Coopers Tavern, Burton On Trent Town, Burton on Trent

The Coopers Tavern is located just off the main Station Road on a side street. It is another pub that doesn't open during the day in the week. However, it was worth the wait for its 5pm opening time. I arrived just before 5 to become the first customer of the evening, earning me a place in the tiny tap room at the far end. Another couple soon arrived and shortly after we were joined by another guy who filled us in with some more details of the axe-laden woman who had run amok in the centre earlier that morning, smashing lots of windows! The Coopers Tavern is full of character and is clearly the highlight of any trip to Burton. Before reaching the tap room at the rear of the pub, there is a lounge at the front of the pub and a corridor with a few other rooms either side. I do love a pub with lots of different rooms, as you can have a different drinking experience on each visit. Sadly I live too far away to make this place a regular haunt. If there is a negative, it is probably the fact that this is a Joule's pub. Whilst I have nothing against Joule's, it does limit the beer range a little. Joule's Pale Ale & Slumbering Monk are the regular beers, as is Bass. Their Calcutta 1757 & Mosaic Pale were also available, along with 2 guests - Dancing Duck Ay Up & Kelham Island Pale Rider. Beers are served either by handpull or gravity. Boxed ciders were Lilley's Mango Cider, Broadoak Sloe Gin Cider, Healey's Rattler & Abrahall's AM. My Mosaic Pale was a decent drop and I think that I arrived at just the right time to grab the best seat in the house. Had I not had more pubs and a football match to visit, I could have happily stayed here all evening and soaked up the atmosphere.

Facebook page of Coopers Tavern - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of Coopers Tavern - www.facebook.com

Originally a residential premises for brewers from the neighbouring Bass Brewery, before becoming a storehouse and eventually the Bass Brewery tap, this characterful pub is now operated by the Joules Brewery. The pub is a classic British alehouse, with an unusual multi-room interior and a bar-less servery. An entrance porch leads you into a terracotta tile floored room, with a similar room through a doorway to the left, flanked by some excellent old etched glass Bass panes. Both rooms host the bulk of the pub’s seating options, mainly in the form of padded benches and low stools, but with a few fixed benches and high stools to be found as well. Walls are whitewashed throughout and liberally decorated with all manner of Bass and Joules breweriana. Fireplaces stand on both end walls, with at least one of these lit on a chilly Winter’s evening. Moving through the pub, you reach a short corridor with a disused serving hatch, beyond which is a rear room with limited seating along the right wall and a makeshift servery which punters were queuing out of the room for. The beers are all listed on a board on the back wall, which is handy, as you can study it and change your mind numerous times as you wait to get served. The servery, for what it’s worth, comprises a few handpulls along a low shelf that would presumably act as a bar counter of sorts had the aforementioned hatch been open. It’s a strange set-up and the queues suggested that it wasn’t really working all that well and it definitely put me off the idea of staying for a second pint. The cask options were Joules Slumbering Monk, Pale Ale and Green Monkey, Castle rock Harvest Pale, Blythe Dark Horse Stout, Bristol Beer Factory Disco Park and of course, Draught Bass. My pint of the Pale Ale was in great shape and the staff were very friendly in the face of relentless demand thanks to a good Friday night turnout. This is a cracking little pub that should be visited by anyone interested in pub history or looking for some well-kept cask ale. The quaint idea of a bar-less bar backfires somewhat at busier times, as the long queue to get served was pretty dispiriting and probably stopped this from being the pick of the various pubs I visited around Burton, but I can imagine at quieter times this is an irresistible draw and I’d definitely like to give it another go some time in the future.

Excellent heritage pub with an unspoilt interior featuring various small rooms, a snug and a modest patio area. Being now owned by Joule's, it looks and feels very traditional, with furniture ranging from the basic to slightly smarter, depending on where you sit. Five brewery beers - including the Moon Madness mild (£1.85, half) - and two guests, dispensed by a mixture of handpumps and gravity from casks on a bar-back stillage. Also has two more of their beers from a row of keg taps plus seven Lilley's boxed ciders and a perry.

This started out as storage for Bass by 1826, with a licence granted in 1858. Today it’s a Joule’s pub and features on CAMRA’s list of pubs with interiors of historic importance, this being of National Importance. The interior is very fine, featuring some good examples of Bass etched windows. The cob sandwiches and pork pies were vast, though none were sampled. I went for a half of Joule’s Stone Ale (£2.25), a great introduction to the beers to come; a must-visit pub.

An absolutely cracking traditional backstreet pub, with numerous rooms, tiled floors, etched glass and alleyways and yards at the back. In the middle somewhere is the servery with a few pumps and a stillage of barrels. As mentioned below, the main range is from Joules, plus Bass and guests. 'Proper' snacks in the shape of cobs, pork pies etc round it off nicely. A must do.

Official site of Coopers Tavern - www.joulesbrewery.co.uk