The Railway Tavern, Newport

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.

Facebook page of The Railway Tavern - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of The Railway Tavern - www.facebook.com