with it's ceiling plastered with beer mats, wagon wheel lights, bric-a-brac on the shelves and old Hull pictures on the wall.  There was a massive choice of cask ale, but my pick of Cathead 'Ruby Ale' was not at peak condition unfortunately.  Spoilt with such a big choice & I picked the wrong one.

The Lion & Key - at six-minutes past eight.

My plan to visit the historic Black Boy on the High Street was scuppered by it being so ridiculously busy.  Getting into the back bar was akin to squeezing in to a London tube train in rush hour and as there was no way it would be enjoyable to stay, we walked around the corner to  Wm Hawkes  (32 Scale Lane, Hull, HU1 1LF).
This had looked equally rammed on the way past earlier, but the revellers seemed to have moved on - perhaps lured away by the coloured lights across the road at the Manchester Arms which was choc-a-bloc.
The eponymous Mr Hawkes was a gun maker operating from these premises many years ago.
Whilst it appears to be an ancient pub, it's only been up and running since 2012 so fair do's to the designers who have given it a truly historic feel.
Owned by the same folks as the Lion & Key, there is a large range of hand pumps along the bar with both Cathead and local Yorkshire breweries on offer.

A great place, but sadly the last of the night for me.  My stomach was telling me it had had its fill of food and ale for the day and my hotel bed was calling. 
Hull really was a good place to be for the intrepid pub crawler.  I left with a fair number of places on my list un-visited, so a return trip is on the cards.

With folks flocking for Hull patties you'd think they could afford to replace the missing apostrophe, ampersand and 'N'.
Look out, the 'T''s going next.

St Pauli Sunday's

FC St Pauli wellington boots, smoke-filled bars, swing-dancing and football - all in a days pub-crawling in Hamburg.

I began my Sunday jaunt in one of Hamburg's most famous districts, St Pauli.  Hamburg and Altona were once independent of one another and this middle ground between the two was used for industry that neither wanted within their own walls.  With those beginnings it's not surprising that the region developed a fiercely independent and counter-cultural identity.
Entertaining workers from the docks, numerous bars and music venues sprung up as well as a red light district located around the Reeperbahn, once dubbed 'Europe's most sinful mile'.

It's also famous for the emergence in the early sixties of a little-known band called the Beatles and a world-famous football club called FC St Pauli.
As the numbers employed in the shipyards and docks declined, squatters, students, punks and anarchists took their place living in St Pauli.  

And when these locals decided to go to the football, the crowds on the dilapidated terraces of the Millentor stadium shot up from the 2,000 to 20,000.  In contrast to what was happening at many other clubs this crowd were orientated firmly towards the left - anti-racist, anti-homophobic, anti-capitalist and lots of more besides. 

I would've loved to have watched FC St Pauli play, but tickets are incredibly difficult to get hold of, so I'd visited instead on a weekend when Hamburger SV were at home and St Pauli were playing away at Arminia Bielefeld.

Scouring the music listings I spotted that rock club Knust (Neuer Kamp 30, Hamburg 20357) opened specially on 'St Pauli Sunday's' to show the games on the big screen.  Located a couple of hundred meters from the stadium, this club is situated in what was once a slaughterhouse.  It's main hall would be a great place to see a band (I'd contemplated a bit of thrash metal here from Satanic Surfers, but had instead plumped to get tickets for the Levellers across town this evening). 
Benches were laid out in the hall and the game projected onto a large screen at the back of the stage.  The game was also being shown in a side-room and on an outdoor screen, with a good crowd of folk assembled to cheer the local team on and join-in with the 'Woo-hoo' bit of Blur's 'Song 2' when a goal was scored.
The beer to drink when in St Pauli is Astra - the brand is owned by Carlsberg these days, but it's still deeply associated with the district. In Knust I quenched my thirst with a couple of  bottles of their 'Urtyp', a 4.9% session pale lager.

Last time I stayed in Hamburg, many years ago, we visited a number of the bars around the Reeperbahn - a dodgy rock bar, our boring choice of Molly Malone's Irish pub and Gretel & Alfons which was apparently Paul McCartney's hang-out, in which he still hasn't paid his bill.

This visit I wanted to pick somewhere kinda traditional, so I plumped for 
David Quelle (Davidstr.23, 20359 Hamburg) 
This bar dates back to 1906 according to it's signage.  It had a thick curtain across the door, giving that sense that you're not quite sure what to expect behind it.

