Pub review: Beer in Hand, Hereford

This is part 2 in an occasional series of pub reviews and, as with my first review of The Door Hinge in Welling, it features a micropub. The Beer in Hand opened in Hereford city centre at the back end of last year and is owned by Alison and Mitchell Evans. The pub is located in a former launderette that has been converted into quite a cool pub space.

Beer and cider is poured straight from the casks, which are stored in a custom-made cooling unit at the back of the pub. The pub typically offers 8-10 cask ales over the weekend (usually a couple fewer in the week) with beers sourced from all over the country. On my most recent visit they offered beers from the likes of Purity and Titanic as well as some more local offerings from Mayfields and Bewdley.  The pub also houses a bottle shop selling a reasonable range of beers from around Europe and the US, most of which would be otherwise unobtainable in Herefordshire. 

In terms of the space itself, Beer in Hand is quite different to the other micropubs I’ve visited. For starters its easily 3 or more times the size of both The Tankerton Arms and The Door Hinge which lends its quite a different atmosphere. Whereas these other micropubs have had much more of a ‘drinking in your living room with some random old blokes’ vibe, the Beer in Hand feels much more like a ‘proper’ pub. It probably isn’t exactly how I’d envision my own micropub, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and having said that I’ve only visited at night when the place has been full of people, so it’s possible that it feels quite different during the day, or during quieter periods.

As a spoilt London-based drinker it’s quite easy to lose sight of what a pub like Beer in Hand can bring to somewhere like Hereford. Some rough calculations suggest that within a one mile radius of my workplace in London I have access to at least 500 different beers, at the least. Despite its proud brewing traditions, Hereford has recently become a bit of a dead spot for pubs and for those who appreciate ‘proper’ beer there are few choices, once you look past the excellent Wye Valley pub The Barrels and The Victory, the home of the Hereford Brewery, you don’t have many places to go.

The folks at Beer in Hand have already brought a shedload of super beers from across the country to Hereford that simply wouldn’t have got there otherwise. I’ve never seen a Purity beer elsewhere in Hereford. I’ve never seen a Tiny Rebel beer anywhere else in Hereford. I could go on, but you get the picture. Their support of local microbreweries is to be applauded too, the likes of Ledbury Real Ales and Mayfields deserve a wider audience and judging by the popularity of the place, they’ll get that at BiH. The pub has become a vital calling point for me on my trips back to Hereford and if you find yourself in town, you’d be well advised to call in too.

Beer in Hand, Eignbrook House, 136 Eign Street, Hereford, HR4 0AP

Open seven days, opening hours vary, please check before you travel!

http://www.beerinhand.co.uk