Brewer Rick has turned landlord for Beer Den
SOUTHPORT’S latest micropub, The Beer Den, has opened, fufilling a local brewer’s long-held ambition.
Rick Parker founded The Parker Brewery four years ago, and has opened his new venture on Duke Street after a crowdfunding effort to get the project over the line.
He said: “So far so good, it’s better than we thought and busier than we thought. There was some crowdfunding effort which helped us, it raised around £2,000 which helped us finish the jobs off.’’
He added: “It took quite a bit of time. I got the keys in March this year, but we had quite a bit of building work to do that I couldn’t do myself – knocking walls down and putting steel in, building toilets and a new roof at the back – so it took a while.”
Part of his long-term vision for the brewery, between Southport and Banks, has always been to open a pub.
“It was always kind of part of the initial plan when we set the brewery up, when we set it up the main thing was just getting the brewery up and running, getting our name out there, getting our beers out there, and it was always in the back of our heads to open up a pub at some point. We seriously looked into making things move about 18 months ago, then it was about looking at sites and trying to find the right location for the right price.”
It is not just Parker products on offer, with a constantly changing list of guests beers.
“We have four cask ales on, two of them are Parker Brewery beers which we just rotate, and we do two other guest ales which are also just rotating.
“We have the cask line, and we have some kegged lagers, a wine list and spirits, and we also do coffees and stuff like that.”
Rick is planning to introduce live music on quieter nights.
“We’ve not got a music licence at the moment. A lot of micropubs don’t bother with music licences, people like to go in there because they’re small and they don’t want to go somewhere that’s too loud.
“But after a week of trading and listening to customer feedback, we are going to apply for a music licence.
“We’re just going to have a little bit of background music in the day and then what we’ll plan to do is on a quiet night, whether that be a Wednesday, Thursday or a Sunday, to get some acoustic bands in.”
There will be a book club once a month, and Rick is open to suggestions for other events.
“We’re going to see if there are any evenings when it’s quiet and introduce other things – whether it’s a home brew club where people bring in home brew, or a pie club when people bring in homemade pies, we’re open to any suggestions and listening to see what our customers want.”
Rick believes that the success of the brewery has given a platform for the pub to build, and added that he believes he is offering something different to that area of town.
“We just wanted somewhere in Southport whether it was town centre or the outskirts, because with the brewery being local people know us in the area.
“There’s some great micropubs in the town centre like the Tap and Bottles but there’s nothing much in this area. There’s plenty of houses round here and being round the corner from Shakespeare Street which has its own little community.
”We’re offering something completely different.”
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