Leicester Pub Crawl

August Bank Holiday weekend found us in Leicester.

Put on the map for some by the Foxes Premier League trophy and indie rockers Kasabian...

But really made famous by Gary Lineker and Showaddywaddy.

Fresh off the train, we headed to the Ale Wagon for a lunchtime pint.

Ale Wagon (27 Rutland Street, Leicester, LE1 1RE)
What a great place to start.
Sitting on the street corner, this was originally the Queens Hotel before being taken over by Hoskins & Oldfield brewery in 1999 and being renamed the Ale Wagon.
It seems there was always a plan to produce Hoskins beers on-site, which may explain the random bit of brewing equipment in the corner of the main bar.  As it is, the beer is contract brewed by Belvior.

I was a bit stuck to know which of those beers to pick, with four Hoskins ales on cask, as well as some good looking guest beers and kegs.  I opted for the 'HOB', which was exactly the kind of quaffable, foamy best bitter I was looking for - good stuff.

The main bar is charming in its simplicity.  Just a great unspoilt town boozer, with a handful of early-doors customers on the ales and a fine soundtrack of 70's rock and soul classics.

So, a fine pint of good old traditional best bitter to start the day.
How long could I keep Mrs PropUptheBar in the proper pubs and away from the craft ales?

Not long.

Brewdog (8 Friar Lane, Leicester, LE1 5RA - web)
MrsPropUptheBar was enticed by Brewdog on two fronts...
1. The chance to get some decent grub, thus discharging her responsibilities of making sure we eat and not try to sustain ourselves all day on marshmallow stout.
2. The 'new brewery showcase' which she'd spotted on Untappd, thereby offering some lesser seen craft ales and delaying the time before she'd have to have an Everards Tiger.

The striking red-brick building was formerly offices before becoming the unappealingly named Varsity, a Banks's bar in 1997.   It's been part of the Brewdog empire since 2015 and has everything you'd expect from the chain - industrial style decor, video games, decent soundtrack of alternative music, and the billboard listing a long choice of beers.

More crafty murk was to be found a few minutes walk away at the.. 

Two Tailed Lion (22 Millstone Lane, Leicester, LE1 5JN - web).
A wine bar in a previous incarnation, this place has a few swanky modern touches, like the planters above the leather seating under a skylight to the rear.  But also the simplicity of a basic pub.  
Great friendly barman - extra points to him for popping over to the table to ask how the beers were and having a general chat about Leicester pubs.

A few doors down the road is somewhere that seems oft cited as being the essential real ale stop in the city.

The Blue Boar (16 Millstone Lane, Leicester, LE1 5JN - web)
They certainly didn't disappoint with the beer choice - with an enticing row of hand-pumps tempting us with offerings from Titanic, Beowulf, Shiny, Twisted Wheel and more.
Opened in 2016, the pub consists of a single, comfortable room, with the cellar visible behind a glass door at the back of the bar.  They were doing a good trade on a Saturday afternoon with all tables full of cheery folk, leaving us to stand at the large barrels where it's happily easy to get drawn into conversation with fellow drinkers.
Great beers, good atmosphere, friendly folk - this is the kind of pub that most of us would like to have as a local.

Probably not the best picture you'll ever see of The Blue Boar, Leicester

Leicester was home to me as a moody, troublesome teenager, so this weekend's visit comes with a touch of nostalgia.  It's been many years since I paid it a visit, so I ambled around pointing out all the changes.

"Oooo, that's new!"
It's not.  It's the cathedral.  An eighteen year old me barely noted the historical bit of town as I hopped off the bus and straight into the record store.

Sadly all of my favourite pubs are long gone.
So long, the Pump & Tap, the fantastically crusty Magazine, the Fourpence and Firkin...
And the Princess Charlotte, where I watched so many great bands in the back room, now a Chinese supermarket...

Already on a sad demise when they axed 'Princess' from the name

Mid-afternoon, we made a walk to check into our hotel, then made our way just to the SW of town and Braunstone Gate where a couple of beer guide pubs were situated.

The Black Horse (1 Foxton Street, Leicester, LE3 5LT)
This Everards pub is gorgeous inside - a traditional pub with lots of light wood, brewery mirrors and clocks on the walls.
But oh so quiet.
We interrupted the girl behind the bar from her weighty paperback, then took our beers - a rather tired Everards 'Old Original' for me - into the front room where we had the pick of the tables.
I guess Saturday afternoon isn't the best time to judge the Black Horse.

There were more signs of life just around the corner in the West End Brewery where, in contrast, we just managed to grab the last table.

West End Brewery (68-70 Braunstone Gate, Leicester, LE3 5LG - web)
MrsPropUptheBar is always recommending I drink halves on these pub crawls.  But I don't think she means half of each of the beers available on the bar.
In proper beer-ticking geekery mode, I asked for halves of the 'West Coast IPA', 'Bowstring Bridge' bitter and 'West End Stout'.
I enjoyed 'em all.   
The West End Brewery was a thoroughly comfortable and pleasant place, with a nice buzz to it. 

Earlier on, in the Two Tailed Lion, we'd learnt that there was a craft beer festival in the centre of town.
Free-of-charge as well, so we figured we'd poke our heads in to Brew Beat.

They had a list of some 80 keg beers, with around 30ish of these available at one time.
The half-poured cups under the beer taps indicated that the vast majority were a shade of murky blonde, so I scoured the list for one of the few dark brews, 'Vertical Stout' by Love Lane Brewery.  Packed to the rafters with coffee beans - that should keep me awake a bit longer.

We had one more pub to head to in the centre of town, tucked in the side streets between the shopping emporiums and bus station.  

The Salmon (19 Butt Close Lane, Leicester, LE1 4QA - web)
I do like a Black Country Ales pub.
I've yet to find one that doesn't have a great pubby feel to it and a good bunch of customers and staff, this being no exception.

You'd think with 12 beer lines that we'd be able to pick the ideal beer but, perhaps proving that too much choice isn't always a good thing, we both managed to choose beers that we weren't especially enamored by.
Nothing wrong with the quality - for me it was a pale ale that was far too flowery and floral for my taste.  That'll teach me to pick the beers I've never heard of.  Except it won't. 

We'd reached the point in the evening that it was advisable to head back to the hotel and get a good nights sleep.
So that's what we did, via a quick foolhardy stop for a half in the Sir Robert Peel en-route.
The next day would bring more opportunities to explore Leicester, all of which I'll write-up in the next post.