Redbeer’d Joins the Stirchley Beer Mile
Imagine two best friends, both in the trade, drinking on a Monday night - they then start chatting about “when we have our bar”. At first it seems to be a fantasy, but they talk about it more and more, until one day this dream actually becomes a reality. This is what happened to Ant Mills-Wood and Vicki Miles when Redbeer'd, on the Stirchley Beer Mile in Birmingham, opened its doors for the first time in December last year.
“We just got to a point when we were just fed up with working our arses off for other people to reap the rewards”, said Vicki, sitting back on the pew that had been in the flat she shared with her partner for the past five years, waiting for this moment. Ant continued “We’d both been in the trade for a long time and it just got to a point that if we didn't start doing it for ourselves, we were going to have to look at alternate lines of work.”
Vicki added “We just started meeting up every Monday and would drink and talk about it, steadily it became a reality and then it was like oh my god it’s actually happening now!”Ant took a moment to take a sip of beer from his tankard. “We’re best mates and it’s something we wanted to do and we just started taking it a bit more seriously. Originally I had a mindset of what I wanted but we spent months looking at places that weren't right! Others seemed perfect and then the landlord would get cold feet because they didn't want alcohol on the premises. This was one of the last ones that we looked at on an awful day of viewings and we looked past the sparkly pink wallpaper and thought… well this could work!”
They put together a business plan and had a friend and a family member join forces with them on the project, which gave them even more confidence that things were starting to happen, as Vicki told us. “We had a good mate that said if you can put a decent business plan together, pretend to be professional for once then he can help us out with getting started and that was what made it become a reality.”Ant added. “It was like hang on, we’ve got a bit of backing here.”
The guys started constructing a bar, picking about 50,000 sequins off the wall left by previous tenants, which was a challenge! They built a temporary bar made from scaffolding that a friend lent them.“Friends and family have been great" Vicki said, nursing her pint of Elephant Riders from Fownes. “Liam from Wild Cat Tap and Sam from Hop and Scotch have both been awesome, offering advice and support as they’ve worked on similar sized projects.”
But this project hasn’t come without risk factors, as Ant confirmed. “The financial stress of the change of usage, planning applications, license applications really took their toll. You can spend three grand without any guarantee that it’s going to happen."Vicki added, “It was a bit nerve-racking because you could literally throw all that money away just attempting to get that change of usage, but thankfully it went well!”
Redbeer’d is quite basic but it has a fantastic communal feel, with shabby chic furniture, benches and plenty of barrel tables. Ant and Vicki are doing the bar up bit by bit. The bar has five keg lines, with Pauliner and Hawkes Cider permanently on tap, and four casks which are currently gravity-suspended, but will soon have hand pulls, once a permanent bar with a false wall is built. The bar has a map on the wall and only buys local casks within a certain radius, reducing their carbon footprint, and the vast majority of beer is vegan too.
Ant also told us how they’ve been welcomed onto the Stirchley Beer Mile. “We know a lot of the people that have their places on the strip so it’s not been a case of feeling like we’re treading on anyone’s toes or anything and we're adding to what is already an amazing stretch. I grew up in the area, so it’s nice to be back. The response from the public has been brilliant, we've got regulars that we didn't know before we were here. When you first open your mates come out but that’s not going to last forever, so it’s great!”
Redbeer'd is also close to plenty of transport links. It's just a short walk from Kings Norton station and the number 45 and 47 bus; and if you hop on the number 11 at the right time, it is only a 10 minute ride away from Hop & Scotch! The bar is also child and dog friendly too, so head down, grab a beer, bring your furry friend and say hello to Ant and Vicki's dream!
