A warm weekend in Bamberg, Germany

Bamberg was one of those places I’d fancied visiting for a while – with a historic old town and numerous breweries what’s not to love? – so for Ross’ birthday I booked us a weekend away.

However, my flight booking skills weren’t the best and we ended up arriving Friday night and leaving Sunday morning. As we didn’t end up with that much time in the town, we were determined to make the most of it.

And despite having less than 48 hours in Bamberg, we managed to clock up visits to quite a few of the beer gardens and pubs so here’s a little look at the ones we spent time in.

The pubs of Lindisfarne

After spending a couple of days exploring the bright lights of Newcastle, we drove onto somewhere completely different – the Holy Island, Lindisfarne.

I’d wanted to visit to see the historic sites so beer wasn’t my highest priority on this leg of our trip, but Lindisfarne does have a couple of pubs – and even a brewery! Here’s a little guide.

The Grove and Magic Rock Tap, Huddersfield

Living in Manchester means that I’m not only spoiled in terms of places to drink good beer in the city itself, but also the excellent transport links providing easy access to many other cities and towns.

With a free day, we decided to hop on the train and take a trip to Huddersfield for a visit to the Magic Rock Tap. It’s not my first trip to Magic Rock Tap as I visited last year for the Rainbow Project launch but it was my first experience visiting on a ‘normal’ day as opposed to a special event.

Five great beer bars in Reykjavik

We’ve just got back from our second trip to Iceland – it was a multi-destination adventure that involved staying in seven different places across the country with a total of four nights spent in Reykjavik. It may be an expensive city but it’s also a very fun one and has plenty of places to get a decent beer. We visited a fair number of the bars while we were there, but here’s just five of the best places to drink beer in Reykjavik in my humble view.

Mikkeller & Friends Reykjavik

I had to start with Mikkeller! Located in an attic on top of a restaurant (keep climbing, it’s not on the ground floor!), it’s a bit hidden away but was popular with both locals and visitors on each occasion we popped in. It’s the fourth Mikkeller bar I’ve visited now and the beer selection didn’t disappoint with the 20 taps dominated by Mikkeller and To Ol beers for the majority of the time we were there. I say majority as they held a Chicago tap takeover the day after our first weekend in Reykjavik and when we returned, there were still some US beers available.

A fairly cosy venue, the main bar is in one room with the seating in another. This is a larger space featuring a wall filled with Mikkeller posters in frames, plenty of seating and a relaxed atmosphere. It’s not cheap but it’s a great place to spend a few hours.

Micro Bar

Micro Bar featured heavily in the post I did on beer in Iceland last year, and as we enjoyed it so much we decided to stay in the hotel which houses it (City Center Hotel) on our return to Reykjavik. It’s operated by brewery Gaedingur who are based in the countryside near Skagafjordur in North Iceland, and as a result their taps are dominated by their own beers but they also feature other Icelandic and international brands.

They also have one experimental beer on, which was a Berliner Weiss during our stay. Boards of five or ten tasters are on offer if you want to sample the whole range and they also have a varied selection of bottles.

**Update November 2015 –
I’ve just found out that Micro Bar has moved to a bigger site in Reykjavik! They’re now located at Vesturgata 2 which is just around the corner from City Center Hotel opposite the Tourist Information centre. We’ll have to make a return visit to Reykjavík to check it out!

Kaldi Bar

Located off one of the main shopping streets of Reykjavik, Kaldi looks deceptively small from the outside but do venture in! Alongside the main bar, there is a cosy snug room at the back and a small terrace out back. It feels rustic and intimate although it can get quite crowded but the beers are excellent and the staff friendly and helpful. Another bonus of Kaldi Bar is that they have a happy hour where a selection of their large beers are available for 700isk (about £3.50).

Skuli

As a result of spending so much time in Mikkeller , we only actually had one drink in Skuli but it was a great little bar and the majority of patrons were locals. Most of the beers on keg were from Borg Brugghus but they also have options from Belgian brewers along with the likes of Mikkeller, To Ol and Omnipollo on too. It also has an outdoor seating area – which is very useful as we popped in about 10pm on a Friday evening and it was rammed (hence the lack of pics)! They also do a happy hour.

Kex

When we travel, we generally stick to fairly mid-range accommodation but we decided to go for a night in Kex as it comes very highly rated and looked quite a fun and quirky place to stay. It was my first ever stay in a hostel (we didn’t stay in a dorm, we had a private double room although the bathrooms were shared – I don’t think I’m quite ready to sleep in a room with 14 strangers!) and I was impressed. It’s a huge building (a former biscuit factory) and alongside its accommodation, there is a bar open to all on the first floor. With an industrial theme, the Kex bar fits with its building and has a good atmosphere. On draught they mainly have Einstok but they also have one special on and while we were there it was Omnipollo’s Leon. We only had one in there before heading out for food, but when we returned later on it was bustling.

