Fuggles Beer Cafe, Tunbridge Wells

Official site of Fuggles Beer Cafe - www.fugglesbeercafe.co.uk

Official site of Fuggles Beer Cafe - www.fugglesbeercafe.co.uk

As noted below this is a long narrow shop conversion with a wooden floor and fairly basic decor. There are assorted tables and chairs plus a few sofas. It comes close to meeting the criteria for a micropub but on my visit the piped music was a deal breaker. They do some food but it's not really hot pub grub. I didn't spot any TV screens. It was quiet on my Thursday lunchtime visit. Like micropubs the main attraction here is the beer. The bar now has six hand pumps with one serving a cider that I didn't recognise and another the permanent Coppernob from Tonbridge brewery. The other four beers had a mainly Northern slant with Hardknott Lux Borealis & Dark Energy, Moor Smokey Horyzon and Bad Seed India Pale Ale. There is also a row of keg taps at the back of the bar which I didn't check out but doubt if there was anything mainstream there. I tried the Dark Energy and Bad Seed IPA both in excellent condition but not that cheap at £4.00 a pint. The Bad Seed beer was reasonable value with an ABV of 7.0% and it was dangerously drinkable. I liked this place and would definitely return if I found myself in Tunbridge Wells again.

A new venture in an unprepossessing part of town : a former shop converted, in minimalist style, into a craft beer bar. Long and narrow, the tiled bar lies partway down to the right, with comfy sofas and tables and chairs arranged about. Four handpumps, one serving draught cider-Pig Philosopher from somewhere down West, and a bank of unmarked keg fonts. Blackboards showing the day’s beers-the house beer being Coppernob from Tonbridge, a beer hopped with, appropriately Fuggles hops from Alsace.Some interesting looking wines and spirits, and a selection of locally sourced charcuterie, together with sandwiches from Kett’s Kitchen. I had a couple of beers:Redwillow’s Wreckless, a new style, tropical pale ale, together with Coppernob of fond memory. Also available were a golden ale from Windsor and Eton, and Cobnut from the Kent Brewery. I’m fairly old fashioned, and haven’t “got” Craft Keg, but I was tempted by a heavyweight from the new Burning sky Brewery.Not guilty m’lud!However the cask beers were in fine condition. Our visit was early on a wet and windy Saturday lunchtime, few punters were about, and we were perhaps a few years older than the target clientele, but I imagine that it gets busy later in the day:it certainly gets good reports on the local beer media.