Beacon Hotel, Dudley

Another well known West Midlands home brew pub, this is the home of the revered Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby Mild. Brewing on site dates back to 1821. It’s a marvellous unspoilt Victorian pub with a small enclosed kiosk style servery with hatches serving 2 rooms plus a central small corridor, off which, on the right hand side are 2 further rooms. The small first room on the right is very basic and is The Tap Room, featuring fixed bench seating, wooden bar stools and tables and a tiled floor. Against the far wall is a fine cooking range. Lace curtains adorn the windows. Above a mantelpiece, a number of framed CAMRA certificates remind us that the pub was a CAMRA National Pub of the Year Finalist in 2010 and was the Regional Pub of the Year Winner for the West Midlands Region in 2014. On the other side of the corridor to The Tap Room is The Snug, which is carpeted, traditionally furnished and has a hatch to the glazed in bar servery. At the back is a larger and longish room – The Smoke Room – with plush fixed padded leather seating around the perimeter of the room and boarded wood panelling. The far end of this room leads through to a pleasant airy conservatory. This was in the course of being repainted during my visit and was full of pot plants, instantly reminding me of one of the glass houses at Kew Gardens. It’s a fine old fashioned, but splendidly preserved interior that earns the pub a place in CAMRA’s National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors. Further away at the back are the outside toilets and a grassy seating area with, inter alia, a kiddies slide. Reflecting the popularity of the pub and attached brew house as a destination for coach parties, there is a very large car park. On my late September lunchtime visit, a coach party from The Engineers Arms in Henlow ( I really must go there again soon ) had very much taken over The Smoke Room, with the usual crowd of good humoured, friendly and welcoming CAMRA worthies enjoying the fine home brewed beers and traditional atmosphere, which is pleasingly free of music and fruit machines. There’s no prizes for guessing which other pubs were on their itinerary and, later on that afternoon, our paths were to cross again in The Park Inn ( Holdens Brewery Tap ). Home brewed ales on were Amber, Surprise and the much revered Ruby Mild at gravities of 4%, 5% and 6% respectively with corresponding prices of £ 2.50p, £ 2.65p and £ 2.75p. I thought the Amber was a bit bland, but the other two beers did not disappoint. Not having the car with me on this occasion, I felt able to indulge and, for someone living in the allegedly affluent Home Counties, with beer prices to match, I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity of sampling a 6% beer at only £ 2.75p per pint. A number of guest beers were on which I didn’t sample and, inexcusably, did not record. Sam Smiths beer mats and drip trays were very much in evidence and I did spot several of their Man in a Box dispensers behind the bar, although they weren’t exactly prominent and I’m not even sure they were in use. Perhaps appropriately, beer is served in old fashioned dimpled jugs with handles. The pub closes for the afternoon, even at weekends. On my visit, the bell rung promptly at 2.20pm and later on, the shutters unceremoniously came down. Staff are friendly and enthusiastic, although I always find it slightly disconcerting here that, the glazed bar servery means that, unless you’re a dwarf, you can really only see the midriff of the person serving you. The pub is a CAMRA Good Beer Guide regular and you really should make the effort to get here if you haven’t already.

The fairly plain, inauspicious exterior of this pub gives little hint of the magnificence within. This Grade II listed building has a four room set-up, based around a tiny central servery with serving hatches to two of the rooms and the passageway that connects them all. The front left room is signposted as 'The Snug' and is reassuringly compact and cosy, with a nice tiled fireplace on the far wall, basic seating options and enough space for an upright piano to be squeezed along one side. On the other side of the passageway there is the Tap Room - a larger space with another nice fireplace, a few decent sized tables with hard bench seating, hop lined walls and a selection of traditional paintings. Heading to the rear, you emerge into a newer, tile floored room with long hard benches along the left and right hand walls, but with no tables on the left hand side. The benches have a heating system behind them, so were very warm when I settled down here, making it cosier than initial impressions suggested. The walls are fairly plain here, broken up with a few old paintings, but otherwise, probably the least appealing room in the pub, hence it being the only place I could bag a seat on a busy Saturday afternoon. Alternatively, when reaching the end of the passageway, you can turn left into the Smoke Room, which has some attractive tongue and groove panelling, a carpeted floor, standard and low stool seating around copper topped tables and two more fireplaces. From here you can access the newer conservatory which stands out from the side of the pub and is so full of plants that when viewed from the road or car park you would be forgiven for mistaking it for a greenhouse. The servery is for me the star of this extraordinary show. It's a tiny little booth within which two (three would be a push) bar staff were able to dispense drinks through hatches that open into the Snug, Smoke Room and corridor. Each hatch has a low screen obscuring it, so you can't make eye contact with the staff, making it a slightly surreal transaction, the likes of which I can't recall making anywhere else. As if this wasn't enough, the pub is also home to a tower brewery, which you can find by exiting through the rear of the pub. This houses the Sarah Hughes Brewery, named after the pub's former owner whose 1920's refurbishment of the pub can still be marvelled at today. Ales are mainly served from taps on the rear wall of the servery, although I did spot a couple of conventional handpulls. A board near the servery door lists all the options, which on this visit were Sarah Hughes Amber, Dark Ruby Mild, Snowflake, Surprise and Merlin the Wizard plus a guest of Sky's Edge Citrus Smash. Keg options unusually included a few Sam Smith's beers. The 6% Dark Ruby Mild has long been a beer I've wanted to try and it certainly didn't disappoint, although I can't say an easy drinking 6% pint is the ideal early afternoon drink! Whilst this place clearly commands a large, loyal local following, speaking to a few other punters it was clear that I wasn't the only person to have made a concerted effort to visit this place. It's a really wonderful example of a perfectly preserved, traditional brewpub and one that every serious pub-goer should make an effort to visit.

Today was only my second ever visit to this famous pub. There is not much to add to what has already been said about it. On my Saturday afternoon visit the serving hatch area and the back lounge bar were busy but the more basic snug was quiet. I went for the Dark Ruby Mild (£2.75) which I successfully got served in a straight glass. It was in superb nick. I find the fact that this place shuts at three on Friday and Saturday totally inexplicable. I suspect several of the punters may have followed me on to the Bulls Head.

I visited the Beacon Hotel, which is the Sarah Hughes Brewery tap, late on a Friday afternoon a month ago during a PubsGalore crawl. It was very busy and the odd serving hatch bar at the front of the pub was chocker with a very thirsty crowd. One of these hatches opens up into the entrance corridor so it was a little difficult to move through the pub. The ales available were Sarah Hughes’ Dark Ruby, Amber and Sedgley Surprise alongside Dark Star’s Hophead and Burton Bridge Brewery’s Stairway to Heaven. I went for the Ruby which was spot on. Even though it was very busy and there was nowhere to sit I still enjoyed my visit here and would like a return visit.

Famous, and very busy, tap for the Sarah Hughes Brewery. No decoration on the facade, and relatively plain furniture in some of the rooms (although not in the wood-panelled rear lounge). However, what really catches the eye is the implausibly small tap room with its two serving hatches and corridor counter. Only had time for a pint of Amber (£2.50) but would happily have stayed much longer. First rate overall.

Have to say that if I was visiting here again, it would be an early doors visit as it's quite difficult getting served and poking my head through the serving hatches to see what beers were available. The Sarah Hughes Mild is an interesting brew and well worth tasting. Lots of like minded real ale fans, so all in all a decent Black Country pub that's well worth a visit.