Bonus: Vinbudin

Only low alcohol booze is available in your standard shop or supermarket, so it’s the off licence you have to head to for anything stronger. Although they have some odd opening times, it’s worth a visit if you can find one. We popped into the one on Austurstraeti where we found a good selection of Icelandic beers along with Mikkeller available. Different shops have different beer on offer as well – for example, we visited one Vinbudin in the north of Iceland that had a lot of Gaedingur so although it’s pricier than the shop at Keflavik Airport, it could be worth a visit for something a bit different to take home.

Wondering what else you can do in Iceland’s capital that doesn’t involve alcohol? See my guide to the ten things you need to do in Reykjavik on my other blog Jollies and Jaunts.

A beer-filled adventure in Cologne

One of my guilty pleasures in life is Taylor Swift, I bloody love her. And it’s because of Taylor Swift that we ended up spending a few days in Cologne earlier this year – I bought tickets for the 1989 tour date in the city (at a much cheaper price than the Manchester tickets were) with the intention of combining it with a bit of a boozy holiday, so that’s what we did.

One of the joys of Cologne is that they basically only sell one type of beer – Kolsch – which makes ordering so much easier and quicker. It’s basically a pale lager and is served in 0.2l glasses as it goes flat quickly.  In the city’s beer halls, it’s served by waiters who wander round with a specially-designed holder for the glasses popping a new drink down for customers when their glass is looking a bit empty. All drinks are marked down on beer mats, and when you’ve had enough the idea is you put your mat on top of your glass. In practice, you don’t really need to do this in most places as they can usually tell when you’re an idiotic tourist who can’t speak the language/understand how it works and they ask you.

During our time in Cologne, we explored many of the city’s drinking establishments so here’s a little guide to some of the places we visited and the ones I’d say are the best bars and beer halls in Cologne.

Gaffel am Dom

It’s one of the more famous brewers of Kolsch, and one you can probably get here in the UK. The beer hall is just opposite the main train station, so it does attract a large number of tourists. But we didn’t see any coach parties/tour groups, which is good, and there were also a few regulars who looked like they came in every day for their lunch. A good place to start off in Cologne, and plenty of seating.

Brauhaus Früh am Dom

Probably the other internationally-known Kolsch producer, Früh’s beer hall was absolutely huge with a number of different rooms and areas (although some are reserved just for diners) along with a beer garden. As the name suggests, it is very close to the Catherdral. We only visited once as it was OK, but we felt there were better places.

Hellers Brauhaus

This was a much less touristy spot as it was further out and was one of our favourites. It has a large conservatory style seating area with long benches, plants and a fountain, and as we’d heard it was very popular we got in there early for dinner. The food was excellent (hearty portions – as you get everywhere in Germany!) and unlike other breweries in Cologne, they make more than one type of beer! Alongside the Kolsch you could get a Pils, an Altbier (controversial!), a Weiss (which is not a wheat beer, it’s an unfiltered version of Kolsch) and a Weizen. One absolute joy I discovered on the menu was Weizen with additional banana juice – I’m a huge fan of banana flavours so I loved it but I don’t think it would appeal to everyone. Definitely worth a visit if you’re in Cologne.

In the area around Hellers, there’s also a few bars which we visited – Stiefel, Umbruch and Tankstelle. I’m still not 100% sure if you’re meant to go to the bar or wait for table service at these types of places and they usually only have one type of beer on offer (Kolsch from one of the bigger breweries generally). If you want to avoid the tourists and hang out with the locals, these are the places to do it.

Weissbrau

This was probably the German equivalent of going to an Irish-themed bar in the UK – it was dedicated to all things Bavarian. It had Hefeweizen on offer (nice beer) but it was very quiet and the staff seemed bored. I guess it’s just not the type of thing they’re into in Cologne, and if you’re after somewhere with a bit of atmosphere, you’d probably want to look elsewhere.

Brauhaus Sion

This is another centrally located beer hall that’s quite popular with tourists. It was another one we only popped into for a drink and Sion seems to appear fairly regularly at Piccadilly Tap, so I’d already tried it but felt we had to go for it while we were there. Food looked pretty good, but probably not somewhere we’d rush back to.

Malzmühle

This is up there as one of my favourite beer halls in Cologne.It gives nothing away from the outside – you can’t see through the windows and it’s an old, wooden rotating door to enter. But it was fabulous. It was traditional, atmospheric and full of lovely features and most importantly, excellent Kolsch – and a Weizen! We also tried the food which was absolutely huge and delicious. It’s a pretty special place – and if you get a seat by the front, it’s fun to watch the reactions of people as they come through the door.

Peters Brauhaus

This is one of the nicest looking beer halls in Cologne – if you want to have a look they have a full tour on their website. The decor was lovely, in particular the large, brightly-coloured dome in the main room. We ate there one evening and the experience was only slightly marred by the fact that we seemed to have been placed in a designated tourists’ room and the only other people in the room were a large family with a baby (who we were seated right next to which was a bit frustrating when there was plenty of space and no one really wants to be near someone else’s child in a beer hall) and a group including one American chap who wanted the whole room to hear his boring story. But, we liked the place and returned again for a drink. This time it was standing room only at the bar, so it felt a bit more like what we’re used to!

