Hops, Douglas

Hops is a fairly new craft beer establishment located on a pedestrianised shopping street. Opening times are limited. According to internet sources, opening times were Thursday & Friday evenings and all day on Saturday. However, I found it closed on my Saturday afternoon visit. Doing a further search online, I could see that their Facebook page had been updated to open at 3pm on a Saturday from this weekend just gone. As such, I returned a little later to find it open. It seems that they may also now open on Wednesday evenings too. The bar is essentially split into a couple of sections. The bar is to the rear in what was a rather cluttered area, whilst most seating can be found towards the windows at the front. The owner is from Glasgow. He is a friendly and chatty chap who is clearly very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about beers. Beers are all KeyKeg and are listed on Untappd. There were 4 on and the 3 I purchased were all strong, all were very cold, but all were very tasty indeed. Apparently the local CAMRA people come in, order their beers and do some shopping to let them warm a little before they return to consume them. Beers on for my visit were Vault City Lemon Drizzleberry Cupcake, Turning Point Thousands of Evils, Holy Goat Plum Porter & Verdant 10 yes x Fidens. Ciders were Snail's Bank Blood Orange Cider, Hallet's Rum Cask, Farmer Jim's Rhubarb Bob, Manx Cider Company Jenny Lay Back & Dorset Nectar Sweet Maiden. In addition to the 3 beers I purchased, I was also offered a sample of 3 other cans of beer which were being shared between the owner and a regular customer who also happened to be from Scotland (Paisley). It is clear that the speciality here is strong and flavoursome beers, which I tend to enjoy too. The sour from Vault City was particularly enjoyable. Incidentally, a fridge next to the bar contains a good range of canned beers that can be taken away. Despite a lack of cask ale, I would venture to say that this is possibly the best bar in Douglas now. We had earlier been to the Thirsty Pigeon, which remains good, but only has Odin beers on cask and we had also been to the Rovers Return, who weren't particularly welcoming on this occasion. With Bottle Monkey now closed, this is certainly the foremost craft beer bar on the island.

Facebook page of Hops - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of Hops - www.facebook.com

Single roomed bar near the top of the main shopping street. The bar had 10 ever changing craft beer taps on the go