There are some Pubs in Liverpool that fall into different
categories; some you would not go into unless part of a gaggle of students
(mainly on Smithdown Road or Picton Road). There pubs that you seek out, such
as Bier on Back Bold Street. And then there are pubs which draw you in because
you just know it’ll be great. One of these pubs is The Dispensary.
The Dispensary is probably my favourite pub in Liverpool.
Not because of the beer selection, though it is good, but for a number of other
reasons. The Dispensary is never talked up as much as its rival pubs such as
the Ship and Mitre and The Philharmonic. The former has arguably the widest and
most eclectic range of beer available in Liverpool and I like it for that. But
when you walk into The Dispensary you are greeted with a beautiful wooden
panelled pub, with Victorian booths. In fact if it
wasn’t for the TVs, music
and the kegs, you might think you had walked back into the 19th
century to be greeted by many local and north-western breweries.
There is the obligatory Cains handpump but the rest of the
bar is taken up by breweries such as Titanic, Hawkshead and Roosters. The keg line-up is not exactly BrewDog, but
it doesn’t feature many of the larger name brands, smaller imported lagers such
as Paulaner as well as a Cain’s export Lager and Erdinger fill up the keg
lines, pushing out the oh so familiar Fosters.
I order a half of White Monk from the Phoenix Brewery; it
doesn’t disappoint. It’s Light, hoppy and balanced. Great British pale ale with
a good head from the sparkler (suppresses southern annoyances), though I will
admit that I have had better.
But what I love about this pub I that it I a riposte to the
rather snobbish beer community that is starting to crop up in Britain, a
product of the BeerAdvocate/ratebeer community in America which consider that
unless a beer has been added with a fuck-load of hops (I will make no apologies
for swearing) or has been aged on a elephants trunk than it is not a craft
beer. Well I’m here in the Dispensary with a pale ale that bursts with Nelson
Sauvin (Salopian’s Oracle) and it just under 5% and it’s tasting brilliant. No
other country can make that boast.
As I write I’m about to go up for another half of something,
but consider this the first in a long-line of Liverpool pub reviews (and no I
will not go to the Boundary at the top of Smithdown no matter how much anybody cajoles
me)
Cheers
