Black Cloak Brewing, Colwyn Bay

The Black Cloak was my final stop in Colwyn Bay, as it does not open until 4pm. I'm not sure if brewing here is now being stopped, but they were on the last couple of cask/tanks of beer brewed using the current equipment. It sounds like they are either relocating the brewery or updating the equipment. Beers are listed on a screen. There were 3 real ales on handpull, all from Marble - Pint, Bitter & Extra Special Marble. However, the bar majors on craft beers - Black Cloak Big Corruption & Pina Colada Sour, Black Jack Hazy Little Session Pale Version 1 & New England IPA, DEYA Magazine Cover, Crafty Devil Safe as Chocolate Milk, Thornbridge Market Porter, Wild Horse Buckskin, Vault City Dinosaur Tea Party, Unity Tranquillo & Top Rope Papa Mango. The owner/brewer was certainly very friendly and professional and despite me arriving shortly after opening, it was quickly much busier than the Bay Hop where I'd just arrived from. In addition, there was also a much more local clientele, most of whom seem to know each other. As such, people were not as liable to engage strangers in conversation here, which gave it a much less friendly feel than the Bay Hop. Nevertheless, this pub is worth a visit, despite me not completely warming to it.

A clean and tidy taproom shop conversion, with the tiny brewery behind. Generally fitted with modern Scandi-style furnishings, with some stools at the back, and there are 3 handpumps, a dozen or so keg taps on the wall and a beer fridge. I visited during a tap takeover, so they had none of their own ales on the handpumps, but overall there was a good variety of light and dark beer styles and those I sampled were very nice indeed. CAMRA discount is 10% on their own beers, 5% on guests. Definitely one for the serious beer drinker.