A true story

Not the dream woman!

I had a strange dream last night. A woman was holding up a Higsons "Famous Old Higsonians" beer mat with a sign that said: "Will exchange for sex."

This puzzled me for a while.

Then the truth dawned on me: until I'd had that dream, I had no idea that I had such an unrequited, deep-seated and subliminal desire to own Old Higsonian beer mats.

Supping nostalgia

An original R Cains poster

I see that the Cains name is to be revived with a new brewery set up within the old Higsons Brewery building where the most recent incarnation of Cains was brewed until 2013. Its disappearance wasn't much mourned, following as it did a drastic and sudden drop in quality; I wrote about it at the time here.

An entrepreneur called Andrew Mikhail, owner of bars and hotels in Merseyside including Punch Tarmey's, has acquired the name and states that the brewery will create 200 jobs and "partly model itself" on the Guinness Brewery visitor attraction in Dublin. If the 200 jobs do materialise, it would be a fairly sizeable operation.

The big old Higsons brewery building, Grade II listed, is being developed into a brewery village, which I wrote about in 2013 here. Mr Mikhail has given no indication yet whether he will revive the previous Cains beers or start from scratch with new recipes, as the latest manifestation of Higsons has done. I tried one of the new Higsons beers recently and didn't think it was anything special.

I'd be very surprised if this announcement will engender much excitement locally, but I'll save my judgement until I've tasted the product. This will be the second revival of the Cains name. The original Cains ceased to be brewed in Liverpool in the 1920s, but the name was called out of retirement in 1991. As for Higsons, we are now on the fourth version, if you include the original that was destroyed by Whitbread. I wonder how many times you can resuscitate a brand before its credibility evaporates completely?

Generally I don't see much point in using an old name and producing beers that have no resemblance to the originals; it's simply cashing in on brand nostalgia, but I suppose there's no harm in it because your beers will have to stand or fall on their quality: people won't sup solely for nostalgic reasons indefinitely.

The Volunteer Canteen, Waterloo

Waterloo is fortunate in that it has four Good Beer Guide pubs within a quarter of an hour walk, all reasonably close to Waterloo Station on the Liverpool to Southport line. Of these, only the Volunteer Canteen on East Street is a traditional pub, the others being converted from shops and a bank. The Volly is a mid-terrace, Victorian pub with an interesting exterior in a backstreet less than 10 minutes from the station and bus stops. Originally called Waddington's Canteen Vaults after an early landlord, it gained its present name in 1906 as a tribute to the fact that some of its then regulars had survived fighting in the Boer War.

The lounge still has table service

It used to be owned by Higsons of Liverpool, as you can still see in the engraved windows (you can just make the name out if you click on the top photo). It is a two-roomed pub in which I could see few signs of modernisation. The attractive lounge still has table service, while the vaults seem to be more popular with regulars. They are in the process of setting up a community book swap/library in the lounge, making use of the old wooden bookcases. The bar serves both rooms, and I was told that the bar fittings on the lounge side are listed. There is a quiz night on Tuesdays, and a TV for sports, but other than those, it relies on just being a good local: a sign outside declares: "No pool - no jukebox - no fruit machines. Plenty of good traditional beer. Bar food". I found the people there to be very friendly, and I ended up chatting to several people who were obviously regulars.

The listed bar

The real ales that were on were:
Liverpool Organic Pilsner;
Liverpool Organic Special 857;
Peerless Storr; and
Courage Best Bitter.
The beers I had were all very drinkable, and I ended staying rather longer than I had planned.

The Volly was awarded Community Pub of the Year in 2014 and I can understand why. I wrote about it previously six years ago, and I'm pleased that it remains a fine pub that is definitely worth a visit if you happen to be in the North Merseyside area.

If you suffer from technology dependency, there's free WiFi too.

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.

Lager

Boak and Bailey have written an account of how CAMRA has viewed lager over the years, which is well worth looking at. I thought it was about time that I wrote on this subject, without going over all the ground they covered.

