The Vine (Bull & Bladder), Brierley Hill

I have to say that I find Ale Monster's review below somewhat biased towards Batham's and their small estate of pubs. The trouble is that I feel exactly the same way and can't think of anything to add so it's a 10 rating from me as well. The Batham's Mild was top notch at £2.30 a pint. On Saturday lunchtime just after midday it was quite busy. Sadly I didn't have time to hang around for more than a quick one.

An excellent traditional pub, this is the tap house for the superb Bathams brewery which was established in 1877. The original building was built in 1828 but not used as a pub until 1834 bought by Bathams in 1905 but due to subsidence caused by the extensive mining industry in the area the pub was rebuilt in 1911 and brewing moved to the current site behind the pub. The pub is also known locally as the Bull and Bladder, apparently this is due to the left hand side of the pub once being a butchers shop many years ago. The interior has four rooms linked by a central corridor which has nice brown glazed Bathams tiles on the walls, a serving hatch in the right wall towards the front, the corridor widens out towards the back of the pub and there are some tables and benches along the left hand wall. There is a small public bar in the front right of the building, a long lounge in the back right, a small snug in the front left (former butchers) and a second tiny snug half way down the left side of the corridor which used to be the brewery supervisors office. The public bar has the counter across the back wall with fixed wood and red leather bench seating in a U shape around the other walls which have old photos and framed newspaper clippings on them, the floor is marble/granite effect and there is a nice stained glass window at the front. The lounge backs on to the public bar and shares a double sided counter, in the back wall there is a small stone fire place and cast grate with a dart board above and a trophy cabinet on the wall to the right, fixed burgundy leather bench seats down either side of the long room and the floor is vinyl, there are windows in the left wall which indicates that the central corridor may not have originally extended back as far as it does now. The front left snug which was previously a butchers has a large Tudor style moulded stone fire place with cast iron grate in the left wall with a large mirror above, red fabric bench seating arranged in to four large booths, half dark wood panel walls, a patterned carpet and a nice stained glass window at the front. The second smaller snug has large plate glass panels either side of the door, a nice Victorian cast iron and tiled fire place in the left wall and only a couple of free standing benches. The inscription at the top of the frontage used to read “Blessings of thy art, thou brew’st good ale” which is a quote from Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona. There is a car park on the other side of the road opposite the pub. Regular ales are Bathams Mild and Best Bitter with XXX making an appearance in the winter (GBG 2013), I find it hard to believe that this pub has ever been out of the Good Beer Guide! Bathams is a fifth generation family run brewery and is rightly very proud of their heritage, they run their business in a very strict traditional manner and therefore only serve Bathams beers. They do have a winter warmer seasonal beer so at most you will only ever find the three ales in any of their eleven pubs. The Best Bitter is so popular that most of the tied pubs are supplied with 54 gallon hogsheads. The Breweries reputation for quality is very important to them and therefore they are understandably reluctant to sell the beer to pubs outside of their own estate unless it is a free house and they are happy with the pubs standards, to retain control they do not sell to wholesalers but they do have contracts with a couple of local breweries who have small estates themselves such as Holden's. A truly great traditional pub, owned by one of my favourite breweries. I have heard people refer to this place as one of the Black Countries Holy Trinity of pubs, the others being the Beacon (Sedgley) and the Olde Swan (Netherton), as one of the previous reviewers said “pub heaven”. If I were to take part in a word association exercise and someone said “happy” I would respond with “Vine”. I find it absolutely impossible to pass this pub without popping in for at least one pint and maybe a pork pie or a bag of scratching’s. It’s probably healthy for the future of my marriage and kids that we don’t live within walking distance of this place! It’s taken me many visits to finally review this pub as when I am there the last thing on my mind is to make notes on the décor. If I don’t manage to visit this place at least once every three months then I must be dead or might as well be!

The Vine (aka Bull and Bladder) is the Bathams Brewery tap which is a must visit pub for anyone who loves a decent boozer. I was lucky enough to visit on Friday afternoon a month ago and found a pub populated with friendly staff, locals and banter. To the right of the entrance at the front of the pub is a small public bar with a counter that supports hand pumps that were drawing Bathams bitter and mild. There is also a selection of cobs and some pork pies that were fantastic. The bar is doubled sided and the back bar is longer and a little more comfortable than the public bar. A dartboard can be found on the rear wall of this bar. There are another couple of rooms along the left hand side of the pub, one of which is full of royal memorabilia. There is a corridor with benches along the wall that runs towards the toilets that are found at the rear of the pub. Outside the front of the pub is a small seating area that was being used by smokers during my visit. I had pints of the mild and bitter during my visit and found both to be excellent. There was no other ale available, but I didn’t notice anyone who was complaining. I’d travel far to visit this pub again.