The Kemble Brewery, Fairview, Cheltenham

A very friendly back street boozer,well worth seeking out.The interior is small with a bench running below the front window,a bar along the left side,a few tables and chairs with a large mirror on the way to a very decent beer garden,partially covered.The flatscreen was airing The Open,and regulars gathered around the bar for some banter.There is a small kitchen to the side,but no sign of food offered,it appears a wet led pub.There are some interesting wooden carved heads and masks dotted about the interior and a CTFC shirt hanging on one of these carvings shows the pub's allegiance.I imaging on matchdays the pub will be busy. The 6 handpumps were drawing London Pride,Box Steam Tunnel Vision,Backyard Hoard,Milton Icarus,Wye Valley Butty Bach ,Wickwar Bob with a replacement in Mordue Nothumbrian Blonde.Due to a downpour our crawl rested here for three ales and all we sampled were in good nick.It's not in the GBG but maybe should be. The jokey sign outside points the way to The Jolly Brewmaster ,a GBG regular,but it's a complicated route while to the right is marked as "Here be Dragons" or in other words no pubs for miles ! Definitely worth a revisit,the chatty guv'nor also gave some very good recommendations on other real ale pubs worth a crawl visit, it's an old school local with some very decent ale.

The Kemble Brewery Inn is a bit tricky to find being tucked away in the Victorian back streets of the Pittville district in the North of Cheltenham on the way towards the towns football team ground. But it is worth the effort to search out this small but deservedly popular, back-street local. Originally built as a butcher's shop in 1845 it became a pub in 1847 and it still retains the studs on the ceiling where the meat hooks were hung. The first owner came from Kemble and made cider from apples picked in the rear orchard. At some stage acquired by Ind Coope, The Kemble Brewery was acquired by Archers Brewery of Swindon in 1988 but in recent years was sold again as a ‘free house’. And it continues as a wonderful traditional back street local pub selling good ales. Externally you could easily walk straight past it as it blends in well with the rest of terraced Victorian housing stock on Fairview Street as there is no obvious pub signage except for the name on the window wood surround and on the lantern which protrudes between the first floor windows. In fact the only things that infer a pub are the empty beer barrels which are usually stacked against the front wall and the sound of joviality coming from within, which is how we homed in on it or a late dark evening. Internally it is one small room with seating on the three sides of the central serving bar. And then there is a small courtyard garden with a bit of a Mediterranean feel that can relieve the pressure in the pub on fair weather days. The pub normally offers six ales mainly from local breweries and one from further afield alongside Weston's Traditional Scrumpy. Unfortunately for me on my visits over the bank holiday weekend, the beer from further afield was Fullers London Pride, a usually ubiquitous offering for us Londoners. But fortunately the other ales available included Dartford Jail Ale, Oxfordshire Ales Triple B and Ramsbury Brewery Kennet Valley and all the ones we tried were well kept. Very eclectic but friendly mix of locals for our visits, especially for the late Sunday evening one that included several still drowning their sorrows from watching Cheltenham Town be knocked out of the division playoffs by Northampton earlier in the day.