Tilt, Birmingham

A craft beer and pinball bar - yes, really. Apparently there are 21 machines over 3 floors, interspersed with some industrial-type tables. The little bar has a decent selection of brews drawn from all over the country, with prices ranging from "hmmm" to "ouch". Great fun if you enjoy pinball and/or craft beers, but otherwise don't bother.

Strange little place with a weird and wonderful beer list. Quite pricy but this is the city centre! I prefer a pub myself but worth calling in for one now and then.

Tilt was our final stop in Birmingham on a Saturday afternoon. Located in a shopping arcade, it's a craft beer bar/cafe/pinball parlour. Beers are all fairly pricy, but there are a good selection. Many are very strong. The full range of beers was Lost & Grounded Keller Pills, Kernel Chinook Citra & Mosaic, HBC 431, Unity Tularosa, North No. 18, Amundsen Super Santa, Full Circle Twister, Tenby Glow, Prizm Let Freedom Ring, With A Shotgun Blast & Fragmented Irony, S43 The Beast, Brokreacja Siren Call Jack Daniels Barrel Aged & Snail's Bank Raspberry Ripple. Beers and their prices are listed on clipboards.

This shop converted unit in the City Arcade is home to a bar with an interesting spin on the usual craft beer bar set-up, pitching itself as a pinball arcade - an interesting USP that merited some investigation. The front part of the bar is a typical bare boarded drinking area within an angular space with whitewashed walls and large windows down two sides, most of which bear the pub's name. Clunky mid-height stools fill much of the room, with a decent amount of standing space left through the centre. The bar appears to the right with its split level counter - beer at one end, tea and coffee at the other - with the beers dispensed from a series of exposed keg lines behind the bar and a whole range of coffee making contraptions lined up on the lower part of the counter. Decor is fairly minimal but I did spot a shelf with lots of potted plants and beer bottles, whilst a large picture of various coffee cups is hung on one wall. The rear part of the room has more seating and around eight or so pinball machines about half of which were being used on a Sunday afternoon which unfortunately meant that the fantastic 80's indie/alternative soundtrack was lost beneath the constant clacking sound of the pinball machines. Stairs in the rear corner lead down to two further rooms with some overspill seating in rather drab surrounds. These rooms have tile and bare board flooring and whitewashed walls with virtually no decor and the most basic of seating. Four more pinball machines can be found down here - all tables are £1 a game or £2 for three games. At the far end there are some fairly poky unisex toilets - the whole basement area could do with some smartening up, as it doesn't really fit in well with the rest of the bar. I must've visited around the same time as Ray, as I also found eight beers from the Vocation Brewery available on keg. I opted for the Black IPA which came in somewhere around £5.00 for a 6.5% beer and was very tasty if a little too cold when initially served. The staff here were very friendly and helpful, talking time to talk any unsure customers through the various beers. The pub has boards outside that advertise a range of speciality coffees and loose leaf teas, all of which are detailed on boards along with the beers. I thought this was a very interesting concept for a bar that works pretty well but could probably still do with a bit of fine tuning. The place still feels a little sterile in places and lacking character, which may still be part of the bedding in process. It's increasingly difficult to find pinball tables in pubs these days, so a dedicated bar in the heart of the second city is a result for pinball fans whilst the good beer selection will be a draw for the usual craft beer crowd. A fun addition to the city centre pub scene and well worth at least one look for the novelty value alone.