The Burton Bridge Inn, Burton On Trent Town, Burton on Trent

This is a fantastic multiple roomed ale house, accessed via an easily missed alleyway down the right-hand side of the building. The entrance porch offers you a choice of rooms to explore, with the left-hand door taking you through to the ‘Smoke Room’, which is basically the front part of the pub comprising two distinct areas. One of these spaces has direct bar access thanks to a compact servery at one end and some decent, if somewhat limited, seating options opposite in a cosy little space. A beer board to one side of the bar lists the full cask selection, which is very handy, as not all of the handpulls can be seen from this bar. The second front room is of a roughly similar size, carpeted throughout with a roaring fire at one end, on a quarry stone hearth with a lovely old etched glass bar from a former door to the bar hung above. Hard benches and low stools line the perimeter and both rooms have low wood panelling on the walls with plain uppers decorated with breweriana, old maps and charts and other similarly traditional odds and ends. A right turn from the entrance porch leads you into the rear bar which has a fair amount of additional seating and good access to the bar but felt a little less cosy than the front rooms. The place was doing a good trade on my Friday early evening visit, and I enjoyed the buzzy atmosphere this created. On the bar, a good selection of Burton Bridge ales were available on cask, with options extending to their Bitter, Damson Porter, Sovereign Gold, Stairway To Heaven, DBA and Festival. I was served a pint of the Sovereign Gold by a friendly old-school barmaid, and it was in excellent condition, to the point that I was tempted to try something else from their range, before realising I still had seven more pubs I wanted to check out that evening. I think this was just about the pick of the twelve pubs I visited in Burton, thanks to the great multi-room interior, good beer quality, friendly service and warm, welcoming atmosphere. There are a few pubs around town that you might consider to be a must-do, but if I was back here and only had time to visit one pub, I’d be back here before any of the others.

Proper, traditional pub and tap for the Burton Bridge brewery. Multi-room interior with two bars and a small side room. Features a pair of handpumps on each counter with their own beers, including the Bridge Bitter (£1.70, half).

This is a fine friendly old pub close to the river at the far end of Burton's long High St, and is the home of the Burton Bridge Brewery for which it acts it’s the tap pub. It is a multi room set up and after accessing through a short corridor to the left is the Smoke Room with two charming front snugs and it's own bar access with lots of original features and pub memorabilia. I almost got tearful seeing an original Ind Coope Burton Ale hand pump on one of the shelves. And then the back bar is larger but less interesting although still with lots of wood panelling and a blackboard giving the available ale line up. Upstairs there is apparently a skittle alley and a meeting room which can be hired, but were not explored on this visit. Each downstairs room has a set of four hand pumps with Burton Bridge beers on. For our visit six of the breweries beers were on across these in the shape of Sovereign Gold, Bridge Bitter, DBA, Stairway to Heaven, Festival Ale, Burton Ale and Top Dog Stout, which went from £3.30 to £3.80 for the highest abv. Also traditional pub grub in the shape of large cobs and the cheese and onion one I had hit the spot. Definitely a don't miss pub for the ale enthusiast when in Burton.

A good traditional pub with excellent beer, plus a good sized cob to hand. The staff and fellow customers were all friendly and welcoming. The fixtures and fittings were fab, I found the front two rooms outstanding, especially the large Gilt framed Burton Bridge Beers mirror over the fireplace. The beer quality and prices were also an added bonus.

A wonderful no frills traditional pub, It's the Tap for Burton Bridge Ales and I had their Stairway To Heaven which was pretty good, a pub you could happily lose an afternoon in, It was worth waiting outside the front door in the drizzle for five minutes till it opened.

This is a 17th century pub which in 2000 underwent a restoration, resulting in it being given a CAMRA citation for being a Pub with Outstanding Conversions and Restorations, richly deserved. I went for their house bitter at the very low price of £1.70 a half, which turned out to be excellent. Certainly one to be sure to include on a crawl.

A gem with lots of tradition and the tap for the Buton Bridge Brewery.Below the bridge abutments and on a busy main road,you enter via a side passage to the middle of the interior.To the left is the Smoke Room with two charming front snugs and it's own bar access,lots of original features.The back bar is where most folk gather and is larger but less interesting.Still lots of wood panelling,plus a blackboard giving the ale line up which on my trip was Sovereign Gold,Bridge Bitter,DBA,Stairway to Heaven,Festival,Burton Ale and Top Dog Stout (a bit woody,NBSS 2.5). This was a brief crawl visit,and it's worth including for the pub interior alone.Burton Bridge ales are not often to my taste,but you can't have everything !

Pub restoration award - ocrpubs.camra.org.uk

Pub restoration award - ocrpubs.camra.org.uk

Lovely old three roomed pub which serves as the Burton Bridge Brewery tap, the building dates back to C17th and looks it from the outside. Main bar, side room and a really nice rear lounge room with what looks like a proper fire and an inlaid clock above the fireplace. There’s a traditional comfy 60s refurb feel to proceedings with wood panelling, carpets, curtains and all that stuff. A few people in the back room with a cross section of ages and the atmosphere was very convivial. Pumps situated either side of the bar so couldn't work out how many were on but at least five. My Old Expensive was barrel end but changed before I got it by the conscientious barman and my beer was good (NBSS 4). A really pleasant little place I would prioritise next time along with the Coopers. 8.5