6th July 2013 - Black Country brewery Taps

I was planning on Hereford for an outing today but various cancellations dictated against that leaving just me and RG.  Quick bit of thinking therefore results in a change of plan and a trip round the main brewery taps in the Black country by train and bus.  Planning the various buses showed this was perhaps easier going north to south.

Arriving at New Street, the first issue was buying the day ticket which took longer than usual due to the recent changes at the station.  After 10 minutes, maybe longer, we had the ticket and headed off to catch the train to Wolverhampton for a quick visit to the Great Western.

Whilst not a brewery tap, the Holden's beers are excellent here so a chance to sample more than would have been the case had we stuck to the brewery taps.  Black Country Bitter and Bush's Brew were my choices (the latter being one of their special range covering world leaders.)

We now headed off to the bus stop for the number 9 bus to take us to Sedgley where we walked to the Beacon hotel, home of Sarah Hughes brewery.  Amber was my first choice, followed by a guest, Oakham's Green Devil (6.0%) and no trip there would be complete without the Dark Ruby.  We didn't have time for a drink in the white horse opposite but noted this for a future visit as the choice of ales there looks interesting.  Instead we caught the 229 bus and soon arrived at the next pub, the Park Inn (Holden's brewery.)

This time I went for their Mild and thence another of their leader series,. Belusconi's Beam which we sampled in the garden.

Leaving we noticed the bus fast approaching so I raced to the bus stop whilst RG strolled across the zebra crossing next to the bus stop meaning we caught the 81 bus which will take us on to Netherton.

At Netherton we had a short stroll to the Old Swan (Ma Pardoe's - Allgates Brewery)) where I had the Pardoe's Dark Swan and then the Alchemist (4.9%.)

Rejoining bus 81 we headed next to Merry Hill bus staion and eventually found our way to the Vine (Bull and Bladder) in Delph Road.  A rather noisy party obviously towards the end of their own Black Country Beer bus trip (double decker was parked outside) but we managed to find a quiet spot for one of their pork pies (very tasty) and Batham's Mild.

We then walked to get the 276 bus down the Lye for the Windsor Castle (Sadler's Brewery.)  There was time for 3 beers here namely Dr Hardwicke's Double IPA (8.5% - didn't taste it), Thin Ice (4.4%) and finally Mellow Yellow (4.1%) before the short stroll to Lye train station and journey home.