Organ Grinder, Lincoln

Official site of Organ Grinder - www.bluemonkeybrewery.com

Official site of Organ Grinder - www.bluemonkeybrewery.com

Located on a side turning from the main tourist artery of Steep Hill, this one is certainly worth the short detour. Very much a modern craft beer bar set up with one large bare wood floored room with a wood panelled serving bar supported by scaffolding poles at the far end, assorted wooden booth and bench seating throughout and funky Lincoln related murals and artwork adorning the walls. Then there is a much smaller seating area to the back left by the toilets. The bar has two banks for five keg taps at either end which had a decent range of craft ales from different brewers, such as Verdant, Brew York, Lost and Grounded, Magpie Abbeydale, Ten Tun Brew House and Wilde Child with most coming in at under £6 a pint. But it is the two sets of three hand pumps which sit between them which gets BeerHeadz in the current GBG and there were three ales and two ciders available for our visit. The available Ales were Magpie Neck Grease American Pale Ale, Front Row Try Best Bitter and a very delectable Hazmat Session Pale at a wallet pleasing £4.10 for a Londoner. To be fair this is the type of place that is a bit soulless when it is not busy but put in two large groups on a crawl on the middle tables and fill a few of the others around the side and you have yourself a lively ale house that I would certainly recommend visiting when in Lincoln.

This is a very modern semi-industrial affair, for those disinclined to visit Shoreditch; you can experience the interior on their website, where you can buy ‘merch’. I went for a half of the Beermats Hazmat, £2.05 a half and fine. This isn’t really my kind of place, especially given the competition.