Pete Brown has denied this. See tweet below.
Very happy to see thus coming to fruition!
Beers launching soon.
Disclaimer: I am involved in the business to a small extent, so am not an unbiased observer on this one, but trust me, it’s exciting!
*(p.s. it has nothing to do with B…D…)
Top 5 below. No real surprises there, some decent strong and dark beers. Living in Stourbridge, I’m less than 5 minutes from Staffordshire, where it dog legs down between Shropshire and the west midlands.
182 beers put me in at a solid 17th. Don’t actively seek the beers out, but obviously local beers show up all the time.
| Beowulf Strong Mild | 4 |
|---|---|
| Enville Gothic Ale | 3.9 |
| Titanic Plum Porter Grand Reserve | 3.9 |
| Leek White Peak Extra Strong | 3.8 |
| Enville Old Porter | 3.8 |
| Burton Bridge Thomas Sykes | 3.7 |
Fun fact, Staffordshire really like you to know you in Staffordshire. When cycling round the country roads, I’m forever crossing between staffs, Shropshire, Worcestershire and the west mids. Can be on the quietest single track road and they’ll be a sign saying Welcome to Staffordshire when you cross the border.
I seem to be saying “a county I tend to drive through rather than visit” for an awful lot of counties, and Staffordshire is another one of those. I think I’ve only had beer in the county om two occasions - once pre-RB on a particularly drunken weekend in Uttoxeter for a friend’s significant birthday, and once a rather more sedate weekend in Lichfield with my family.
Nevertheless, the presence of some big nationally-distributed brewers has given me a decent amount of ratings - 54 to be exact, which puts Staffordshire well into the top half of my most-rated counties (although still outside the top 50 as normal).
My top beers from the county are Titanic-heavy:
| Titanic Plum Porter | 4 |
|---|---|
| Marston’s / Bells Brewery Kalamazoo Black Silk | 3.9 |
| Titanic Iron Curtain Russian Stout | 3.8 |
| Lymestone Pounamu | 3.8 |
| Titanic Molly Brown | 3.6 |
| Titanic Red Indian Pale Ale | 3.6 |
My beers have come from 9 different breweries - happily all of which are still open. Marstons is unsurprisingly my most-rated (with 27 beers), whilst my highest rated (of those with more than 5 rates) is Titanic with an average score of 3.21. Molson Coors, by contrast, is my 3rd lowest-rated brewery anywhere with an average score of just 2.
I’ve rated two places, both in Lichfield - one a (since closed) Wetherspoons, & one in the Ember Inns chain. Neither scored particularly highly.
In terms of non-beery places, I am a huge fan of Alton Towers and have been quite a few times (including for one day of my stag weekend!). - surely one of the few theme parks to be attractive as well as fun? I also liked Biddulph Grange Garddens.
The highest point is an unremarkable bit of moorland on Cheeks Hill, a few miles SW of Buxton. It’s not even at the top of the hill, as the county boundary runs over the shoulder of the hill rather than the summit. Not one of the best ones.
I can’t in all honesty say I’ll do anything other than pass through Staffs in the near future - although I would very much like to visit Mow Cop. However, given the nationally-distributed cask brewers, no doubt I’ll coninue to pick up the odd Staffordshire rate here and there anyway.
Thank you Fin for posting the link to Simon’s Craft Beer Manifesto, what an excellent read! I was lucky enough to enjoy his company on several beery events/pub crawls etc but I never actually got to see this piece he wrote first time around. RIP Scoop, never forgotten.
Another county bordering Shropshire that we tend to venture into now and again when we need to escape our local confines. Top of the visit list is usually Newcastle, Stoke on Trent and Hanley which are home to a thriving concentration of micro-pubs and craft beer bars, certainly more than you’d expect for the area and worthy of a day-long pub-crawl. Far too many to mention individually, but Hop Inn, Hopwater Cellar and Bottlecraft are are stand-out places with their own unique character.
Second destination is probably Lichfield, which has a cluster of interesting bars within a few hundred yards of each other in the centre, Beerbohm, WIP and Whippet are all great and, again, all completely different. En route are a couple of craft bars in Burntwood and Cannock, though still havent managed to get to the cannock one yet.
Had a great day in Burton on Trent a couple of years back, visiting the brewery museum and picking up a huge amount of rare country ticks, exclusive to the museum. It also houses a decent heritage brewery that brews classic English styles. I think any self-respecting beer drinker needs to spend a day there at some point.
I must also point out a couple of oddities some might be interested in during future visits. One of the last surviving canal-side pubs The Anchor Inn can be found in High Offley, servicing almost exclusively the barges that pass by as the road there is a poorly maintained single track with no signage for the pub whatsoever. The bar itself is designed to resemble a narrowboat, and cask ale can (on request) be fetched from the cellar using a jug! It’s been in the same familiar since 1903 but Google informs me that it’s temporarily closed, hopefully not permanently.
