Coventry – Hops D’Amour Micropub

Richard and I had time for one more Coventry pub and so it seemed sensible to visit another venue, a micro-pub no less, listed in the Good Beer Guide, in my never ending quest to try and visit every pub in the book. Hops D’Amour was the first micro-pub in Coventry having been opened in May 2021 by a local couple, Gregg and Vyx Spencer.

The beer list at Hops D’Amour and this had a range of beer styles and types, with a mix of cask and keg alongside a fair number of ciders. I was eyeing up the Birthday Cake from Vocation, but that had just run out when they were serving the previous customer. The pub has won numerous CAMRA awards over the last couple of years, including being the local cider pub of the year.

The back bar and they were very apologetic when my replacement choice of Banoffee Pie from Yonder Brewing ran out. Not that they needed to apologise, especially when it was clear there was enough left of the beer for me to at least try. The team members were polite and helpful, having an excellent beer knowledge and I felt that the recommendations were appropriate.

And there’s what they had left, with the beer being punchy in its banoffee flavours. There was a taste of caramel, banana and a fair chunk of biscuit as well, decent.

I told Richard that he kept looking miserable in the photos, so he looked more cheerful in this one. His diet seems to have given him a resting angry face, but I didn’t tell him that as I only want to encourage people. The beer from Yonder was the Peanut Butter and Jelly and it had a jam tasting finish, being sweet with plenty of chocolate and jelly flavours, although not much peanut butter.

The interior of the venue which remained busy throughout our visit. The Singer (of sewing machine fame) sign on the wall is a throwback to the previous occupant of this shop, with Singer having had a long presence here over the last couple of decades. There’s also an external area, which seemed to be primarily used by smokers, which was also busy during the time that we were there. There was no music playing and no television screens, which is exactly the ambience that I would have expected from a micro-pub.

Some of the previous pump clips were being used as decoration and there are some decent brewers there, not least Castle Rock, DEYA, Thornbridge and Yonder.

The pub is open every day of the week, but they don’t go for late closing hours and that seems a very sensible decision, there’s inevitably always a challenge from late night drinkers and this isn’t the sort of venue that needs that trade. I very much liked it here, the atmosphere was welcoming, there was an excellent beer choice, the service was friendly, the prices were reasonable and so another excellent recommendation from the Good Beer Guide.