Hop Beer Shop, Moulsham, Chelmsford

I was definitely not expecting to encounter 3 Harvey's ales, none of them Sussex Best, in a small micropub style off licence in Essex. The fourth ale as Thornbridge Jaipur was less surprising. The Harvey's Mild was served from the cool room but sadly wasn't the best. Keg options covered a couple of Belgian beers and a German lager, as well as Deya's Steady Rolling Man. By all means drop in, but I considered it more of an optional stop if you're on a bit of a crawl.

Bottle shop-cum-micro. A simple alehouse interior with wooden fixtures and fittings, high benches and stools, pump clips and modern breweriana aplenty. Four cask and eight cider/perry from a cold room. Cask was majoring on Mauldon and my Mid-Autumn Gold was very good (NBSS 4). Also four keg with two foreign ones. Very reasonable prices - £4.40 a pint cask and £5 for Kulmbacher. The landlord was chatty and helpful once he’d warmed-up a bit and cast his eye and judgement over my day’s pubbing list and also showed me a cheeky rear alleyway exit that cut a few minutes off my journey to the next juicer. This one, for me, was by far the best pub of the day. It is very small though, so best visited early doors if you want to sit. 8.5

A small micropub that was apparently the first in the county of Essex. Much of the space was taken by the bar and stillage area, with a large fridge adjacent to it. This left space for just 3 or 4 tables. We were lucky to grab one. As with most micropubs, conversation is encouraged, whilst you can also enjoy a dose of people watching on the busy Moulsham Street. With one ale just being changed, the 3 available when we entered were Crouch Vale Citra, Tring Ridgeway & Colchester Jack Spitty's. Bishop Nick Divine was later added. Ciders and perries were Gwynt y Ddraig Two Trees, Bertie's Obsession, Rich's Legbender, Lilley's Mango Cider & Rhubarb Cider, Weston's Old Rosie & Abrahall's Thundering Molly. A decent micropub. The only drawback was the lack of any dark beers. I believe the one that had just gone had been a dark one. Nevertheless, this is worthy of any Chelmsford crawl.

Easily reached from the city centre, this is a very typical micropub that has been getting plenty of acclaim from CAMRA since opening a couple of years ago. It’s a classic shop converted micro and it even shares a rather attractive entrance porch with a neighbouring knick-knacks shop and has retained its window dressing area, now displaying beer bottles and the like. Inside we find the usual compact bare boarded room with cream panelled walls and interior windows looking out to the small passage between the neighbouring shop. There are drinking ledges with high stools to the left and a row of high tables, benches and stools to the right and under the front window. The pub is at pains to point out its dog friendly credentials and I noticed a small dog statue near the entrance with a welcome sign for canine companions, whilst the scatter cushions on the benches had a dog (and bear!) design. The walls have been decorated with some kitsch beer themed signs and the aforementioned CAMRA certificates, whilst the servery is to the rear of the room and there is a series of shelves to the right of it which effectively act as a bottle shop for those wanting take-outs. As you might expect, the ceiling is mostly hidden under a vast pump clip collection and hops fringe the whole room. A few pavement tables were also available as overspill. The beers are all listed on a big board above the counter and are served on stilage from the temperature-controlled room behind. Options on this visit were Crouch Vale Simcoe, Tring Kellet, Wibblers Crafty Stoat and RCH PG Steam. The obligatory lone barman served up a pint of the Simcoe which was cracking and certainly worthy of all the attention CAMRA have been giving this place. I generally find micropubs are a good addition to a town or city’s pub scene, adding a bit of variety plus an improved chance of some top quality ale and that certainly seems to be the case with this place. It had the usual warm welcome, decent ale selection and high standards of quality and gave a crawl dominated by some rather similar back street boozers a welcome extra dimension.