White Horse, Birmingham

This is an excellent free house dating from 1861 which has retained the feel of a traditional local’s pub, the interior has two rooms, a large public bar on the right and a small snug on the left. On entering the pub you will first see the public bar which stretches from the front to the back of the building, it has a bar counter along the left hand wall, timber beams, an electric fire at the back with a large flat screen TV above and a second TV on the back left wall, both were showing football. Above the bar was another flat screen TV which was displaying a list of the beers that were on with their strengths and colour. The small snug has a tiny bar counter in the back right hand corner which links to the other counter in the public bar, there were only three tables and fabric bench seating, on the walls were old photos of the area and several modern paintings by a local artist which were for sale. At the front of the pub is a patio area with a couple of picnic style tables. In the snug was one of the pubs three resident cats who was curled up asleep on a chair, so have a good look before you sit down anywhere in this pub! Regular ales are Green King IPA, Abbot Ale and Wells Bombardier with up to seven changing guest beers and a cider. Some of the guests on my visit were Sharps Doom Bar, ABC Aston Mild, Arkell’s Summer Ale, Two Towers Birmingham Special Ale and Beowulf Dragon Smoke Stout (Cask Marque and GBG 2011). I made a comment to the barman about the wide selection of beers available and he informed me that they try to always have a guest Mild and Stout or Porter. A great real ale pub with traditional décor and character, the electric fire and modern paintings were a little out of place but I think the paintings were being sold to help a charity which is obviously very commendable. I haven’t had the opportunity to visit Harborne before but this is the first pub I would choose to go to if I were to visit again as I liked the building and the beer range was interesting and well kept.