Tom's Tap, Crewe

A shed next to the West Coast Main Line with a bar and brewery, there’s two rooms to sit in plus an outside area. The entrance leads into the bar with the counter at the back, available beers and ciders are shown on two laser display screens to the right. The beers are dispensed from keg taps on the back wall including the single cask beer which I assume is a boil on the bag system. There’s a room to the left of the main bar with more seating, all reserved on my Saturday afternoon visit. I had their mild which tasted like a weak stout and was sharply carbonated. Ok as these places go.

If you are at the Borough Arms, you may as well head around the corner to check out this brewery tap on a light industrial unit. Proprietor has a sense of humour with the electronic score board pronouncing "Today's Evil Keg". Cask and a rather extensive collection of ciders on another board. Outside and inside seating, along with a shipping container for some snug/booth style seating. Friendly owner with plenty of chat.

A kind of brick built warehouse situated to eastern side of the railway line, just north of Crewe station. It's a place that I've seen many times from the train and hoped to get to one day. However, it's a good 20-minute yomp from the station on foot. We decided to take a taxi, which took just as long, given the driver took us straight into a traffic jam. He'd also never heard of the place, which seemed a bit strange for a driver based in the town. Walking into the right-hand side, the bar is immediately in front of you. Menus on the bar list the extensive beer and cider selection. The menu does not specify if any of the beers are cask, but I'm fairly sure they were all keg. Similarly, some ciders were still and some were sparkling. So, you may have to ask a few questions. Off to the left was a separate room with more seating, whilst there is further seating outside, some of it undercover. Beers from Tom's Tap themselves were Table Beer Citra, Mango Ice Cream Pale, Crewe's Control, You're Gonna Need A Bigger Moped, ESB, Mighty Stout, Dark Mild, Tamerlane Heritage IPA, Crewesch, California Common, Hillbilly Engineering - Citra, Orange Peel Wit, Return of the Chadi & 2022 Barley Wine. There was also a collaboration with Staggeringly Good called Megalodon Moped. Guest beers were Neptune Wooden Ships & Meer & Thornbridge Lukas. Ciders were Ascension Shimmy, Pilot, Dance Commander, Punk Lemonade, Jewel Runner & Star Rover, Ross-on-Wye Somerset Redstreak/Major/Foxwhelp, Raison D'Etre, Ellis Bitter 2022 & Three Bitterwseet Blend, Nightingale Discovery & Kent Cider Company Sicilian Lemon Cider, Toffee Apple Cider, Strawberry Cider & Elderflower Cider. With other pubs/bars to visit in Crewe and not much time for a drink, I tried a couple of ciders I'd never had before. Both were in good condition, despite the large selection and the reasonably limited opening hours of the bar. So, they must get a decent throughput of customers. Although everything is kept fairly cold. This place isn't exactly a comfortable pub, but its excellent beer and cider range is enough of an attraction for me. I suspect I'll be back here one day to try some more.