Grainstore Brewery Tap, Oakham

A very enjoyable Friday afternoon session was taken here. We had a warm fine weather day so could utilise the outside front space underneath the massive jumbrella and between us we went through the five brewery ales that were on for our visit. These were Rutland Beast and Rutland Osprey, Zahara, Cooking and Ten Fifty. All good but for a session we stuck to the lower abv Cooking and the Rutland Osprey, which was the preferred ale for our group of seven. On arrival we were surprised to see so many standard keg options available for a brewery tap but the reason became evident the longer the afternoon went on. The place filled up nicely with a demographic who were much more interested in the Madri and Beavertown taps and apart from our group and a couple of single blokes who you would pin as CAMRA types, no one else was bothering the hand pumps. So really good to see this Brewery Tap appealing to a wider audience than just your endangered ale drinkers and this was one of the best tap visits I have had in a while.

Grainstore Brewery Tap is located adjacent to the Railway Station in an old out building. Out the front are lots of picnic tables that were all empty on a recent cold Tuesday evening visit. Inside front of house is a long rectangular space with rustic décor, which obviously includes hops hanging from thick wooden roof beams. There’s seating throughout and on the right-hand wall is a dartboard in amongst the hoards of framed certificates and awards given to the brewery over the years. There’s lots of exposed brick, including the wooden topped bar counter that runs along the rear wall. Two banks of five hand pumps were drawing the full Grainstore range, the Three Kings was a decent pint. Premium keg was also available alongside Carling and Beavertown’s Neck Oil. Food is available, in fact all of the other ten or so customers were eating burgers and the like. The service was very friendly, and I think this was the best pub encountered during my crawl through Oakham. Maybe next time I’ll see if I can have a nose around the actual brewery in the rear of the building.

Attractive brewery tap in a converted railway warehouse, featuring a rustic bar at the front of the premises with hops, tankards, horse brasses and other accoutrements on the ceiling and walls. Plain wooden furniture both inside and out on the front patio. Almost duplicated selection of six of their own beers on the two banks of five handpumps, including my fine pint of Triple B (£4.50), plus something from the Rutland Cider Company on another pull.

This old outbuilding next to Oakham station has been creatively repurposed as a brewery and tap room for the Grainstore Brewery. The pub has a long, rectangular single room layout with old wooden floorboards, hop-lined beams, exposed stone walls and the servery along the rear wall. The bar has a nice brick counter front with a chunky wooden top, bare brick bar back with plain shelving units and a large number of tankards, pint pots, growlers and other such vessels hung from the beams above. Two seating areas either side of the servery are well served by sturdy tables and chairs, with more of the same running along the front wall, directly opposite the bar. Some well put-together framed pump clip collections adorn the walls alongside various other bits of breweriana, a few local photos and a selection of award certificates. Meanwhile, the ceiling beams have all manner of unrelated items hanging from them, including kettles, horseshoes, ceramics and lanterns, which add to the room’s charm and provide you with plenty of visual distraction. Two TV screens at either end of the room were screening a live football match and I noticed a dartboard and bar billiards table over to the far right-hand side of the pub. The pub has limited parking to the front, although we found it easy to park for free on the road next to the station, and there are some limited picnic benches out front too. As the Grainstore tap, their own beer occupied the long row of handpulls, with options on this visit comprising Rutland Panther, Cooking, Witches Brew, Swan Dive, Ten Fifty, Rutland Osprey, Steelback IPA and Triple B. The Rutland Panther was a nice drop of dark mild, served in very good condition by a friendly and helpful barmaid. Unusually, food orders cannot be placed at the bar, so we patiently waited for a waitress to appear before ordering our Sunday roasts, which then took a remarkably long time to arrive. I really liked this place and thought it was a good example of a brewery tap done well and a nice antidote to the soulless railway arches and factory units that I seem to find wherever I go in London. I’m quite fond of Grainstore beers too, so I was more than happy here and would suggest it’s a must-do if you’re visiting Oakham.