The Dove Street Inn, Ipswich

Famous alehouse with a traditional-looking bar with a more modern covered yard area behind this and a patio beer garden at the back. With 12 real ales on handpump, and three more direct from the tap room, it was difficult to know what to choose, but I went for the St Peter's Mild (£3.30) in the end. Plenty of ciders available too, so it's not hard to see how this has become a destination pub and regular award winner. However, I didn't feel made particularly welcome here by the regulars or the barmaid, so perhaps I caught it on a bad day?

Nice open bar but on busy main road. Feels large inside, central bar wood flooring. 9 real ales

Exceptional. Yesterday offered 12 handpumps, 10 in action, plus 12 on stillage in the ‘tap-room'. Not only does this represent the largest non-festival beer choice I've ever seen, but the selection was also sourced from no fewer than 17 different breweries. I sampled many and the quality was consistently excellent. Plain but comfortable décor, friendly staff & customers - happily gave directions to the Fat Cat (number 2 bus across road). Top notch drinking venue.

This is a pub with a reputation as illustrated by the bank of GBG stickers on the window going back to the mid 2000s. It's been more than well described below. The bar now has twelve hand pumps of which I managed to note ten of the beers served. Starting with the more mainstream there was Adnam's Bitter, London Pride, Elgood's Black Dog Mild, Crouch Vale Brewer's Gold, Bank Top Rollin' On, Dove Street Prima Donna, Colchester Red Diesel, Black Hill Mine's a Dark Un', Grain Winter Ash and North Blyth Bucking Fastard (I'm sure that name rings a bell!). I went for the Grain Winter Ash (£3.30) which was in excellent condition. As noted below this is one not to be missed.

This former Tolly Cobbald pub, situated just outside the town centre, is now an enterprising free house with its own micro brewery. The pub has a street corner location, with a home brewing store and B&B on the opposite side of Dove Street. You enter through a corner door into a bare boarded front room with high tables and stools under the front windows and some nice bench and standard chair options arranged down the left hand side. The servery stands opposite these tables and has a canopy covered with blackboards which detail the full ale range, as does a TV screen in the front right corner. A few old beams give the room a bit of a traditional feel, as do some barrel ends which hang on the back wall with adverts for Adnams beers on them. There are a few hints towards a more modern, commercial side of things, such as a range of Dove Street merchandise such as T-shirts, displayed at the end of the bar. These were hung in front of a window which looks out into a nice, large conservatory, with a tiled floor and TV screens showing muted football coverage and the aforementioned beer list. A large moose head provides an unlikely focal point and there was a bicycle hung on one wall which could be won by entering a competition the pub was running. The seating in here was almost entirely of the high stool variety, either serving barrels in the centre of the room or drinking ledges around the perimeter. Beyond is a tidy garden with a BBQ area, marquee full of comfy furniture and an old pub sign from the pub's Tap and Spile days. There is one final room, hidden away somewhat, but accessible from the corridor between bar and conservatory, or from another door in the garden. This room is a narrow space running down the right hand side of the building. There are bare floorboards and a mix of pew and standard seating, plus a few chairs made by halving barrels. The room has a very traditional, almost rural pub, feel to it with its low dark wood beam ceiling, two brick fireplaces and walls covered in old black and white photos. However, as before, there are modern concessions within, including a table top arcade machine, several TV screens (all off except for one with the beer list) and a collection of board games. I ended up settling down in this room, which I found nice and cosy and although most people in there seemed to be eating, there was no suggestion that this was a dining room. There were two Dove Street beers available - Underwood Mild and the annoyingly named 'Can I Try Real Ale (CITRA)', which set me back £3.00 and was pretty a decent zesty session ale. Also available were Crouch Vale Brewers Gold and Yakima Gold, Adnams Southwold Bitter and Broadside, Fullers London Pride, Hop Back Summer Lightning, Greene King Abbot Ale, Mauldons Blackberry Porter, Oakham Scarlet Macaw, Milestone Fletcher's Ale, Woodfordes Wherry and Great Eastern, Teignworthy Harvey's Special Brew, Cottage On the Nose and Julian Church Jonah and The Ale. There were also at least two real ciders that I could see available. The staff were friendly enough and offered me a taster before I committed to my choice of ale. I thought this was an excellent, enterprising pub with just about something for everyone. The ale range and promise of finding their own beers is obviously a big attraction, but I also thought there was a good mix of different areas within that suit different purposes and the good service was also a bonus. For me, this was the best pub from a day crawling around town and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a visit.