The Berry, Walmer, Deal

Official site of The Berry - www.theberrywalmer.co.uk

Official site of The Berry - www.theberrywalmer.co.uk

Just a short walk from the sea-front, the Berry is a cosy side street pub with an excellent commitment to providing a wide cask ale selection. The pub has a single, L-shaped room interior with exposed floorboards and a similarly shaped servery opposite the entrance. Hard bench seating runs in and out of the nice front bay windows, serving a few small round tables, more of which can be found through the rest of the room, along with standard chairs. The bar has a brick counter front and corner pillar, a smart, backlit mirror and dark wood bar back and a satisfying hop-lined canopy with some small lights strung through the hops to create a pleasing visual effect. The room extends a little way back to the right-hand side, where a small fireplace, dartboard and Toby jug collection can be found. There is also an interesting feature on the end wall, titled ‘The Wall of Fame’, whereby the pump clips of beers that sold out their entire 72 pint cask within 24 hours are put on display – a nice alternative to the sort of sprawling pump clip displays you normally see in this sort of ale house. Beyond, there is a carpeted area to the rear which houses a pool table, around which is a limited selection of perimeter seating. A chilled-out soundtrack played in the background throughout our visit and I noted a selection of board games and old Good Beer Guides available for punters to use. The garden out the back of the pub looked to be nice and green and offered plenty of sturdy furniture. On the bar, the ale options extended to Cotleigh Night Owl, Iron Pier Weldway IPA, Dark Star APA, Harvey’s Sussex Best, Gadds She Sells Seashells, Oakham Citra, Five Points Railway Porter and Anarchy Citra Star. That reads as a good mix of styles from breweries both near and far, well known and obscure. As if that wasn’t enough, ten ciders were also listed on the very helpful beer board over on the left-hand wall. I tried the Gadds which was an excellent drop kept in tip-top condition. This really is an excellent pub for the cask ale or cider drinker, and I could easily imagine losing a good chunk of a day sat in here working my way through their range. It has the feel of a proper ale house to it and should really be viewed as a destination pub for fans of good beer, although whether its appeal will translate to the casual drinker remains to be seen.

An end of terrace pub in a residential street, close to the former Royal Marines barracks, now residential accomodation. A generally L-shaped room, with the servery curving along the short leg and round onto the longer side. Bare boards, darts and fireplace,pool or maybe bar billiards further back. A muted screen showing a gloomy Scotsman playing Tennis.Patio, smoking area out back. Early Sunday evening on a finally warm June day, a few older drinkers coming and going.An institution in East Kent, with ten handpumps in operation, and a bank of craft keg taps, featuring, amonst others, beers from the excellent and local Time and Tide Brewery.Three pumps, sadly sold out, were host to a weekend visitation from the respected Salopian Brewery, a rare sight in these parts.In my brief visit, I enjoyed a Plateau from Burning Sky, and a featured malting barley,Golden Tipple, from their near neighbours, Long Man.Kent cider is also available-Kentish Pip, and probably from further afield. It has taken me several years to reach this pub, but well worth the wait.When the mainline to London is reopened later this year,Walmer, Deal and Sandwich would afford a good beery day out for some of this site's more peripatetic scribes.