The outlook for Birmingham, is mild

Three of the six pubs I visited in Birmingham last Friday had mild ale on sale. It was dark mild as well, and what's more it was the cask-conditioned version too. So, three different pubs and mild from three different breweries, each dark and distinctive in its own way. Drinking this dark, mellow, and rather tasty beer, was a rare treat, as we never see cask mild in Kent or indeed anywhere in the south east. We might occasionally see keg mild, but it's still very much the exception.

Each of the milds I enjoyed last Friday we're of the highest standard, being well-conditioned and keenly priced as well, and the fact it was being stocked at all, bodes well for the future of what was once a very common style of beer. This is despite the many threats facing mild ale, although contrary to the rest of the UK, Birmingham and the West Midlands have always been a haven for this once popular beer style.

My first beer on arriving in Birmingham was a well-earned pint of Hobson’s Champion, a 3.2% abv dark and “nutty” mild. The pub where I enjoyed this beer was the Post Office Vaults, a subterranean bar reached from the street by a flight of steep descending steps. Below ground, this opens out into a long bar with tables and chairs at either end.

 

Described as "Birmingham’s premier, specialist beer bar," the POV stocks beers from Belgium, Germany, France, Norway, Holland, Austria, and the USA, alongside a range of up to eight cask ales, micro-breweries around the UK. We received a warm welcome from the two girls behind the bar, and given the range of beers available, it was a shame we couldn’t stop longer, but needs must, and after a quick catch-up with my fellow pub explorers it was time to head off to sample a few of Birmingham’s finest.

Traditional Mild was also available in the second pub of the day, which was the Queen's Head, a modernised, terrace pub in the Colmore district of town, and just a stone’s throw from Birmingham’s imposing town hall.  The pub had a bright and well-lit interior which was enhanced by the use of reflective, metallic tiling around the bar, off-set by some much darker tiles in other areas. There was a warm and welcoming feel about the place, which translated into large numbers of office workers enjoying a lunchtime pint, along with a bite to eat. (The food looked good, btw!)

The Queen's Head is owned by Davenport’s Brewery, a name that some of us remember from the 1970s. No one seemed quite sure when the original brewery closed or even when it reopened, but when I lived in Manchester, during the mid-1970’s, Davenport’s distinctive delivery vans were a familiar sight on the city’s streets, offering the company’s unique, “Beer at Home” bottled beer service for those unwilling, or unable to venture out to the pub.

A spot of online research revealed that the Davenport's Bath Row brewery ceased production in 1986. After its closure, the company was bought by the Highgate Brewery of Walsall, who brought the Davenport’s name back to life. Sadly, this revival was short-lived as Highgate itself went into liquidation after a failed attempt by two property developers to rescue the brewery.  The company along with the Davenport’s beer brands and recipes, ended up in the hands of Smethwick-based pub branch company, Global Star.

The revived Davenport’s name along with its beers, is now, once again, a familiar sight in the West Midlands, and for someone like me, who is interested in brewery history, it was great to enjoy a few of these beers once again, on their home turf. There were four, Davenport’s cask ales on sale at the Queen’s Head, CB Original Bitter, IPA, Gold Ale, plus a traditional dark mild. All four ales had their own, distinctive, retro pump clip, and the 3.5% abv mild was especially good. I also tried a half of CB Original Bitter, for comparison/nostalgia reasons.

The next, and the final mild ale pub, was actually No. 4 on our guide (LAF)’s list, but No. 5 if you count the rather strange Big Smoke Bar. Stafford Paul and I swerved that one, after departing the Barton’s Arms slightly later than the rest of the group. We didn’t miss much, by all accounts, not unless Shisha and fortified Jamaican wine are your recreational drugs of choice!  We stuck our heads through the door, in passing, but only to confirm we’d made a wise decision in giving that particular pub a miss.

Instead, we carried on, along the busy urban, dual-carriage way back towards the city centre, before crossing to pub No. 4, which was the Bull. As we walked across the car park behind the pub, the rain started, and didn’t stop until I was safely back at Moor Street station, several hours later. 

We made our way inside this classic, Birmingham street-corner pub, glad to have escaped the rain, and feasted our eyes on the interior of this popular backstreet local. The Bull is one of the oldest pubs in Birmingham and has a snug, comfortable and homely feel to it. There are two distinct drinking areas surround a U-shaped bar with a smaller back room for more privacy. A collection of over 300 ceramic and porcelain jugs adorns the ceiling, along with a number of old pictures and memorabilia.

There was also a good choice of cask ale, with beers from Hook Norton (Old Hooky), Oakham (Citra), and Church End Brewery available. The 3.8% Grave Digger’s Mild, from the latter company, was my choice, and it turned out to be the best pint of mild of the day, and possibly the best pint overall. Paul and I hadn’t been at the Bull long, before the rest of the group arrived, and they were as equally enamoured of the Bull as we were. The pub was definitely a nice place to while away a rainy afternoon, but there were at least two more pubs to visit of LAF’s itinerary, and possibly more.

