The Ale House, Chelmsford

The Ale House is found under a couple of rail arches where the left-hand arch houses lots of pine furniture with booths up the left-hand wall and long tables up the right. The bar is found under the right-hand arch where there’s a serving counter up the right-hand wall and mostly beer shelves are found throughout. There’s lots of crafty draught beers and ciders and I counted nine hand pumps, the list of cask ales on the large Untappd screen up in the left-hand seating area were Bishop Nick Brewery’s Scrum and Devout, Colchester Brewery’s Raven, Harbey’s Sisters, Oakham’s Citra, Leigh On Sea’s House Bitter and Flight Club and Mauldon’s Suffolk Pride, the latter being a bit meh. I liked the venue, but the modern dance music in the background on a Thursday afternoon wasn’t great, especially when the only customers are two old duffers. I also found the service to be disinterested, but the location adjacent to the railway and bus stations mean that this is an ideal spot to start and/or end a crawl of the town, if you can stand the music. Could and should be better.

High hopes on approach as there is a Wigan Central vibe from the exterior, being housed as it is in converted railway arches. Interior is two distinct long rooms with curved vaulted ceilings lined with corrugated iron, and the left side has the seating separated into basic booths. Booming modern AOR music was the first sign of a departure from the Wigan Central hopes. The cask is located at the rear of the servery so you either peer over or wait for the beer board to revolve, which is rather unhelpful. Six, IIRC, on. My first choice was, I was curtly informed, off. So a panic order of what should be a home banker of Oakham Citra produced a flabby half lacking turnover (NBSS 2). Judging by what I observed around me after being seated for a few minutes made me think the place clearly trades on craftykeg nowadays. Expensive as well – I left feeling a bit miffed. Maybe I was unlucky given the reviews below, but the best places make their own luck.

Official site of The Ale House - www.the-ale-house-chelmsford.co.uk

Official site of The Ale House - www.the-ale-house-chelmsford.co.uk