 

Braustelle

Our trip to Braustelle was our only use of Cologne’s U-Bahn and it was very much worth the trip. This would fairly be described as a ‘craft beer brewery’ as it’s not just Kolsch you’ll get here. They do do a Kolsch (Helios), but they’re quite experimental and had plenty of interesting beers on their eight taps. Herbs feature quite often, as do barrel-aged options. A number of the choices weren’t my thing at all – including sours and rye beers – but after a few days only drinking Kolsch, I was hankering for something else and this place really hit the spot. It’s only small and got very busy on our visit (and it appears to be table service, even if you’re only drinking), but it’s worth making the underground journey for. Try the Pink Panther.

Thiebalds Eck

A nice little neighbourhood bar which was slightly off the beaten track but close to Neumarkt. The beer was Reissdorf, the atmosphere was friendly – we were the only non-locals but no one cared. A highlight was the locals all getting up and dancing to Europop. Great if you want somewhere more authentic and less touristy.

Bei d’r Tant

Close to Theibalds Eck but on the main street, this was an odd little bar. Its clientele seemed mainly to be men on business trips when we were there, and Ross got laughed at by the bar man by ordering something which turned out to be the equivalent of shandy followed by a bottle of Franziskaner. The downstairs bar area looked nice with benches built into the walls with little tables, and lots of dark wood and I found myself enjoying the music as it played a selection of tracks I have on my iPod including Rick Astley, Simple Plan and Abba. The Kolsch on offer was Gaffel.

Gaststatte Lommerzheim

This was quite possibly one of my favourite places. It’s on the other side of the river from the Dom/Old Town but on the same side as the Lanxess Arena, so we popped in for food before the Taylor Swift gig. It was very full but we managed to squeeze on the end of a table in the courtyard sat opposite an old German chap who was merrily making his way through a number of glasses of Kolsch. The food was excellent and the portions absolutely gigantic. It wasn’t rare for me not to be able to finish German-sized meals, but here even Ross couldn’t finish. This was the only place where you definitely had to follow the coaster on glass rule – the waiters and waitresses were so efficient that a new drink would appear once you’d made it about halfway through your current one. The atmosphere was excellent with diverse customers – from families with (well behaved) kids, to couples, to older groups of men – although we were the only non-Germans. A highlight for me was aforementioned gent opposite us laughing at Ross when he burped then proceeding to tell all the waiters something which we assumed was about us English people not being able to handle their portions and then trying to explain to us in broken English how funny he found it. I liked him.

On a side note as I’ve mentioned the Lanxess Arena, the beer was OK for a gig venue. I had a few bottles of Maisel Weiss and it wasn’t particularly expensive. Compare this to the Manchester Arena which I went to a few days later (OK, I ended up getting Manchester tickets too), where I got absolutely ripped off for a a Newcastle Brown Ale and a bottle of water that I wasn’t even allowed to keep the bloody lid for.

Brauhaus Sünner im Walfisch

Another centrally located beer hall full of character, we dined at this place two nights in a row as we liked it that much. It wasn’t the biggest beer hall we visited, but it had plenty of seating and was moderately busy on both our visits. We sat ourselves at the back in a tiny little table hidden under an alcove underneath the stairs. It felt private and intimate, but not cut off from the rest of the bar. Alongside their Kolsch, Sünner also make a wheat beer which was very well done and another welcome break from the fizzy Kolsch.

 

Brauhaus Gilden im Zims

It’s very centrally located and as a result, gets very very busy. We tried to visit once but found it full, but a few days later we were in. I liked the look of the building as it was so old and we’d found a seat at the front of the bar by the barrels so we could see the beer being poured, but the Kolsch (Gilden) definitely wasn’t my favourite. A nice feature is the guide to Cologne heroes featured in the menu.

 

This is nowhere near exhaustive, and it’s not even every place we visited. Some spots we only popped in for a drink and I didn’t spend enough time in them to properly judge/remember them, so I’ve not included them. But if you’re looking for a great European city with good beer, hearty grub and plenty to do, I highly recommend Cologne.

 

And a little mention for Dusseldorf:

Flights between Manchester and Dusseldorf were at much better times than services to Cologne and cheaper, so we flew into Dusseldorf and got the train over. Trains to Cologne are about every half an hour and take 40 odd minutes. We decided to spend a day visiting Dusseldorf to see the famous ‘longest bar in the world’ I’d heard so much about. I’m not a fan of Altbier so I didn’t really enjoy the beer as much – with the exception of the Kurzer Alt at Brauerei Kurzer which is worth trying if you’re visiting. Another recommendation is Uerige, a really lovely old pub in the heart of the old town. We sat in the Brauhof, or Courtyard (it’s inside) and it had a great atmosphere with a mix of local older gents popping in for one on their way home, couples eating and larger groups. Dusseldorf also has plenty of cocktail and sports bars, if that’s your thing instead.

Thornbridge Brewery and Buxton Tap House

Only just over an hour away from Manchester, Buxton is in the heart of the Peak District and surrounded by hills and rolling countryside. But more importantly, it’s home to Buxton Brewery (and their tap house) and is very close to Thornbridge Brewery in nearby Bakewell, which is why we decided to spend a weekend in the town.

