Milton Keynes Pub Crawl

In which we explore a bit of northern Milton Keynes, from traditional pubs to brewery taps on industrial estates.
We had 5-or-so hours before we had to head to Stadium MK so Mrs PropUptheBar could see Imagine Dragons.  Yes, AGAIN!

Arriving by bus in Stony Stratford, the sighting of a delivery robot navigating a road crossing was an early highlight.

These are called 'starship' robots and were launched in 2018 to delivery takeaways and groceries throughout the city.  They can even come and sing happy birthday to you, should you so desire.

Stony Stratford is an old coaching town, with a great looking high street resplendent with inns past and present, signs stretching out over the road, and archways leading to hidden yards.
Towards the end of the street was the Beer Guide listed Fox and Hounds, just unbolting the front door as we arrived.

Fox and Hounds (87 High Street, Stony Stratford, MK11 1AT)
To the left through the front door is a lounge, with a drinkers bar to the right.
High tables only, tin advertising signs on all walls, darts and Northamptonshire skittles to the rear, Aussie rugby league on the TV.

The bar counter was something a bit different, incorporating old sturdy cabinets.  On top of it, the hand pumps served a tasty Timothy Taylor 'Knowl Spring', in good condition, whilst other options were Fullers 'London Pride', Tim Taylor 'Landlord', and Purity 'UBU'.

Parramatta Eels won the rugby; we finished our drinks.  Time to move on. 

We poked our heads in to the Cock Hotel, but were on the wrong day for their 'Allo 'Allo menu.

An alternative option for some pub grub was the Old George...

The Old George (41 High Street, Stony Stratford, MK11 1AA)
The George is a good-looking old 16th century coaching inn, a listed building with low beams and rickety uneven floorboards when you head upstairs to the WCs.  Steps lead down from the front door, with the bar being a couple of feet lower than the pavement.
The pub had a fair number of locals in, served a decent pint of 'Tribute' (other options being two ales from Ringwood), and served us chili and chips to stave off the rumbling stomach.

We hopped back aboard the number 6 bus, staying on this for 10-minutes to a stop on an industrial estate in Stacey Bushes.

Blackened Sun Brewery Tap (Unit 3 Heathfield, Stacey Bushes, MK12 6HP - web)
This is one of those beer guide oddities - an entry with no hand pumps - with all beers being key-keg and considered real ale from the forward-thinking folk of MK CAMRA.

The husband and wife team who run the brewery were great hosts, chatting about local pubs in the beer guide, how they got started, and explaining that the key kegs were just as good as cask with the added bonus of not being reliant on shifting them in a couple of days to maintain the quality.

There were six beers on offer, half of them with a Belgian influence. I had a couple of halves of an IPA and farmhouse saison, both good and enjoyable beers.

Then made a complete bodge of trying to take a decent picture...

My best laid pub-going plans for the rest of the afternoon were cast aside when we discovered another nearby brewery tap to visit, and the folks at Blackened Sun recommended calling into a micro pub if we were heading that way.
So we back-tracked on ourselves, taking the bus to Wolverton.

The micro pub is situated in the Triangle Building, a refurbishment of a railway engine workshop, originally built in 1845.
The directional sign didn't made clear we had to drop down to the lower level for the pub, so we missed it by walking along the walkway straight above it
It's back where the bus is parked... 

The bus had deposited a gang of Walsall CAMRA members on a day trip to Milton Keynes - sadly no Evo Boozy Saddler with them, as I'd have loved to have said hello.

MK Biergarten (Unit 3, The Triangle, Wolverton Park Road, Wolverton, MK12 5FJ - web) 
The Biergarten calls itself 'Milton Keyne's first micropub', although it wasn't really that micro.
One common micro-pub feature was present - the solitary WC.  And a coach load of folk on a pub crawl, on a bus with no loo, meant the queue was a monster.

It's also not a biergarten, with just a few tables out front.  Inside, there was a mixture of trad seating and sofas, pot plants, beer signs, and a wealth of bottle and can choice in the fridges.

One cask ale was available - Tring's 'Fanny Ebbs Summer Brew', which was in great condition and a nice easy-drinking light ale.
The choice on keg was excellent: Mrs PropUptheBar was happy-as-Larry with a Northern Monk imperial stout with strawberries, whilst we also ordered some loopy fruit juice by Vault City.

Drinks finished, we set off on foot from the Biergarten, eventually finding our way on to the second industrial estate of the day, and the Bucks Star Brewery, which wasn't going to provide the pub photo of the day...