What I found was a small bar with wood panelling giving way to a vast collection of football scarves pinned to the wall and ceiling. 

And an eccentric bunch of customers on a Sunday afternoon.  Beer and shots of dubious spirits were being lined up on the bar and one lady kept demanding the attention of all present so she could make important (?) announcements, before breaking into St Pauli football songs.  

I sat as anonymously as an odd English bloke at the bar can with my Duckstein pils.

Not feeling the urge to donate my Forest scarf to the collection

Walking northwards took me to St Pauli's neighbouring district Sternschanze where I visited  Galopper des Jahres (Schulterblatt 73, Hamburg 20357).  This serves as a coffee shop during the day with the bar opening at 5pm (I'd learnt this the hard way visiting at 3pm on my first day in Hamburg).  But this afternoon it looks as though the bar may have been open longer with the place a buzz of energy and activity.  It's swing-dance central.  A DJ is spinning '40's era swing classics, with tables pushed aside to create a busy dance floor full of enthusiastic folk.
"It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing".
You don't get this at Brewdog. 

Unlike in the Half Man Half Biscuit song,
this evening of swing has not been cancelled

So I probably didn't get a real flavour for the place as a beer bar, as I dodged dancing couples and perched on the corner of a table.  There were 10 beers listed on chalkboards above the bar, from which I picked a 'Fastmoker Pils', from local Wildwuchs Brauwerk. After Astra and Duckstein this seemed packed with flavour and was thoroughly enjoyable.

Possibly a little irresponsible

St Pauli is an area well worth exploring and apologies for not really doing it justice here.  Glancing at a few reports of how lively the small bars become on a match day it does look an amazing place to be when FC St Pauli are at home.  

For craft beer there is Uberquell by the river, a short walk from the Reeperbahn, or up in Sternschanz Altes Madchen, both of which I visited at different times on this trip.
For me it was time to head across to Altona, just as dusk fell and the neon lights of the Reeperbahn began to shine bright.

No Holsten Pils at Holstein Kiel

Bundesliga (2) and Beer

Kiel was just an hour and ten minutes on the train from my Hamburg base.  An hour and ten minutes of grumbling stomach for someone who got carried away at the DIY waffle station in the hotel breakfast room.

I'd brought train tickets the day before, waiting for an age in the reservation office.  However, this proved well worth it as it saved me €20 compared to the selections I would have made on the automated machine.  The guy serving me double-checked that it was Kiel I wanted to go to (maybe it's not a regular place tourists ask for).  I told him I was on my way to a football match so he asked who was playing.  "Ahh...Kiel vs Ingolstadt" he replied, "now that is a proper 2nd division match".
Yep, I was on my way to a proper 2nd division match.

I had a stroll around Kiel on arrival, trying my best to find the pretty bits.
By 10.30 I conceded that, even on a nice sunny day, there weren't a lot of pretty bits of central Kiel.  Sorry.
So at this early hour it seemed sensible to visit the brew pub, Kieler Brauerei (Alter Markt 9, 24103 Kiel).  



I wasn't the only one to have this idea - the place for bustling with revellers enjoying plates of eggs and bacon with their beer despite not having reached 11am yet. 
Grabbing a seat adjacent to the brewing coppers and enjoyed a couple of Kieler Biers, a 4.8% kellerbier which was pleasant enough.
Being so busy, service was a little unpredictable.  My attempt to order a dunkel saw another of the Kieler Bier arrives and I sat with an empty glass for some time waiting to pay.  This led to some checking of the watch and the realisation that it was a fair old trek out to the football ground and I'd left it a lot later than intended for a 1pm kick-off.

Completing something of a speed-walk through the northern suburbs I was relieved to see the sight of the tall floodlights.  I queued to collect pre-paid tickets at a porta-cabin, then found myself on the terrace behind the goal at the Holstein Stadion.  This is presently a three-sided ground as they've levelled the old Ost Kurve open terrace with plans to build an impressive new stand there.  The ground has the sort of character and quirks that attract me to the 2nd division - it's a mis-match of terracing, an old main stand straddling the half way line, make-shift VIP boxes and big traditional flood-lights. 
The most devoted fans in the middle of the West Kurve made a racket throughout, despite the home team trailing to bottom-of-the-league Ingolstadt for a large portion of the match.  They managed to snatch a deserved equaliser late-on to salvage a 2-2 draw. 

