January Trying, Drying, and Tipping

It’s been a while since regular updates were made to this blog, partly due to the fact I was being paid to write and so didn’t have time to supply my brilliance for free, and partly due to a global pandemic which has killed millions and crippled the hospitality industry. But now, when the government…

Golden Pints and Golden Pubs

At the end of 2017 I pledged to increase the content on this blog from three posts every six years to 52 posts a year. Then I broke my wrist and couldn’t write. Six months of rehab later I settled in to pick up the pace and was immediately promoted, upping my workload by about…

Runcorn Victorian Pub Crawl 2018

Goodness, has it been a year already? Last time round many people were dismayed to have missed out on Runcorn’s premier pub crawl, so as you can imagine the 2nd annual jaunt was a hot ticket. We not only doubled our numbers, we doubled them and added one! This time next year we’re going to…

Non-League but Craft Ale : Latest Runcorn Linnets match is with Chapter Brewing

(Main Image L-R Mike Bignall, Runcorn Linnets, Kirsty Walker, Lady Sinks The Booze, Noah Torn, Chapter Brewing) In the midst of heated debates about the reach of craft beer and whether it is pricing out ordinary drinkers, grass roots community efforts to get craft into the hands of those who might never try it often…

Golden Pints Golden Pubs 2017

Golden Pubs Nellie’s (The White Horse Inn), Beverley, West Yorkshire A pub you will never forget once you’ve experienced it. A warren of older rooms lit only by candles, but with additional more modern facilities making it commercially viable as well as a quirky olde worlde destination. The Old Coffee House, Soho, London Pleasingly odd…

Pub Crawl : The X30 Challenge

Challengers clockwise from back : Mark, James, Eileen, Valerie, Kirsty, John, Darren, Carl. There are a number of schools of thought on pub crawls – some like them to be regimented and therefore achievable, some just want to attempt them and have a few laughs on the way, and some seem to have a genuine…

Pub Crawl : Runcorn’s Victorian Pubs

Participants : Kirsty, James, Mark, Biggers (plus Scowcroft brothers for 3 pubs) Pub 1/12 : The Dockside Inn We were due to start at half five to accommodate Biggers who had football duty but ended up at the Dockside at about 5.15pm where the only bitter on offer was John Smith’s. Two halves of John…

Meet the Brewer : Runcorn’s Buccaneer Brewery

A few months ago I was in one of my Runcorn haunts, The Grapes, and spotted a pump clip with a menacing skull on it. The beer was Startled Octopus, a grapefruity session pale ale which was utterly delightful. When I asked the landlord which brewery this was, he pointed vaguely to his right and…

What do we know about Runcorn’s next pub?

If you’re of a certain age you might remember that the fairground would sometimes rock up on a patch of ground next to the ‘curly bridge’ on the canal bank opposite Runcorn’s Brindley Theatre. You might even recall when that patch of land was the Crosville bus depot, though that has been gone for quite some…