The Teign Brewery, Teignmouth

Wandering along this street in the dark, in search of the Blue Anchor, I came upon this pub which I mad the cardinal error of entering without checking the sign, assuming that I’d reached my destination pub, only to discover a little too late that I’d fallen short by a few yards, ending up in this rather basic two bar pub instead. Upon entering, I turned right, to enter a lively public bar with a tile floor, hard bench seating to the front and right and the servery to the left. The room has low, grey tongue and groove panelling under white upper sections decorated with some nice old photos and a knot display. There’s a pleasant fireplace to the right and a pub noticeboard with photos of the local’s enjoying themselves a little further along. The bar has a curved tongue and groove panel counter front painted in grey, fronting a simple bar back that has been decorated with some rapidly flashing fairy lights and a ‘Church of Lost Souls’ sign. Moving past the bar, you enter a similarly styled rear room with more bench seating, an unused TV screen to one side and some blue neon lighting that helped liven up what is otherwise quite a bland, featureless area. The lounge bar, to the left on entering, seemed to be closed, or at the very least, was out of favour with the locals, as no one was sat in there, despite the improved seating options, decent fireplace and impressive display cabinets. A surprisingly good alternative rock soundtrack played throughout my stay and there was a good, eclectic group of locals in, including two playing chess under the front window and another throwing bar snacks for the chess player’s dog to secretively snaffle. My arrival in the wrong pub was confirmed when the cheery barman asked me what I’d like and I realised that there were no active handpulls, leaving me with a choice of global keg brands, from which I randomly chose a half of Kronenbourg, which was as unmemorable as you’d expect. I can’t knock this pub for its atmosphere, friendly welcome or interesting two-bar layout, but it does fall short on the beer front, with no cask ale and not even a token craft beer option to fall back on. The place was much livelier than the nearby Blue Anchor, so my visit wasn’t entirely in vain, but without anything decent to drink, I’m not going to be popping back without mistaking it for another venue again.

Two roomed pub that has a lower-grade listing on CAMRA’s National Inventory though it’s a pretty run-down looking place. Poked our heads round the door but there was no ale (so a nice misleading name…) and the local devil dog started barking at us. Moved on to the much better Blue Anchor next door.

I visited the Teign Brewery late on a recent Thursday evening and walked in through the left hand entrance. I found myself in a bar where there was one other person who was quietly reading a newspaper. I was a little confused as the bar had no hand pumps or draught taps and there was no sign of any staff. I decided to visit the gents at the rear and I noted the presence of a beer yard out the back. My entrance back into the bar was met by a very frosty reception from a woman who was on duty, but thankfully her colleague jumped in and politely served me a generic lager that was pulled from the right hand bar. After receiving my pint I decided to drink it in the right hand bar that was busy with locals that were in a party mood. The jukebox was playing loudly and someone had put on a few folk songs that were going down well with the regulars. At the front there is a dartboard and piano and the right hand wall opposite the bar is full of pictures of raucous nights that have passed. At the rear there is table football and a plasma screen, I didn’t spot any Sky Sports advertisements. I didn’t notice any hand pumps on the bar, but it was busy so I may have missed one if it was hidden away amongst the standard draught taps. I saw nothing in here that would have me rushing back.