Hops d'Amour, Coventry

The café seating outside the front of Hops d ’Amour was all empty despite hordes of commuters rushing past late on a recent midweek afternoon. Inside there were less than ten people in the single room rectangular space where seating runs up the left and right-hand walls to a counter across the rear. Reviewing my picture of the ‘Beerboard’ I see that there are five hand pumps that were drawing Northern Monk’s Cuppa, Bang the Elephant Brewing’s Raptor Rap Battle, Three Acre’s Skylark Stout, Rat Brewery’s Posh Rat and Blue Bee Brewery’s Superdelic Pale. There were also seven craft keg lagers and a lot more cider options. I ordered a Pint of the Rat and sat at one of the tables opposite a large collection of canvases depicting different people, I imagined they were all the locals, but I think probably not. The grey carpet was less interesting, reminding me of my days waiting for my JSA in Kentish Town in the late nineties. I noted lots of old pump clips above the front door, and that the doors close early at 22:00 every night, except Sundays when it’s even earlier at 20:00. Just before I left two old boys decided to break into song which wrapped up my visit to this decent micro.

This micropub wasn't here the last time I went drinking in Coventry and is indeed the city's first and (unless I'm mistaken) only micropub to date. Of 5 new pubs I visited on Saturday, this was easily my favourite. In fact, it probably bettered all of the other pubs we visited too. It's a simple square or possibly rectangular shaped room, with the bar against the back wall. Stairs at the rear left corner lead up to the 2 toilets. A door at the rear right presumably leads to the cellar/cold room where the beers and ciders are kept. A TV screen above the bar lists the full range of real ales, craft beers and real ciders. There was such a lengthy list that it was difficult to read some of the names, as so many were crammed onto such a small screen. Pumpclips scattered around the room also attest to the range of beers and ciders they have stocked in their short existence. Ales on during our visit were Howling Hops Country Mile, Brentwood Legacy, Shiny Affinity, Heritage X Porter, Vocation Karate Kiwi & Neptune On The Bounty. Real ciders listed were Snail's Bank Raspberry Ripple, Lilley's Strawberry Cider, Pina Colada, Lemon & Lime Cider, Peach Cider, Chocolate Apple Cider, Merry Monkey, Apples & Pears & Darkcider, Thistly Cross Whisky Cask & Scottish Fruits, Dudda's Tun Apricot Cider, Cotswold Cider Company Freak Show, Cockeyed Mad Jack & Sandford Orchards Slack Ma Girdle. Craft beers were all from Tiny Rebel - Citra Milkshake IPA, Gold Fermented IPA, Carrot, Apple & Mandarin Sour & Caramac Pale Ale. It's certainly a busy and popular place located slap bang in the middle of Coventry city centre. I was suitably impressed.

Coventry's first - and recently Camra award-winning - micro-pub in a city-centre location that might not seem obvious, but works surprisingly well. Nothing unusual about the shop-unit conversion, with a mix of functional furniture, pump clips and ephemera, but there was a fine selection of real ales in a range of styles on the six handpumps. I went for the tasty, deliberately hazy, Sea of Dreams pale ale from Neptune Brewery (£4.00), with others coming from Abbeydale, Castle Rock, Wild Beer, Cloudwater and Underground Medicine. In a word, excellent.