9 Gallon, Warrington

A recent re-visit found five hand pulls, three of which were in active service and offering Marstons 61 Deep, Pictish Magnum and Well Drawn Millennium. The Marstons offering took me by surprise and seemed out of place at this establishment! All cask ales were £3.30 a pint (£1.65 for a half). A chalk board lists the cask, premium keg and craft keg options. The real ale choice seemed reduced compared to previous visits, and the Marstons offering reduced that choice further, in my opinion. I seem to recall more sewing machine tables when visiting previously - this time there is just one in the window at the front and the rest are more normal in style! I noticed a jukebox and a games machine. I did also notice a slight damp smell. Still worth checking out and is very handy if you have a bit of time between trains if walking between the Warrington Central and Bank Quay.

It has a jukebox so not exactly the micropub model, but I quite liked it. different styles of seating and quirky decor around the island bar, three pale real ales and a cider on the pumps. A bit dark inside but comfortable and welcoming.

Quirky little micro who have always served a decent range of beers (usually at least 4 and 6 at weekend) Much improved beer quality recently let's hope they can keep it up through the warmer summer months.

This is a nice, quirky ale house located between the town hall and the shopping centre. The pub is dominated by a large peninsula servery through the centre of the room which limits customers to seating around the periphery. The room has an eclectic mix of wooden flooring surfaces ranging from quite high-end looking boards to cheap laminate sections. The servery has a very long U-shaped counter with smart dark wood frontage and a less-impressive shelving unit bar back. Most of the seating is restricted to bar stools along the counter, but there are also a few small tables and chairs and upturned barrels with high stools to add to the numbers. One other option is a small booth to the front with some bench seating and an old Singer sewing machine on the table, with a large beer jug behind one bench and a brewing vessel with a cutaway section to show the inner workings behind the other. Beyond the servery, there is a small space which leads to the toilets and offers some very limited additional seating in what is perhaps, the quietest part of the pub. Décor throughout comprises old black and white photos, bits of breweriana, mural-style artworks and a large beer board to the left of the bar which proved to be particularly useful given how the handpulls are spread out around the long counter. Old pop hits were playing at a sensible volume for a Saturday night and there was a nice buzz in here rom a modest sixed crowd. There were six handpulls in action when I arrived, giving me a choice between Lincoln Green Tuck, Black Sheep Bitter, Flipside Leopold Gold, Tiny Rebel Summer Crush, Severn Extra Special and MVB Lancashire Rose. I ordered a pint of the Tuck, which was in good shape, but having handed over my £3.00 and received my pint, the barmaid approached me as I was taking some notes and asked whether I’d paid. When I said I’d literally given her three pound coins less than a minute ago, she looked at me as if she didn’t believe me, but didn’t pursue her line of questioning any further, which wasn’t a very pleasant experience. Despite this incident, I still really liked this place and thought it was nice to find a modern ale house, having mainly enjoyed the more traditional pubs around town earlier during the rest of my crawl. There was a good atmosphere here, which combined with the decent ale selection, makes this somewhere I’d be happy to stop off for a longer session.