Brum #twissup on 30th December

A plan is afoot to have a Brum #twissup on 30th December, for the opportunity for Birmingham and Midlands-based (or further afield) Twitter-ers to meet up in the flesh, and imbibe a few quality ales at three of the best beer bars in Birmingham.

The rough plan as proposed by @CarlDurose is:

- Meet at 2pm at the Bartons Arms in Newtown. This is probably my favourite pub in Brum - beautiful Minton-tiled Victorian interior with etched snob screens; now run by @OakhamAles and featuring their beer range - I usually make a bee-line for the Citra or one of their seasonal beers and hop experiments, but they have the usual Oakham range and Belgian bottles available as well. There is also excellent Thai food, so I'll be having lunch here while the #twissup attendees gather, and I'm sure others may want to join me in that to give them a good fond - which a Belgian friend told me is their term for lining your stomach - i.e. a meal that creates a good "foundation" for an evening's drinking! The Bartons is an easy 5-minute bus ride out of the city centre - either the 33 or 51 from near Rackhams, or the 7 from Colmore Row.
*UPDATE: I have reserved an area of the pub for us to meet in - just past the staircase in the dining room - and asked for 14 places to be set for dining. So far (as of wed 26th) we have 12 people signed up for lunch - going from the comments on this post - and I'm due to confirm numbers on Friday - so if you are coming for lunch but haven't said so in the comments yet, please do so soon!
*UPDATE 2: Bar manager Jamie has said he will try to have a cask of Oakham's Vagabond on in addition to the usual ale lineup, which sounds pretty tasty! 

- From there we'll then move on to @TheVictoria - a bar run by the Birmingham independent Bitters 'n' Twisted group, and which has had some real ale available on handpumps since it's relaunch, but in 2012 has upped its game by starting to stock craft beer in bottles - often featuring Tiny Rebel, Kernel, Summer Wine, Arbor Ales. On cask, there might be Dark Star, Red Willow, Thornbridge or others - fingers crossed for something interesting!
*UPDATE: The Victoria have set aside a couple of tables for us, so we have an area to congregate in, from about 5pm. They've also had some new craft beer deliveries - photo here.

- The plan is then to visit BrewDog Birmingham - not sure whether this is a wise idea or not, bearing in mind the average ABV of the draught beer, but it is surely the only logical choice for an end to the #twissup! Just hope we bear this in mind when we start our first pint, that it may be prudent to pace ourselves and leave some capacity for whatever unmissable guest beers might be on the blackboards here from Mikkeller, Rogue Ales or others, never mind the Brewdog beers on draught & bottle themselves, which I have to say have all been on great form in my 5 visits so far since their opening night.
*UPDATE: Brewdog have kindly reserved the downstairs 'snug' area for us to congregate in, from 7pm, as the bar may be busy on a Sunday evening. This is the tasting area under the stairs in the basement, and has room for about 14 people to sit / plenty of standing around space, so if you are joining us later in the day, come and find us here!

So if you are planning to join us, please leave a note in the comments below and say if you're intending to have lunch at the Bartons as well - if there are several people eating it may only be fair to them and us to give a bit of advance warning, and ask for a corner to be set aside for us to congregate and munch some quality Thai foods while sipping on a Citra! If you need any info on buses (tickets, where to find the bus stops etc.) or directions to the pubs then I'll be happy to help. Should plans change or become more defined (e.g. what time we might aim to be at The Victoria), I'll update them here nearer to the time. 

Hope to meet up with many of you for a few fine pints on the 30th!