When I was a student, I tried various drinks: mild, bitter, brown and bitter, Guinness, lager, lager and lime, and cider (probably Woodpecker) to find out what I preferred. I settled on bitter. I was a student in Padgate, just on the edge of Warrington, and as the local brewery used to boast in adverts, it was Greenall Whitley Land - they owned nearly every pub in the area, and if you were a lager drinker, that was Grünhalle. You didn't have to be a genius to realise that Grünhalle was German for Greenall, so I was often surprised how many people didn't realise that fact, or that it was brewed in Warrington. As I recall, lager drinkers didn't rate Grünhalle highly, but in those days, you drank what was on offer, or not at all - and that applied to bitter and mild as well as lager.

Pinched from Tandleman

In those less enlightened days, lager was often dismissed, including by myself I have to admit, as a woman's drink, but such sneers didn't slow down the rise of lager during the 1970s. However, even then, there was a view that continental lager was good and that British lager couldn't hold a candle to it: the contempt was for the inferior domestic version. However, the critics were whistling in the wind because none of this mattered to the millions who increasingly adopted British-brewed lager as their usual beer.

In the 1980s, when I was working in Liverpool, Higsons pubs used to stock Carling Black Label, but decided to brew their own lager. Thankfully, they didn't call it Higstein or some such nonsense, but simply Higsons Lager. As I recall, lager drinkers often weren't keen, although some bitter drinkers said it was better than most lagers! They gave up after a while and brewed Kaltenberg under licence instead, but their nice new lager brewery made them attractive for takeover and was instrumental in their closure: proof, surely, that lager isn't good for you.

The success of micropubs and bottled beer shops means that interested drinkers are becoming more aware of the range of beers available from both this country and abroad. However, much as I welcome a discerning approach to beer, I'm not much interested in bottled beers myself. Even if they are beers that I like, I much prefer the draught real ale to its bottled equivalent. Bottles are fine at home, on the odd occasion I drink beer at home.  I've occasionally had a Budweiser Budvar, Pilsner Urquell or similar; pleasant enough for a change, but not a Road to Damascus moment.

Despite my distinct preference for real ale from casks, I fully accept the CAMRA policy that it is pro-real ale, and not anti-anything; the campaign stands for choice, including the choice not to drink real ale. This point was made crystal clear by CAMRA's founders (as B&B's post makes clear) and was reiterated by Colin Valentine, the national chair, at the AGM I attended in Norwich two years ago. This means that comments such as 'chemical fizz' and 'zombeers' - to name a couple of the milder insults - are not only childish and deliberately obnoxious: they are contrary to CAMRA's ethos. Some real ale types - a minority - take the view that, if only we could get lager and smooth drinkers to try real ale, they'd be converted, but  such a view is misguided. Many of them have tried it and didn't like it; others are simply happy with what they drink and see no need to experiment. In addition, we all taste things differently: for example, I can't stand fish, and the sight and smell of seafood makes me feel queasy. If everyone sensed fish and seafood as I do, I'm certain no one would eat either.

We have the modern phenomenon of quality lagers being brewed being brewed by micros and craft breweries. Harviestoun Schiehallion was the first of such beers I came across; as I recall, it was in cask at Fleetwood Beer Festival. It's a while since I've had it, but as I recall, it seemed to have more in common with modern golden ales than it did with Skol or Fosters.

My position is quite simple: I prefer cask real ale, but you can drink whatever you like. I don't think my attitude is radically different from most real ale drinkers I come across and, as a member, it's logical to assume that I meet a fair number of other CAMRA members.

This post has turned out much longer than I originally intended. However, I'll end with this: if I'm buying a round and a drinker asks for lager without specifying a brand, I'll just order the cheapest on the assumption he or she isn't bothered.

Then and Now

A couple of years ago, I found my old copy of The Best Pubs Around Merseyside published in 1990 by six local CAMRA branches: Merseyside, Southport, Wirral, Chester and South Clwyd, Central and North Cheshire and South East Lancs, just after the Beer Orders had been announced but before they had been implemented. In December 2011, I looked at how the Liverpool pub scene was then. Here is a quick look at how the pub scene in Southport and the surrounding area has altered.

