Bernies Real Ale Off Licence

Visited on Sunday 11th Apr 2021, on our way back home from Oxfordshire. Bit further away from the M42 than I thought, but still worth the effort. Great choice of beers and three hand-pulls available. Local beers from Brew 61 and Silhill caught my eye (I bought 4 of each) and tins from Cigar City which I hadn't seen before. Full range of Hobson's too, but I've had all of those. I could go on, but the choices will have changed by the time you get there. Really friendly tee-total Indian chap served us, we had a good chat about alcohol and life in general. Highly recommended.

Bernie’s is situated in an unassuming row of shops in a suburban area just off the Stratford Road heading out of Birmingham, close to M42. Visited a couple of times whilst in the area, first visit was off the back of it being in the Good Beer Guide, otherwise it’s certainly not somewhere I’d have visited ’whilst passing’. Considering where it’s located, I was impressed with the selection available. Emphasis is on Real ale’s with a lot of West Midlands beers, a solid range from rest of UK, plus a selection of intenational beers. Has a few beers available of tap to try too. The service is OK, efficient without being overly friendly, and isn’t what you’d expect from a place such as this, but that aside it’s well worth a visit if in the area.

Clean shop. Lots of bottled Bitters and a nice Bloch of Belgians. They have Brewdog and Flying a Dog too, but this isn’t quite a craft location yet. Excellent prices - especially for Oakham Geen Devil. The welcome was rudimentary, but it’s a great location for beer full stop and especially good in this area. They also have 4 hand pumps dispensing real ale. Very good.

Nice to find real ale in an off license! Good selection of English ales, particularly those brewed locally. Worth a visit.

payed a visit couple of weeks ago on the way to the village ,not bad no way in the same claas as stirchly or cotteridge wines

Found an excuse to visit. Has a small selection of European and American, but a larger range of UK. 4 pumps on the go when I was there, managed to buy myself a present of Gouden Carolus box set of glass and 4 different beers so totally happy with that - only £15. Sometimes has Jaipur on tap. Staff member liked crap lager "I don’t like ales" but was helpful and friendly nontheless. It was mid-march, but they still had about 8 different xmas beers in stock. Not sure how quickly I’ll go back, but he says they’re going to extend their range by 60% soon.

Couldn’t resisit a look in when staying in a hotel 5 minutes away. Pleasant little shop, 4 handpumps in use, with 2 more spare. Draught real cider available (Rich’s Medium on my visit). Was hoping for more Belgian beers, going by the GBG’s description, but only a small number of well known ones on sale., eg Chimay, Westmalle. Still, good for the area and worth a look in. Plenty of draught containers, in a number of sizes available.

"The real ale off-licence" has been featured in CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide for the last 20 years. A choice of beers are available on tap to take home in plastic containers; there’s also a reasonable range of bottles, mainly English with some more common Belgian and German. Located in a typical row of suburban shops. Well worth a visit if in the Solihull area.