retiredmartin

There’s a lot of lonely little isolated Beer Guide ticks to do now, including a host with the sort of unpredictable opening hours visitors just love (i.e. micros and brewery taps).  They’re all part of the joys of being a GBG completist.

Back in November we nearly finished the West Midlands in Coventry, but the Twisted Barrel Tap defied our attempts. Until now.

We were very impressed by FarGo the new little enclave of independent businesses at the east end of Far Gosford street.  Local press compares it to Camden Lock.  It’s better than that, more like Ravenswood in Walthamstow.

Like E17, FarGo has a brewery tap and lots of unnecessary household furnishings, and gin. That, and an argument is pretty much all Mrs RM needs to be happy these days.

I love the art, and thought the shops were unpretentious, but the beer was the star, and it’s not often I say that about homebrew. Clearly I’d prefer to enjoy beers as good as Sine Qua Non IPA in a proper pub like the nearby Whitefriars, but that may come in time.

The range of beers, all well-priced, was very impressive, but the colour coding made my head spin a bit;

Actually it’s not a bad drinking space, a bit like Brew by Numbers, and enlivened by what I assume was the local CAMRA branch doing a recce of their marvellous pubs.  I can only speculate that the “Sceptics in the Pub” session had been laid on for their benefit.

There was a good crowd by 1pm, although lacking the students you might expect.  The Uni had its Open Day, so I guess they were engaged selling the joys of Computer Science courses to teens from Tamworth.

With very decent bars around the matchless Cathedral, some underrated curry houses in Far Gosford Street, and superb Bass in the Town Wall Tavern, I know which University I’d be choosing if I was 18. (Actually I’d be doing an apprenticeship,  but you get my point).