Tamworth Tap, Tamworth

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.

CAMRA national pub of the year two years in a row, at street level a dark woody traditionally furnished single room, there’s a lower level courtyard garden reached via a ginnel at the left hand side of the building and more seating upstairs. Eight pumps of smaller brewery products on the counter half way in, and on a front counter a few kegs and a good number more keg taps lurking in the back area of the servery. Lots of brewery ephemera as decor, hiding in amongst which is a blackboard of “coming soon”, so don’t be mislead as some were, and there’s a laser display screen of what’s probably on. Many Camra awards cover an alcove at the rear called “Camra Corner”. Dangly hops are also part of the decor. The toilets upstairs have urinals which are cut open kegs, ho, ho, ho. I didn’t really get the hype surrounding this place although some of our party did.

Since my visit nearly two years ago this pub has won Camra's national Pub of the Year award. I raised an eyebrow at the news, since my memory told me that the place is badly designed, with the bar counter forming a cramped area and causing a bottle neck for people going past. It was just as busy as I remember it from my previous visit, possibly busier, and I felt a bit rushed in choosing my beers, so plumped for a pint of Bathams Bitter, a name that I recognised. I well remember having this beer for the first time in Bridgnorth but this was not in such good condition, and wasn't helped by its big frothy head. I found a less crowded area upstairs, but there was loud background music here that I found intrusive. Luckily, I hadn't been part of the assessment process for Pub of the Year.