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Chat about:
Pub Of The Month - 2024 with Mobyduck
on the Pub Forum
Detail Pages
Beer Shop, St Albans Central, St. Albans
St. Albans
AL1 1LN
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7 of 10) see review guidelines
Blue Scrumpy left this review about Beer Shop
The name for this place speaks for itself. It's a simple shop surrounded by fridges full of cans and bottles and with a small bar at the rear serving 10 beers from taps on the far right-hand wall.
One of the beers available for our Friday afternoon visit was a cask ale, which was Beak Lulla. Craft beers were Gravity Well Novikov Principle, Pastore Big Easy Banana Pastry Sour, Cloudwater Chubbles 2024 & Chubbles Enhanced, Baron Fill Your Boots, Staggeringly Good Cocoadoca, Boon 2-Year Unblinded Oude Lambiek & Rivington I Wear Suits Now.
My drinking partner and I both had the Lulla, which was very tasty for such a low-ABV beer (3.4%), but was served a little too cold for my liking.
As you would expect, staff were very knowledgeable about their beer selection. There was one other drinker there when we arrived and somebody else came in to pick up a couple of boxes of pre-ordered Tring beers. With just a single table, which could probably accommodate 8-10 people, in the centre of the room, this is probably not the sort of place where you would want to spend hours. However, for a brief stop when touring some of the local pubs, it's well worth a visit.
On 5th May 2024
- rating: 6
[User has posted 2501 recommendations about 2500 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Aqualung . left this review about The Beer Shop
As noted below this is one of those micropubs that is little more than an off licence. There are some stools by some of the shelves but if they are in use it must just obstruct people searching for off sales. The makeshift set up of a few casks by the window is still there and provided welcome seating. On my early Saturday afternoon visit I was the only one not getting take outs.
The beer is served on the far right from taps coming out of the wall of I assume a cooled cellar. I think there was around seven but it was a bit congested with people getting off sales. They can't afford to get too busy here as they don't even have a proper glass washer.
I noted two from Redwillow, a Siren beer and the Arbor Why Kick a Moo Cow (£4.10) which was expensive for a micropub and somewhat cloudy but tasted good. I had a brief glance at the bottles and a litre bottle of 10.7% Imperial Stout caught my eye but it was priced at twelve quid!
With the cloudy expensive pint I wouldn't rate this higher than five as a pub but as an off licence I would rate it at nine. I wouldn't take the average as it is 90% off licence in my book so I'll leave it as unrated.
On 4th January 2016
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 2143 recommendations about 2143 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about The Beer Shop
A specialist beer offy with on-sales license which opened in 2013. There is no proper seating area or anything like that (though there are a small number of beer barrels with cushions by the door). No drinks allowed outside either, though they are planning on getting a licence to allow this. Five on, coming out of a tiled wall; Willow Shameless, Tring Kotuku, Hamerton N7, Leighton Buzzard Centennial and Northern Monk True North (good). Heat-based scratchings and biltong available. Take outs are obviously available. Tough to rate as it isn’t a pub in the regular sense (and barely even a micropub) but the selection of beers make it worth taking in when quiet.
On 1st August 2015
- rating: 7
[User has posted 5108 recommendations about 5091 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Real Ale Ray left this review about The Beer Shop
We managed to grab a quick half each, when diverting from our main PG crawl route and what a decent little wildcard visit it turned out to be. I went for the Tring Brewery Kotuku, which was a fresh and flavoursome beer. The owner also informed us that, you can try any bottled beer for a 50p corkage cost. A great place, so defo worth a visit.
On 23rd July 2015
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3382 recommendations about 3381 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Bucking Fastard left this review about The Beer Shop
This off licence,which has been around since 2013, now hits the criteria for a micro pub.The walls are covered with shelving for bottled beers and there is also a central column with even more shelving.At the rear is a small bar with 5 wall mounted taps for draught real ale which on my trip was Tring Kotuku,Leighton Buzzard Centenial IPA Hammerton N7,Northern Monk Pale Ale and RedWillow Shameless .That's quite a line up with some interesting high ABV brews and well respected micros which would tempt me back again.The bottle selection is also well sourced featuring some outstanding brewers such as Siren Craft and Marble,and chatting to the owner it is clear that he will always seek out the very best on offer.US brewers and some continental beers also feature.
There are two upturned kegs and polypins as seating ,and a licence has been applied for to use the small front coutyard as external seating,which in time will give the place a more pubby feel.
The welcome was friendly and knowledgeable with lots of beer related chat.I liked it ,and can see it one day featuring in the GBG.Make the effort to pop in during any crawl of the city centre establishments.
On 22nd July 2015
- rating: 8
[User has posted 2737 recommendations about 2737 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about The Beer Shop
The Beer Shop is best described a bottle shop and Micro Pub,there is an extensive range of bottled beer available to take away at very reasonable prices, set out on numerous shelves by brewery and or country. There is also four changing cask beers
dispensed by way of wall mounted taps available for consumption in the shop itself, my Red Willow Shameless was top notch. A nice and interesting place.
On 20th July 2015
- rating: 7
[User has posted 1879 recommendations about 1852 pubs]