Bucks Star Brewery Tap House (17 Twizel Close, Stonebridge, Wolverton, MK13 0DX - web)
But inside, it's not bad at all - chipboard walls and a display of local artists work giving the place more character than you'd expect in an industrial unit.
Ales are all full of goodness - organic grains, no added sugar, unpasteurised, and unfined.
There was a choice of six on keg, from which I picked a 'Copernicus' 3.8% best bitter, served in a dimpled mug.

We had time for just one more pub, this time of the more traditional variety in Bradwell Village.

The Victoria Inn (Vicarage Road, Bradwell Village, MK13 9AQ)
Despite being less than a mile from the centre of Milton Keynes, this is very much the local village boozer.  It had a decent number of Saturday afternoon punters in, playing pool on one side of the bar, and settled on the bench seating in the room to the other side.

Real ales came from Vale Brewery and, my pick, an Animal (XT) 'Scarab'. A fine crisp pale ale, which was very enjoyable.

We took our drinks through to the quieter lower level of the side room.
I decided against asking if we could perch at the end of the bench - after all the lady looked like she was very comfy...

Well, she looks settled.

And with that, we were done with pub visits for the afternoon.
It was time for us to catch the bus from the village to the centre, check-in at our hotel and find our way to Stadium MK.
Friday had been bright sunshine and 30°+ temperatures.  One day later we had grey skies and those people still in their shorts were pretending not to be cold.  And as soon as we go to an open-air gig, of course the heavens opened.

Jewellery Quarter Gems

Explorations of Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter in which we start with a traditional mild before veering onto the craft murk and Indian street food in railway arches.

The Chamberlain clock and the Rose Villa Tavern in the background

Our first point of call was the Rock & Roll Brewhouse, who had placed a giant Elvis cut-out in the entrance to distract me from taking pictures of shiny brewing kit.

 
Rock & Roll Brewhouse (19 Hall Street, Hockley, B18 6BS)
Up the stairs is a wonderful quirky bar, generally open a grand total of 10-hours a week on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon.
It's full of musical decorations, which shouldn't come as much surprise given the name.  We sat in an odd enclosed booth at the side, with gig tickets and posters on the wall, 7" singles stuck to the ceiling, and a repurposed drum as a table. 

There were three of their own brews on the bar, from which I picked a top-notch 'Voodoo Mild'.
I browsed the reading material and kept up-to-date with the latest music trends with the Melody Maker (May 23rd 1992, 65p).

That makes a change from the local CAMRA mag

Great pint of dark mild finished and the stage-diving great debate considered, it was time to move on to our next destination.
A short walk from the Rock n Rock brewery took us to the traditional environs of Black Country Ales' Jewellers Arms...

Jewellers Arms (23 Hockley Street, Birmingham, B18 6BW - web)

Black County Ales took over in 2017, adding their simple winning formula and picking up a  Birmingham CAMRA Pub of the Year award in 2021.
There's nothing not to like about it, except perhaps wishing there were a few more customers on our afternoon visit.  Fireplaces, red leather bench seating, fine carpet and an excellently kept pint of beer.   
My choice was a Muirhouse Brewery 'HDB' golden ale - not Scottish, as I'd originally guessed - but a Derbyshire brewer and a beer concocted for a charity football team.

Right - time to depart from the traditional pub and head to a bit of a hipster bar...

1000 Trades (16 Frederick Street, Hockley, B1 3HE - web)

The building was originally a jewellery workshop, until more recently it hosted a badge factory.  Now it's a neat bar with wooden floors and red brick walls, offering craft beer and displaying local art work.  The Roxy Music mural at the back was great.
My pick of the two cask beers had just gone off, so I veered to the keg 'Skywalker' NZ pale by Wye Valley.  Makes a change from Butty Bach.

We were unable to visit Burning Soul Brewery this time, on account of them being closed.  So instead, our search for local beers supped next to brewing kit took us down to the Utilita Arena, past the lego giraffe and into Somnar Brewery.

 

Somnar Brewing Company (Unit 3B, Birmingham Arena Canal Side, Birmingham, B1 2AA - web)
This was a long, narrow bar, high tables and artwork on one side, low tables and brewery equipment on the other.  The digital display advertised 17 draught beers (6 guests, the rest their own) and the thrill of seeing your Untappd check-in appear at the bottom of the screen.
I was pleased with my pick of a sensible strength, suitably murky, IPA.

June's shiny brewery equipment picture

We had time to fit in one more venue for the day before returning to Moor Street for our train home.  The Indian Brewery is somewhere that I've spotted before yet never made it to, so now seemed a good time for some food and drink in a railway arch.

