Kidderminster Micro Pub Magic

August Bank Holiday Sunday.  
Had things panned out a little differently in 2020, I'd have been standing in a field, watching some noisy bands, at Reading music festival.
But I wasn't.
I was in Kidderminster.

And this was the closest I was getting to Rage Against the Machine...

Possible Rage Against the Machine cover band.

Kidderminster does have a music trail to follow - some plinths in the shopping streets, resembling stacks of vinyl, with facts about local music history. 
Original hometown of Led Zep frontman Robert Plant, don't ya know (I didn't).
But I had to accept today wasn't a rock n roll day - we were here for the micro pubs.

It didn't seem the most enticing place, as we wandered through the grim underpass on the way from the station to the centre, the streets deserted prior to the shops opening.
I set out to find the prettiest bits...

I did enjoy the walk along the canal, where there are remnants of the town's industrial heritage, including buildings incorporated into the smart modern Weavers shopping centre.
The clock had hit 12 noon - time to head to the first pub of the day...

The Bear & Wolf (11-17 Worcester Street, Kidderminster, DY10 1EA)
This is a relatively new venture, opened in December 2019.  Whilst not looking huge from the outside, it's spacious within, containing a variety of seating arranged in an L-shape around the bar.

The beer selection was good, featuring brews from the likes of Salopian and Bristol Beer Factory.
Fixed Wheel's 'King Kelly' drew me in with it's football-orientated pump clip, and was something of an oddity, being a stout loaded with tons of extra hops.
Perusing the craft can list, I spotted the Weird Beard 'F@#k you I won't brew what you tell me'.
Okay, so I'm missing out on shouting along to that sweary line at Reading. 
But at least I ended up with a rock 'n' roll craft can...

Buying it got me chatting music with the friendly landlord, after which the playlist in the pub got a little bit crunchier and rockier.  Either a really nice touch, or just coincidence.

We had a traditional boozer lined up to follow the Bear and Wolf, and it was a mere couple of minutes walk around the corner...

Olde Seven Stars (13-14 Coventry Street, Kidderminster, DY10 2BG)
I'm afraid I really don't think we were seeing this place at it's best.  Other than us, there were just a couple of solitary drinkers sat in the pub on Sunday lunchtime, so it wasn't a hive of activity or full of atmosphere.
I rather think my pint of Bass was the first poured of the day.  Something didn't taste quite right about this, and it wasn't a patch on the pint sunk in the Plymouth's Dolphin a couple of weeks ago.

Nice beer mat display.

The other central micro pub (the Beer Emporium) wasn't due to open until 3pm, so we back-tracked on ourselves, returning to the train station.

The Railway Bell, pretty much directly opposite the station, is the real looker - a stand-out Victorian inn, majestic in the sunshine, but failing to entice me with it's Marston's ales.
The Station Inn, meanwhile, is situated just around the corner on a side street where you wouldn't find it unless you were looking for it.

The Station Inn (7 Farfield, Kidderminster, DY10 1UG)

We were hungry, but were told that we couldn't eat unless we'd booked.  Not sure why, as there were plenty of available tables, but I got the gist that they'd only cooked enough for bookings.
I grabbed a half of Enville Ale, just to claim the pub tick.
Mrs PropUptheBar insisted we sit far away from the smells cruelly wafting out of the kitchen and that I drink up quickly so we could find somewhere that wanted to sell us Sunday lunch.

We were aiming for an interesting looking pub in the Severn Valley railway terminus.

King & Castle (Comberton Hill, Kidderminster, DY10 1QX)
The goal of getting food was achieved in the King & Castle, who serve Sunday dinner within a giant Yorkshire pudding.  Result!

I ordered a "Pint of Bewdley Stout and a half of the Oldfield's cider."
What we got was a solitary pint of cider - the central seven words of the order being deemed inconsequential.
It was put right, with a friendly apology.
But our success rate this weekend anywhere there was table-service was abysmal. 

The pub is pretty fantastic.  The interior is what you'd expect from a station bar - nice tiled flooring, tall ceilings, railway memorabilia.  Extending outside, there are lots more tables under the glass canopies leading to the platforms - a wonderful spot to eat and drink.

Train station pubbing.

Fed and watered, and having poked our head around the small railway museum, we strolled a short way back down the hill to our second micro pub.

It's located in a retail unit beneath some modern flats and doesn't look especially enticing from outside.

Weavers Real Ale House (98 Comberton Hill, Kidderminster, DY10 1QH)
Having passed by earlier when it was closed, I figured from the door that this may be a really small place.  But the doorway leads to pretty sizable, characterful interior with plenty of tables.
Despite a number of micro breweries in the selection of 8 beers on the bar, 'Proper Job' seemed to be the big seller whilst we were visiting.  At least there was plenty of cask being drunk.
Bucking the trend, I went for the local Pig Iron 'Unbeweavable', before venturing into the very reasonably priced craft keg choices.  The Nothing Bound Brewery 'Stubborn Beast' was a lovely tipple.

Great beers, great cheese board, great pub!

We now just had one final micro pub to tackle, located back through the underpass again, toward the town centre.
It's another that falls into the 'nicer inside than out' category.

Frankly, not the prettiest pub featured on the blog.

Beer Emporium (Oxford Street, Kidderminster, DY10 1AR)
It was three-out-of-three for fantastic micros today.
The Beer Emporium was the one that veered closest to the traditional micro pub definition, mainly due to the owners hanging out with the punters, making conversation and fetching drinks orders from a small room to the rear.
A blackboard advertised 3 cask ales, 4 keg lines and 5 ciders and perries.  And if none of those took your fancy, the fridges were full of cracking bottles from around the globe.

I went for the quite foolish 9.5% 'Hop City 2020', brewed by Northern Monk, which was an absolutely delicious imperial IPA, lots going on taste-wise, before a resinous finish.

We'd managed to visit all the 2020 Good Beer Guide venues in Kidderminster during the day.  We'd passed by several other pubs - including a couple of recent guide entries - that looked well worth a visit too. 
Sadly I can't do 'em all.  Not in one afternoon, incorporating  9.5% craft beers, anyway.