As we all know, Newcastle knows and loves its beer and with plenty great boozers around the city there is much for us all to cheer about.
If we needed further excuse to celebrate, there are a couple of big beer-focused days which provide it. This Thursday, June 15 is Beer Day Britain - a national day dedicated to the UK's favourite tipple. We've also the annual International Beer Day to look forward to this summer, which was founded in 2017 in California and is now marked by cities in 80 countries around the world on the first Friday of every August - so that's August 4 this year - with the aim of uniting the beers of all nations, celebrating brewers and just offering people an opportunity just to enjoy a pint or two.
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And Newcastle, as you might expect, is always an ideal host. Amid a seemingly ever-growing number of flash cocktail bars around the city - which are hugely welcome too of course - there is a remarkably high count of successful small independent pubs and breweries offering no-nonsense, down-to-earth good old local ale.
Among them are indies with a menagerie of names which could combine to make up quite a pub crawl: Mean Eyed Cat, Town Mouse, Split Chimp, Tipsy Toad and Wobbly Duck. A previous survey has named Newcastle as the best place to go in the UK for craft beers and independent boozers - which no doubt did not surprise to those who know their way around a pint of two - and with so much to be proud of in our proud Geordie beer-drinking heritage, and with this Thursday's Beer Day Britain in mind, here's a reminder of our own list of top spots around the city to enjoy a decent pint.
They include both micro pubs and a couple of breweries, although there are plenty more around the city to explore, from the well-known Wylam Brewery in Exhibition Park to Brinkburn Street Brewery in the Ouseburn and Hadrian Border Brewery on Newburn Industrial Estate.
The Heaton Tap
The Heaton area of Newcastle is home to the first three small but perfectly formed craft beer venues on our list; all within staggering distance for local ale lovers. This one, in Wharton Terrace, is both a micro pub and a bottle shop where customers can find a regularly-changing selection of craft beers, real ales and more than 150 bottles and cans.
See its Facebook page here.
Elder Beer Cafe
Looking back to the 2020 lockdown, this then- newcomer in Heaton's Chillingham Road managed to boost the real ale scene by opening - under take-out-only restrictions - that November and since then customers have developed quite a taste for its craft beer. It's actually a cafe-bar - Belgian-inspired apparently, says owner and former Free Trade barman Ed Sharp - so there are plenty savoury snacks available to accompany the UK and international draught, can and bottle beers on offer.
It's known to host the odd piano night and art exhibition too. See here.
Tipsy Toad
This micro pub selling craft ales and spirits in Heaton Road opened at the very end of 2019 and recently added an extension with an improved outdoor area - and oodles of colour and grafitti art - inviting customers "to sit, drink, smoke a tab, and be merry!" Besides its range of craft brews, it hosts buskers nights and quizzes.
Find out more on Tipsy Toad's Facebook page here.
The Wobbly Duck
Making its debut in 2021, this basement micro pub took shape during lockdown - in the former home of Mr Petit restaurant in Newcastle's Old Eldon Square - and has proved a welcome addition to the indie craft beer scene. Run by the owners of both the Beer Street Micropub under the Forth Street arches near Central Station and The Old Fox pub in Felling, it serves a selection of ales from independent breweries in a stripped-back 'proper pub' space featuring wood, stone and quirky upturned beer barrel-style lighting. See here.
Town Mouse Ale House
Another downstairs boozer, tucked away in St Mary's Place, this one no doubt gets overlooked by hordes of people heading to the The Five Swans on the nearby corner - but it's a gem. It opened in 2017 - with room for just 50 customers and four keg and four cask ales: six of them from small independent local brewers - and has grown, if not in size, then certainly in reputation and ambition.
It dark and cosy interior is inspired by the traditional ale houses of Belgium and basement pubs of Ireland and Berlin and its dog-friendly credentials include a special ‘dog brew’.
Mean-Eyed Cat
A former newsagent shop in St Thomas Street saw new life in 2017 when taken over by this laid-back independent which boasts six cask and eight keg beers alongside ciders, wines and spirits to enjoy, alongside music, in the most colourful and vibrant of spaces. Among those at the board right now is a De Molen Rasputin imperial stout at a whopping 10.4% - served, as you might expect at that strength, in thirds.
The Mean-Eyed Cat shared first place with the Town Mouse for best Newcastle micropubs in CAMRA's 2020 Pub of the Year Awards and they've been in its Good Beer Guide ever since including this year's edition. See its Facebook page here.
The Split Chimp
Billed as the city's first micropub when it opened in Forth Street in 2015, the booming little business moved to under the arches in Westgate Road the following year, immediately doubling its number of pumps to six, and has since gone on to flourish, opening a branch in Whitley Bay's Spanish City too.
A home from home - if you too have leather Chesterfield sofas in your house that is - its comfy surroundings invite customers to kick-back with a real ale on handpull or a bottled craft beer: this week's cask ales include Clever Chimp and Rivet Catcher Bitter, says its website. See here.
Alpha Delta
This brewery in Newburn weathered the Covid storm to be named by Rate Beer Awards this spring as one of the world's best new breweries.
Also in that top 10 list - and reinforcing Newcastle's reputation for the highest quality ale - was Full Circle Brew Co. which opened in 2019. Alpha Delta was set up that same year by Ross Holland, who previously worked for Anarchy Brewery' then ran Box Social and started off brewing beer in the garage.
During lockdown, it adapted to doorstep deliveries and a collection service and is now forging ahead with its 'bold beers' - a range of current and seasonals. See here and check out news 2 on Facebook here about the likes of sour beers and plans to be amongst the breweries taking part in the North East Brewers Showcase on July 2.
Tyne Bank
This one has been established quite some years now, having started off in 2011 and moved from St Lawrence Road to Walker Road to develop a microbrewery and tap room heaven for ale lovers in Walker Road, near the Ouseburn. In addition to buying cask, keg and bottled beer from the on-site brewery, true fans can purchase themed gifts, glasses and T-shirts there too while also signing up to the likes of events and Saturday tours. It is currently promoting beer packs for Father's Day: see here.
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