Liverpool – Sanctuary

I’m not sure that I’d have come across this pub if I hadn’t seen it listed in the Good Beer Guide, but it’s a relatively new opening for the city. It’s good to see that the signage promotes the pub as a “dive bar”, which seems to be a common attribution in the US, but can be seen as a negative one in the UK. The phrase should definitely be reclaimed as a force for good.

The cask and keg list.

The bottles and cans lists.

The Good Beer Guide book notes about this pub suggest that it’s designed to look like a “run-down 1920s hotel”, although I’m not sure that I’d have guessed this. The internal decor does give it character though.

The back bar. There were no staff visible when I entered, but the staff member who did come and serve when available was personable and seemed to know most of the customers. The whole pub vibe was welcoming and comfortable.

The pub regularly has the Plum Porter from Titanic Brewery on, which is one of my favourite beers, but I’d already had this at an earlier pub. So, I opted for the Stour Valley Old Growler, meaning I’d come all the way from Norfolk to have a Suffolk beer. But, all was well with it, at the appropriate temperature although the taste was perhaps unexceptional, but very drinkable.

All in all, a rather lovely little pub, and it has a micropub feel making it all on trend and contemporary, without it being formulaic or forced. Another pub which in my, rather irrelevant, view is quite rightly in the Good Beer Guide.