The Wellington, Birmingham

The downstairs bar is currently closed for refurbishment, however there is a nice bar upstairs but with only (!) 7 handpumps and NO!!! laser display screen. It's a fairly small room although there is a larger room to the front with seating at tables and chairs and for warm, dry weather a roof top terrace that looks down on the patio of the Old Joint Stock. The agreeable front room is in a Victorian style but only the architrave is original. Their ad in Out in Brum says downstairs should have a Grand Re-Opening on 27th June with 16 ales and 3 ciders

In the centre of Birmingham, just off New Street, is The Wellington, a well known real ale pub that hardly needs any introduction to most readers. It’s a comfortable carpeted interior with a smaller drinking area at the front, but which widens out at the back to provide more space and a better chance of a set. Pillars break up the interior nicely, but, as previously stated, can restrict movement in busy times. It’s a pleasant, traditional, but unremarkable interior with normal seating and tables and walls decorated with framed photos of Birmingham’s streets in days long gone plus some brewery memorabilia, mainly relating to Mitchells and Butlers. Pleasingly, it’s a music free zone. At the back of the pub is a dartboard, but the position of tables and chairs suggests it’s not often used. Opposite the bar counter is a shortish shelf where you can place your pint and perch on a stool at busy periods. Just inside the doorway, a shelf contains a collection of CAMRA magazines from up and down the country. Behind the bar were numerous copies of the 2013 CAMRA Good Beer Guide on sale at £ 12 each. On my recent early evening visit, the pub was advertising its ”world famous cheese night” due to be held on 7 November, but, as a novel twist from normal custom, you were expected to bring your own cheese, with the pub providing just bread and crackers. The highlight here of course is the beer range and the bar counter – positioned against the right hand side wall - now sports 17 handpumps, 15 of which were in use on my visit. There’s a further 3 pumps on the back bar counter serving ciders. There’s no need to surreptitiously elbow your way to the bar to see what ales are on. Various computer screens strategically placed around the pub tell you this, providing, not tasting notes, but a guide to the beers colours on a scale from A to E. Beers were priced between £ 2.90p and £ 3.30p. You’re expected to help the bar staff by ordering your beer by the pump number, as though you were in a Chinese take away. Ales on were Black Country, Kinver, Derby, Bath Ales, Sadlers ( a rather high gravity brew with the intriguing name of Mud City Stout ), Purity, Buffy’s, Elland, Shardlow, Tring, and Oakham plus several others not noted. The Kinver Light Railway - £ 2.90p – was a fine tasty light coloured pint. The Black Country Pig on the Wall was also in good form. You should certainly come here when the opportunity arises