I lived in Acocks Green and Kings Heath for most of my life. Most of my childhood was spent between Ireland and England until my parents finally decided to settle in Birmingham. Against that back-drop I grew up as a teenager with the cultural influences of Birmingham. As a young man in the late 70's I met my wife, who was from Preston. We used to enjoy getting the bus into the Bullring and doing a crawl around town. There used to be a group of us and we'd try half a dozen places over the evening. 'The Windsor', Yates's, 'Hole in the Wall', 'Beer Keller / Bogarts' and top it off with the 'Locarno' 'Shamrock' or 'Irish Centre', or 'Barbarella's'- now there's a mix! Over the years I have frequented many a pub in Digbeth and the city centre. I got to know Perry Barr, Edgbaston, Erdington, Northfield, Moseley, Kings Norton, Selly Oak and even one or two West Indian clubs in Handsworth. Of course, I got to know Kings Heath and Acocks Green very well. I saw pubs come and go and some like the 'Dolphin' completely eradicated. I have always enjoyed ale more than lager, although nothing beats lager on a hot day when you're really thirsty. My wife and I used to love going into 'The Spread Eagle' when it opened in Acocks Green village. It was real ale at a real cheap price. It was marvellous just being able to walk the couple of hundred yards from the house to the pub for a great night out with a group of friends and come home with change out of 20 quid. I smoked so it didn't matter that the place was a fog. Nearly 3 years ago my wife and I and our children moved to Phoenix Arizona to live. It has been quite a culture shock in some ways. Over that time we have once again found a network of local bars / pubs that deserve mention. There is 'real ale', believe it or not, alive and well in the US. Amazingly some of the British ales have made there way across the Atlantic. Newcastle Brown Ale is available in most bars and is even on 'tap' in some places. Other beers that can be found here are Bass Export, this is brewed in Burton and is really good, also on tap in many places. John Courage - in bottles, okay-ish. Abbott ale found in the 'George and Dragon English Pub'- really similar to that found in Wetherspoon's in the UK. Imported ciders include Strongbow and Blackthorn. My wife loves these. Irish ales include Guinness and Smithwicks brewed in Ireland and shipped to the desert. Lagers include Stella Artois, Heineken and Grolsch which are often on tap around Phoenix. The local real ale brewery that is well represented is 'Four Peaks' in Tempe, AZ. They have done a marvellous job with ales like 'Kiltlifter' and '8th Street ale'in particular. There are pub crawls to be had around Phoenix but the 'downtown' area is not really worth it. Instead 'Scottsdale' and the 'Biltmore Corridor' are more fun. We keep in contact with our families and many of our old friends in Birmingham and around England and they have been out to do some of the 'crawls' - 'runs' out here. In Phoenix though, the crawls usually only take in about 3-4 places at the most, over a night. The good thing is that the bars / pubs stay open until 2am. We have become well versed in beer and pubs over the years. I therefore thought that I'd like the chance to review some of our old haunts back in Brum. Call it nostalgia I suppose.