Marches Little Beer Shoppe, Ludlow

Have to agree with previous comments - what a great shop with knowledgable staff. Well worth a visit if in Ludlow.

This is a friendly and welcoming shop selling its own beer alongside a good international and British selection. I was dragged in here by the OH, who strongly believes in “proper beer” and found myself not only interested, but also leaving with some beer of my own.

Having been converted to Belgian beer over the years, I was pleased to see a good selection of Trappist and fruit beers, and collected a couple of Krieks and Cassis (cherry and blackcurrent respectively) for afternoons in the garden. The very concept of fruit beer might repel you, but give it a go - you could be surprised.

The shop also stocks perrys and ciders, German wheat beer, the best of British small breweries, Czech and Polish beers.

If you have stocked up, ask to leave the box to collect by car later.

An extremely friendly little shop selling their own brewed beer (the brewery is off-site so don’t expect a tour), and a wide variety of other bottled beers. It’s all sensibly arranged and sensibly priced.

There’s a very decent selection of both British real ales, and the best of the imports.

Belgian and Trappist ales are in abundance, and there’s also a few interesting and hard-to-find bottles ranging from Dutch to American. Yes, it turns out that Americans do make decent beer after all. Well, I’ve found one.

The staff (I think it’s family-owned and family-run) are very friendly and happy to talk about what they’ve got, which beers they prefer, which ones they think will suit a particular meal, which ones will be in stock if you come back next week… Exactly what you’d want from a beer specialist.

There are plenty of ciders as well. They’re not really my thing but it looked like a decent selection.