The Scarisbrick Arms, Downholland - now a bistro.

The general comments about breweries I made in the previous post apply here too, but in 1990 there were no breweries in the Southport and West Lancs area. Now there are two: Southport and Burscough breweries. Good news, unlike in Liverpool which was then mourning the pending closure of Higsons, the city’s last brewery.

Tetley, Whitbread and Matthew Brown seemed to be the main pub owners in the town, at least as listed in this guide. No Greenalls pub is listed, even though I do remember several; perhaps the compilers shared my low opinion of that brewery. All those breweries have closed since the guide was published, although Tetley is still brewed under licence in Northamptonshire. There were also a couple of Bass and John Smiths pubs. Guest beers were almost non-existent, the exception being the Baron’s Bar in the Scarisbrick Hotel which was selling Boddingtons Bitter, Ruddles County, Tetley Bitter, Theakstons Best Bitter and a guest beer, but in most other pubs you'd be drinking the house beers. The Barons Bar is noted today for a range of around eight real ales, but in 1990 the choice it offered seemed exceptional.

Several pubs have gone: the Blowick was demolished a few years ago and replaced by a thatched pub locally called the Thatch; the Herald is being converted to accommodation; the Plough is due for demolition (see previous post) and the Two Brewers has been converted to offices. This last pub was in fact a training pub for Tetleys and Walkers, hence the name. I recall that Charlie Oliver, the licensee of the Old Ship Inn, a Walker’s house which was my local at the time, received an award from the local CAMRA branch. I commented that I expected he was pleased about that; he said yes, but was also a bit embarrassed about it because the Two Brewers was the official training pub, and in theory it should be the best Tetley or Walker house in town.

The guide refers to the Fishermens Rest, which was selling McEwans 80/- at the time, but wrongly calls it the Fishermans Rest (singular), even though the picture of it clearly shows the correct name. This pub was subsequently a non-real ale pub for at least 20 years, but in the last few years has gained credit for serving four real ales, usually from regional breweries. I told the interesting but tragic story how the pub got its name here.

The Guest House, my current local, is listed as serving Higsons Bitter and Mild and Boddingtons Bitter, and I often used to call in for the Higsons Bitter, my favourite beer at the time. It now serves up to 11 real ales. 

In West Lancs, the Railway Tavern in Hoscar sold Jennings Bitter and Tetley Mild and Bitter; it closed recently. In Burscough, the Royal Coaching House is listed as selling Boddingtons Bitter. This pub degenerated into a real dive and was then closed for a couple of years. It was reopened a few years ago by Mike McComb, completely refurbished and is now the excellent and successful Hop Vine, home of Burscough Brewery, thus contradicting the commonly heard suggestion that pubs close because demand has disappeared. Not necessarily: what's on offer is just as important.

The Scarisbrick Arms, a canalside pub in Downholland, was then a Greenalls house, and was described as “very much food orientated”. Only recently did it stop being a pub and is now a bistro. The Halsall Arms just down the road is now a financial services office. The future of the Legh Arms in Mere Brow is currently uncertain (see previous post), but at the time sold Higsons Bitter and Mild and Boddingtons Bitter. The unusually named Snig’s Foot in Ormskirk sold real Burtonwood Bitter on electric pump; unfortunately, it was renamed Disraeli’s quite a few years ago, but the last time I was in there a year or two back it had a real ale from Ringwoods.

This last pub reminds me that, although handpumps had by 1990 made a big comeback (they had become quite an uncommon sight by the 1970s), there were still pubs serving real ale through electric pumps. An example listed in Southport was the Volunteer Arms, then as now a Thwaites pub, which kept its electric dispense until comparatively recently, causing some drinkers to assume that it sold no real ale. 

