The Twelve Taps, Whitstable

Not a traditional micro-pub in the sense that that it offers no cask beer, but the compact shop-conversion interior is otherwise much as you would expect. As a plus point, it also was a good little patio beer garden at the back. No prizes for guessing how many keg taps can be found on the bar back, with plenty of interesting crafty beers on ten of these when I called in. In the end, I went for the Dry Citra Stout from Kernel (£3.70, schooner) which proved a good choice.

This craft-ale only outlet has all the good qualities of a micro, so it’s a great shame it doesn’t sell cask ales as this is the one thing that lets it down. The eponymous taps dispensed Time and Tide’s Spratwaffler, Fridge King, Lighthouse, The Kraken and Urban Goose, Ora’s White Rabbit, Partizan’s Lemon & Thyme Saison, an Estonian lager called Pohjala Helge, Buxton’s Far Skyline, The Kernel’s Stout, and Left Handed Giant’s Queen of Summer and Early to the Party. I tried a few but found them strangely unsatisfying, though they tasted OK. They were also less expensive than we expected. Beer aside it was a decent place, but if I wanted to spend another evening drinking over-priced pasteurised beer with foreign-sounding names I could just as well spend an evening in Prague.