Beer Shop, St Albans Central, St. Albans

We managed to grab a quick half each, when diverting from our main PG crawl route and what a decent little wildcard visit it turned out to be. I went for the Tring Brewery Kotuku, which was a fresh and flavoursome beer. The owner also informed us that, you can try any bottled beer for a 50p corkage cost. A great place, so defo worth a visit.

This off licence,which has been around since 2013, now hits the criteria for a micro pub.The walls are covered with shelving for bottled beers and there is also a central column with even more shelving.At the rear is a small bar with 5 wall mounted taps for draught real ale which on my trip was Tring Kotuku,Leighton Buzzard Centenial IPA Hammerton N7,Northern Monk Pale Ale and RedWillow Shameless .That's quite a line up with some interesting high ABV brews and well respected micros which would tempt me back again.The bottle selection is also well sourced featuring some outstanding brewers such as Siren Craft and Marble,and chatting to the owner it is clear that he will always seek out the very best on offer.US brewers and some continental beers also feature. There are two upturned kegs and polypins as seating ,and a licence has been applied for to use the small front coutyard as external seating,which in time will give the place a more pubby feel. The welcome was friendly and knowledgeable with lots of beer related chat.I liked it ,and can see it one day featuring in the GBG.Make the effort to pop in during any crawl of the city centre establishments.

The Beer Shop is best described a bottle shop and Micro Pub,there is an extensive range of bottled beer available to take away at very reasonable prices, set out on numerous shelves by brewery and or country. There is also four changing cask beers dispensed by way of wall mounted taps available for consumption in the shop itself, my Red Willow Shameless was top notch. A nice and interesting place.