27 draft beers on tap at new ale bar which opens in famous former Wolverhampton music shop tomorrow
Real ale lovers will be spoiled for choice when the founder of a popular beer festival opens a new bar tomorrow (Friday).
The Perfect Ale Cask & Keg, or Pack bar for short, opens at the former Mike Lloyd Music building in Queen Square, Wolverhampton, at 3pm tomorrow.
Andy Evans, founder of the Codsall Beer Festival, and business partner Nicc Bennett, have turned the long-vacant building into a bar with 27 beers and ciders on draft.
Ten of these will be real ales, including the 'house beer' Pack Pale Ale, brewed by Wolverhampton-based Newbridge brewery, and there will also be six 'craft' keg beers, as, well as range of lagers, ciders and Belgian speciality beers.
Mr Evans, who previously kept the Olde Vicarage in Codsall, eventually hopes to create a music venue in the basement of the four-storey building, along with a games room, and finally a private 'speakeasy' style bar which he hopes to open towards the end of 2026.
The building, later occupied by KFC, had been empty for more than five years. In 2023 it was named and shamed by businessman Henry Carver as one of his 'dirty dozen' of eyesore buildings which he said were letting the city down.
Mr Evans said he was delighted with the site of his new venture, which held fond memories for many people.
In its heyday in the 1970s and '80s, Mike Lloyd Music was one of the West Midlands' best known record shops and concert promoters.
"i would really like to get some Mike Lloyd memorabilia to pay homage, if I could," he said.
"It's where I bought my first gig ticket, and the place means a lot to people my age and a little bit older."
Mr Evans said the venue would create 20 new jobs.
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