The Black Swan, Warrington

Now five hand pulls at the bar, offering Doom Bar, TT Landlord, Dunham Big Tree and Lymm Bridgewater Blonde. One was off due to conditioning but the label suggested this would also be TT Landlord. All back to normal now - head to the bar, order, pay, clear off with your drink. The large beer garden and green area is a massive bonus for the Black Swan and is very pleasant when the sun is out.

First visit to a pub following the great lockdown of 2020. We were sat in the beer garden where there are notices to place your order by text, with a mobile number given. All well and good if you know what you want, but sometimes you need to see what's available, especially when the pub has rotating real ales. I was apprehended when trying to enter the pub to have a nosey at the bar but I was allowed to pass to see what was available, and then I had to go back outside to place my order. To be fair the ordering process worked, you text your order, it comes out a short while later with the card reader for you to pay by contactless. Cash, from what I can gather, is not being accepted. I wonder if the Black Swan have now cut ties with Robinsons, as there were three real ales on and none of them were from Robinsons, which in my opinion is a step in the right direction. They had Cheshire IPA by Dunham Massey, Bridgewater Blonde by Lymm Brewing and Cheshire Cat by Weetwood. Nothing outrageously exciting but better than the line up on previous visits. The Bridgewater Blonde was £3.55 a pint, so I assume the others would have been about that mark too. All in all this was a bit of a strange experience, I assume you must be able to sit inside if you have booked but when I stuck my head in to look what was available at the bar it seemed to be dead inside. Other than a makeshift one way system to the back door, there didn't seem to be any enforced social distancing outside, the play area was open for business and there weren't any long lists of rules and regulations on display. Strange times we live in.