In general, the descriptions tend to be quite short: one exception was the Ship Inn (which has in recent years been renamed the Ship and Anchor to avoid confusion with the Old Ship Inn) in Southport, which was describes as a “Traditional style, back street boozer. A real example of what was once a common sight – a proper no-nonsense pub. Note the ‘Walkdens’ windows which are a reminder of a long since gone Birkdale brewery. Coal fire, food most of the day, families welcome.” Sadly, since then, the pub has been ripped out, with the Walkdens windows no doubt ending in a skip, and vandalised into a modern style that didn’t suit the building at all. There have been some attempts to restore its traditional form, but with limited success. It was the last entirely unaltered pub in Southport, and while it certainly needed cleaning up, it shouldn’t have been destroyed in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to appeal to the youth market.

In common with the Liverpool section, the compilers don’t approve of noise: “no canned music”, appears quite a few times, with variations such as “free of canned music”, it notes that the Baron’s Bar is “popular with young people” and tuts disapprovingly that it has “loud music”.

The last pub I’d like to mention is the Windmill in Southport. In those days it sold Matthew Brown and Theakstons beers and was described as a “Large friendly pub in the town centre. Large outdoor area, occasional entertainment, barbecues in summer, families being welcome. Lunchtime meals.” That description remains quite accurate today, and the pub still sells Theakstons beers, including XB. The licensee who had the pub at the time the guide was written is still there, and I’m fairly certain that he is the only licensee in the Southport and West Lancs area who has been continuously in the same pub since then.

Goodbye Higsons (again) ~ hello Bier Head!

The beer formerly known as Higsons

The chequered history of Higsons has taken another unexpected turn - well, I didn't expect it anyway. Liverpool Organic Brewery (LOB), who have been brewing Higsons in recent years, having carefully refined the recipe to try to recreate the taste of the classic Liverpool beer, no longer have the right to use the name. They had an agreement with the owners of the brand to redevelop it and market it for a limited period, which came to an end on 31 January. So no more Higsons from LOB.

The good news is that the recipe belongs to LOB,and they will continue brewing the beer under the name Bier Head. LOB say that they have no idea what the owners of the name (one of whom is apparently an employee of Heineken) intend to do with it. If they're thinking of trying to market yet another version, it will suffer from serious credibility problems, being the third relaunch of this brand in half a dozen years. It would have to be good - cobbling together a recipe and calling it Higsons won't be enough - but I doubt anyone would take the necessary time and care over a new Higsons, certainly not to the extent that LOB did.

As you can see, the Bier Head pump clip retains the Higsons red colour and Liver Bird, so it will look familiar on the bar - although I'm sure that the Liver Bird has been slightly redesigned.

Higsionary - pt 3

Higsionaries were produced by the former Higson's Brewery of Liverpool, which always had the knack of producing funny, local adverts; their Famous Old Higsonians beermats were legendary, with supposed local Liverpool characters whose names were all based on Merseyside place names: Ann Field, Gwladys Street, Rock Ferry (a local rock star), and Pierre Head. Another example of their quirky humour is here.

This is the third of the three Higsionaries that Clive Pownceby scanned for me. To see the previous ones, click on Part 1 and Part 2. All good fun ~ click on the Higsionary so you can read it more easily.

Higson's Beers have been revived in recent years by Liverpool Organic Brewery.

Higsionary - pt 2

Another volume of the Higsionary from the old Higson's Brewery of Liverpool, courtesy of Clive Pownceby. Click on it so you can read it more easily.  Click here for Higsionary - pt 1.

Higsionary - pt 1

Clive Pownceby has scanned some of his precious Higsionaries for me.  These were produced by the old Higson's Brewery of Liverpool, which always had the knack of producing funny, local adverts. 

All good fun ~ click on the Higsionary so you can read it more easily.  More to come!

My thanks to Clive.

Higson's and Bass

Manet's Un bar aux Folies Bergère
showing a Bass bottle (detail).

In the 1970s, many Higson's houses used to sell Draught Bass as a guest beer, including my local here in Southport, the Guest House.  Recently I've had the chance to try both of these beers:  Bass of course has never gone out of production, while Higson's is on its second revival.

