Lord Beechings, Aberystwyth

Aberystwyth pubs suffered terribly from 1990's Irish Bar style refurbish some have closed other have tried again and this was one of them that successfully expanded it's premises and managed to look like a good effort from the outside. The insides not to bad either yet somehow after attempting to go up market a touch by targeting the business lunchtime crowd firstly by offering meals and then banning smoking before it became illegal. It has somehow managed to become the daytime unemployed alcoholics choice of Pub who are unable to rule over the Wetherspoons across the road as they cannot sit at it's bar snarling at students ordering food. The food trade has almost disappeared and was very quiet on what should be the busiest weeks of the year,which was once incredibly popular offering Student friendly massive American Burger Meals. I'm sure the local ''friendliness'' has put paid to that trade from both Students and local workers. For some who hate Pubs that have gone foodie.I am one. This might be a blessing. But if in turn you are looking for good Beer in a Brains Pub in Wales selling Brains Beer then you are going to be very disappointed as all you'll get in here is Brains Smooth, two Lagers and a Fruity Strongbow and absolutely nothing of the proudly displayed Brains Beers on its Beer Mats The Landlord a town Councillor & former Mayor is someone that should know the Aberystwyth Pub trade better than anyone and appears to have targeted the ''cheap drinks crowd who hate Wetherspoons market'' and will never change their beer. So obviously might know what he's doing.

The current name is clearly recent as this building is much older than the sixties when Ernest Marples got his fixer Dr Beeching to destroy the railways. It was in fact previously the Railway Hotel. My recollection of this place from the mid to late 1990s was of a fairly boisterous place split into separate bars and selling Tetley's bitter along with the odd Tetley seasonal beer. Today it has been knocked through into one large tiled and wooden floored open plan area with a central bar. TV screens abound and there was a radio blaring. I spotted a dart board at the rear and there are a few odd items of railway memorabilia around. Sadly the garishly coloured station signs below the bar counter are so obviously fake that they simply look ridiculous. If they were anything more than totally worthless tat I'm sure one of the students would have liberated them. According to the Brain's web site there is a garden area somewhere but given the location I would suspect it's a small patio. So, as hinted previously this is now a Brain's tied house. What disappoints me most about this is that there was no real ale on offer or even any signs that there might have been in the past. I was offered a bottle of Brain's SA Gold (£3.20) which is one I quite like as they haven't watered it down like the cask version and in the context of a pub rather than Morrison's was not ludicrously expensive. As regional brewer's pubs go I thought this one was pretty abysmal, mainly due to the lack of real ale.

Decent bar for a Saturday night crawl, good atmosphere and low prices.