Stop off at this great platform for real ales
RIGHT over the road from Freshfield station you will find the Beer Station, a new micropub that was opened on July 22 by father and son team Ian and Keir in a former newsagents, writes Neville Grundy.
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 angels’ 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: previously, 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 Kölsch, and Prototype Pale Ale. We were given a sample of the pale ale: we agreed it per- haps 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.
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 i island of Gozo.
Children and dogs are welcome, they offer basic snacks such as pies and crisps, and there is free Wi-Fi for customers.
The Beer Station is at 3 Victoria Buildings, Freshfield, L37 7DB. Tel: 01704 8 807 450. Opening hours: Mon-Thu 3pm to 9pm; Fri 3pm to 10pm; Sat noon to 10pm; Sun noon to 9pm.
Our local Camra website i is www.southport.camra. org.uk. Previous Camra pub reviews from the Visiter at are : tinyurl.com/vis-pubs