I'm moving house and am looking for a place to live which is commutable by car / rail to Liverpool and is near a good real ale pub(s). My first thoughts are Formby (Freshfield Hotel) and Hoylake (Ship Inn) - I've never been to either. Any comments on these pubs or other ideas would be very much appreciated. My dream pub would have 3-4 champion beers as regulars with 4+ ever changing guest beers. I like to be suprised when I go into the pub.
I'm also looking at Aughton / Town Green / Ormskirk. Does anyone know of any good real ale pubs in these areas?
I don't know the Freshfield, but have had good beer in The Ship (fresh Deuchars IPA if I remember right) but a friend of mine was in The Ship one early evening a few weeks ago, drinking & reading his book in an empty room. The landlord walked in & switched on the TV (to a soap opera) & walked out again. My mate followed him & asked if he'd switched it on for a particular reason & was told that the football was on later (an hour or 2 later!). My mate asked if he might switch it off for a while, as he was enjoying a quiet pint & a read & was told with a harumph - "it's not a library!", which the landlord repeated a few times before walking away.
Classic customer service.
If that's what you're used to, you'll be disappointed on the Wirral side (the only place that springs immediately to mind on Merseyside is the Ship&Mitre, Dale St, Liverpool) - lots of places on Wirral have good links to Liverpool (Wirral Line of underground) but few pubs come close to that in terms of beer range.
The Stork, Birkenhead always has 3-4 well-kept beers on, often incl 1 or 2 microbrews, and is a beautiful (NI listed) pub; however, it's rumoured that it won't appear in GBG-2006. I was in the pub on Sat pm, & as ever enjoyed the mildly boisterous atmosphere & tasty beer (TT-Landlord & lovely Cairngorm Wildcat, but didn't like my mate's Broadstone Gold, cidery & odd)
A few of us visited the Freshfield last year after the CAMRA members weekend. The beer was excellent and the welcome from the licensee was much appreciated. I'd like to have the place as my local.
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