Fuggles Beer Cafe, Tunbridge Wells

Probably the best source of interesting beer in Tunbridge Wells, still obviously as Paul describes in his visit a month ahead of mine. The barman was very enthusiastic in describing the beers and offering tasters, maybe a little too much so while I was deciding what to have, but better keen than disinterested. I ended up with a keg Gun Scaramanga, a beer I have had several times before but was still plied with a taster by Mr Keen beforehand, followed up by a pint of Only With Love Reboot on cask which was excellent. Good place.

This is a rather smart, well appointed modern ale house that feels a little like a micropub, but is perhaps better described, as its name suggests, as a beer cafe. The pub has a single, long and narrow room with exposed floorboards throughout. The front part of the room is a pleasant seating area with grey walls, a row of tables and chairs down the left hand side and a mix of stools, chairs and sofas to the right. Lots of framed pictures cover the walls and there is a shelving unit midway along full of beer themed books and various bottles and cans. Halfway down the right hand wall, the servery appears with a long tile-fronted bar counter and a modern shelving unit bar back which incorporates the beer taps and some very detailed and extremely useful beer boards. There’s only enough room opposite the bar for a series of small drinking ledges, all without stools, making this a bit of a pinch point on my busy Friday evening visit. The wall here has a very large clock as its centrepiece, along with more blackboards and some nice old enamel advertisement signs. The rear part of the room beyond the end of the bar, roughly mirrors the front section, with rows of seating down either side, plenty of breweriana on the walls and a couple of impressive large-scale paintings adding a splash of colour. A large ventilation unit runs across the entire length of the ceiling from front to back, but it has been brightened up a little by the addition of fairy lights. Jazzy tunes played quietly under the hubbub of a good evening crowd and I noticed a good number of people were eating from a menu that seemed to comprise mainly of sandwiches and meat or cheese platters. The pub offers a good cask ale selection with options on this occasion comprising Tonbridge Copperknob, Burning Sky Plateau, Downlands Best and Bedlam Golden Ale, plus two real ciders. The Plateau, a personal favourite, was £3.90 a pint and in terrific shape. No less than sixteen craft keg brews were listed on the board behind the bar and these included UK micros as well as a number of beers from European breweries. I really liked this place and thought it was a very well thought out venture offering a great selection of cask and keg beers in very comfortable surrounds. The place seems to appeal to a good cross-section of society, with a right mix of customers apparent on this visit, suggesting that this place is definitely doing something right. This was the highlight of my crawl around Tunbridge Wells and would be the first place I’d return to the next time I’m in town.