The Pig & Fiddle, Bath

Corner pub with numerous different drinking sections. Cask ales are all from Butcombe - Original, Gold, Adam Henson's Rare Breed and a guest which was Club Tropic. I had the latter which was better than most Butcombe beers I've had before. The interior felt quite dark, but perhaps that was the passing rain showers. There is an outdoor area to the rear with another exit onto Saracen Street.

As described below, it’s a bit of a pub parody, chaotic, cliquey and clumsy.  The staff were ill-prepared and didn’t seem to know what was going on.  In particular the barmaid knew very little about beer while the manager was just disorganised.  Still 6 pumps on the bar, four dry.  The one clipped Butcombe Rare Breed dispensed undrinkable sludge  which, the barmaid did eventually agree.  This was replaced with the other pump’s Liberation Gold, unusual in these parts and, to be fair, was in good condition.  The pop music was annoyingly loud, it was all a bit theme-park, certainly not as much fun as anticipated, and I wouldn’t include it on a crawl or come here for a few beers when there are much better pubs within scratching distance.

Official site of The Pig & Fiddle - www.pigandfiddle.butcombe.com

Official site of The Pig & Fiddle - www.pigandfiddle.butcombe.com

A nice enough split level Butcombe owned pub, it had a bit of a gastro bar feel about it and reasonably well attended on a weekday afternoon. Six handpumps in total with four in use, all from the owning brewery, the Haka was pretty good. Not a destination but worth a look.