The InBev website says of Bass: "It is a full-flavoured ale that is still brewed to an original recipe, using only the finest ingredients and the experience of generations. It is brewed with two strains of yeast to produce a complex, nutty, malty taste with subtle hop undertones."  Note:  an original recipe, not the original recipe, and that description seems - shall we say? - optimistic.  It was on in the Guest House last night and I had two pints of it; I'm not one for tasting notes, so I won't try, but it didn't taste as awful as some beer drinkers have claimed - merely very ordinary, and not standing up well alongside the micro and regional beers that surrounded it on the bar.  My view that the venom heaped upon this beer is because it was regarded as the Rolls Royce of beer in the 1970s - the White Star in Liverpool was famous for the quality of its Bass in those days, and I rarely went to Liverpool without a visit to that pub.

The original Higson's was last brewed in Liverpool in 1990.  It's now on its third incarnation, this time being brewed by Liverpool Organic Brewery, and I had it in Liverpool a couple of weeks ago.  This brew was apparently approved by Liverpool CAMRA at the Liverpool Beer Festival where a couple of versions of the beer were being tried out.  Again, I had two pints of the beer and it seemed even less like Higson's than the previous version of two or three years ago; I was struggling to find any resemblance to the beer I remember.  Unusually for a product of Liverpool Organic, it was fairly unremarkable with not much to object to, but not much to draw you back for more either.  I looked on the Liverpool Organic Brewery's website about the new Higson's, but could find nothing there about it.

To my palate, neither of these beers reflect the ones fondly remembered from their 70s heyday, but this is not necessarily because they aren't as good:  it might be that our tastes have moved on and what used to seem wonderful in an era when there was so much mediocre beer around now faces much stiffer competition, or perhaps after more than 20 years we can't really remember tastes and smells as accurately as we'd like to think.  Who knows?  There is nothing wrong with either of these beers, but neither is outstanding in today's beer world.

Extraterrestrial ale drinkers

Following my post on 27 February about the new Higsons being brewed by Liverpool Organic Brewery, I came across this Higsons beer mat. Higsons were well-known for their funny beer mats, with the Famous Old Higsonians series probably being best remembered, but I like this one from the Higsons dictionary, which combines my favourite beer of the past with my favourite TV show.

Liverpool ~ and Higsons relaunched yet again

Higsons sign on a building next to the
Ship & Mitre (reflected in the marble).

I met my friends Carol and Ken from Wigan in Liverpool yesterday.  Beginning in the Ship and Mitre, I had St David's Ale (4.5%).  I don't remember the brewery, but it wasn't Brains who brew a beer of that name.  For some reason I expected a pale beer, but it was dark and tasted like a good mild rather than a stout.  We next went to the Vernon and Rigby's but stayed only for one in each pub as both were noisy with the football; Everton were apparently playing.  We finished in the Lion Tavern where Brewdog Trashy Blonde was on - an extremely bitter beer that Sean who runs the pub said was too much for some customers, but I liked it.  I wonder whether it would have seemed quite so bitter 25-30 years ago, when beers were more likely to be bitter than now.

I was asked whether I'd had the new Higsons which was launched at the Liverpool beer festival.  I haven't, but I'll keep an eye out for it.  It is brewed by Liverpool Organic, whose excellent 24 Carat Gold I had in the Guest House recently; I wrote about 18 months ago that they were trying to reproduce Higsons.  It is the second time that a brewer has tried to relaunch this long lost Liverpool beer, one of Whitbread's casualties.  There's nothing about Higsons on the Liverpool Organic website, which isn't surprising as brewery websites are often incomplete and out of date.

George Hotel & a relic of Whitbread

I was in the George Hotel last night for an open mike night run by Mick Cooper; it turned out to be a good, varied evening with local band the Runnies, Pete Rimmer and Bill Hackney, and me (well, you can't have everything). There were also several enormous plates of free sandwiches, courtesy of the management and very welcome.

