As both a Birmingham based blogger and a craft beer fan, I’ve spent many an hour propping up bars at pubs all around Birmingham and the wider area for years. I’d like to think that I have an above average knowledge of the Birmingham Craft Beer scene. If you are already into that scene, you may already know me without realising. I live in Stirchley, but tend to travel around Birmingham, the Midlands and the UK on craft beer adventures.
Birmingham’s craft beer scene has been evolving at pace since around 2016, and whilst the city centre has a fair few places to get a very decent pint of beer, the edges and the suburbs have some particularly good bars, breweries, micropubs and taprooms. This has played a very exciting part in the craft beer evolution in Birmingham.
Just to be clear, we are not focusing on real ale here. Real ale has always had a well-established scene across Birmingham and the UK. Real ale is more traditional in both production process and flavour profiles, generally with more heritage and depth of flavour, using a live yeast. Real ale is served with no added gas, mainly using hand pulled cask lines or gravity based pouring from the cask directly.
Craft beer, on the other hand, is something different entirely. Craft beer involves a lot more creativity in the brewing process with the use of exciting hops and other ingredients, typically from smaller breweries and on smaller production runs, rather than mass production. With the introduction of nitrogen or carbon dioxide on serving, the attraction is broader. A lot of craft beer drinkers I know, for example, were previously lager only drinkers.
Craft beer bars have been springing up all over Birmingham and the surrounding areas for years now. Even the photographic print shop in Cotteridge has recently had a bar installed in tandem with its license slotting into place. A tiny example of a much bigger scene. It’s a fun time, and there are definitely areas away from the city centre that you can go to now for a full craft beer-based afternoon or night out.
So come with me, for a tour round some of the best places to get a craft beer in Birmingham.
The Colmore, City Centre
Starting with a great bar in the city centre, The Colmore is part of a joint venture between the Thornbridge and Co Estate and the Pivovar Group, The Colmore doesn’t just serve Thornbridge beer. With 8 cask lines and 15 keg lines, there is always a fantastic range of craft beer, including some superb guest beers. There is also a wide selection of bottles and cans too. This is a very well-kept bar seconds away from Birmingham Council House, and a must if you are at a loose end in the city centre. There is even a Milanese style pizza kitchen to the rear if you are feeling peckish, and they use their own Green Mountain Hazy IPA in the dough!
1000 Trades, Jewellery Quarter
A Thousand Trades has had a great selection of craft beer for a very long time. The rotating list of beers always throws up something you weren’t expecting, and more often than not, something you didn’t realise you’d like. There is also a very good selection of cans and bottles in the fridge too, with some very interesting beers. With a CAMRA card discount on the cask ale, here, you may want to sample a pint of something from the hand pull, typically something like an ale from local breweries Glasshouse or Fixed Wheel. 1000 Trades always have very good keg beer on offer too. As well as some local choice, they normally have some top craft beer on from breweries like Pollys or Northern Monk.
Hockley Social Club, Hockley
Known primarily as being one of the main catalysts for the Midlands street food scene, the huge bar in Hockley Social Club rarely gets mentioned. The food hub attracts a wide range of punter, so the bar has a bit of everything, but there are always a few choice craft beers on. Great if you want a pint of something crafty with your food. There’s typically a couple of taps of something from one of the local breweries, and something tasty from Salt. At the time of writing, it’s Loom, which is a very drinkable session pale. Craft beers here are always selected to go perfectly with some fried wings or even a stacked burger.
The Wolf, Hockley
A key bar on the Birmingham craft beer scene, The Wolf was started in January 2017, so it’s got a few years under its belt now, providing a great range of craft beer to the punters of Birmingham. Fourteen keg lines and a new cask line installed in 2024, there is a very decent range on at the Wolf. There’s also a beer fridge to be envious of, with a constantly changing selection throughout. With a food menu to bolster the beer, and loads of seating, for somewhere that’s only minutes walk from Colmore Row, The Wolf is the perfect gateway bar to the wider Jewellery Quarter. They also have screens dotted about for when there are any key sporting events being broadcast. Local brewery Burning Soul always features on the bar, as does the Nitro Stout by Anspach and Hobday. The Wolf is very much a known player for craft beer in Birmingham.
