Ten Green Bottles, Newcastle Under Lyme Central, Newcastle under Lyme

Met the owner this afternoon, he was shifting some stuff into his van. Told me Ten Green Bottles is only open Friday and Saturday now due to low footfall.

Tried to call in here after most of our fellow PuG crawlers had headed home. We could hardly get through the door for identikit bearded hipsters. We decided to leave them to it. They were for too "individual" for us.

Housed in a not overly ostentatious un-rendered build of 1895, possibly erected as a part of the Conservative Club next door.The facade has the Victorian style decorated pilasters flanking plain plain glass. The interior has a single room, and I was pleased to find the only seat that a shortie like me didn't need climbing gear to get into (general rant: why do people want to sit in seats with their feet dangling, is it regressing to baby-chair mode?). A few ornaments, tiled bar area and plenty of cushions help give the arty feel. There is a bottle display area. Music was soft, I didn't see a TV. The service was very friendly. Not cheap, but with a choice of 10 kegs, I had a decent enough Northern Monk Northern Star. For me, one to nip into for a swifty.

For me this was actually a good example of the modern trend of Craft Keg and Gin bars which have been opening in recent years. It had all the hallmarks of other examples of the genre I’ve come across in the form of a light and airy modern open plan layout, a smallish serving area with a tiled keg tap wall and a sizeable collection (over 30 in this case) of artisan gins, and a large collection of bottled beers that means it can also qualify as a bottle shop. But this one also comes with a very pleasant outside courtyard to the side which provides additional alfresco seating. The target demographic for these places is not your average real ale quaffing CAMRA type but what I believe the advertising bods refer to as professional millennials, both male and female, and it’s the type of place where the Y generation converse for a serious length of time over their 2/3rds of Cask beer or fishbowl glass Gin cocktail. But in saying that I enjoyed our visit here and these type of establishments certainly have their place. My half of Magic Rock Saucery was very pleasant although, at £2.70, the most expensive drink of the day, and the bowl of free chili peanuts was certainly a very nice touch on the service front.

The fact that this place doesn't do any real ale must invalidate it from being a micropub but I don't suppose they'll be bothered about that. They also advertise high quality coffee so the best description is probably a craft keg & coffee bar. They have ten keg taps with a variety of choices and the strongest being something called Vernal at £5.80 for a third. They only do thirds, two thirds or half pints here but I didn't want something that would result in me ending up in a crumpled heap. After I'd ordered two thirds of Abbeydale Heathen (£3.20) I realised that I wouldn't be drinking a pint so added another half (£2.50). This was a fairly typical pale Abbeydale beer where being served on keg seemed pointless. It was cold and gassy and not unduly hoppy so would almost certainly have been better on cask. While this is a pleasant enough bar with friendly staff it's not for ma and I wouldn't return.

A crafty beer place. Small shop-like bar with an outside area to the side. 9 pumps on the wall and if you want to know what's on you'll either have to ask, in which case you'll be pointed to the blackboard to the side of the bar. A single room with high chairs and an even higher seating along one of the walls. An array of bottles is displayed along the wall to your leftvas you enter. Its one of those 2thirds places. Its not too bad though it is on the expensive side.