We will leave those pubs for another day, as this article is supposed to be about mild. I must admit, that despite Birmingham being a enclave for the style, I still didn’t expect to find it on sale at three of the six pubs we visited, and for it to be in such good condition. It was keenly priced as well, with the Grave Digger’s Mild retailing at just £4.20 a pint, at the Bull. So, if you are someone with a craving for this increasingly rare style of beer, you know where to head for, and even if mild is not your tipple, I’m sure you will find some of the other beers to your taste, alongside some of the finest pubs in the land.

A grand day out in Brum

Last Friday’s meetup in Birmingham, with a handful of "hard-core" members of the Beer & Pubs Forum, represented my first proper pub-crawl/drinking tour of Brum, and it also proved the perfect introduction. I had, of course, been to Britain’s second city a number of times, but those visits were primarily for business reasons, courses (again work-related), or for the purpose of changing trains – most recently, B&P Forum trips to Shifnal and Burton. I intend to provide a more in-depth report, in due course, but for the moment, here is a brief synopsis.

I travelled to Birmingham, by train, making use of Chiltern Rail’s service from London Marylebone to Birmingham Moor Street station. The route is slower than that operated by Avanti West Coast, but given the latter company’s recent track record, plus the limited availability of Advanced tickets, travelling by Chiltern Rail is a much more pleasant experience.  As this particular route passes through the Chiltern Hills, and calls at towns such as High Wycombe, Banbury and Leamington Spa, the scenery too is an improvement on the more direct line from Euston. There was also some rather posh-looking new, rolling stock, om the outward journey, at least.

I booked my return ticket, via the MyTrainTicket website, using Advanced Single tickets for the outward and return legs of the journey. Taking advantage of the discount afforded by my Senior Rail Card, the cost of the return journey was £21.40! There was an additional booking fee of £1.50 but given the cost of my cut price return ticket from Tonbridge, the booking fee was small beer – if you’ll pardon the pun. I used the same website, a fortnight previously, for my return trip to Norwich, and I can highly recommend this user-friendly site.

Five hardy souls, including yours truly, participated on the trip, although we were joined by a sixth member, at the penultimate pub. The itinerary was organised by local legend LAF – Life After Football, a man whose knowledge of good, basic, and down to earth Midland boozers, is second to none. Also present was Stafford Paul, another pub man, and someone who is a connoisseur of unspoilt, traditional pubs, going back over several decades. 

Pub-ticking legend, and recent Good Beer Guide completist, Retired Martin, needs no further introduction, apart from saying he has probably visited more UK pubs than the rest of us put together. Nick C. was the other member of the group, although we were joined later in the day by Leon. We met up, as arranged, at the Post Office Vaults, an underground bar, as its name suggests, and one where I found the unassuming entrance door to this subterranean bar, quite by accident.

I will go through the pubs in greater detail in a subsequent post, so in this brief introduction I shall pick out a few highlights, as well as making the odd generalisation.  The first point to grasp is that unlike in the south east, mild ale was widely available in Birmingham, and in the majority of cases it was cask mild as well! I had some superb examples of the style from Hobson’s, Davenport’s, and Church End.

We visited two fine, but contrasting examples of traditional pubs, ranging from the comfortable, cosy, and homely Bull, a multi-roomed pub, sited on a street corner, to a massive pub, built to impress. This was the legendary Barton’s Arms, which is one of the finest examples of Victorian pub architecture and one of the most beautiful pub interiors in the country. The latter was the only pub of the six visited, that I’d been to before, and it didn’t disappoint.

There was an interesting choice of food too, with the aforementioned Barton’s offering a selection of tasty, well-presented, and good value Thai cuisine. Keeping with the Asian theme, the Hen & Chickens, in Birmingham’s famous Jewellery Quarter, offers some of the best Indian desi food and mixed grills in the city. Most of the group ate at the Barton’s, but possibly because he had insider information LAF saved his hunger for the Hen & Chickens, where his chicken Balti meal, served up with plenty of hot naan bread, had us all drooling, despite having already eaten.

The final pub on the tour was definitely the most quirky, but none the worst for that. With its bar situated on the first floor, above the brewery, the Rock & Roll Brewhouse offered three cask ales all brewed on site. On an increasingly damp Friday afternoon, this comfortable taproom situated just below the roof girders, offered the perfect escape from the heavy rain outside.

Apart from the Barton’s, which is situated to the north east of central Birmingham, in the district of Aston, the Rock & Roll Brewhouse was the furthest pub from the city centre, and this was reflected by the walk back to the station. Acting as our guide Retired Martin led us through a rather wet Jewellery Quarter. This was the only low point of the entire day, but special thanks are due to Martin and Stafford Paul for keeping me company on the way back into central Birmingham, and directing me to the two main railway stations. Thanks also to LAF for arranging the itinerary, keeping us roughly on track and for spoiling us with some superb examples of Birmingham's finest pubs. 

