Ormskirk finally has somewhere good to enjoy a few beers, the brand new
Hop Inn Bier Shoppe on Burscough Street right in the middle of the town centre. Owned by the same people who run the very popular
The Hop Vine pub in Burscough and who also run the
Burscough Brewing Company, it's been open just two weeks and has proven very popular with the local people.
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| Looks great from the outside, even better on the inside! |
I've visited it twice so far, once on it's opening night where it was absolutely rammed, and also the Thursday just before Easter where it was also extremely busy - a great sign for a bar trying to do something a little different than be 'just another pub'. They have seating down one side of the bar and a standing area on the other, the seated side also houses the display cabinets of the different bottled beers available.
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| Bottled beers on display & comfy seating |
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| The bar, 3 cask, 6 keg & loads of Belgium bottles |
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| Baron & Source Deli Paul browsing the beer menu |
They have three cask handpulls serving local ales, including
their own
Burscough ales, along with
George Wright on the
opening night, and
Wilson Potter last Thursday. They also have a 6-way
keg font serving
Hop Inn German Lager,
Warsteiner Lager, Paulaner wheat beer, Chimay tripel, Flensburger &
Küppers Kölsch. They also have well over 50 different Belgium bottled
beers as well as wine and spirits.
The bottled beers are highlighted in a well-produced beer menu, with tasting notes, ABV and general details about the beers. This along with well-informed staff means that there were always plenty of empty bottles of Belgium beer on the tables, something I was quite astounded to see in Ormskirk!
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| Fancy beer in Ormskirk? Are you sure? |
The appropriate glassware is also present which is a quality touch, the last thing you want is to be drinking a strong Belgian beer from a
half-pint nonic glass. Prices are very reasonable with the cask ales around the £2.50-£3 a pint mark, some of the imported strong large bottles can be quite expensive, but there is a whole range of choices in between.
It's an excellent bar and a very welcome change from the rather tired
pubs in the town centre. Now there's a place for the beer drinker who's
looking for something a bit different than standard lager or 4% brown
beer.
I wish Will & his staff the best of luck, it's the only place in Ormskirk that I plan from now on to be drinking in!
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| Will McCombe (landlord, Hop Inn Bier Shoppe), Mike McCombe (landlord, The Hop Vine) & Andy Brocken (Burscough Brewery) |
