Liverpool wanderings

I was in Liverpool yesterday to have a drink with Steve in the the Baltic Fleet, a brew pub in Wapping. I had Baltic Classic, pleasant enough, but I preferred the Baltic Gold and the Summer Ale that I'd had in the same pub on Sunday. The Baltic Fleet has a special offer that if you buy 3 pints of cask beer under 4.5% in strength, you pay for two and a half, which works out at £6.25 for 3 pints. The pub was full of TUC delegates from the conference centre across the road. Another friend, also called Steve, gave me a bag of freebies that he had picked up at the congress. So I now have a history of the Prison Officers' Association and a POA mug, a CWU bag and a stress buster shaped like a post box and pens from various unions.

We left for the Cains Brewery Tap and had the new Cains beer, Liverbird, followed by one called Voyager. I don't know whether my taste buds were still recovering from the Southport beer festival or not, but these both tasted similar and unremarkable to me, and not worth the £2.66 price. Disappointing, as Cains have brewed some beer I do like. The Liverbird was supposed to have a citrus flavour, but I couldn't detect it.

We moved to the Grapes at the corner of Knight Street and Roscoe Street. I wrote about this pub in June and it was much the same. Everards Tiger, Deuchars IPA and London Pride were on. Not a startling line-up, but excellent for a back street pub rescued by the current licensees from closure. They play good music there as well ~ not the usual piped musical fare. We had the Tiger, which was in good condition and tasted much as you'd expect.

With time pressing on, we had a quick last pint in the Dispensary on Renshaw Street before rushing for our last train and bus. Not the best night in beer terms I've had in Liverpool, but as I said, my taste buds may still be scorched from the weekend.

P.S. I've just noticed this is my 100th posting, and I began this blog exactly 6 months ago to the day ~ what a coincidence! Not quite as many postings as Tandleman, but still an average of more than one posting every two days. And I wondered when I began it whether I could keep it going for a month...