We kicked off with the Thornbridge Brewery tour on Friday afternoon. They run tours twice a week and you do need to book in advance. It costs £7.50 which includes your glass and a couple of a free drinks.

On arrival to their site (£30 in a taxi from Buxton), we walked through the shop, paid and then made our way to the bar where we were offered a half. They’ve got two kegs and one cask available along with a few bottles in a fridge. Bayern, I Love You Will U Marry Me? were on keg during our visit and Sequoia was on cask.

After a beer, the tour started with an intro to the brewery. They were originally set up within Thornbridge Hall when the owners bought the site and brewing started at its current location a few years later. The older site is still used for experimenting with new brews.

We then got on our hi-vis vests and went out back to the brewery.

Throughout the tour, it is obvious that this is a brewery that hasn’t shied away from spending cash. All of the equipment looked very modern and technology played a huge part in the brewery process.

This was most evident in the control room where you could see the computer systems which keep the tanks under control and monitor everything.

 

They’ve also got their own bottling line to keep everything in house and plenty of storage room.

Part of the tour took us over to a second building where they’re currently storing a new collaboration with Brooklyn Brewery – known as Serpent. It’s ageing away in Bourbon barrels and although they’re keeping their cards close to their chest, they’re aiming to release it soon. The sheer amount of barrels was an impressive sight to see!

After the tour, we went back to the bar and shop area where we made some bottle purchases and sampled a few more beers. It would’ve been nice for more beers on keg/cask, but as they don’t open very often I can see why they only offer a couple. It was an interesting tour as some work was still ongoing in the brewery – most other tours I’ve been on seem to be when they’re not too busy. In total, we were there for about two hours and had three halves each.

During the two and a half days we were in Buxton, the vast majority of our time was spent in Buxton Tap House mainly as a result of the sheer amount of choice – eight keg, five/six cask and a good selection of bottles.

The draught beers were all Buxton but the bottles featured a number of other UK and international breweries (including my beloved Mikkeller) and were all available to take away with a 20% discount.

 

The bar itself is spacious and modern and has a mix of seating including tables and chairs, and couches. It was also always fairly busy – probably due to the limited number of options in the town. Some food is also served – burgers (inc veggie option), sandwiches and some sides such as macaroni cheese and cheesy nachos.

The highlight of the weekend beer-wise was Yellow Belly – a Buxton Brewery collaboration with Omnipollo. It’s an 11% peanut butter and biscuit – without actually using either of those ingredients – stout with an amazing chocolatey smell and big, biscuity flavours which are just sensational. Wow. And I’m generally not a fan of dark beers. Coming in at £4.35 for 1/3, it’s not cheap but so worth it. Ross picked up a bottle to bring back but I think he’ll be holding on to that for a while!

Sadly, it looks like we picked the wrong date to visit as this Thursday they’re hosting an Omnipollo takeover! It would’ve been nice to sample more of theirs, but what can you do.

But, even without the additional Omnipollo beers, Buxton Tap House was great place to visit and with fairly regular trains to Manchester it’d be easy enough for a day trip – so go and visit!

Ulverston pub crawl

At the beginning of this year, we decided to book a trip for our anniversary. Our criteria was that the place we picked had to have a train station and a brewery. We’d originally gone for Buxton but not one B&B would take single night stays during the weekend (ridiculous!), and instead decided to go to Ulverston in the south of Cumbria.

It’s a fairly small town and probably less on the tourist trail than other destinations within Cumbria, but it was a nice little place by the sea and for its size, there’s definitely decent amount of pubs in Ulverston.

It was a easy enough journey from Manchester (it’s on the Preston – Barrow train line so has a fairly frequent service) and after a stroll around the town, our first port of call was The Mill.

This is owned by Lancaster Brewery (we went on their tour earlier this year) and has a very distinctive feature – a moving waterwheel in the middle of the pub! Set within the very heart of the site, it really helps to keep the history of the building alive. We also heard a family come in and ask the manager some questions about the wheel and the building’s past so it seems it’s not just on show for the drinkers.

It also had a cute terrace, although it was a bit chilly to sit out there.

Beer-wise, there were a few handpumps – unsurprisingly, mainly serving Lancaster’s beers – so although it was a good pub to see, we decided to just stay for one as there wasn’t a plethora of options.

Our second stop off was Old Friends. We mainly popped in as it was on the way up to our accommodation (Candlewyck B&B, very cute place. excellent breakfast!) and we were their first customers of the day as it was just opening its doors as we wandered up.

It has everything a pub should have – good selection of beers including local options, plenty of seating across two rooms, board games, a beer garden and a cat – Max. The beers on while we were there included Hawkhead’s Lakeland Lager as well as options from Stringers in Ulverston and Barngates Brewery in Ambleside.

It looks to be a family-run establishment and we were warmly welcomed. It was very much a community pub with various events taking place – including a gig in the beer garden that afternoon – and on Sundays it also serves a roast, the only food it does.

After checking in to our accommodation, we had a stroll down the canal. As it’s next to the GlaxoSmithKline factory, it’s not the most picturesque waterway but it’s pleasant enough for a wander around and leads right down to the sea.

