The Moorbrook, Moor Park, Preston

Situated on the edge of a trading estate and home to the foundation of West Lancashire's CAMRA chapter in 1973, this pub is a bit of a fag to get to, but is worth the effort, being well described below. A half of Durham's Equinox (£2.00) has no tasting notes.

A good solid pub this one with a good choice of cask and Craft beers. The staff were all very welcoming and chatty. The interior has been well described by my fellow reviewers below, only for me to add that there was a good sized patio area out the back, along with a table tennis table and an R2D2 shaped wood burning patio stove.

Official site of The Moorbrook - www.themoorbrook.co.uk

Official site of The Moorbrook - www.themoorbrook.co.uk

This is a fine traditional pub slightly marooned by unsympathetic road development as Will mentions below. Internally it is three separate spaces, none of which are particularly large, but when put together provides a decent amount of vertical drinking space in the main bar room and seating areas also in the main bar and then the two additional rooms to the left as you enter. The first room on the left to the front of the pub is light and airy benefiting from the large windows where as the back room is perhaps slightly more cosy but darker with no natural light except for that coming from the glass panel on the top of the wall between the two rooms. The serving area to the right of the main bar room virtually runs the length of the room and supports 10 real hand pumps and 10 keg taps. But these are spread out across the bar and it’s initially difficult to see what is on and it’s actually easier to peruse the large chalkboard to the right of the entrance as you come in. For my Thursday evening visit all 10 keg taps were in operation and eight of the real ale pumps were in use providing a good mixture of non-mainstream brewers and different ale styles. These included Anarchy Brewing Dance in the Desert IPA, Empire Brewing What a View Pale Ale, 4T’s Elvis Peachley Peach IPA, and Twisted Wheel All Mod Cons. I tried the remaining three during the course of the evening, Wild Child Glutenous Maximus sticky toffee milk stout ( absolutely bloody gorgeous), Phoenix Brewery Arizona ( very decent considering it must have been near the end as it had finished before we went back for another) and Durham Brewery Equinox ( very decent also). All ales up to 4.6% abv were priced at £3.80 a pint with a couple of higher abv ones at £4.20 and my initial 4.8% stout at £4 a pint. The craft keg offerings were also from an eclectic mix of brewers, some of which I have never heard of and included brews from Cassels, Burnt Hill, Vault city and Squawk Brewing. The usual 1/2 and 2/3 measures with most priced at £5 and above for 2/3rds. Food is available from the kitchen out the back in the form of a varied pizza menu and we went for a couple of these during the evening and they were substantial and reasonably priced. I was attracted to ‘The Northerner’ due to its black pudding topping. But be warned you really have to like black pudding if you go for this option. Not sure if it is every Thursday but our evening was interrupted by being bingo night and the arrival of a bingo caller selling cards for a quid I believe, where you can win a free drink for all four corners, your money back for a line and the heady sum of 15 quid for a full house. Initially thought it would be naff but the guy played it for laughs ( very politically incorrect call for number 10 for example) and most of the pub participated and it actually generated a lot of conversation between the tables. Had lined up the Cassels Triple Cream Milk Stout as the most expensive beer available at £7.50 for 2/3rd but got nowhere near a sniff of all four corners. This is a fine pub for good ale and conversation and you won’t be distracted by TV’s in here. But if you are the type that must have a TV with your pub going experience then the nearby Princess Alice is just a five minute walk away.