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Beer of the Week (w/e 28th April 2024) with aleandhearty
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Detail Pages
The Wellington, Birmingham
Birmingham
B2 5SN
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 8½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Old Boots left this review about The Wellington
The downstairs bar is currently closed for refurbishment, however there is a nice bar upstairs but with only (!) 7 handpumps and NO!!! laser display screen. It's a fairly small room although there is a larger room to the front with seating at tables and chairs and for warm, dry weather a roof top terrace that looks down on the patio of the Old Joint Stock. The agreeable front room is in a Victorian style but only the architrave is original. Their ad in Out in Brum says downstairs should have a Grand Re-Opening on 27th June with 16 ales and 3 ciders
On 23rd June 2013
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 3273 recommendations about 2982 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Thuck Phat left this review about The Wellington
A very well reviewed boozer and understandably so with 16 beers on. All are listed on various computer screens around the pub giving information on strengths and styles.
We visited on Friday evening and although it was busy we quickly found a seat. Clientele is mixed but it's still a relatively totty free zone. The atmosphere is good and it's easy to fall into beer related conversation with the friendly drinkers here.
We tried Titanic Chocolate and Vanilla Stout, extraordinary, Oakham Citra, Derby Ray of Sunshine, York Citra, Joules Pale Ale and Wye Valley HPA. All were in top nick and flew down.
This'd be my first, and probably only, stop if in Brum.
On 27th November 2012
- rating: 9
[User has posted 679 recommendations about 678 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
John Bonser left this review about The Wellington
In the centre of Birmingham, just off New Street, is The Wellington, a well known real ale pub that hardly needs any introduction to most readers.
It’s a comfortable carpeted interior with a smaller drinking area at the front, but which widens out at the back to provide more space and a better chance of a set. Pillars break up the interior nicely, but, as previously stated, can restrict movement in busy times. It’s a pleasant, traditional, but unremarkable interior with normal seating and tables and walls decorated with framed photos of Birmingham’s streets in days long gone plus some brewery memorabilia, mainly relating to Mitchells and Butlers. Pleasingly, it’s a music free zone. At the back of the pub is a dartboard, but the position of tables and chairs suggests it’s not often used. Opposite the bar counter is a shortish shelf where you can place your pint and perch on a stool at busy periods.
Just inside the doorway, a shelf contains a collection of CAMRA magazines from up and down the country. Behind the bar were numerous copies of the 2013 CAMRA Good Beer Guide on sale at £ 12 each.
On my recent early evening visit, the pub was advertising its ”world famous cheese night” due to be held on 7 November, but, as a novel twist from normal custom, you were expected to bring your own cheese, with the pub providing just bread and crackers.
The highlight here of course is the beer range and the bar counter – positioned against the right hand side wall - now sports 17 handpumps, 15 of which were in use on my visit. There’s a further 3 pumps on the back bar counter serving ciders. There’s no need to surreptitiously elbow your way to the bar to see what ales are on. Various computer screens strategically placed around the pub tell you this, providing, not tasting notes, but a guide to the beers colours on a scale from A to E. Beers were priced between £ 2.90p and £ 3.30p. You’re expected to help the bar staff by ordering your beer by the pump number, as though you were in a Chinese take away.
Ales on were Black Country, Kinver, Derby, Bath Ales, Sadlers ( a rather high gravity brew with the intriguing name of Mud City Stout ), Purity, Buffy’s, Elland, Shardlow, Tring, and Oakham plus several others not noted. The Kinver Light Railway - £ 2.90p – was a fine tasty light coloured pint. The Black Country Pig on the Wall was also in good form.
You should certainly come here when the opportunity arises
On 15th November 2012
- rating: 9
[User has posted 560 recommendations about 560 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
paulof horsham left this review about The Wellington
As stated, 16 pumps, with at least 15 of them dispensing on my visit. Ordering by number seems to be pretty much the done thing - you get the number off one of the screens, which also helpfully indicate the approximate colour of your ale. No problem here with choice or quality.
But, I have to add a slight caveat: this is a busy pub and can get pretty crowded. The floor is carpeted. This is not an ideal combination and I'd advise not standing completely still for too long or you may find shoes and carpet attaching like velcro.
If you're in Birmingham for beer, this one ought to be on your list.
On 29th October 2012
- rating: 8
[User has posted 453 recommendations about 425 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Steve C left this review about The Wellington
The Wellington is a long narrow pub with seating areas at the front, rear and facing the bar that runs along the right hand wall. At the rear is a dartboard and ‘snooker darts’ which I’ve not come across before. There are no distractions from piped music, but there is a quiz every Sunday from 19:30. Food isn’t available, but customers are invited to bring in their own food for which plates and cutlery will be provided. The opening hours are from 10am until midnight every day.
The major draw of this pub are the sixteen hand pumps that are constantly drawing ales to suit everyone’s palate. There are a couple of plasma screens that list the ever changing beers to save on rewriting a chalkboard all day.
This is certainly a must visit pub for any real ale fans who find themselves in Birmingham and I’ll certainly return next time I’m in the area.
On 11th October 2012
- rating: 9
[User has posted 5258 recommendations about 5226 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Ale Monster left this review about The Wellington
This is one of Birmingham’s top real ale pubs which is located in a lovely Georgian style building with nice moulded arched windows (especially on the first floor) that I believe was actually built around 1860ish and has been owned by Black Country Ales since 2004. The interior is small and basic with a single long but narrow room with the traditional bar counter and mirrored bar back in the middle of the right hand wall and a dart board on the back right wall, the floor is entirely carpeted and the walls are half wood panel with Victorian style patterned wallpaper, various old photos of Brum and a detailed history of the old Mitchell’s & Butlers brewery on the left wall. There are double doors at the back which lead out to an alleyway mainly for smokers. A noteworthy feature is the large flat screen TV high on the wall to the right of the bar counter which displays the name/brewery/strength/colour of the 16 ales on the bar, a good tip for ordering is to ask for the number of the beer on the list rather than the name as the bar staff prefer this method. You may overhear a regular ordering what sounds like a takeaway “three number six, two number ten, a number seven and a number fourteen please.”
