The Craven Arms, Birmingham

A cracker of a pub. Several beers available. A bit expensive mind but sometimes you don't mind as long as you're getting a variety as you get in here. A point knocked of for the prices.

An old style exterior and interior as described below. 9 real ales on during my visit.

Great visit here on Friday and enjoyed our 2 beers from Blackjack brewery so decided to stay for an Alechemy brewery and one from Brass Castle too. It is very busy at lunchtime and there were cobs available with variety of fillings including black pudding and cheese one!! Tasting notes a great idea in front of each beer pump. Does get congested in front of the bar at busy times. Has a great old fashioned pub feel to it, and staff are friendly and helpful.

This is a really classy back street corner pub, tucked away close to the Mailbox complex, recently reopened by the reliable Black Country Ales group. The building is very striking on approach, with some fine ground floor level tiling and large signs for Holder's Ales and Stouts, as well as impressive etched glass windows and doors bearing the pub's name. You enter into a carpeted single room with the servery to the rear right. Banquette and standard seating runs down the left and in a small section near the front door which is broken by some low dark wood partitioning. The front right has a slightly cosier seating area, hidden partly by the aforementioned partitioning, with lots of old photos on the walls and a mural of sorts which explains that the pub was built back in 1905 for the Holder's Brewery. The servery has some nice ornate woodwork around the mirrored bar back and a low profile canopy. The fine woodwork can also be appreciated around the fireplace which stands on the end wall, with some smart tiles set into it and a large mirror above. An excellent indie soundtrack played throughout my stay and there was a good mix of customers in on my early Saturday evening visit. The star of the show here is the beer range, which presented a real challenge to pick something from. Options on my visit were Salopian Oracle, Beer Madness IPA, Hopcraft Reign of Terror and The Beast, Summer Wine Barista, Landlocked Copper Bottomed, Black Jack Single Hop IPA, Saddler's Boris Citrov, Marston's Smash, Church End Gravediggers and Black Country BFG. I couldn't make my mind up and ended up with a half of the Beer Madness IPA (very good) and a half of the Boris Citrov (outstanding). The bar staff were very friendly and helpful, offering tasters and giving useful descriptions of the ales to baffled customers. There was also a very handy ale board at the end of the bar, which allowed an at-a-glance summary of the available products. I'd not really heard too much about this place prior to my visit, but was very glad I included it on my crawl as it was easily my pub of the day, despite some strong competition. I found this to be a relaxed and welcoming pub with great beer and comfortable surroundings. I'll definitely be back as for me, this is the best pub in the city right now.