Football over, I strolled back towards the centre along Holtenauer Strasse, stopping for coffee and a sandwich, then swinging westwards in a risky search for a brewery.  It was risky because their facebook page and website didn't really make clear whether or not they would be open.  Not for the first time this weekend I found myself wandering around an industrial estate , but having corrected my initial wrong turn I spotted large glass windows with brewing equipment behind them and...yes!...lights on.

Entering Lille Brewery (Eichkamp 9c, Kiel) the only customers so far were three Holstein Kiel fans sat at the smart, recently installed bar.
Similar to Langang in Hamburg the evening before, this was a huge space, with the brewery equipment lit up with coloured lights.  They had a food truck parking inside there getting ready, so I guess that if I'd have been here later it would have been much busier.  I was just happy it was open.  As well as their own beers there were some varied guest ales on tap, so after trying the Lille stout I picked an intriguing 'Who Shot the Almond Brothers?', weighing in at 10.2% and brewed by the superbly named Sudden Death Brewery.

I walked back into the centre, contemplating that I'd clocking up around 10km today traipsing the pavements of Kiel.  Reaching the aldstadt and passing Kieler Brauerie again, just across the square is Tom Kyle Brauhaus (Alter Markt 16, Kiel).  I headed up the stairs into the Sports Bar section and grabbed a seat in front of the large screen where this evenings match was about to kick-off.  They also had a couple of smaller screens, one showing Arsenal v Liverpool in case I was missing the Premier League, plus a couple of pool tables and electronic darts boards.  

Beer-wise it was disappointing - I tried to order a Flensburger weiss beer, but was told it was unavailable.  "Just for today" the waitress added helpfully, although I wasn't about to make the trip back the next day to find out.  Likewise, the dunkel was unavailable, so I had to settle for Flensburger Pilsner, a let-down after today's earlier beers. 
But I'll give the place it's credit - a super spot to watch football and, in great contrast to the Kieler Brauerei, service superbly attentive.  One staff member passed by a couple of times just to check everything was okay, which made me wonder if I was doing anything weird, but I was reassured to see that he checked on every other table as well.

Time came to catch the train back to Hamburg.  It was a day with a few brilliant beers and a great bit of nostalgia standing on the terrace behind the goal at a football match again.
Kiel Ahoy!

Taproom tour of Hamburg

Another year, another autumnal trip to Germany, promising beer, football and sightseeing.

The city of Hamburg offered the chance to catch a Hamburger SV match, plus check out what has been described as a revitalized beer scene.
With a raft of recently opened small breweries, I was prepped with a list of venues, vague google map print-outs and a tourist leaflet picked up at the airport: ready to explore the city.

Ironic then that with Hamburg having discovered micro-breweries and craft beer, the first place I found myself in was a traditional German brew pub.

Trad times at Block Brauerei, Hamburg

Block Brauerei (Bei den St Pauli, Landungsbruken 3a, Hamburg 20359).
As you can see from the picture, it's an impressive place: regimented tables full of folks tucking into schnitzels and other German-fare; brewing equipment taking pride of place; two floors plus a terrace for nicer weather; and a small stage where a man with a guitar is due to come and entertain the crowd later.
Unlike some brew-pubs I've been to around the country there is little concession here to the drinker.  I timidly asked the staff at the door if I was welcome to just have a beer and was directed to take a stool at the bar, but there's very limited space.
The frustrating thing is that, despite sitting at the bar in front of the barman, you still have to wait for the waitress to come and take your order.  Then inevitably struggle for an age to catch her attention again for either a re-fill or the bill.
Just the one beer on today - a  5.2% pilsner, at just under £5 a pint. 

Bunthaus Shankraum (Kurdamm 24, Hamburg-Mitte, 21107).
This seemed a little more of an adventurous trip - catching the S3 train southbound from the centre and jumping off at Wilhelmsburg. 
I never like having to resort to the phone for maps and directions - I'm old-fashioned and believe I should be able to find things without being glued to a smart phone.  But on the search for Bunthaus, way off the edge of my map, I was grateful for technology.

I couldn't understand that the marker seemed to be in a park and I was dubious ambling into the barely lit paths in the dark. But it turned out the tap room is located in what was once the Inselpark waterworks. They opened in September 2017 with bar and seating in what would have once been square water tanks and it's an intriguing location.