Regular ales are currently Black Country Ales Fireside, Bradley’s Finest Golden, Pig on the Wall (Mild), Wye Valley Hereford Pale Ale, Purity Mad Goose and Oakham Citra with up to ten changing guest ales. Some of these were Purity Gold and Ubu, Teme Valley This and T’Other, Warwickshire Graveyard Bob and Hobsons Town Crier (GBG 2012). Anyone who knows their breweries will notice that many of the beers are from within thirty miles of Birmingham which I personally appreciate. I’m always a bit suspicious of pubs that serve so many real ales as you need a quick turnover to avoid having beers on the bar too long, but this does not seem to be a problem for this pub probably because it is so well placed in the city centre near to both New Street and Snow Hill railway stations. On this visit I counted four pump clip changes in a little over an hour!
A truly magnificent pub for real ale fans, the selection and quality of the beers is consistently excellent in my opinion which is why the pub gets pretty packed at peak times. Its worth mentioning that the landlord of the pub is not only a CAMRA member but he is on the Birmingham branch committee, if the beer wasn’t so good I would wonder if the pubs four pub of the year awards in the last eight years might be favouritism but that would be rather cynical of me. Regardless of the politics this is always the first pub that I consider visiting if I am in Birmingham city centre. I must admit I found reviewing this pub a little daunting as it has been so well described and summed up by many great contributors to this site.
On 18th May 2012
- rating: 10
[User has posted 199 recommendations about 199 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Wellington
I was pleased to recently make it to this well regarded and comprehensively reviewed ale house. The pub is a lot smaller than I had expected, with a fairly narrow single room interior broken up by a number of pillars, which actually end up getting in the way somewhat when the place is busy and can obstruct access to the bar. The room is nicely carpeted with half panelled, half wallpapered walls and a decent amount of regular table and chair seating. The servery runs along the right hand wall and looks like quite a spacious area to work in as well as boasting a pleasant bar back with integral clock. The walls have been decorated with some old pub photos and pictures of pump clips, whilst a shelf near the entrance is stacked with beer related books and lots of CAMRA literature. The pub seems to be held in very high regard by local CAMRA branches, as a quick flick through their various magazines revealed that pretty much every pub crawl they go on either starts or ends in here.
This isn't all that surprising when you see the fine row of 16 handpulls along the bar, all dispensing a different ale priced between £2.90 and £3.20. I had a pint of Titanic Chocolate and Vanilla Stout which was as lovely as the name suggests it might be. There is also an unconventional keg range including, Freedom Four and Stout, Veltins, Bitburger, Maisel's Weisse and Hogan's Cider. The staff seemed to be really on the ball and dealt with the crowded bar area in a friendly and efficient manner.
This is a great pub for ale fans, regardless of the fact that it can get very cramped, but I'm not sure that it has the broad appeal of somewhere like the Black Country Arms in Walsall. That's not a problem in my book though and I will most certainly be returning the next time I'm in town.
On 27th January 2012
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Soup Dragon left this review about The Wellington
This is a fantastic end-terraced Georgian style building that is and has been forever in the GBG. The building is in cream render with lovely rounded sash windows, decorative moulded stone and window pediments. There is no real patio area, people just stand out the back.
The interior is in effect an open-plan long room. The decor is a greeny patterned wallpaper, a slight 1940s look - which is great, with red upper walls and ceiling. There is a green patterned carpet floor and red curtains. There are old photos of Brum on the walls, with a dart board at the back. There is no music or TV, apart from the TV with the beer choices on it. The service is mixed, but this maybe as it is so busy, the regulars are at the bar already! The fact that it is busy with a very mixed clientele is a pain - the other day i was stuck outside the bogs - not the nicest! They don't do food, but people take stuff in with them.
Beer; the good points - not the usual tap stuff - Freedom lager and stout for example, with the Black Country Ales; Pig on the Wall, BFG and Fireside along with around 10 guests depending. A great choice. Bad points - as a Brummie i prefer a head on my beer often here, while it tastes fine the beer looks flat. It is also expensive on the whole.
A great pub that does have its drawbacks - flatter beer, often rammed and expensive, but I always seem to pop in if around this part of Brum.
On 28th November 2011
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 3067 recommendations about 3062 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
john mcgraw left this review about The Wellington
A must for the real ale drinker when in Birmingham.Up to 16 real ales and every time I have visited they have been in top form.Can get very busy lunchtime and early evening but the very good bar staff cope very well.10 mins from New St. Station.
On 19th September 2011
- rating: 10
[User has posted 2044 recommendations about 2025 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Oggwyn Great left this review about The Wellington
Tidy well kept pub not to far from New Street Station , its not the biggest pub in the world and would be another quite local if it was not for the bank of 16 handpulls that face you as you enter , the (4) permenant ales are from the Black Country Brewery the other 12 an ever changing selection of guests listed on large screen TVs rather than the usual chalkboards . T he beer is exellent .
If like me you are a real ale lover this place is a must visit when in Brum .
On 6th April 2011
- rating: 8
[User has posted 797 recommendations about 683 pubs]