Liverpool Brewing Co Brewery Tap, Liverpool

For my "catch up" trip to Liverpool, I remembered coming here a few years ago with Real Ale Ray. There was no way I was going to make notes for a review while out with Ray, so the pub was enjoyed but not reviewed. Today's visit found this small shop-conversion brewery tap less crowded than I remembered, probably because it's only 5pm. My visit was slightly marred by a couple of bar hangers who chatted constantly to the barmaid - it's not often that background music is drowned out by just two people, but this is Liverpool, after all. My beer of choice was Salopian Entire Butt 4.6%: "an intricate blend of 14 malts and four hops" according to the blurb, a new beer to me, though I know it from reading about beer history. Other beers included local Higsons Pale Ale, but I'd had their Bitter previously in another pub, so resisted temptation. This is a rough and ready micropub, and likely not to everyone's taste, but worth a look in.

Liverpool Brewing Co Brewery Tap had a handful of locals sat at the U-shaped wooden pallet counter that runs up the right during a recent late Monday afternoon visit. This counter faces padded bench seating and tables up the left and a beer shelf that runs across the floor to ceiling front windows either side of the central entrance. A sign above the door at the rear advertises some downstairs seating and a dartboard, but I didn’t investigate. Eight craft keg fonts run across the wooden back bar and the counter supports six hand pumps that were drawing Salopian’s Darwin’s Original, Lunebrew’s Lune Valley Gold, Black Lodge Brewery’s Deer in the Forest, Wily Fox Brewery’s Craft Fox, Bank Top’s Port O’Call and a Lilley’s cider. The Crafty Fox was on good form, but very pricey at £2.90 for a half, especially considering it’s only 4%. There is a Nepalese street food business attached called Momos, but they don’t open in a Monday. The service was polite and I enjoyed the rock background music, but the Vines over the road is more interesting and much cheaper so I doubt I’ll be visiting here again.

A typical craft bar shop conversion with six handpumps and eight craft taps, three Liverpool cask beers were on plus a guest I can no longer remember, I opted for Liverpool Cascade, Lilleys Mango Cider was also available on handpull, there is a CAMRA discount on cask beer. An ok place but nothing to get excited about.