Baltic Fleet, Liverpool

Visited on Friday afternoon. Considering it is quite an imposing building, space is fairly limited inside, not helped by the rather dominant central island bar, leaving fairly narrow areas surrounding it. At the bar, three of four hand pulls in service offering a black IPA from Black Lodge, Neptune Märzen and (I think) Brimstage Trappers Hat. My half of the Märzen set me back £2.40, tried out of intrigue as this is not normally a beer style you see on cask, and of course it was the season for Oktoberfest, so why not! I felt it was served a little on the warm side, even for cask. Payment is card only, reinforced by signs everywhere you look advising of this. There is a glass extension to the rear with additional seating - it looks like pastries and stuff are available here so not sure if you can use this space if you are just having a drink. There is a log burner, not in use at the time of my visit. Upstairs not investigated but at the very least has the ladies toilets, with the gents in a rather 'rustic' basement. Appears to be dog friendly. I remember it being amazing on my first visit, but these days I'd struggle to give it more than 7/10 due to the limited cask compared to years gone by, and the awkward layout.

The Baltic Fleet is a wedge-shaped pub with pink painted chimneys that, if you squint your eyes after a few strong jars, kind of make the building look like a ship. There are picnic tables behind a rope outside the point and across the rear are some covered picnic tables enclosed behind a five-foot high Perspex screen meaning that access is only available from inside the pub. The entrance from the right opens into a thin bar area where a central serving counter faces the front windows, it doesn’t take too many in here to make it feel cosy. In the pointed left-hand side of the pub is sunken seating area and across the rear is more seating and access to the Perspex enclosed rear seating area. There is a flight of stairs, but I didn’t venture up on this occasion. Premium and craft keg products were available and the four hand pumps I spotted were drawing Brimstage’s Trappers Hat, Peerless Brewing’s Skyline, Lune brew Co’s Caked and Black Lodge Brewery’s Gift of Paradise, the latter being on good form, but it took a while to pour so there was a bit of a production line going on. The back bar is plastered with old pump clips so there’s a good turnover of ale. The service was polite, but I was a little disappointed with my visit, I suppose I was expecting a proper old school boozer, which this isn’t. That said it is a good pub with a decent line up so I’d revisit if passing, but not sure it warrants the hike from the city centre.