The Griffin, Frome

Three hand pumps on the bar in this GBG pub, our eighth of the day. There are four hand pumps, one out of use and the other with beers from Frome Brewing Co (est.1999, though their beers have not travelled to my part of the UK as I had never heard of them). One was an English Pale 4%, another was 4.5% stout with roasted malts, and the third was a West Coast Pale, also 4.5%. I went for the latter as it is a style I usually enjoy, but this one was not in drinkable condition. It wasn't in-your-face awful, but it had a slight sourness that became too much for me after the third tentative sip. Normally I'd have taken it back, but we were pressed for time and needed to do two more pubs and a 30 minute walk before catching our trains out of Frome, so I just left it on the table (still in the glass of course). A disappointing visit to what had promised to be one of the highlights of the day.

Longstanding GBG pub a bit out of town, up the hill. Exposed brick wall, baby poo walls, scuffed parquet floor, mis-matched furniture and a bit gloomy in all honesty. 3x Milk Street (Frome) ales, my Porter clearly wasn’t flying out but was serviceable (NBSS 3). Suspect, given the location, this is best sampled in the evening – it’s not a Saturday afternoon trade pub. 6.5

Old, smallish single room pub just off of Frome Town Centre. Has a decent sixe beer 'garden' out the back. No longer a micro-brewery, although still run it appears by Frome Brewing company. 4 casks are all Frome Brewery beers. Had a 'Zig Zag' stout, which wasn't particularly to my taste, although kept well. There also appears to be a separate Thai takeaway business run out of the pub, where you can order the food to 'eat in' inside the pub if you wish. Thai food inside an old-style pub is an unusual combination to say the least, but worth checking out if you are in the area, mainly for the age of the building and the unusual cask selection (don't seem Frome Brewery beers in many places).