The Ale Trail: The Ship & Mitre, Liverpool

Stiff competition when it comes to the best pub in Liverpool City Centre, but this great boozer nor far from the Queensway tunnel entrance has had my vote for a while and a quick visit last night reconfirmed it. Aside from the great ale selection, which of course is the most crucial factor, I love the layout and decor - a kind of wayward take on 1930s art deco, with the kind of sprawling, sectioned layout that gives an intimate feel even though the pub isn't a small one. It's the kind of setting that looks different depending on where you choose to sit.

The Ship & Mitre is situated on Dale Street. Another decent pub, The Exelsior is practically next door to it: it's worth a visit too but pales in comparison with the mighty S&M (if that's not a misleading abbreviation). They serve the local scouse delicacy plus a vegetarian option and there's a handpump with a scouse stout on: the idea is you pour some into your food to enrich it. 

I prefer my stout drunk rather than eaten so, with that in mind, I opted for the Early Days porter, a well-established favourite from Manchester's Blackjack microbrewery. If you like your stouts and porters, the Ship is a great place for them. They also have a couple of stouts on keg. If you don't, you'll find something to your taste among their eight changing handpulls.

The Ale Trail: Cottage Beer Project

I stumbled on this Devon-based brewery while searching on the internet for bottle conditioned ales. Admittedly, if I were seeking just any bottle conditioned ales this would not be difficult (although it would be great if there were more) but finding new ales produced in this way has something of a quest about it. In the case of this brewery, the quest turned out to be a hugely productive one.

As a lover of dark beers, I inevitably reached for the Mild Boar mild and the Rambler dark ale, both of which turned out to be good selections, the former a chestnut mild with a nutty texture, the latter deep, sweet and strong (5.9% ABV).

However, it was the third choice that surpassed expectations: The Gatherings, an amber ale, is far more robust than other ambers: as the picture on their website had already suggested, it's closer to brown in colour hinting at the richness of its texture. Taste-wise, it more than surpassed expectations: for a 3.4% ABV ale, it's packed with flavour, delicately spiced with the depth of a winter ale. If you're looking for something that's not too strong but tastes like it is, this is worth trying.

I'll be going back for more, certainly, The Old English Goat bitter also looks a good bet while the Black Pheasant stout would certainly have been a pick first time round had it been in stock. There's also a Black IPA called Panther: in my experience these things can go either way but the selection sampled so far makes me positive about giving it a go. It was the Society of Independent Brewers' south-west champion in December. 

If you're looking for a lighter ale, appropriate for these summer evenings, you might want to try the Bespoke blonde ale, the Doodle Beer EPA or IPAs Red Deer and Hit For Six.

The Ale Trail: The Dog & Bone, Lincoln

The Batemans Brewery website declares, with some pride, that their Dog & Bone is in the top 15 pubs in Lincoln, as reported here. It's hard to imagine there are another 15 as good as this one. I did visit another boozer in this top 15 - The Cardinal's Hat - which was also well worth its place, but it can't match this one on at least three counts: the sheet warmth of a backstreet alehouse, six Batemans ales on handpump and a friendly pub dog.

The six ales would have been enough on their own. Batemans has long been one of my favourite breweries so to find a place with half a dozen of them - including the masterful XXXB - had me close to beer heaven. Wandering outside with a Dark Fruits Porter had me in it: it's a small beer garden to the rear of the pub, beautifully manicured, the hot Lincolnshire sun beaming down, the pub dog sitting on the seat next for me hoping for a crisp. Or was it the beer?

The Dark Fruits Porter was sumptuous: purple/black with cherries, blackcurrants and blackberries that fortify a mildly sweet aftertaste. I stayed for another - the more familiar Dark M Mild - before stroking the dog and leaving, telling the landlady I'll be back next time I'm in the area. Now I've got to figure out a good reason to be in Lincoln again.

The Ale Trail: Adnams Broadside Premium Ale

When it comes to bottled ales, I normally stick to cask conditioned but my son got me this for Father's Day and I immediately grabbed a bottle and headed outside with a pile of strong cheese. Why? Because I'm familiar with Broadside as a sturdy 4.7% ABV tipple and this mf is a powerful 6.

Even the usual Broadside packs a punch: coming out of the pumps, it's probably my favourite among cask ales that are widely available. I'd love to see this baby in a hand-pull: even out of a bottle its rich raisin-y textures came through and zazzed my head as I sat in the back garden on an unusually hot day in the grim north of England. 

I was reading Hemingway, who I believe said once that drinking from a bottle was fine but when you open a new one you know you've got a problem. But he was talking about whiskey so I figure however much of a wallop this ale delivers, I ain't gonna go the way of Hemingway. Just yet anyway.

The Ale Trail: Riverhead Digley Bitter

Got a pint of this beauty at the always magnificent Cricketers Arms in St Helens last night (where darts legend Steve Bunting, a frequent visitor, stroked our dog).

Riverhead Brewery, an offshoot of the Ossett brewery, is located in Marsden in West Yorkshire, a microbrewery also responsible for the superb Sparth Mild, which they've had on at Manchester's Piccadilly Tap this week. 

Digley is a robust chestnut-coloured bitter with a hint of caramel, just enough to deepen the texture without overwhelming the classic bitter taste. AT 4.5 ABV, it's a moderate but substantial little devil that set me up nicely for a pizza at The Turk's Head (also well worth a visit) afterwards - more about that wonderful hostelry in a future entry.