April 2025. Wolverhampton.
Congratulations to CAMRA members for rejecting that motion to reduce the number of Beer Guide pubs.
Wolves typically has half a dozen central entries in the GBG; they all deserved their place on the PubMan visit.
But there’s more to pubs than cask, and for many years I’d been eyeing up the stuccoed Old Still (top) for a visit.
I joined Will for a half of John Smith’s Smooth, but when I excitedly exclaimed “Ooh, Fireball !” I ended up with a shot of whisky as well.
Despite my recent ill-advised lurch into Moldovan brandy, I’m not a spirits man.
Should I have paired whisky with those “Ploughman’s in a bag” ?
Action Man said no.
The Old Still is a Proper Pub of the Craft Union variety, blokes in Motorhead jackets drinking their morning Jagermeister at 4pm. It does what it needs to. I loved it.
Someone will no doubt ask why I didn’t preach the virtues of cask. Or even Gamma Ray.
Nope. Even the Smooth at ice cold in Alex temperature seemed cosmopolitan. I tipped the shot of Fireball in my half pint glass, and downed it in one.
It may be my beer of the month.
retiredmartin 
Never tried Fireball despite it being very popular in Shetland. I’m not a spirits bloke either but maybe one day…
LikeLiked by 1 person
You can’t really argue with John Smith’s Extra Smooth at £2.20 a pint.
Certainly the “liveliest” atmosphere of all the pubs we visited in Wolves. Someone of a sociological bent could write an essay about town-centre keg boozers.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Maybe when I retire, I could do something about Lerwick’s Thule Bar, as frequented by myself and Elvis Costello (not at the same time, regrettably)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I still have to visit Lerwick, don’t I?
LikeLike
Was it £2.20 a pint. Blimey. The Fireball cost more than that.
LikeLike
I think Cookie has covered that territory quite well in his Edgeley piece !
LikeLike
I don’t think I’ve used the Old Still since 1972, so don’t recognise the interior and they certainly wouldn’t recognise me.
LikeLiked by 1 person