As we reached the coast, Ross said this would be a good place for a pub – and lo and behold, there was one! The Bay Horse faces across the bay, and is a freehouse so we were hoping for some local beer.

Unfortunately, the beer selection was just dull and uninspired – three handpumps with only two of them on, serving Jennings’ Cumberland Ale and a Help for Heroes special from Marston. As the inn had a significantly-sized restaurant and accommodation on site, I can’t help but thinking they should have put more effort into their beer choices to encourage people to stay.

Despite the disappointing beers, the pub itself was quite an appealing place with a traditional main bar with a large conservatory for dining offering views across the bay. The main bar area wasn’t particularly well laid out as if you stood at one section of the bar you were blocking the way to the toilets and the other section, where the handpumps were, had a table right in front of it which was occupied by a family.

Not somewhere worth making a special effort to go to (unless the food is good, we can’t vouch for that), but if you’re there anyway it’s OK.

We dined that evening at the Farmers Arms, which was recommended to us by our accommodation. A salmon-coloured building at the main square of the town, it served excellent food in huuuge portions. It did have some local ales on, but the bar was too busy to really check them out so I just went for the waitress’ recommendation – The Welly by Healeys which appears to be a local microbrewery within a pub but there’s not much info about them online.

Walking off our dinner, we headed on over to The Swan. This is slightly outside the town centre, but only a ten minute stroll away – but according to some of the locals we overheard it’s a considered quite a walk back to the main part of town.

It’s a very traditional style of pub and if you’re into cask ales, this is the place for you! With about ten handpumps on as well as a few beers on keg, it had plenty of choice although disappointingly the majority of the cask beers seemed to be by Moorhouses (nothing wrong with them, but we can get them easy enough in Manchester so I was looking for something more local).

But despite its decent range it was fairly quiet, even though it was Saturday evening. This is a shame because the sheer amount of beers on offer outnumbered anywhere else in the town. I notice it has no internet presence at all and does seem to be aimed squarely at locals so maybe some more promotion would encourage visitors to come and check it out.

View of Ulverston from The Swan

On the way back into the main town centre, our next stop was the Stan Laurel Inn. Named after Ulverston’s most famous son, it’s quite popular as a food establishment and was very family friendly with children welcomed even of an evening. There’s the main bar with a few cosy tables, a larger room out the back with a pool table and darts, and a restaurant area. There’s also a couple of seats outside but it’s not particularly inspiring (and it’s the staff car park) so it’s more for the smokers than for use as a beer garden.

It had six ales on offer, including My Home Town by Ulverston so it was good to try something by them.

 

Our penultimate port of call for the evening was The Devonshire Arms. It was about a five minute walk through a mainly residential area (and under a large railway bridge) to reach this little pub.

From the outside, it looks quite unassuming and gives no hint of the secret you find within…

And then when you enter, you’re hit by the decor – the whole inside of the pub is painted a rather distinctive/eye-catching/blinding/quirky/hideous/memorable/striking/obtrustive (choose your own adjective) shade of bright green!

 

But don’t hold that against it, it’s a very good pub and was one of the busiest non-food establishments we visited.

 

As for its beer offer, I was pleasantly surprised. Five cask ales, including three from Cumbrian Legendary Ales, were available as were some keg choices.

 

Despite the questionable decor (which to be honest, I stopped noticing pretty quickly), I enjoyed this quirky little place – how often do you spend any amount of time in a place completely painted lime green!

As it was getting on at this point we popped back to Old Friends for a few more and a game of Scrabble before calling it a night.

 

Ulverston may not be a huge town, but there are plenty of places where you can get a good pint which is probably as a result of its brewing heritage. During our stay, one place we couldn’t help but notice was the former Hartley’s Brewery.

Set just off one of the main roads into town, these historic buildings have just been left to decay.

There’s a plaque commemorating the site’s past (brewing started at the site in 1755, it became Hartley’s in 1919, then bought by Robinsons in 1982 and brewing was stopped just nine years later) and the old buildings still stand, along with a large Hartley’s ‘ghost’ sign. Apparently some parts of it are still in use, possibly as a distribution site for Robinsons. There’s some interesting images on urban exploration site 28 Days Later taken inside the site from a few years ago.

I did wonder how such a large site could be left as it is for so many years and what (if any) plans there are for it’s future, and it looks like sadly like it’s going to be wasted and turned into a bloody supermarket! I know I’m not a local and maybe there is support in the area for a Tesco or the like, but I find the whole ‘turn anything into a superstore’ mentality of most developers tiresome. Surely Robinsons could turn it into a visitor attraction like they’ve done at their site in Stockport, make it an arts centre like the former Tetley site in Leeds or just sell it to another brewery? To me a bland supermarket seems such a pointless use of a historic site and I do hope a better purpose is found for it.

Living in Manchester means we are spoiled for choice when it comes to beer and although Ulverston couldn’t compete on the same level, I was pleasantly surprised by the choice available and the number of good little pubs so the town is definitely worth a visit for beer lovers.

