Cambridge Brew House, Cambridge

The Cambridge Brew House opened its doors in February 2013, becoming Cambridge's only brewery and the city's first brewpub since the 1990's. There has been a pub on this site since the 1830's, although the present incarnation is a grim looking example of 1970's brutalism. The current pub has gone under several guises over the years including Kings Arms (a nod to the name of the original pub on this site), The Bun Shop and more recently, The Jolly Scholar. Today we find a modern brewpub and restaurant in a large, bare boarded single room format. You enter to a smart seating area with lots of comfy options including some unusual stools made from old kegs given a padded top. Table football takes up space in one corner underneath a TV screen that was showing the late Premier League fixture and to the rear you can view some of the brewing plant. Further into the room, the servery appears on the back wall with some limited high table and stool seating opposite. Craft beer cans are on display along a high shelf, as well as keg font inserts and I also noticed some strange looking keg taps on the left hand side of the bar back. A large poster opposite the bar shows a map of the UK from 1978, marking all of the country's breweries, which is worth a look if you fancy a bit of nostalgia. Nearby, a large barrel was being used to pile up the day's papers. The rest of the room, over to the right hand side, is set up as a restaurant, with friendly waiting staff ready to find you a table. Padded bench booths run along the front wall, whilst standard tables and chairs fill out the rest of the space in an area with rustic wood panelled walls and a tiled area dominated by coffee making facilities. A curved staircase leads up to the toilets and two first floor rooms. To the left is the 'Tank Room' - a conference style room with a single large table and access to the brewery and in-house smokery. Meanwhile, to the right is the 'Locker Room' - a second bar with a large screen for live sports coverage and long rows of neatly ordered tables and chairs. The brewery was set up by a former Hop Back employee, so I was hopeful for some good quality beer. Two house ales were on - Kitchen Ale and Cherokee - with the core range also available in bottled format. I tried the Kitchen Ale and absolutely loved it; easily the best pint I found on my Cambridge crawl. Also available on handpull were Saffron Brewery Black Jack, Tring Kiwi and Bishop Nick Heresy with one pump clip reversed and another pump dispensing a real cider. A diverse keg and bottle range was also in evidence. The dining area was full on my visit so I grabbed a table near the bar and ordered a couple of tapas style dishes (calamari and lamb meatballs), both of which were excellent. The staff were all really friendly, patient and helpful, going out of their way to assist customers. I was a little unsure if I'd like this place but figured it would at least be worth a look for their own beers, but as things turned out, this was a really enjoyable visit and I had to cut my crawl short as I ended up spending much longer here than intended. A great addition to the city centre beer scene and well worth setting aside a bit of time to visit.

Official site of Cambridge Brew House - thecambridgebrewhouse.com

Official site of Cambridge Brew House - thecambridgebrewhouse.com