A Liverpool man opened a "unique" bar that's "like a beer festival" every time you go after losing his job.
Haul's bottleshop, taproom and terrace on Rose Lane in Mossley Hill offers a regularly changing range of Belgian, Dutch and Austrian beers, with a healthy supply of local brews. Owner Chris Flynn, who walked this street every day on his way to school, grew up with a love of beer.
He inherited that love from his dad who took him on trips to Belgium, where he explored darker and stronger varieties than are available in most British pubs and supermarkets. Pints of real ale with his dad were a good starting point, but the passion evolved with his very first job at the Baltic Fleet, a pub dubbed a "must-visit for anyone that enjoys beer".
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The 19th century, grade II-listed building had its own brewery in the basement, and Chris went on to work for a brewery. In that time, he honed his passion and skill at "communicating beer to people", saying he hopes "in my little brief interaction with someone while I'm serving, I can pass a little bit of knowledge so they're a little bit better armed when it comes to making a decision on which beer to have".
Four years ago, he was a manager at Pi, which served pies and European beers in a venue on Rose Lane, half of which is now Haul's home. Chris found himself unemployed when Pi closed at the end of January 2020, after nine years in business. He'd wanted to open his own pub since he "first set foot behind a bar", so he and business partner Miles Bailie decided it was time to take on the risk and costs of making the vision a reality.
Doing so in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic was "stupidity", he said with a laugh, but thanks to click-and-collect, Haul survived, celebrating its third birthday this September. It had a steady stream of customers who Chris popped off to serve when the ECHO visited the pub.
You walk in to see a wooden bar on the right, fridges stocked with cans and bottles of beer on the left, and not a Heineken in sight. Upstairs has what one customer described as a "cosy, atmospheric" set-up of sofas and a carpeted floor, with music playing just loud enough to conceal the neighbouring table's conversation, and quiet enough to hear your own.
Chris said: "I just wanted to create a space where I'd like to go. I love cask beer - cask is king - so we always have two casks on. We try and have a slightly weaker one, and bit more premium. It doesn't always work out that way, depending on how people drink through stuff and when the casks are ready.
"But the idea is to come and have a really nice pint of cask, and every time you come in, it should be like a beer festival. When you sit and look at the menu, you go, 'Well, that sounds interesting, I'm not sure though', and that's why we do everything in small measures, like thirds and halves and things. You can come in, have a pint and then go, 'I fancy one of them', 'I like the look of that' or 'I'll give that a go'. It helps expand people's horizons beer-wise."
Some of Pi's loyal customers stuck with Chris and Miles when they opened Haul, but people travel from across Liverpool to grab a pint, buy cans or even a takeaway draught beer. During the Christmas season, it's also serving mulled wine made with Chris' secret recipe.
He said: "Every morning, I walk in and I go, 'I've got my own bar', and we did the vast majority of the decorating work ourselves, so it's like, 'I did that'. It's definitely a lot more positive than negative, which is a nice antidote to the stress in your head with the way things are going with the cost of living and the energy bills.
"There is all that stress, and there are breweries closing all over the country all the time, and bars. January and February are going to be brutal for little, independent places because the slush fund you managed to build up, the money behind the business, there's always something that's just eroding it, whether it was lockdowns or the downturn in trade.
"There was a good amount of help with that, but now with the energy bills, there's a knock-on effect as well because it comes through from the breweries. The breweries' energy prices are insane, and most of them have been brilliant to be honest, they've only passed on small price increments to us, which means we only have to pass on small price increments to the customers if we can't absorb it.
"You have all that stress bouncing around the back of your head, but then you come in and you have a lovely night, you have lovely regulars, you get that smile on someone's face when they light up when you give them the right beer. You float out when you're on your way home and you're like, 'Yeah, boss man, we are doing the right thing'."
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