Worcester Pub Crawl Part 2

Picking up from where I left off on the last post...pub explorations around the city of Worcester were well and truly underway.

Earlier we'd found Arch Rivals shut, but glancing at their Facebook page there's an apology from the owner...

Faith in my opening times research is restored.

We made our way back, but were waylaid at another railway arch en-route.
A hairy bloke in a hat ushered us, shouting "best beer in Worcester".
I need little encouragement.

Worcester Brewing Company (Cherry Tree Walk, Worcester, WR1 3BH - fb)
This small brewery is located in a railway arch - you can't actually get into the brewery - you can just see a lot of cluttered equipment in the gloom behind the serving table at the front.
Three real ales were advertising, all poured direct from the barrel.  Two were guests from local brewers, whilst the '1651', a 5.1% English IPA was their own brew.
And I really liked it - a lovely tipple.
This was the only place in town that we made a repeat visit to during our stay - suckers that we are for sitting in the cold on picnic tables with plastic pint pots.

Aren't railway arches great.
Ideal for breweries, artisan bakers and dodgy garages run by Phil Mitchell.
And, in this case, a micro (sort of) pub...

Arch Rivals (4 Netheron Walk, Worcester, WR1 3AU - fb)
What a great place - good decorations, with a focus on vinyl LPs, and a display of their own merchandising. 
They had a 'Supersonic' lager from Wye Valley and the cask ale was Hartlebury Brewery's 'Rock 'n' Roll Star'.

Hang on, I'm spotting a theme here.

The 'Rock n Roll Star' was the only choice on cask on this visit, with several crafty kegs available alongside it.
A great bar - thank you for making it through the M5 traffic to open up whilst we were there!

The following day brought some blue sky and sunshine, a nice change from the inclement weather we'd had so far.
A chance to snap a picture of Friar Street, with it's Tudor buildings, and some blue sky. 

Later in the day and back on the trail of good pubs, we headed past Foregate Street to The Tything - a wide street with some fine buildings lining it.

Lamb & Flag (30 The Tything, Worcester, WR1 1JL)

This is described on WhatPub as a 'Worcester institution', although perhaps the qualities that make it so are less evident in these socially distanced times.

It's a narrow pub, with comfortable enough seating inside, but we joined most of the punters today in the back yard, drinking in the sunshine.
It's run by Two Crafty Brewers who are based in West Bromwich and whose 'American IPA' was the sole cask on offer when we arrived.

Just a short stroll back along The Tything is another of the current crop of Beer Guide listed pubs.

Dragon Inn (58 The Tything, Worcester, WR1 1JT - web)

Now I'm not one to grumble...    ha ha!  Yes I am, I'm a right miserable, grumbling bugger!

Six times during this Worcestershire trip we encountered pubs that insisted on table service only - no visiting the bar.
And at three of those six (50% - I've got my calculator out) we didn't get the right drinks.

At the Dragon, despite writing the order on a small pad, and talking to us about the beers on offer, we got the wrong sizes and have no idea what we ended up drinking - certainly not what we both ordered.

Which is a shame, as getting the wrong drinks is my abiding memory of the Dragon.
With a good range of Church End Brewery beers and a good feel to the place, this would probably be one of my favorite pubs of the weekend had we been able to go to bar, look at the beers and get served with what we actually wanted.

Back onto Friar Street, where we wanted to call into the olde-worlde King Charles II.

King Charles II (29 New Street, Worcester, WR1 2DP - web)
My tourist map of Worcester had lots of little battlefield symbols on it, this being the location of the final battles of the English Civil War.
There's plenty of pubs boasting Civil War connections, but this one has the pretty impressive claim-to-fame of being the house from which the King snuck out the back door, perhaps whilst the New Model Army were knocking at the front.

Good for a plaque on the front, a story like that...

It's a marvelous black and white fronted listed building, full of wooden beams and an historical feel inside.  We didn't explore much, just being happy to be able to get a table when the place was quite busy.  Shame, as they apparently have a dungeon and 'roller-coaster' uneven old boards on the first floor.  One to go back to, when I can poke my head around a bit better, I think.

And finally...

Oil Basin Brewhouse (7 Copenhagen Street, Worcester, WR1 2HB - lovely website)

This is home of the Wintrip Brewery, with the brewing kit being visible through a glass door at the back of the bar.
It's a simple, modern, moodily-lit bar, busy on our visit. Fortunately you're able to take drinks out to tables lining the pedestrian street outside, otherwise there would have been no space at the inn for us.
There was just the one cask available - the home brewed 'Butchers Beastly Best', which was a very drinkable, fine bitter.

Worcester exceeded my expectations for pubs and proved to be a good base for the weekend to explore the local area.
Another famous pub in the city, The Plough, was closed for some refurb work during our visit, but is, I believe, open again now.

I'll need a break from the ale for a short while, before getting back on the train and visiting the next station on the Cotswold Line, Pershore.