The pub is a friendly local, pleasant inside with some original, or at least fairly old, features, and a completely separate taproom. If only it sold real ale ... So I drink the Guinness in there, which generally tastes as good as anywhere else I've drunk it, and better than some, so I assume they keep their lines clean. I did catch the last bus to the Guest House for a couple of pints of the real thing.

It used to be a Whitbread house, shown by this large stand-alone trade mark screwed to the divider between two seating areas. No one laments Whitbread, notorious for their tour of destruction of dozens British breweries, and infamous for Trophy Bitter, a mediocre keg beer. They sold their breweries and pub estate a good few years ago, and now claim to be "UK's largest hotel and restaurant company". While they're not missed, many of breweries they closed still are, such as Higson's of Liverpool.

It is a nice trade mark though, steeped in history. It's a pity a brewing legacy of more than 250 years is besmirched by the memory of their predatory antics during the last half century.

Higsons survival

I took this picture today in the Guest House; it shows one of the pub's three hand pumps that still display the Higsons liver bird.  When Higsons was an independent company, the Guest House was its only pub in Southport, and it had no hand or electric pumps on the bar; all the electric pumps were ranged across the back of the bar, and the cask beers were in the cellar behind the bar with their taps poking through holes in the wall. The cask range was Higsons Bitter and Mild, and Draught Bass.

When Boddingtons of Manchester took over Higsons in 1985, they installed hand pumps on the bar and moved the electric pumps there too. They also put real ale in all Higsons houses ~ only about half had sold real ale previously because, Higsons claimed, the pubs were unsuitable for cask beer. I always found that unbelievable, seeing that nearly all of the Higsons estate consisted of Victorian and Edwardian pubs, built when real ale was the only beer available. Whitbread took over Boddingtons in 1990 and, as was its wont, closed the Higsons brewery down. Higsons beers were brewed in Sheffield, then County Durham, but with no resemblance to the original beer, and production was ended a few years later.

The hand pumps installed by Boddingtons in the Guest House in 1985 are the only visible memento of the pub's Higsons past.

Incidentally, the beer on that hand pump was Phoenix Hopsack ~ rather nice.

Reflecting on the past

Leaving the Ship and Mitre on Dale Street in Liverpool on a bright, sunny day recently, I noticed, not for the first time, the old Higsons sign engraved on the neighbouring building, which used to be offices of the long-gone Higsons brewery, disgracefully closed in 1990 by Whitbread. Higsons Bitter is fondly remembered by many of us Merseyside beer drinkers. I rather liked the reflection of the Ship and Mitre's art deco exterior in the marble wall.

We're on the move...

The announcement that Newcastle Brown Ale production is to be transferred to the John Smith's brewery in Tadcaster will no doubt cause a lot of dismay in the North East. It seems bizarre that a beer that is so closely associated with Geordie Land will now come from Yorkshire, but regrettably such moves are nothing new. Geordies will already have seen production move to Gateshead in 2005, but at least they could console themselves that it was in the same area, cross-Tyne rivalry notwithstanding. Newcastle Brown isn't a real ale, of course, and has been for me a beer to fall back upon - along with Guinness - if I found myself in a pub or bar with no real ale, but I suspect a lot of people will be upset on Tyneside.

At the CAMRA conference in Eastbourne this year, delegates from Leeds were genuinely mourning the announcement of the closure of the Tetley Brewery, with production due to be transferred to Northampton. Tetley used to be brewed in Warrington as well, and drinkers who regarded themselves as discerning always claimed that it wasn't as good as the Leeds Tetley. I have to admit that the two brews tasted very similar to me, with the Leeds version sometimes having a slight edge, perhaps, but I did feel that when the Warrington brewery was closed down and production moved to Leeds, the taste of Tetley Bitter declined so that - in my view - it was far worse than both previous versions. I will try the Northampton Tetley when it becomes available with interest, but I don't expect any improvement. At the Southport Beer Festival, you could actually get Tetley Bitter free using tokens printed in the local paper. Despite this, Tetley Bitter was the only cask with any substantial amount of beer left. It says it all, really ~ you can't even give it away.