Nearby is the Haberdashers Arms in Knighton, built in 1840. Some true local characters there when I called in, but a nice warm welcome.
I have 84 ratings from the county, and I can see below my 5th top rated beer is the last cask pint I had before the first lockdown.
 My Rating |
Avg | Entered | Updated | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titanic Plum Porter | 4.4 | 3.48 | 3/21/2016 | |
| Hurst View Medium Cider | 4.1 | 2.94 | 8/12/2014 | |
| Cottage Delight Farmer’s Arms | 4 | 3.27 | 6/20/2016 | |
| Halfpenny Green Gold Guinea | 4 | 3.34 | 6/23/2019 | |
| Beowulf Black & Blueberry | 4 | 3.15 | 3/22/2020 |
As others have said this is a county I generally travel through rather than visit. I have tried 121 beers, which is in the top half of counties. These 121 beers are from 34 breweries only @imdownthepub and @fonefan have tried more breweries, that’s a surprise!!
The top beers I have rated are:
| Beer | Rate |
|---|---|
| Titanic Cappuccino Stout | 3.9 |
| Weal Ales Centwealial Milk Stout | 3.9 |
| Titanic Captain Smiths | 3.9 |
| Retro Brew Real Slim Hazy | 3.8 |
Of the 34 breweries I have had double figures from Marstons, Titanic, and Slaters
2 place visits both were nice places as I remember but not exceptional.
| Place | Rate |
|---|---|
| Whippet Inn | 76 |
| Codsall Station (Holdens) | 70 |
Forgot Codsall station was in Staffordshire !
Forgot to mention Candid in Stafford… I went about a few months after they opened and they seem to have progressed and grown a LOT since then. Its a small place in what looks like converted offices, with simple scandie style furniture and decorations. Coffee, beer and bottle shop that had hugely successful street food and outside seating in their shared yard last summer and now serve their own sourdough pizza. Very active social media, one to keep an eye on.
Same here … Used to drink there a lot when I lived in Wolves … take a taxi there on a Friday or Saturday night and kick off on the Holdens around half 6 then jump on a train to town at half 8 or so
Cracking pub that
Not for me
Yeah they seem like the kind of place that would do that. I’m not a fan of paying via app, as it just creates extra (and arguably needless) faff and downloading when you’re supposed to be there to relax.
For me it depends on the app. Some are fairly easy but I used one recently that I couldn’t really get my head around. Mind you, it was the last pub of a very drunken night!
HAVE to use an App?
That’s me ruled out then.
<*))))))><
Only 6 months behind now.
I have to say that reading the above comments for this county has been most interesting so far (and we’re already at county 33). Fascinating history explained by @imdownthepub with great contributions also from @Fin and @minutemat and many others (too many to mention but you know who you are). The extra edge of interest is that these breweries are not seen all over the UK, so it has a mystery side to it too. It’s the opposite of Greater Manchester, in fact.
I managed to claim a top 50 spot during the last year. I’d always been 10 or 20 away from it and as I found a beer I’d notice the threshold move by a beer. It is difficult to get Staffordshire beers from online Staffordshire shops - for example, with Otters Tears, I’ve been on the website several times and filled a basket but didn’t check out as they had absolutely zero Staffordshire beers. Anyway, I eventually got over the line with an order directly from the Blythe brewery.
In fact, I have 3 beers rated at 3.8 (my top score currently for Staffordshire) and they are all recent ratings from Blythe - these are Dark Ruby Mild, Palmer’s Poison and Dark Horse. I have not rated some of the classic styles from Burton particularly well, and I think this is down to having them in bottle and not cask.
In total, I have 83 ratings from Staffordshire placing it 25th of the 46. This is enough to give me 48th position with the two below me both on 81 rates. So, only a little breathing space before the drop!
In terms of visiting the county, I have been through it on quite a few occasions - between Shropshire and West Midlands, between Shropshire and Derbyshire, etc, etc. However, I do think I will have a proper holiday in the county in the next couple of years. My wife worked at British Coal at Cannock Chase shortly after graduation (early 90s) and was recalling some lovely country pubs where she would take her turn to be driver with 3 colleagues. This was before we met, so we talked about a holiday down that way for the family. We also wondered about the idea of a canal boat break - not sure how likely or practical that is, …
Looks like Townhouse brewery has moved to Cumbria, meaning I’ve dropped out of Staffs top 50. I really didn’t need any more Cumbrian rates.
Any suggestions for Staffs beer online?
Yes, had to change that one this morning, it will affect a few people. It would be much better to date a change so that the original address kept the ratings but hey ho, it is what it is.
I was told they moved back in December, and the Mosaic was the first beer at the new place. I could find absolutely no confirmation onkine however, so I didn’t change anything.
2000- 2017 © RateBeer, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Service
