The Railway Tavern, Newport

A nice terraced BCA pub with a beer garden. The interior is a large L-shape with a raised area one and and a dart area the other. Always friendly here, busy and with a mixed clientele. Soft music and a TV showing the Scottish Cup final. Service was good, supported by the usual BCA cobs and food. Several handpulls with the usual BCA beers plus guests, the Enville White being OK. Worth a look.

Official site of The Railway Tavern - www.blackcountryales.co.uk

Official site of The Railway Tavern - www.blackcountryales.co.uk

There are some fun size picnic tables on the path either side of the central front entrance of the Railway Tavern. With some pubs on the high street closing early during my recent midweek evening visit I was surprised to find this place to be very busy with a middle-aged crowd. I think the draw is the twelve hand pumps on the bar counter that were drawing four Black Country Ales beers alongside four ciders. I couldn’t read all the pump clips due to the crowds. I went for the BCA Pig on the Wall. Hearing my southern accent the barman warned me that it is a mild, I assured him that I would survive, and it was actually a decent drop. The food stretches to stuff from the bar display case, which was almost empty due to me evening visit. I noted a dartboard on a lino seating area to the left of the entrance, but this was empty with all the locals at the bar to the right. I liked it in here and can understand why it was so busy.

Black Country Ales pub, with semi-traditional area featuring the dartboard to the left as you enter and the much larger lounge to the right. A row of wooden benches can also be found along the frontage. As usual, there is a fine array of handpumps along the counter; 12 in this case, with four of their own beers, five guests - including AJ's Stuck on Blondes (with a slightly dodgy pump clip, £3.60) - and three ciders.

I've been quite critical of Black Country Ales and their business model, which seems to consist of stacking the bar with beers and waiting until the customers complain that the beer has turned. Maybe this is an exception, as the beer I went for was in great condition. There were four BCA beers on the bar, plus three ciders, Doom Bar, an unexpected Youngs Original, Milestone Hop & Glory (badged as a Platinum Jubilee beer) and a charity beer ("Beer for Ukraine", which has been released as a recipe by Experimental Brewery - in their case they were donating £1.50 per pint to a Ukrainian charity, but I can't see how this is going to work - do they expect anyone using their recipe to do the same?). I'd had the Milestone beer a few weeks before, so was happy to try again, and it was as good as I remembered. I wrote at the time "beer in great condition" but I may have been reacting to a BCA pub experience at the other end of the spectrum in Bewdley the day before. I'd be happy, by contrast, to return to this one.