Shrewsbury Arms, Stafford

Four Black Country beers are on a section of the bar in the room near the front door, with two banks of three for guest beers in the next room. I went for Salopian Bauhaus 4.2% and Stonehenge 40 Summers 4.0% which averaged NBSS 3.75 between them. It's good to see this pub in the Good Beer Guide and serving beer of the appropriate quality.

This is a traditional town centre pub run by the ever reliable Black Country Ales chain. You enter into a small front bar with a few tables and chairs in a bare boarded space, under whitewashed walls. There is a short stretch of bar counter to one side and TV screens were showing muted motor racing at one end of the room and a list of the full cask ale range at the other end. From here, you pass through a narrow front space with high tables and stools squeezed along the front wall, opposite the dark wood bar counter with a matching bar back that boasts some fine modern etched glass and an extensive pump clip collection. At the right-hand end of the bar, a step takes you up to the rear lounge, with a lit fireplace on the back wall and some button backed banquettes around the rest of the perimeter, with chairs in support. A nice leaded, obscured glass screen separates this from a cosy front seating area with comfy banquette and chair options, that was packed with vociferous locals on my visit. Beyond, is some sort of extended seating area out the back in a half gabled room, but I didnt fully explore. The usual wide ale range associated with this chain was present and correct, with the options amounting to Black Country Ales BFG and Fireside, Listers Limehouse Porter, Monty's Mischief, Salopian Firkin Freezing and one real cider. Six more handpulls were out of action, hinting at an even wider selection back in the day. There was a good midweek crowd in attendance without the pub feeling too busy, thanks to the multiple room layout. I thought this was a pretty good pub, but perhaps not quite up to the standard of other BCA houses I've visited in the past. The place felt a little scruffy and the staff were a bit brusque, so for all the good beer and convivial atmosphere, I never quite felt properly settled. The ale range is the big draw and I would still say it's well worth adding to any crawl around town. Date of visit - 18th January 2024

I'd arranged to meet two friends here at the start of my first ever visit to Stafford, but my late train meant that I arrived just as they were leaving. I did pop my head around the door, but their account of some rather poor quality beer deterred me from having just a quick half. Our later experience at the other BCA pub in Stafford tended to confirm that this pub chain tends to have too many beers on for the trade they are getting, and if they continue to use their customers as quality assessors, they are going to have fewer of them in future.