27/09/2024 - The Micropubs of Colwyn. And Old Colwyn

The final day of the 2024 Good Beer Guide Ticking. 2025 will be waiting on my Worcestershire doormat when we return from this mini-break. We find ourselves at the sea-side and like so often, first impressions are sketchy. Gangs of men hanging around at street corners, some literally sitting on the pavement. One bloke loudly chucking up over the railings next to the Station Inn. It's 1pm on a Friday afternoon.

Mrs M demands safety and I have four potential ticks available. The distance between Pen-Y-Bryn and the Crafty Fox likely to make this three. But other tragedies will befall us.

The Bay Hop is the pick of the pubs. A blue-print for how micros should be run. Shop conversions may lack the comfort, style and history of a classic pub, so the least they can do is stock the best drinks known to humanity.

Just and I mean just, warm enough for outdoor seating

We've a fine choice between traditional cask, Oktoberfest Keg, Belgian Surprises and all the craft cans and international bottles you can throw a stick at. Entertainment? Last nights quiz questions available on the bar. Alas, not the answers. I make a tit of myself by laughing at Mrs M's answer to what Diana Armstrong from Minnesota has grown to 42 feet. It was her fingernails. We find the pictures on google but not the most pressing answer as to how she wipes her bum.

Two drinks - an Ampersand Best Bitter and a Erdinger Oktoberfest for variety and we head off for disaster.

I've timed arrival at the Black Cloak Taproom to meet the 2pm opening hours confirmed by Google. Mrs M, always the harbinger of doom, says "we're not going in there are we? It looks locked up". True enough, a handwritten sign proclaims "Due to illness, we will not open till 4pm". Welsh cures are both miraculous and very time specific. But to be fair, no one wants to be in a micro when the plague is in town.

Not looking good at 2:05pm

Instead a long (read never ending) walk along the promenade to Old Colwyn. I can sense morale is dropping and suggest a topical ice cream stop. Until we see the one-scoop prices. On we plod.

The Crafty Fox has all the locals. A two room micro, with all tables in the front room occupied. Fortunately, they have a second room for space and its here I pay for a game of pool with a card for the first time in my drinking career.

A classic pub chariot

The beer range is far simpler than the Bay Hop. No fruity beers. Nothing too international. Some classic cask pales and IPAs. Coach House brewery seem to dominate proceedings.

Other entertainment options? Purchasing a second round, the landlord proclaimed I was missing a cabaret, as the oldest gent was on his feet and performing a little turn. And of course, there is always the record player. If you come prepared.

There'll be a Hue and Cry if you touch Gordon's Vinyl

Old School cab home, where the operator tells us it will be 10 minutes before we have even placed the order. After negotiation, we can have one in 30 minutes. It comes in 45.