The most notorious example locally of wandering beer was of course Higson's of Liverpool. The brewery was taken over by Boddington's of Manchester in 1985. They sold it to Whitbread in 1990, who closed it shortly afterwards. Production was moved the Hillsborough brewery in Sheffield and, when that closed, to Castle Eden in County Durham ~ a long way from its Merseyside origins. Production finally ceased in 1999, by which time the beer bore absolutely no resemblance to the original.

There are many more examples. Some drinkers, myself among them, believe that Young's beers have suffered from the move from the historic Ram brewery in Wandsworth after the merger with Wells. Other examples of peripatetic beers  include Ruddles, Old Speckled Hen, Ind Coope Burton, Bass, Courage Directors ~ the list goes on. While some of these are still drinkable, none is as good as (and often bears little resemblance to) its original form. In fact, I can't think of any beer from a big brewery that has been uprooted and moved elsewhere without a loss in quality. Geordies should enjoy their brew before its taste wanders into history.

As a footnote, after the failure of the recent relaunch of Higson’s, drinkers who remember the original with fondness may wish to know that the Liverpool Organic Brewery is working on a new Higson's brew.

Higsons to return ~ yet again?

On a trip yesterday to return an empty cask to Liverpool Organic Brewery after the Southport beer festival, a chat with the brewer revealed that they are planning to try to recreate Higsons bitter. An attempt a couple of years ago failed as the company concerned went bankrupt. I wrote about the disappearance of the revived Higsons in May.

There are a couple of problems in trying to bring back Higsons because some of the hops used by the original Higsons brewery are no longer available, and the original yeast strain has died out. However, it may well be that Liverpool Organic Brewery are better placed to be able to refine the beer and sustain it. They certainly seemed confident that they can get it right. Let's hope so; it would certainly be a pleasure to see this much-missed Liverpool beer being made again.

P.S. Glancing back at my original posting in May (link above), I notice that there have been a couple of comments added much more recently creating quite a controversy, including one from the Liverpool Organic Brewery itself about Higsons. I don't generally check very old postings for extra comments and finding these was a surprise.

Real Ale & Real Music

When I began this blog, I assumed that venues with both cask beer & real music in this area would be rather more common than in fact they are. Locally the Fox & Goose is an well-established rock venue, but it hasn't served real ale for many years; it used to serve Castle Eden, if I remember correctly. Our venue for big music events, the Southport Theatre (where I have seen Marvin Gaye, Kim Wilde, Hall & Oates and Black Sabbath, although not on the same bill) has never sold decent beer.

The Arts Centre occasionally puts on a cask of Southport beer for a big folk event, but mostly relies on bottled ales. It used to serve real Higson's many years ago, but strangely had both the cask and keg versions next to each other with the keg 2p cheaper; the staff automatically reached for the keg pump unless the customer specified otherwise, and as you'd expect the real version soon disappeared. Apparently we CAMRA types were all to blame for not coming in en masse and drinking it; I replied that there were simply weren't enough CAMRA members to sustain every real ale outlet in the area.

The Falstaff does have real ale and sometimes has live bands on, but strangely doesn't advertise them in the pub or on its website, so finding out what's going on there is surprisingly difficult. They seem to rely solely on adverts in the local papers, but these adverts are so cluttered with various meal offers, quiz nights, the Campaign for Real Chips, Liz Dawn, and everything else that's going on that any mention of live bands is usually swamped. Adrian, the licensee, agreed weeks ago to send details of forthcoming music events to local CAMRA to go on their website and then on this blog, but nothing has appeared yet.

Incidentally, the Southport CAMRA website now has a 'what's on' page, derived in part from this blog. The website has recently been revamped and is looking a lot better, especially now that they have dispensed with the muddy brown colour scheme, apparently intended to resemble the colour of beer.

I have been asked why I don't mention the Maghull Folk Club. I always have a link to their website, and will mention their guest artists in my 'What's On' column, but the venue doesn't serve real ale. For information, they meet on Tuesdays mostly with singers nights (i.e. anyone is welcome to perform) with a PA if you want to use it; it is a very friendly club, and they have a booked guest singer about once every two months.

