retiredmartin

I’ll spare you the A-ha video.

April 2026. Hockley. Birmingham.

At Bournville station I caught up again with the two Wolves fans from Attic, and had a chat about the merits of the Great Western vs the Wheatsheaf, and the mysterious “ruin” pubs of Budapest.

Birmingham hasn’t quite got into ruin pubs yet, the original Rock & Roll Brewhouse was probably closest.

But the craft beer scene (ugh) has almost reached Chesterfield levels of late, with those Stirchley tap rooms, the “Hooch on draft” Kilder, Brewdog and Wolf, which finally makes its GBG debut this year.

The Good Beer Guide has it under “Hockley”, the CAMRA website says “Jewellery Quarter”, which is as poor a geographic heading as Newcastle Quayside, and in reality it’s a couple of minutes west of Snow Hill.

So called “Craft” bars come in a range of shades, from the ones where Camden Hells is the lead beer to the ones where you get scolded if you pronounce Hells incorrectly or don’t order using Untappd.

Wolf, a bit like that Koelschip in Glasgow, sits in the middle. And that’s a nice place to sit.

You’ll know the brewers, but probably not the keg beers, and (like the Koelschip) the lone cask is Thornbridge.

The first comment on this post will say “HOW much !”,

but a fiver for Thornbridge is cheaper than Sheffield.

But I’ll leave it there.

It’s a pleasant after-work crowd, lads who hug and ask for pints of Neck Oil (“they say please”, I note), lone women with laptops, and presumably Tom Sharpe fans.

Nice staff, who happily gave me a big glass of water,

possibly two pints too late.