Burning Soul Brewery
No trip to Hockley on a Friday evening or Saturday is complete without popping into Burning Soul. The rotating chalked beer board is easy to read, and the space is a bit like a big garage. If you like your brewtaps feeling like they are a bit underground and less known, this is the place for you. Chris and team make some great beers indeed, with the Ice Cream Pale being the best I’ve ever tasted, and that’s not me being biased. I’m always on the hunt for a better one, and still haven’t found it. It’s not all about that beer though. Chris’ passion comes through immediately if you have a chat with him, and that same passion comes through in the beer. A free pool table later, and it’s easy stay here for ages, working your way through the menu.
Attic Brew, Stirchley
Attic Brewery is a train gateway venue to the ever-popular Stirchley, being feet from Bournville Station. Alternatively, the brewtap serves as a departure lounge for you and friends before getting the train home on the Bromsgrove to Lichfield line. Attic is one of the shining lights for current craft beer in Birmingham. Progressive and diverse, the ‘Forward Thinking’ range of vegan craft beers on at Attic Brew has something for everyone. Made on site in Stirchley, the beer doesn’t travel far to get from the production area into your glass, helping keep the carbon footprint down. The space itself is huge, set in an old industrial shed, and there is enough covered outdoor seating to the front too. You’ll find a solid range of 15 beers on keg, from lagers, to pales, stouts and normally at least one low alcohol beer on too. Alternatively, there is also the Barrel Store taproom on Water Street in the Jewellery Quarter/Hockley too, in a huge railway arch, which forms part of the evolving Hockley beer run.
Cork and Cage, Stirchley
Since around 2016 or so, Stirchley has gone from strength to strength, and craft beer has formed a big part of that. One of a number of local places that sell great craft beer, Cork and Cage, started as a bar that specialised in quality lambic beers. The inclusion of lambics has ebbed away slightly, and they now get very good craft beers in on keg, rotating regularly. Occasionally a few lambics appear on the menu, but you can also expect a superb range of local beers whenever you go, as well as interesting nationally brewed farmhouse ales, sours, Imperial IPAs, chocolate stouts along with others. It’s always a pick and mix, lucky dip of a menu, curated by and made for craft beer fans. Expect beers from breweries you have never heard of before, as well as places like Vault City, Nothing Bound or Brew Yonder. Regular food on, either their own menu through the week or regular pop ups.
Glasshouse, Stirchley
One of Birmingham’s (and Stirchley’s) other well-known and successful breweries. The taproom part is normally closed from December to Spring, but when it is open on Fridays and Saturdays between Spring and December, it is incredibly well used as part of the Stirchley Beer Mile. Definitely worth a shout from March onwards. With a popular core range, and regular ‘new drops’, the beer here is always fresh and tasty. Seating inside and out, with regular and well sourced street food traders providing a food option, this is a classic small industrial unit type brewtap. Somewhere my beer friends from out of town always want to be taken to.
Birmingham Brewing Company (Brum Brew Co), Stirchley
Starting out in Stirchley in 2016, BBC (no the beer one!) moved over from their original, smaller premises a couple of years after that, to a huge space opposite, and the rest is history. Most of their beers are named with the word ‘Brummie’ in it (Pale Brummie, Gold Brummie etc), and they have a huge glazed section of wall in the taproom that you can see the extensive brew kit through. All beers here are vegan and gluten free, and all brewery and taproom energy is generated on site using renewable energy, via sources such as solar and wind power.
birminghambrewingcompany.co.uk
Hop and Scotch, Kings Heath
Aside from the fact that Hop and Scotch are current holders of (second year running) CAMRA best Birmingham pub, and aside from the fact that they have a solid line up of hand pulled cask ale, their keg selection is equally top notch. Expect to find craft beer here from breweries such as Green Duck, Kinver Brewery and New Invention, as well as places like Estonian brewery Pohjala, or Nothing Bound. The fridge here is great too, with a special rate on take out cans and bottles. Sit down tables around the edge of the bar, and some standing tables down the middle. The atmosphere here is always friendly and local. Their sister bar Houblon, two doors down specialises in Belgian and continental beers, and is pretty cosy, with its timber cladding and enamel European beer signs on the walls. Something for everyone between the two.
