The Beer Station in Freshfield

The Beer Station, near the train station

Right next to Freshfield Station you will find the Beer Station, a new micropub that was opened on 22nd July by father and son team Ian and Keir in a former newsagent's. It is a light and airy single-roomed bar with plain white walls exhibiting paintings and prints by local artists which you can buy. A church in Wallasey provided the bar, which was adapted from the choir stall – you can still see the angel's heads at each end – and much of the seating in the form of pews and chairs. We found the pub welcoming and were soon chatting away to the licensee and other customers when a friend walked in out of the blue – small world!

The real ales available when we called in were Liverpool Organic Bier Head, Liverpool Organic Cascade and a stout from Formby's Red Star Brewery, Havana Moon. All were in good nick and, although I am not usually a stout drinker, I did enjoy the Havana Moon. The beers usually come from local breweries and have previously included brews from Melwood, Neptune and Rock The Boat.

A row of fonts offered three beers from the Freedom Brewery of Staffordshire: Authentic Lager (matured for four weeks), King Koln, described as a homage to Kolsch, and Prototype Pale Ale. We were given a sample of the pale ale: we agreed it perhaps needed a few more hops, but it wasn't bad at all, although to my real ale tastes it seemed a bit like bottled beer. We were told the lager is brewed to Bavarian purity standards.

Happy 2-legged and 4-legged customers

The bottled beer range includes the products of Red Star, 3 Potts of Southport, and Sentinel of Sheffield. Wines and spirits are available, in particular Formby Gin and Gregal, which we were informed is a particularly fine rosé from the Maltese island of Gozo.

Children and dogs are welcome, they offer basic snacks such as pies and crisps, and there is free WiFi for customers.

The Beer Station is at 3 Victoria Buildings, Freshfield, L37 7DB. Tel: 01704 807450. Opening hours: Mon-Thu 3.00 to 9.00; Fri 3.00 to 10.00; Sat 12.00 to 10.00; Sun 12.00 to 9.00.

This is part of a series of articles that I am writing for the CAMRA column in our local paper, the Southport Visiter. Previous reviews are here.