A beer lover’s guide to Iceland

Last autumn we had a Scandinavian holiday and spent time in Copenhagen, Stockholm and Iceland. Being a very lazy blogger, I’ve so far only got round to posting about the Danish part of our holiday (although I have had a half-finished Sweden post saved in my drafts for months!) but with the opening of the glorious Mikkeller in Reykjavik, now seems a good time to blog about some of Iceland’s other beery delights.

Iceland’s beer scene isn’t as developed as some other countries (well, beer was banned until 1989 so they’ve got some catching up to do) but there are a number of breweries and a decent number of bars especially in Reykjavik. There’s also an Icelandic beers badge on Untappd (the delightfully named Brew Lagoon).

The most well-known Icelandic brewery outside of the island is probably Einstok – some of their beers are usually available in Booths.

We spent a few days in Reykjavik then hired a car and drove the south of the island to Vik, before heading back to the airport via the Blue Lagoon. Here are some of my recommendations for places you should visit in Iceland for beer:

Keflavik Airport

A good place to start, because this is where most visitors will arrive. It’s about 40 minutes away from Reykjavik (the capital does have its own airport but it’s mainly for domestic flights) and there are frequent bus services. But the most important thing to note is the duty free shop. It is also tax free, so prices can be about 15% cheaper than anywhere else on the island. The shops are on both sides – when we landed the shop at arrivals was full of Icelanders stocking up. and we got some to drink in the hotel (Einstok Arctic Berry Ale, it was lovely). Not beer-related but another useful tip – if you go to the Blue Lagoon (more on than that later), they have a large shop at departures selling the products which are on sale at the Lagoon’s gift shop but at a much cheaper price.

 

Vinbudin

Alcohol is not on sale in regular shops, you can only buy it at the state-owned off licence chain Vinbudin. It has about 50 shops across the island. We didn’t go to any during our visit – we didn’t spot any when we were in Reykjavik and although we spotted one while we were driving through a town (I can’t remember which one), it had very limited opening hours, so I’d recommend buying beer at the airport if you’re not planning on going out too much.

 

Micro Bar

Micro Bar was our drinking establishment of choice while we were in Reykjavik.

It’s located within a hotel, so has a mix of clientele and definitely had the best selection out of all the places we visited. It has a number of beers on keg, as well as a huge list of bottles – but be prepared to pay for it!

 

 

Prices for the keg options weren’t too bad but some of the bottles were on the steep side so we stayed away from these. The draught beers seemed to change quite regularly so if you’re in the city for a fair amount of time there should be something new for you to try. They also do flights if you’re keen to sample everything.

Frederiksen Ale House

This was the first venue we visited in Reykjavik and we had dinner here on the first evening. The bar itself is quite large with plenty of seating, and the majority of the visitors seemed to be locals.

It had Einstok, Viking and Thule on draught – these are the three brands which pop up pretty much anywhere you are. Viking and Thule are OK, but I definitely prefer Einstok. And while we were there, it was happy hour and it was two for one on pints. I’ve just had a look at the prices on their website, it’s about £4.80 for a pint normally, so can’t complain for the price!

The food was excellent too – I can’t remember what he had, but here’s Ross’:

And I went for fish and chips (excuse the blurry pic!):

Ölstofa Kormáks og Skjaldar

Located on a little side street off a street with many bars/cafes, this is a cosy little spot. It’s known for Brio, its own beer which has scooped a number of prizes – although I didn’t try it (I went for a wheat beer by Borg Brugghús instead). It seems more the type of places where locals would drink rather than tourists, and had the vibe of being more of a community place instead of a cool craft bar.

 

Blue Lagoon

I’ve got to mention the Blue Lagoon. The guidebooks say it’s touristy, and it is, but we both enjoyed ourselves while there. It did wonders for my ezcema and it was lovely to swim round in the warm water (it was raining while we were there, but this didn’t detract from our enjoyable – in fact it made it a bit better because it was noticeably quieter). You’re given a wristband which is used to open and close your locker and to pay for anything while you’re in there. This is particularly useful as there is a bar in the water! It’s not got a huge range, but there is beer which is nice. There’s something very satisfying about enjoying a pint while relaxing in warm water. Two non-beer tips – 1. you can buy face masks at the bar but there are tubs of it for free around the lagoon and 2. you can take phones/cameras in with you but it just means you’ll have to keep one arm up in the air, so don’t bother!

Northern Light Inn

We decided to do the Blue Lagoon at the end of our trip, and is it in the middle of nowhere. The town of Grindavik is about a 10 minute drive away (we found it as we needed to put fuel in the hire car before returning it), and the Blue Lagoon does have a hotel. But there is also the Northern Light Inn which is about a 3 minute drive away from the lagoon. We stayed here and loved it! It’s got a restaurant and honesty bar  so you can get some decent booze (bottles of Einstok and wine mainly), and also provides useful services including free transfers to the Blue Lagoon and the airport as well as a Northern Lights wake up call. It wasn’t cheap but our hire car company (Blue Car Rental) gave us the option of returning the car at the Blue Lagoon so the free airport transfer made it a good deal for us.