The Juke, Kings Heath
Independent and neighbourhood bar serving regularly changing craft beer, ciders and wines. Great in the summer, as the street outside becomes a huge fun shared beer garden with the other places along York Rd. Cosy all other times, with a Jukebox (hence the name) and regular pop-up food events from some of the best chefs and street food traders from Birmingham. The Juke sits at the heart of a great range of places offering craft beer in Birmingham.
The Plough, Harborne
This icon of a local pub has evolved into something massive and sprawling over the years, but the bar itself always has some very decent beers on sale. Adam and Sarah took this place over in 2003 as a run down pub and they have since done wonders with it. Forget about the intimate corners for a while. Forget the superb pub garden. Even forget about the excellent food coming out of the kitchen. If you can do all of those things, you’ll be able to focus on the beer on sale. Local brewery Attic currently has a place on the bar alongside beers from Deya and Beavertown. There are a couple of cask ales on too, and expect the likes of Wye Valley on one of the hand pulls, and the other a rotating guest. The Plough has a sophisticated, but local feel, and is always a joy.
Cask and Craft, Boldmere
A small but mighty craft-centric micropub, with 12 keg taps serving a wide range of excellently sourced beer. With it opening in 2019, that’s a lot of happy customers, and as a result, there is a strong set of regulars. Wines, gins and cocktails on offer too, so this isn’t just a craft beer bar, and they also have occasional pop-up food stalls outside. A friendly high street based craft beer bar of the highest calibre. The main bar area is cosy, and there is a larger room upstairs. Seating outside to the front, as well as a heated terrace to the rear.
instagram.com/caskandcraftboldmere
Kilder, Digbeth
Essentially the bar element to the Original Patty Men home in Digbeth, this is a craft beer bar in its own right. This award winning bar has plenty of rotating craft beers and ciders, with 22 mixed taps on, and a fine fridge of other tasty drinks. Set in a railway arch, only a few minutes’ walk from the unmistakeable Selfridges building, it’s also very accessible for craft beer in Birmingham. Kilder has always played by its own rules, and has always been better for it. Some of the beers beers here are ones you won’t see elsewhere.
Kilo Ziro, Digbeth
A sneaky entry onto the list, because not many people know that Kilo Ziro often has a decent and local line up of craft beers on tap, and it’s slightly under the radar. This is one of the reasons it’s a great place to pop in to for a few pints. The well fitted out bar, and the mixed crowd offer a more sophisticated environment to sup on a jar of something relatively local. Especially when it’s the UK’s first zero waste café bar. All from the same team behind The Clean Kilo, zero waste shop. On that note, they only sell beers that can be sourced with the bare minimum carbon footprint, so Attic Brew (Stirchley), Burning Soul (Hockley) and Fixed Wheel (Rowley Regis) often populate the menu. Sit in the green and gold Art Deco inspired space, enjoying a beer and maybe some of the snacks that Kilo Ziro have become known for.
Autobrew, Digbeth
Set back slightly, just past Kilo Ziro is Autobrew. A self-service craft beer bar. You get a card from the bar, and away you go. Pick a glass, pop your card in the respective slot, and hold your finger on the button while your glass fills up. Remember to tilt your glass, and you should be fine, but there are instructions on the wall. One of the handy things is that the button lets you have a small amount of beer if there is still money left on your card but not enough for a full beer. The beers are rotating, and you never know what they are going to have on, so it’s a fun place to visit. You can get a guest card if you are only visiting once, and top it up with what you need.
This article was written for Grapevine Birmingham by Jay, from B Town Social.
You can find more from Jay at btownsocial.co.uk