The Bouncing Barrel, Herne Bay

Very friendly staff, who introduced themselves, their other patrons and their other patrons dogs my name. No bar, gravity fed beer from a cold room.

This is a fairly typical micropub, about average or possibly slightly larger size, a cold room stuffed with casks and the usual tall furniture with casks stashed underneath. The window has a lower bench and the ceiling is adorned with a collection of beer related T shirts, maybe they were the wrong size. It's dead handy for anyone in Herne Bay on the Rock & Roll as it's right next door to the Jobcentre Plus. I turned up here just after midday on a Thursday so was the only one in for a while and had a chat with the people who I think said were locals running it while the owner was on holiday. There were five beers on when I arrived but the Canterbury Mild had gone and was being erased from the list. Those available were Rockin' Robin Reckless Robin & Rock Lobster, Old Dairy Blue Top and Adnam's Broadside. I tried the Blue Top (£3.20) which was excellent. While I was drinking this I discovered that a fifth micropub was due to open (hopefully) this summer a couple of streets away so decided to return at a later date on to do the grand tour and ordered a Rock Lobster (£3.40). This too was excellent. I thought this was a great micropub and look forward to making a return visit next winter.