Visit to Highgate Brewery & Walsall real ale trail

Highgate Brewery & the Walsall Real Ale Trail

Saturday 6th February 2010

On a cold and dank Saturday what better thing to do than head off to Walsall?

It was so when twelve of us set off from Hinckley bus station with Andre (our driver of the day) leading us to the home of Highgate Mild, amongst other well known brews.

We arrived at The White Lion to be met by some of our hosts for the day which comprised of Paul Flint, Walsall CAMRA Young Members Contact, and some of the Friends of Highgate Brewery. After a suitable wetting of the palate we set off for the brewery. Dave Wilkinson, our guide for the day was waiting in the hospitality bar for us where there was Highgate Dark Mild, Special Bitter & Davenports Export Bitter awaiting us. After a quick pint we were off on the brewery tour. Highgate is a Victorian tower brewery which started its brewing history prior to the turn of the 1900s. Much has been documented on the history of this imposing building and I will not even try to cover this within this article as this is adequately covered by our hosts – the Friends of Highgate.

As well as the sights and smells of this amazing building we were treated to a comprehensive and humorous talk covering not only the history of the building but the process involved. For those of you that have not been there before or those that have not even visited a brewery I cannot recommend it high enough (no pun intended).


Various vessels in the brewery			A brew in progress	Dave & a copper	Explaining how kegs are filled	They know how to dispense beer here!

After the tour we again sampled the beers, now served by Gary Timmins, Chairman of Walsall CAMRA, and were treated to a quiz which caused much merriment! Then the obligatory group photo in front of the brewery gates and off to visit some of what Walsall had to offer.

Our first stop was at The Wheatsheaf offering Bombardier, Courage Best & Backyard Brewhouse's East India at 6.2%. It was, apart from our group, surprisingly quiet for a Saturday afternoon, but good use was made of their snack making and beer serving skills. Next off was a short walk down past the contrasting architecture to the Lyndon House Hotel – a bustling pub offering Deuchars IPA, Abbot Ale, Millstone Brewery True Grit, Theakston Mild & Bitter, plus their own House Special Bitter. By this time dark was descending and we set off to the Black Country Arms where I lost count after 14 when counting the handpumps! It also had a gallery which meant more group photos. Then passed the boarded up Market Tavern and the Walsall hippo (that’s another tale) a visit to the Imperial – a Wetherspoons outlet housed in the old cinema - was made prior to our final visit of the day to the Fountain where more beer was imbibed and food was eaten.

Thanks to Highgate Brewery, Dave Wilkinson, the Friends of Highgate, Gary & Paul from Walsall CAMRA, all the landlords/ladies, Andre and fellow drinkers who made this another memorable day out.

Words by Chris
Photos by chris & Alan

And finally two clips from YouTube: Central Tonight feature on Highgate An original Davenports advert

top

CAMRA
Web Site

The views expressed on this site are not necessarily those of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) Ltd, or of the members of the Hinckley & Bosworth Branch.
Whilst a lot of effort is made to ensure that the information on this site is accurate and up to date, no responsibility for errors and omissions is accepted.
Links to external servers do not imply any official or unofficial CAMRA, the Hinckley & Bosworth Branch or any web master's endorsement of the opinions, content or ideas expressed therein, or guarantee the validity, accuracy, timeliness or legality of any of the information provided. Links to commercial sites are in no way an endorsement of any vendor's products or services.

Found a dead link?
e-mail the Webmaster