John Bull Chophouse, Wigan

The John Bull Chophouse is only open 4 days a week and not until 2pm on 3 of those days. So, it's not always possible to include it on a crawl of the town. Our Saturday evening visit found it to be busy and lively, especially the ground floor bar. Luckily, we found space upstairs with plenty of people also having spilt out onto the grassy area outside. I'm not sure that is an official pub garden, but it's treated as such. The ground floor bar had 5 cask ales on offer - Thwaites Gold, Amber & John Bull Chophouse Pale, Timothy Taylor Landlord & Kirkstall Three Swords. The cider was Pulp Mango & Lime. A board to the side of the bar was listing more cask ales in the upstairs bar, but we found all 3 handpulls there unclipped. Craft beers across the two bars were Verdant Light Bulb, Anspach & Hobday London Black, Yonder White Choc Strawb, SALT Jute & Beavertown Neck Oil. Heavy metal music was playing and I understand that live music is often staged. The pub is a little hidden away, but is nevertheless only a short stroll around the corner from the main shopping street. With late night opening, it's a good option if you are on an evening out in Wigan, as long as you choose the right evening.

Five or so hand pulls for cask downstairs at the main bar, but this is in a narrow space and bar blockers made proper investigation difficult, but from what I could see these were all Thwaites ales, including a seasonal offering. Very busy downstairs (Saturday night in October) so decided to head to the upstairs bar, referred to separately as the Hop House. WhatPub has this down as having a further six cask ales upstairs, alas this information appears to be out of date with just three unclipped hand pulls at the time of my visit. However there were a few craft keg options and Fairytale of Brew York on keg saved the day. There appeared to be a bit of a social event taking place in the gents' toilets, with one chap stood swigging his pint chatting to his mates. Call me unconventional but I found that a bit odd. I was glad to have been able to pay a visit, as its limited opening hours meant I've never had the chance during daytime visits to Wigan. I'd probably give it another go but I don't think it will become my favourite establishment in Wigan.

A town-centre pub, but this Thwaites house has something of a village pub feel (although perhaps not on a Friday or Saturday night?). Anyway, all was calm when I visited late on a Thursday (until the volume got turned up on the jukebox at 'last orders', but at least the music suited my mood). Only three of the six handpumps were working, with the choice being Gold and the self-explanatory Brit Hop (£3.40), plus Landlord as a guest.