Graffiti perhaps not 100% accurate in my case by this point in the day

Indian Brewery (Arch 16, Queensway Arches, 214 Livery Centre, Birmingham, B1 3EU - web)
The brewery itself is located nearby in Aston, with a decent selection of five of their beers available at Snow Hill, to suit differing tastes.  The dark stuff for me - a 'Shandon Stout', which would have benefited from being a couple of degrees warmer, in my humble opinion.

Long tables and benches are laid out through two arches, with a reasonable number of customers tucking into the food and drinks.  The trays of street food delivered to our table were delicious, bringing our day to a close (no room for any more beer afterwards...).

Now I just need to make a return trip and tick off Burning Soul Brewery. 

Bearwood

One of the things I enjoy about picking destinations out the Good Beer Guide is that it takes me to places that I'd be unlikely to otherwise travel to.
The suburb of Bearwood, 3-miles east of Birmingham, being a case-in-point.

It's not a tourist hot-spot, although it does have a British pop claim-to-fame in being where Fleetwood Mac member Christine McVie grew up.
She would have been around in the time that high streets actually had banks.  Bearwood High Street has a grand, empty, building where Lloyds used to be, and the old Midland bank converted into an ale house...

The Midland (526-528 Bearwood Road, Bearwood, Birmingham, B66 4BE - web)
It's an appealing and impressive pub conversion.
A high ceiling, grand mahogany bar back with a clock at it's peak, posh drapes on the windows, some burgundy leather bench seating and a proper pub carpet.

I perused the long line of pump clips along the bar (12!) trying to decide what I wanted, picking the Keltek 'Pilot Gig' based on it being advertised as 'Champion Cornish Porter, Falmouth 2019'. 
The handful of lunchtime customers were all regulars, the staff knowing which beer to pour them without having to ask.  All eyes were on the cricket on the TV screen.

We settled in the corner next to a glass screen revealing the cellar, our soundtrack an 80's music mix taking us through Culture Club's 'Karma Chameleon', 99 Red Balloons and Squeeze, amongst others.

The old safe door at the Midland

Finishing our drinks at the Midland, we only had a couple of minutes walk down the road to reach the next pub.
A "busy community local" run by Greene King, according to the Guide.  Uh-oh.

The Bear Tavern (500 Bearwood Road, Bearwood, Birmingham, B66 4BX - web)
The Bear is an imposing pub on a crossroads where Bearwood Road meets Three Shire Oak Road.  It has a rather dull lower half in need of a lick of paint, but a superb clock tower with ornamental stone bears poking out from it.

Mrs PropUptheBar's reservations - "I aint' drinkin' no Greene King IPA" - were cast aside when we were confronted by a big board of Lilley's pump clips and an improbable amount of boxes of fruity cider stacked at the end of the bar.  Fruity cider-fest ahoy!
On the ale front, there were four pump clips including a GK jubilee special and Oakham 'Citra'.  I chose a Slater's 'Haka', a little worried it was so hidden behind the cider board that no-one would have been drinking it.  But it was on great form - a lovely beer.

The WC included a squirty smelly thing on which a battle of the football club stickers was taking place.
Small Heath Alliance coming out on top over Birmingham City there...

The pub itself is large, with multiple areas located around a central bar, including a couple of pool tables and some outdoor seating.
It seemed to be appealing to a wide range of folk and wasn't doing a bad trade early in the day.  

Back in the 80's the Bear hosted a comedy night run by local funnyman Frank Skinner, which attracted a number of comedians who went on to become TV regulars.
And 70's gigs included Thin Lizzy and an early incarnation of Brummie metallers Judas Priest.

On our first walk along Bearwood High Street we'd spotted the shuttered frontage of the Craft Inn.  Mrs PropUptheBar insisted it was worth hanging around until opening time so she could be placated with her weekend dose of craft murk.

But what to do while we waited until the Craft Inn to open?

We headed to a giant corner pub that we'd seen from the bus, just beyond the end of the High Street and across the local border into Harborne.
The pub sign advertises that it was established in 1898.  Although the fact that it calls itself a Pub and Indian Grill ('Pub-Grills-Curry-Sky') suggests it's changed a fair bit since then.

Kings Head (Hagley Road, Harborne, Birmingham, B17 8BJ)
The first challenge was finding the way in, which turned out to be via the car park through the back.  It's a huge place with multiple rooms, the tempting smells of Maharaja's Spice Express wafting through the air, and dubious pop videos on enormous screens.
They did have a cask ale on the bar - Wye Valley 'Butty Bach', which I initially thought was past it's best, although it began to improve after a few sips.

Not much of the 19th century pub left...

Except for these great tiles on the staircase...

