The Tiny Tavern, Lincoln

The Tiny Tavern is a micropub that is found in two shop units at the end of a terrace. The entrance is on the right-hand side where a bell must be pressed for entry. The friendly barmaid let me in and whilst walking through an area full of kegs to the left-hand bar side she confirmed that the door is locked to keep the riff-raff out. The thin wood floor bar area has seating at the front and a counter on the right wall that faces a beer shelf up the left. There’s some more seating at the rear and a dartboard sits on the wall to the left of the rear door. This leads to a back garden with space for up to 30 people. The counter supports five hand pumps which were drawing Milestone’s Cromwell Best, Salamander Brewing’s Bringer of Light, Bowland’s Boxer Blonde and Abbeydale’s Salvation. The fifth pump was also in operation but I couldn’t read the clip. For lovers of the apple there were cider boxes on the bar. There was some background music playing, so is this truly a micropub, does anyone care? I thought it was friendly in here and would pop back in for another pint.

Our last pub of the day, and we were just sober enough to agree that this was the best pub - not saying the best in Lincoln, but the best we did today. The woman serving who served us was very friendly and welcoming, the beer was in excellent condition and we enjoyed the all-too-brief time we had before our train. Five beers on the bar, and I went for Milestone Sherwood Plum Mild 4.9%, which was much too sweet, and Heritage Classic Bitter 4.1%, which was my beer of the day. We discussed the name - Tiny Tavern - when we had just come from the much smaller Imp & Angel just up the road, and were told that they felt they had been a bit cheeky calling it this, with the decent sized seating area at the front, as well as the standing area near the bar and a further narrow area at the rear, and apparently there's a beer garden too! My only problem with this pub is that it's quite a long way from the station, but I could get over it.

Unusually for a micropub, this one isn't converted from a shop. This one used to be two 17th century cottages that have been broken through. There's still a kind of one way system going on here which seemed pretty pointless. You enter into a room that looks like a storeroom and where the stillages are which obviously used to be one of the cottages. You then turn left into the cottage next door which has a lounge area to the left and a bar to the right. Five handpumps on the bar and two real ciders in boxes. The beers were mainly from local micros, I had a pint of Newby Wyke Pirate which was in good nick. It's an interesting place and we'll definitely call in again.