The Dog, Burton On Trent Town, Burton on Trent

Black Country Ales pub in the town centre that surprisingly was the first pub I found open in the town when walking from the station on a Tuesday afternoon. I received a warm welcome from the barman. The interior is very similar to other BCA pubs I have been in. It is carpeted and nicely decorated, giving it a really comfortable feel. Seating can be found on either side of the central bar. The beer and cider range is excellent. The choice can be viewed on a TV screen to the right-hand side of the bar. This was the best beer and cider range I found in Burton. Although neither of the beers I had were particularly good quality, which suggests that they're trying to stock too many. Black Country Ales beers were Fireside, Pig on the Wall & BFG. Guests were 4T's Mango Fever, Salopian Nick of Time, Kinver Edge, Oakham Inferno, Bewdley William Mucklow's Dark Mild, Muirhouse Malibrew & Lenton Lane Cherry & Vanilla Twist & Stout. Ciders were Broadoak Twisted Lime Cider & Lilley's Strawberry Cider & Bee Sting Perry. Craft beers were all from Salt - Jute, Loom & Huckaback. There weren't too many customers inn, but talk soon turned to the big local news story about a 35-year-old woman wandering around the town smashing windows with an axe. Amongst the victims was a kebab shop, an Indian restaurant, a cinema and the leisure centre. I got the impression that the Dog had also been targeted, with the barman confirming that he'd already had the window(s) fixed. Either way, the woman was apparently apprehended by the police directly outside the police station! With better beer quality, this could be the best pub in town. Either way, I was still impressed with this pub.

This is a popular Black Country Ales pub located at one end of the main town square. The pub has a single room layout with the bar opposite the entrance, carpeting throughout and seating around the rest of the perimeter. The bar has a pretty amazing counter with some intricately worked dark wood panels, matched by similar woodworking on the bar back, where a large pub mirror acts as a prominent centrepiece. The room boasts some highly decorative, low ceramic wall panels topped with modern floral wallpaper to surprisingly great effect, and to this has been added plenty of black and white photos of the town, many showing images of the brewing industry. There’s also a TV screen or two detailing the full beer range, which is pretty handy considering the scope of the draught products available. Smartly upholstered banquettes skirt the perimeter with matching chairs in support, broken only by the presence of a lit fireplace on the far right-hand side of the room. There was a good Friday afternoon crowd in when I paid my visit, ensuring a nice, buzzy ambiance in contrast to other pubs around town that I visited in the afternoon. A handsome row of handpulls offers no less than ten cask ales and three or four real ciders – too many for me to make a note of, although I did record that the beer I plumped for was Beartown Polar, which came in at a reasonable £1.90 for a half. The barman was pretty friendly, and the locals were happy to engage newcomers, making it feel like a very welcoming place. I really liked this one, which seemed to be a popular choice among Burton’s real ale drinking community, thanks in no small part, I suspect, to by far the widest selection of ales you’re likely to find in town. Thankfully, quality didn’t appear to have been compromised by this degree of quantity, which marks this out as a must do pub for anyone drinking their way around Burton.

This pub has a bold, symmetrical Tudorbethan facade that just invites a visit (especially when you get close enough to see the Black Country Ales signage). The interior has been given the expected traditional makeover, although it left me feeling rather cold in this instance. However, the diverse choice of 11 real ales - including an excellent Jar porter from Flagship (£1.90, half) - and three ciders on handpump couldn't be faulted.

Black Country Ales usually get a good press, and looking at my review below (from March 2020) I was still in that camp two years ago. When pubs reopened after the lengthy lockdown in 2021, many were cautious about resuming their former business model, gradually building up the number of beers on the bar as restrictions were lifted and people gained confidence, which made sense. I've been to a few Black Country Ales pubs since April last year and I would say they are stocking too many beers and they are not checking the quality, relying instead on their customers to tell them when a beer is off. Maybe this is why almost everyone in the Dog was on lager or spirits at the time of my visit. To be fair, I'd just missed a slew of Pubs Galore crawlers, but their positive reviews suggest that they didn't go for the same beer as I did. My half of Slaters 1 Hop wasn't off, it was just a bit tired and flabby; and believe me I know tired and flabby as I see it in the bathroom mirror every morning. (My next pub was the Olde Royal Oak, which had half the number of beers compared with the Dog, and my beer was so good I tried another, which was just as good.) Date of visit: 14th October 2022