Having passed enough time for the Craft Inn to open, we ambled back up the street and found the shutters raised and half a dozen folk within.
It dawned that the name and black & white signage was familiar and that this was connected to the bar in Worcester opposite Foregate Street. 

Opportunity to live above the craft bar

Craft Inn (608 Bearwood Road, Bearwood, Birmingham, B66 4BW - web)
High stools.  Odd lighting.  Old keg fonts stuck on one wall...
...a digital beer display where your Untappd check-in appears at the bottom.
This is every bit your craft beer micro.

Mrs PropUptheBar had something horrific sounding called 'Foam Raspberry Prawn Milkshake Pale', then announced we were going to 'tick' all the locations in this small chain.

Foam Raspberry Prawn Milkshake!!!?  
Honestly.
"Do you have Bass?"

Having visited four venues in Bearwood - all in a handy straight line down the main street - we headed back to the bus stop.
We were on our way to the Jewellery Quarter and another Black Country Ales pub - more waffle about that in the next post.

Bromsgrove Pub Explorations

More Worcestershire pub ticking, this time heading toward the north of the county for my first excursion to the town of Bromsgrove.
There was a lot of walking involved, the first clue being the rail station being in the middle of a housing estate and a sign telling me the centre was 1½ miles away.
But before hitting the centre, I walked SE on an unexciting route through the suburb of South Heath, aiming for an edge of town road junction with a pub on it.

Hanbury Turn (44 Hanbury Road, Stoke Heath, B60 4LU - web)
This corner pub has had various other names and incarnations prior to being refurbished and reopened by Black Country Ales in 2020.
Thankfully 'refurbished', in the world of Black Country Ales, means giving it a trad pub makeover with a proper patterned pub carpet and not a lick of pastel-shade paint in sight.

The Hanbury Turn is a spacious place.  There were the usual BCA beers on the bar, plus guest beers raising the choice to 10.  Being out of town, I can't help but wonder where everyone comes from to drink these.
That said, my Heritage Brewing Company 'St Modwen' golden ale was in superb form - an exceptionally good pint.

I sat in a quiet corner, with the Eurythmics and Levellers, part of an 80's and 90's lunchtime mega mix,  sound-tracking my pint and cob.

Leaving the Hanbury Turn, it was about time I found my way to the centre of Bromsgrove - more treading the pavements for a 1.6 mile walk.

On the High Street, and looking rather splendid I thought, was Wetherspoon's...

Golden Cross Hotel (20 High Street, Bromsgrove, B61 8HH - web)
It's not quite as authentic an old coaching inn as it appears, having been rebuilt in 1932. Inside it's unmistakably 'Spoons, with a wide open space on two levels, the bar along one side and booth seating along the other.

There was a table by a pillar set up with a display of malts and hops, old pump clips and a poster of real ale events, making their bid to maintain a place in the 2023 beer guide.  The Golden Cross had recently hosted a tap takeover by Printworks Brewery, from Lye in the Black Country.  (I say tap takeover, but I'm sure they didn't get to take over the Doom Bar and Ruddles taps).  I did enjoy my Printworks 'Geneva', a fruity, dry hopped IPA.

All your favourites

Backtracking on myself a little, I visited the town's micropub, which is rather a dull converted modern shop unit from the outside...

Little Ale House (21 Worcester Road, Bromsgrove, B61 7DL)
Inside, it's of the traditional micro variety, with elevated bench seating along the side wall.
Two real ales were on offer on my visit, a Wye Valley 'Butty Bach' and, my pick, a Mobberley Brew House 'Black Pear'.

I tried to get a picture of the interior of the Little Ale House, I really did.  But there never seemed to be a moment when a suspicious local wasn't keeping a beady eye on me - checking that I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, like photographing stuff.
So, here's a picture a leaf blower in the corner instead...

It's not going to win pub photo of the year, is it?

Just one more pint planned for the day, and this one involved another walk beyond the boundaries of Bromsgrove to the Cross at Finstall.

Cross Inn (34 Alcester Road, Finstall, B60 1EW - web)
Black Country Ales - them again!  (I will complete the whole chain eventually).
Which means another hefty beer list displayed on a screen above the bar.  This time the digital list came in handy as there were a fair number of folk propping up the bar and getting in the way of the hand pumps.

In fact, it was doing a great trade for a weekday pre-5pm.  Lots of punters making the most of the sunshine in the garden, plus a good number inside in this comfy, no-nonsense boozer, which regularly wins the local CAMRA branch pub of the year award.

I took a fine pint of Salopian ale to a seat by the side, the sunlight beaming in the windows.
And found the corner of the pub where they keep all the lost pub ticker mascots...