Albion Ale House - Conwy

Yep, we took a day trip out to Wales as someone wanted to climb a castle. The weather was windy, cold and rainy.... It was nice the rest of the week according to folks there though..typical.

However the draw here to shelter out of the awful weather was this lovely pub, owned by four breweries, one of which is the Purple Moose Brewery, it is a really nice place. It is apparently one of the best examples of a 1920 public house, frankly it is a stunning building. There are lots of beers on the ten pumps with two extra pumps for local cider, including the tasty but lethal Black Dragon cider.

All the beers were in tip top conditions and they also have changing lagers, from either the uk or Europe applying the same common sense for their beers to the 'evil' that is lager. As we all should know there is a wealth of difference between a good lager say from Freedom to one by a multinational flogger of yellow fizzy water.

There was also a good selection of wines which the local wine merchant helps them with in the main street, also the shop sells the breweries beers in bottle for those of us who would like to take a little bit of Wales home in our suitcases. So three beers in a bag plus a branded pint glass for someone. :)

The idea for this pub was to have a drinks lead pub so no food other than the pork pie, nuts, crisps or other various bar snacks. After a long walk around the castle this place is a welcome sight for sore eyes, it is a warm pub both in physical building and also in the greeting you get from the staff.  I really would like to say this is the future for drinks lead pubs, if they make that effort with the local community and also bring in beer tourists then I think they will be there for a long time.

The fact that four small breweries had the common sense to realise whilst they couldn't own their own place outright but as a forward thinking group they could end up with a lovely and original place like this, is amazing.

Ten out of ten guys!