I do know there are music nights at the award-winning Derby Arms in Aughton, about which I wrote a couple of weeks ago (click here),and the folk nights at the Ship Inn in Haskayne have begun again. I hope to visit and write about these in the near future.

A pub rescued

The last time I had a drink in the Grapes in Knight Street (corner of Roscoe Street) in Liverpool was around 30 years ago when it was a Higson's house. My friend and I had just come from Ye Cracke, a legendary Liverpool pub nearby. We ordered two pints of bitter, and were dismayed to see them served from keg electric pumps hidden behind the hand pumps ~ a con certainly, but over half of Higson's houses in those days had no real ale. A more recent visit a few years ago showed it had declined to a dirty, scruffy dive of the worst sort; I didn't stay to have a drink.

I was in the area yesterday and having noticed it was listed in the CAMRA Liverpool Real Ale Passport (from which the picture has been borrowed), I decided to call in. The place was clean, the walls had been painted in light colours with wooden relief carvings placed on them ~ and three hand pumps. The beers on were Caledonian 80/- and Everards Tiger, the Speckled Hen having run out. Both beers were in very good condition, and I'd forgotten that I do like Tiger; the 80/- was quite a different beer, and not one I am very familiar with, but it too went down a treat.

The pub was been taken over by a young couple a few years ago, Anna Slater and Paul Agoro, who learned their trade in the former Black Horse & Rainbow brew pub on nearby Berry Street. She told me that when they took it over, it had a turnover of £500 per week, which for a pub is the final stage of anorexia. They wanted to sell real ale, and in the early days ended up pouring unsold beers down the drain regularly, but that doesn't happen now; in fact, they have plans to install another 3 hand pumps. There is still quite a lot of work to do - the seats need re-covering, for example - but this is a pub that has been dragged from the brink of almost certain closure by an enthusiastic couple. I had a chat with some of the locals: one, a Scot, told me Deuchars IPA (usually on in this pub) was the best beer in the world; I replied I wouldn't go that far, but it was certainly a good beer. Then we found we were both into Thin Lizzy ~ he an ex-punk and me a sort of ex-hippy. I was told that quite a few young drinkers enjoy the real ale, and the pub is near the student area. Just then a group of students came in, taking their drinks (mostly lager, except for one young woman who chose the draught Hoegaarden) to the outdoor drinking area.

Anna says they are slowly getting rid of the insensitive modernisation that the pub had been subjected to, and are trying to reinstate original features. It's a real pleasure to see a pub that appeared to be in terminal decline, turned around and becoming a place well worth visiting. It's about 10 minutes' walk from Central Station; Knight Street is off Berry Street, where the bombed-out church is. (postcode L1 2SX) And for those who believe in such things, it's said to be haunted.

Volunteer Canteen, Waterloo

Less than a quarter of a mile from Waterloo Station (on the Southport to Liverpool line), there is a first-class pub that is embedded in a row of houses that all open straight onto the street, close to Crosby Marina. It is a small pub with a comfortable wood-panelled lounge and a rather more spartan bar. In the lounge, there is still waitress service to your table, and on the walls pictures of old Liverpool, in particular of the old overhead railway that used to serve the docks. There are no fruit machines, pool tables, juke box or food ~ it's just a good honest, old-fashioned local that does not look to me as though it has ever been altered, although it is not the scruffy drinking den that word 'unaltered' can sometimes describe ~ quite the contrary, in fact. As a result, it is often busy with a friendly crowd of regulars chatting and having a good time, with helpful bar staff.

The pub was originally a Higson's house and is rather like a small version of the Crow's Nest in neighbouring Crosby, also a former Higson's house. When I visited the guest real ale was Bateman's XXXB, which was in such excellent condition I didn't try any other beer (which is usually from the Cain's range).

If you fancy trying this untouched reminder of a former age, turn left out of Waterloo Station then right at the Marine pub into East Street. You'll find the Volly on the left. (postcode L22 8QR)