They had 7 beers available this evening.  I started with an 'Alpaca IPA' - easy drinking & okay - before going DOUBLE IPA with the 8.5% 'Hopp Koop' - my notes (yes, I'm that sad) say "alcoholic Tropicana - wonderful, could drink this all night". I then finished with a pleasant 6.4% peanut & chocolate porter.

I could just fit one more stop in on a Thursday evening whilst remaining sensible and finishing at a respectable hour.  

This would be at Bar Oorlam (Kolhöfen 29, Hamburg 20355) in the quiet streets of the business area of the city centre. 
Previously a smoky street-corner pub, it was converted and re-opened in early 2018 as the Buddelship brewery tap.
And what a cracking, homely little bar it is, with an enticing selection of 15 beers from which I picked the 'Mr B' a 6.7% New England IPA.

On the barman's advice I also tried the 'Meppener Moorbrand Stout Laphroaig', 9%, a strong and downright super whisky barrel-aged stout.

Warning - this is how you can end up on the way home after trying to visit to too many 
bars and picking the stupidly strong beers.

Day 2:With some fantastic blue skies I spent the morning doing some of the Hamburg tourist stuff. Then for the afternoon I'd booked onto a tour of Ratsherrn Brewery. The brewery is housed in a complex which also contains their sizable craft beer shop and bar/restaurant Altes Mädchen.

Plenty of choice

Ratscherrn Brauerei (Lagerstaße 30, Hamburg 20357)
I'd struck lucky with my visit coinciding with an English language tour, so I joined 19-or-so other folks from as far-off as Miami and as close as Denmark, to poke our heads around the brewing equipment.
It's gotta be said that once you've toured a couple of breweries you don't really need to see any more.   Plenty of shiny brewing equipment, an explanation of the brewing process, sniff some hops and so on. 
But to be fair, it's always nice to see behind the scenes.  
And we spent a proportion of our tour sitting in a small tasting room where we were served up a 5.2% Zwickl, then a 5.5% winter amber ale called 'Lumberjack', followed by their regular 5.6% 'Pale Ale'.
All were fine, but I'd love to have tried some of the more experimental creations which Ratsherrn brew on their smaller brewing plant, just to the side of the shop.  

The brewery have a website with info about brewing in Hamburg, their beers, the shop & bar and the chance to book your own tour.

Learning about beer in the tasting room at Ratscherrn

ŰberQuell Brauwerkstӓtten (St Pauli Fischmarkt 28-32, Hamburg 20359).
Heading directly southwards through St Pauli took me to this brew pub, separated from the banks of the Elbe by a busy 4-lane highway and set in an intriguing building. 
They were having a beer launch event this evening so ushered me away from the section to the left where the brewing equipment was visible. Through a short corridor to the side was a more restauranty part of their complex. 
This was a nice place, with a spacious terrace outside and a good pizza menu for the peckish.  You can get a platter of 5 x 0.1 litre beers to sample the range here.

UberQuell - no idea what the colourful installations
in front of it are.

Langang Brauerei (Beerenweg 12, Hamburg 2276)
I caught the train to Diebsteich station and trekked the 15 minutes or so towards Langang Brewery.
On a dark unlit turn-off from Beerenweg a pot-holed track led to a bunch of parked camper vans and in the distance to the left was a small door and big iron shutter which could just be my destination. 
A little off the beaten path.
Entering through that small door, I had to concede that Landgang was uber-cool. 

Landgang - making breweries sexy.

The warehouse unit was HUGE - so vast that the brewing equipment, itself pretty big, just took up a corner of the room. The bar itself was in a converted shipping container to one side.  The whole place was dimly lit with coloured spotlights turning the stainless-steel brewing equipment purple.  Customers called in to take bottles home, a good crowd sat on stools chatting and drinking, whilst a German-language tour set-off to explore the far reaches of the brewery.
There was an impressive selection of beers on offer: 10 beers in total covering a range of styles, with stouts, pale ales, IPAs, lager and a sour beer.
I tried an interesting smoked porter and a Tabasco pale which could have been brilliant if they'd spiced it up a little more.

The bar in a shipping container at Landgang.

After all that, still Kiel, St Pauli and a Hamburger SV match to go.  Phew.