Beer Shop, Hitchin

Official site of Beer Shop - www.beershophq.uk

Official site of Beer Shop - www.beershophq.uk

Much as described by the great man below. This squarish shop conversion is sub-divided by black metal shelf racking and to the left is, in essence an off-licence, with bottles and cans of beers and ciders on either side and a bar counter at rear - the right-hand side of the room has three long benches with seating jutting out from the exposed brick wall. There's also bench seating built into both window, albeit with no backing. Two cask ales offered were Tring Moongazing and Siren Suspended In Citra - the latter unfined and which set me back £4.60 for a pint. Busy on a Saturday night and the babble of people drowned out the muzak which was vaguely discernable in the background.

The Beer Shop is situated on the ugly looking Hermitage Road where there are a few new craft type pubs opening. Once inside there is a square shaped room with the bar to the rear,the left side has bottled beers for sale,the right side is for drinkers,the floor is tiled and the seating long benches and some normal tables and chairs. There was a good choice of real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Siren Craft Session Ale,which went down well,the other real ales noted were Siren Craft Earl Grey,and beers from Howling Hops and Gazelle. Background music was playing and the pub was fairly busy on my Saturday afternoon visit. Pub visited 17/6/2017

A shelving unit divides the bottle shop half of the premises from the "Tasting Room" as it is called. There is room for 6 cask ales and 10 kegs, the casks in a chilled open to view area and the kegs on taps on the bar back. Five casks on when we visited on Saturday teatime, Wipers and True Rye Mild (£4.30) and well worth the price with a deep lingering flavour, Burning Sky Plateau (£3.70), Tring Brewery Ridgeway, Vocation Bread and Butter and Wild Millionaire. Tiled floor, shared seating on wooden benches at three long tables, a side wall has exposed brickwork. The electric services are all exposed in conduit giving a bit of an industrial feel. Low key music played, no TV, not that type of place and I didn't spot any rules on mobile phone use that you sometimes encounter in micropubs. A stream is culverted under the building and can be seen if visiting the unisex WC at the back. Lots of interesting looking stuff in the bottle shop from the UK as well as Belgium and afar but some were daunting in price. Takeouts available in 1/2/3 Litre containers. A decent spot indeed and a breath of fresh air after the awful reception we received at Hermitage Road a couple of doors down.

Hitchin is fortunate that the people who own Beer Shop in St Albans have decided to open a second venue here.It's a much larger premises than their first venture,formerly a shop,which splits neatly into a tasting room to the right,and a bottle shop to the left.There are 3 long bench tables in the tasting area ,and the brickwork is exposed so with the trendy hanging lights ,this could easily be in Hoxton. There is a very helpful board above the bar listing up to six cask ales and 10 kegs.On my Tuesday afternnon visit there were 3 cask ales,served on stillage ,with Tring Moongazer,Hammerton Pentonville Oyster Stout and N7 (in top nick ,£4.10).Muzak is supplied by a local radio station playing some good sounds.It's quite spartan but its a good area for sampling and the 10 keg taps had 3 from Kernel,3 from Wild Beer,2 from Abbeydale,one from East India Brewing and Brew by Numbers.Keg prices varied from £4.20 up to £6.10 for Abbeydale Double Brimstone at £6.10 but at 8.1% maybe thats fair enough.All cask and keg is available to take out in 1,2 or 3 litre amounts. The bottle shop is a Who's Who in UK brewing for top quality beer with a section for UK (including Marble and Siren Craft) and a section for London brews many in cans but all top micro names.Further sections are allocated to Belgian,US and Scandi brewers.I walked out with some fantastic bottles,not cheap but high quality with some pokey ABV's. This is a high quality addition to the Hitchin drinking scene ,beware the shop is closed on Mondays,and will shut earlier than pubs during the week,check website for details. I can only hope this chain expands to the town that I live in,it's a no brainer to visit if you like top notch beer in it's various forms.