Old Friends

 It was the last chance we'd have to go to Moor.  

It was amazingly busy - then we'd learned that there'd been a brewery tour and that accounted for the extra folk.  Clearly, a considerable number of them were not seasoned beer drinkers but I love the way the bar staff served.

They even helped to curate the order in which they drank their beers:  "you're going to try the stout and the imperial stout? - have the stout first and save the imperial for your last drink".  This is the sort of bar-keeping that can really make a difference to how you perceive your time at a bar.  It was an excellent lesson in how to serve people who need some help choosing.

This is in stark contrast to some of the experiences you hear about in bars and taprooms from social media. Tales of smug thirty-something blokes mocking customers for not knowing their NEIPA from their Pilsner are not uncommon and I can't for the life of me understand why, if your job is to sell something to a customer, you wouldn't want them to feel as happy as possible about their purchase and the experience around it.

Anyhow - apart from the top notch staff, we also love the fact that Moor's beer has recognisable, and distinct styles.

So many modern craft breweries seem to riff on a basic recipe meaning there's a lot of very samey beer available in their taproom.  It's great and everything, and the beer is typically VERY good, but sometimes you might want to vary the style of what's on offer.

Yesterday there were the following:

3 Lagers:  One straight, one smoked, one Italian Pils

Then there was:

Cask light-colour bitter (4%)

1 low alcohol table beer (2.5%)

1 golden ale (4%)

1 light IPA (4.7%)

1 collaboration mid  light beer (5%)

1 "mountain" IPA (6%)

1 standard stout (5%)

1 porter (7.3%)

1 imperial stout (11%?)

1 barrel-aged sour stout (11%?)

1 cherry sour gueze 

1 cider

Not only does this mean you're pretty much guaranteed to find a beer style that you'll enjoy, your stay can lead you through a whole range of styles and strengths.  This is what makes Moor pretty much the ultimate taproom experience.

Just occasionally, I wish they had a wood-fired pizza oven with a short list of available pizzas.  Nothing fancy...ham & mushroom, red pepper and courgette, Chorizo and...well, anything really.

If they had that, I really think we might be tempted never to go anywhere else...