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Walter Hicks Special Draught - a real blast from the past

Two or three weeks ago, a beer which many local drinkers thought had actually been discontinued, received some unexpected publicity, on the social media pages of a well-known Tonbridge pub. Its appearance on the Nelson Arms’ website, and subsequent sampling by a number of local drinkers, including me, sparked a debate amongst members of our local WhatsApp group. The beer in question was Walter Hicks Special Draught – HSD for short, and it is described by the brewery as a “truly classic ale of considerable depth and complexity.” Some admirers go further by claiming that this 5% strong, cask ale is a suitable alternative to a well-rounded premium red wine and an obvious match with steaks and other red meat dishes.

Named after Cornishman Walter Hicks, who founded the St Austell Brewery in 1851, Hicks Special Draught is brewed with plenty of malt and large quantities of English Progress and Golding hops, Hicks is today, the oldest and most traditional of St Austell Brewery’s core beer range. So why did some of us think the beer had been discontinued?

The prime reason is that HSD is rarely seen outside of its Cornish heartland, unlike relative newcomers, Tribute and Proper Job. I first heard of the beer as student, when a friend and I spent a week’s holiday in Cornwall, at a caravan site on the edge of Perranporth. We were aware that St Austell were one of the few remaining independent brewers in the county, and on a previous visit my friend had come across an extra strong beer called Walter Hicks Special.

We didn’t realise initially that the latter was a St Austell beer, until we came across it at a local pub. There weren’t that many St Austell pubs in that part of northern Cornwall, as regional brewery Devenish, along with national brewers such as Courage and Whitbread controlled many of the local pubs. But after trying a few pints of HSD, we declared this full-bodied beer with its of hints of esters and fruity biscuit malt flavours, was one well worth seeking out.

That task wasn’t easily undertaken in the Greater Manchester area, where we were living and studying, and neither was it feasible in our respective home counties of Staffordshire and Kent. For this reason, HSD specifically and St Austell ales generally, fell totally off my radar. When Eileen and I opened our Off-Licence in 2001 and started serving real ale to take away by the pint, beers from St Austell occasionally featured on our list. This was primarily due to a beer distributor, known as the Beer Seller. One particular customer had lived in Cornwall for several years, and whilst discussing local beers, as we sometimes did, St Austell was one of the breweries whose name cropped up. Interestingly, my customer friend told me the beer used o be known in Cornwall, as “St Awful!”

Things of course changed with the arrival of Roger Ryman, as St Austell’s head brewer, in 1999. Until his untimely passing in 2020, following a brave battle with cancer, Roger oversaw significant modernisation and investment in the brewery which successfully combined the company’s pride in traditional values, with modern and efficient brewing methods. He left behind a legacy that continues at the company to this day. Over the two decades that followed his appointment, Roger and his brewing team played a leading role in the company’s growth and success. He was responsible for transforming St Austell Brewery’s portfolio of brands – including its three flagship beers: Tribute Pale Ale, Proper Job IPA, and Korev Cornish Lager, but little mention was made of the company’s most legendary ale, HSD, which was eclipsed by Tribute and Proper Job.

So, like several of my drinking friends, I was surprised to see its appearance on the Nelson Arms’ website. Of course, I had to pop along to the pub and give it a try, which I did on a rather wet and windy Easter Monday, where during a relaxing afternoon session, I enjoyed a couple of pints of this legendary beer. The first thing that struck me was its traditional brown colour, especially after becoming used to the pale coloured Tribute and Proper Job. Regardless of appearance, I enjoyed this strong and full-bodied Cornish ale, brimming with rich malt flavours, and bittered with plenty of traditional English Fuggles and Golding hops. I made mention of this on the WhatsApp group, which was where a comment came back from a friend that he found the beer a bit underwhelming and rather thin to what he’s remembered.

Various comments passed back and forth until one made by a local CAMRA member, who works in the hop industry explained that he’d heard Roger Ryman describe at a conference that, over the years, he had gradually updated all of the older St Austell recipes, by making them more hop-forward, in order to give then a more modern feel.  This would make sense, as well as accounting for the change in flavour and make up of HSD, that our other friend had noticed.

Nelson landlord Matt, had acquired several casks of HSD, and the beer is still shown as “on sale” on the Real Ale Finder App. Given the transport logistics between Cornwall and Kent, it made perfect sense for Matt to order a number of casks, and judging by the subsequent, and very positive feedback, it was a gamble well worth taking. Finally, for those of us who might not have tasted HSD for a long period of time, it afforded the perfect excuse of renewing our acquaintance with this, perhaps, slightly older style of cask beer, albeit with a more modern twist.