 

So there are some of my tips for enjoying Iceland if you’re a beer lover. It’s by no means an exhaustive list but I hope it helps someone out! Before we visited, I didn’t know what to expect from the beer scene in Iceland – especially after being spoiled by Copenhagen. But there are some very good bars and amazing beer (the lovely water probably helps) so although it can be a bit pricey, it’s definitely worth it. As proof of this, we’re planning on going back this year to see more of the island and obviously visit the new Mikkeller bar!

To finish off, here’s an image of one of the most fantastic places we visited – Jökulsárlón. It had a real ethereal feel to it and is somewhere that really has to be seen to be believed!

 

 

Lancaster pub crawl with Lancaster Brewery tour

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this as a result of a new job which means I spend a lot of my day blogging so I’m less inclined to do it of an evening!

But now I think it’s time to post about the Christmas present I got for Ross – a tour of Lancaster Brewery, which we combined with a mini-pub crawl.

Lancaster was somewhere I visited a lot as a child as my grandparents lived in the city, but I haven’t been back for a number of years so it was interesting to revisit and see it with adult eyes.

Our first port of call was The Sun, a pub which is owned by Lancaster Brewery.

It’s quite a modern pub and appears to have been recently done up, but the building was lovely and they’d kept some quirky features – including a well in the back room.

They’d also reclaimed part of the garden and turned it into part of the building.

And as for the beer – a range of cask and keg options, not just limited to Lancaster Brewery’s which was good to see.

But we couldn’t enjoy it fully and only stayed for a half. This was because some of the other patrons were a group of parents with babies and a toddler who was running around shouting and generally playing up as he was being ignored by the adults. This did spoil the atmosphere which was a real shame as we could’ve stayed for another, and we had wondered why everyone else was squeezed in the smaller room which housed the bar when we arrived!

(As someone who doesn’t have children I’m not against them being in pubs, but there is a line that gets crossed when kids are running wild and being a disturbance to the detriment of other patrons.)

We then did some of the touristy bits and pieces (castle and Williamson Park) before heading over to the brewery.

It’s not in the centre – it’s about a 25 minute walk away up a huge hill and on a site which includes an antiques centre, a farm shop and a building site which will soon become housing. The brewery itself is in a former gardening centre.

I’d paid for the tour beforehand with a Groupon voucher (£35 for both of us which included tour, 4 pints each and a pie each) and on arrival after filling in health and safety forms (never done this before at any brewery we’ve previously visited), we were presented with cards for our four pints.

We each had two halves and then it was time for the tour.

We were dressed up in white coats and taken around the brewery in the back.

The tour lasted about 40 minutes and was led by one of the bar staff, who was friendly and keen to answer any questions. It was very chilly though as it was a bitterly cold day and there’s a lot of ventilation in the brewery which probably didn’t help!

Afterwards, we went back into the lovely and warm bar area and continued sampling their wares before being presented with the pies.

By this point we’d gone through all of the beer options available and although we hadn’t used all of the tokens on the card, we got a taxi back into the city centre (cost about £5, brewery called a taxi for us).

The Tap House was our next port of call and we had big expectations based on the name.

But it was slightly disappointing as there just wasn’t that much choice. The majority of the beers were from Hawkshead – not sure if it was because of a takeover, or if they just weren’t that creative with their options. Maybe I’m being harsh though – I do like Hawkshead (we’ve been on their brewery tour) but I was expecting something rarer.

It did have a fairly extensive bottle menu which was good to see, but I’d definitely have preferred some more options on draught.

Our next and final destination was Merchants 1668. We were attracted to it as it’s historic and close to the train station so seemed a perfect ending point.

It’s truly an adorable pub located within historic wine cellars which date back more than 300 years. It has a number of different chambers so there is plenty of seating – even with one of the sections closed off for a private party on our visit.

And the beer? Well, a few of them were off which wasn’t ideal but there were options to please both Ross and I so we were happy.

It really was all about the atmosphere – it was chock full of charm and was very cosy. They also have a beer garden so I’d be keen to visit in the summer and test it out.

So was Lancaster worth the trip? We had an enjoyable day out and it is a lovely city, but I think beer-wise we’ve been spoiled by living in Manchester. However it’s nice to explore somewhere else, and as we were only there for a day we didn’t get the chance to visit everywhere we would have liked to (for example we kept hearing good things about the Water Witch but it was a bit out of our way) so there are more pubs to try and beers to sample which we missed out on purely because of time.

Liverpool pub crawl part two

Over the festive period, I returned home to sunny Southport and although it does now have some decent drinking spots (mainly Tap and Bottles, and The Inn Beer Shop),  it can be slightly limited.

But thanks to the joy of Merseyrail it’s only 45 minutes (and less than a fiver return) to Liverpool city centre and we decided to take full advantage of the rail link with two trips to explore the city’s pubs.

Our first trip was on the 28th. This was the day after my birthday but as a result of terrible Guinness in a dive of a pub in Southport I didn’t stay out particularly late and was ready for some good beer.

After a trip to the shops our first spot was The Philharmonic Dining Rooms on Hope Street, where we met up with my parents. It’s somewhere I’d never been before but I know it’s popular because of its lovely decor (and the fancy men’s toilets).

