A side trip while visiting family near Manchester took us to the ancient walled city of Chester, principal city of Cheshire, on the northern border of Wales. Hunger, thirst, and the CAMRA Real Ale guide took us in turn to the Albion Inn, just a short walk from the River Dee.
The Albion expects a certain tolerance of their self-imposed boundaries, and their sense of humour. A prominent sign outside declares the pub “family hostile”, another invites drunken pub crawlers to drink elsewhere, and a third warns that the premises “may contain nuts!”.
On the beer pumps were three cask-conditioned ales, along with Carlings lager (labelled “We can’t believe it’s not piss!”) on a keg tap. We sampled the Adnams Southwold Bitter, a session bitter brewed by Sole Bay Brewing in Southwold. This was likely the best of that genre we tried. In its cask version this beer has an ABV of 3.7%, which is not untypical in a country that imposes taxes based on alcohol content. The malt and hops characters were particularly well balanced, with Fuggles dry-hopping adding a very pleasant hop nose.
Like most English pubs these days, food is served only at lunch time. The menu was reasonable, with seven or eight hot entrée specials and a standing list of rather typical pub fare. Since we did not fit into any of the prohibited demographics, the Albion Inn turned out to be a pleasant stop for lunch and a pint on an uncharacteristically hot and sunny English afternoon.
