The Head of Steam, Birmingham

Another excellent Head Of Steam pub. Up a few steps and you get to the main part. Open plan with an island bar. 10 handpulls greet you as you enter plus several taps for crafty fizzpops on either side of the bar. Well worth a visit.

Excellent modern bar covering a number of bases well - real ale (local suppliers included), a lot of craft keg, cocktails, sports TV on low, music (can be a bit OTT), food, comfortable, sociable or not. Covers them all with credit and an excellent place all round

Modern, busy, trendy, industrial decor and lots of flats screens this is not necessarily one for the pub purist. The place was hopping on our Saturday evening visit with the young and beautiful of Brum making merry, as well as us old boys. Nonetheless, the atmosphere was good with a friendly if efficient welcome and none of the bumping and banging that might be expected in a busy spot on Saturday evening. A fine range of beers included: Craddock American Pale, Squawk Crex, Fallen Brewing Chew Chew, Fixed Wheel The Sheriff and Wheelie Pale, Hobsons Snuffly Hedge Grog, Cameron's Sanctuary and Twisted Barrel Litany Against Fear. A very decent showcase of local breweries across strength and style. There was also a cider, various keg taps and a good bottled range. Well worth a visit.

Busy and hectic on a Saturday night but the young crowd inside were enjoying themselves.You enter on the ground floor into a seating area but climb the stairs to reach the large island bar.Thankfully for the real ale fan the handpumps are directly infront at this stage and a walk around the bar will only yield information on keg lagers and beers.The 10 handpumps were serving an eclectic mix of ales from the likes of Fixed Wheel,Craddocks,and other Locales while my Squark Crex Session IPA was very tasty. There is seating on high benches near the bar,there is a higher level lounge in front of a flatscreen but this was reserved for a private party.Elsewhere BT Sports was playing ,and the music was loud. I noticed a DJ setting up ,so the volume may get cranked later on. This was a crawl visit,next time I may come at a calmer time and inspect both the ales and keg options.There is a very impressive bottle menu.This should also be included on any real ale crawl list,I liked it.

This one wasn’t here the last time I was in town so whilst the good lady was stuck in Debenhams and John Lewis I thought I’d look the place up and I was impressed as well. As others have mentioned you have to go through this strange half in half out lobby seating area before climbing up steps and through doors into the main bar area. And for my Sunday afternoon this space had no customers but was patrolled by a couple of doorman, which I found a bit strange but was completely forgetting that the fun loving supporters of Aston Villa and Birmingham had recently finished exchanging pleasantries at the not that far away St Andrews. Once inside the pub it’s a large space with plenty of seating areas on two levels around the central serving Island and the usual shiny Industrial décor you would expect from a newly opened Steam outlet. There is an impressive range of some 20 Craft options on the taps down the sides of the serving area but full marks for putting the 10 ale pumps on the front section so that they are the first thing you see when you approach. One was dispensing Hogans Wild Elder Cider and for my visit the nine ales available were Backyard Brewhouse Coaltown Stout and Gold Rush, Arbour Shangri-la, Camerons Sanctuary and Ahopalypse Now, Kirkstall Brewery Ryeteous, Northern Monk Eternal IPA, Fixed Wheel Wheelie Hazy IPA and Twisted Barrel Citra and the Coaltown Stout went down very well. I bagged a table in the upper section with its view of Temple Street outside, but also with a large flat screen tele which was showing the Ireland v France six nations match and armed with my pint of Stout and decent sized bag of Pork Scratchings, all was well with the world on this strange weather Sunday afternoon.

Visited earlier in the week at lunchtime. 10 cask pumps with 9 of these on at the time of my visit. I went for the Ginger Joe (stout, 5.6%) by Ridgeside Brewing which set me back £2.30 for a half. This was a very decent beer and the ginger kick was noticeable without being overpowering - it worked well. At ground level you enter into a strange nomansland that's half outdoors but enclosed (and full of tables for seating) before making your way up the steps and through the doors into the main bar. In front of you is the island bar with a mix of seating around it, tables and chairs behind and booths to the back wall. I generally like the Head of Steam pubs and this one is no exception.

Very impressed with this pub. Nicely done inside and a great selection of beers. This is one I will use again when I am in town.