Tamworth Tap, Tamworth

This award-winning venue is, in my view, far too big to be any kind of micropub, with most of the nooks having more seats than the entire Butchers Arms where it all started. Hops, old photographs and beer signs (many of them Belgian) hang on the walls. On the ale front it's all indie, with the legendary Bathams (Best) as well as Uley, Round Corner, Windsor & Eton and more on the 8 pumps. Keg stuff, meanwhile, seemed relatively mainstream from my brief glance at the taps. Not for the first time in Tamworth, an unsolicited CAMRA discount was offered (I clearly look the part). A good range of beer, though the seats aren't the best, being a little bit too narrow to comfortably park a beer drinker's backside. Nevertheless, an essential stop for the Tamworth pub crawler.

Official site of Tamworth Tap - tamworthtap.co.uk

Official site of Tamworth Tap - tamworthtap.co.uk

The Tamworth Tap is a wooden floored shop converted pub with seating across the front and up the right to a staircase to more seating on the first floor, I didn’t wander up on the occasion. Every inch of wall has breweriana including tankards, posters, old clips and a few hops thrown in for good measure. Unsurprisingly there is no television, but there was some 80s background music playing on a recent busy, but still comfortable, Wednesday evening. The eight hand pumps were drawing Great Newsome’s Holderness Dark, Fownd Brewing’s King Korvak’s, Leighton Buzzard Brewing’s Restoration Ale, Batham’s Best, Riverhead Brewery’s Sherbert Lemon, Acorn’s The Last Samurai, Otherworld Brewing’s Acheron and Black Iris Brewery’s Let the Devil In. I went for the Sherbert Lemon which wasn’t great, in fact I took it back up to the bar to let them know it had gone. I was very politely informed that it had only gone on the day before and I wasn’t the first to query the quality, but it was fine to drink and had been served as the brewer intended. I preserved with it and I can report that I didn’t shit the bed so it was just a crap beer… Who the hell orders Sherbert Lemon Ale anyway, doh! I liked the vibe of this pub and would definitely return.