The interior is very ornate and worth seeing, although the beer options weren’t particularly exciting. It’s also huge with plenty of seating and a dining area upstairs. But being female, I didn’t get to visit the famed toilets (although Ross did and took a picture to show me). It was a half of Otter Ale by Otter Brewery for me before we moved on.

Stop two was the Clove Hitch, also on Hope Street. We had wanted to visit the 23 Club in the basement but it’s closed on Sundays. However the main bar has a good number of keg beers (about 15) as well as some bottles. After a few samples all round (very helpful bar staff) I opted for Liverpool Craft Beer Co’s excellent White Fox IPA.

Our next port of call was The Pilgrim.

We mainly went here because my dad wanted to watch the football but Ross was overjoyed to find Phoenix’s Christmas Kiss on cask, so we both went for that even though I hated it.

The Pilgrim is somewhere I went to once a few years ago for a gig and it is an OK little pub with a good outdoor seating area if you have smokers with you. And it shows Everton games too, if that’s your thing.

Our last stop of the day was Ye Cracke.

This was a very cute traditional pub with a few options on cask. I can’t remember what I had and I think the mobile signal was poor as I didn’t check anything in on Untappd but it was a cosy place with clientele of all ages so definitely somewhere I could have stayed for a few more.

But at this point we had to go fetch my dad from The Pilgrim where he’d stayed to watch the match then headed off to get food before going back to Southport.

Two days later we were back. On our first visit we’d decided to just try new places but for round two we decided to do a mixture of old favourites and some new spots.

After a wander down to the Pier Head to be tourists for a bit, we popped into Ye Hole in Ye Wall.

We last visited here earlier this year when it had its fire roaring away despite it being rather warm. This time the fire was much more welcome and we had a half each before popping into Thomas Rigby’s, which is within the same building.

Last time, Rigby’s was our final stop off and was fairly busy so it was nice to pop in when it was a bit quieter and get more of a feel for the place.

On our previous visit, I’d mentioned the number of Okell’s beers available. We recently found out it is actually owned by the Manx brewery so we both went for St Nick, a winter beer. It was unfortunately a bit tasteless and not something I’d go for again.

We were weighing up staying for a second (there is Weissbier which is always tempting) but decided to make a move.

The Lion Tavern was the next location for us.

Located close to Moorfields station, it is another traditional style pub with a decent choice of ales and CAMRA discount.

The pub has a small room at the front as well as two larger ones at the back. It’s a similar layout to the Briton’s Protection in Manchester and was mainly populated by older drinkers at this point in the day. It’s another welcoming pub, and it was nice to see its traditional decor.

We then popped across the road to The James Munro.

This looks like it has recently been done up and has more craft/’modern’ beer offered compared to our previous stop offs throughout the day.

I went for a Hefeweizen by West Brewery which was enjoyable while it was Wild Beer Co‘s Yankee Sandwich for Ross which he absolutely loved.

The only downside was that it was practically deserted which was a shame because it’s a nicely decorated bar with some interesting beer options and somewhere I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.

Next up was an old favourite – the Ship and Mitre. Always worth visiting with a great selection of UK and international beers (especially ideal for wheat beer fans like me). On the recommendation of the chap at the bar I went for the Konig Ludwig Weissbier, which I loved, while it was Black Cannon Stout from Burscough Brewing Company for Ross.

We also decided to grab some food in the Ship as I’ve never eaten there before. Despite them being out of scouse (boo!!) I went for sausages and chips and Ross had the chilli nachos. You do get a lot of food for your money!

After another half (the ever popular Jaipur by Thornbridge for me and Love Lane Pale by Liverpool Craft Beer Co for Ross) we wandered up to the other side of town to visit Brewdog.

The Liverpool outlet, which opened in November, is located off Bold Street and has a same industrial style design as its Manchester site.

But I definitely prefer the Manchester  bar, and I couldn’t really put my finger on why I didn’t really enjoy it. The atmosphere wasn’t as appealing as some of the other pubs we’d visited that day and I think in Liverpool there are better places to get decent beer so I doubt I’d make the effort to return here. But maybe this is just because it has only recently opened.

Our final stop was somewhere I hadn’t been for a good few years – The Swan Inn.

As it’s just a few minutes away from The Krazyhouse, the last time I came in here was for a pre-clubbing drink and it was still the same as I remembered it (no pictures I’m afraid).

It’s well known for its metal jukebox but I wasn’t aware of its real ale until we spotted an ad in the Liverpool CAMRA magazine, Merseyale, so decided to pop in and check it out. It was about 6pm and fairly busy but there were still some tables available.

It’s not the best looking or most cosy pub and the vast majority of visitors are there for the music rather than the beer.

Ross was chuffed to see Phoenix Brewery again – this time the old classic Wobbly Bob, complete with a very old style pump clip. I had The Great Escape by Maxim Brewery, which was OK.

It isn’t somewhere I would prioritise a trip to when compared with other pubs in the city, but still a worthwhile pre-Krazyhouse option if you’re heading off there.

With this, it was time to wander back to Central and catch the train. One of the benefits of Liverpool is that most of the city centre is easy to explore on foot so it’s a good option for a beery day out (or in our case, two days!) and I think we definitely made the most of our time there.