Craft Brewed, Maidstone

Coffee and craft beer place. Trendy interior, all in silver, grey and white like the industrial zone of the Crystal Maze. Amazingly perfunctory service, the barman managed to say absolutely zero to me as was too busy chatting to his mate. Accompanying music selection of Red Hot Chilli Peppers and bed-wetting soloists was excruciating for anyone with any semblance of taste. 2x sets of unisex bogs (how woke) but – surprise! – there was no loo paper in mine, so as usual the comfort of ladies is barely an afterthought for the neckbeards. At least my serve of Vault City saved the day, as they often do in these places.

Part craft beer bar / part café, with a light coffee-shop style on both the ground floor (which also has a few tables out in the front alleyway). More seating upstairs. With seven of the ten craft keg taps on the bar-back in use (and the remainder coming on for the weekend), there was a good range of styles and strengths. Having enjoyed my Three Legs Black Lager (£5.90), I unusually stayed on to try the single-hop Sabro (£3.40, half) from the same East Sussex brewery. Nice, relaxed atmosphere mid-afternoon on a Friday.

Cafe bar in a parade of shops. To view the beers, it is best to round the inconveniently set of stairs to the far side of the bar. Beers are all craft ones. On our visit, there was 360° You Get What You Need, Fierce Hazy IPA, Wylam Lush, Iron Pier Islay Barrel Aged Imperial Stout, Gweilo Rainbow Sherbet Sour, Gun Project Babylon & Brick Peckham Session. Ciders were Thistly Cross Whisky Cask & Snail's Bank Peach Melba. Stools at the front window overlook the shopping street and can be good for a spot of people watching. Elsewhere, the aforementioned stairs lead up to two further levels of seating, where I discovered another customer on his laptop. A further customer had been in the outdoor yard at the rear when we arrived. Craft Brewed opens early in the morning and I suspect that they do a better trade in their coffees and cakes during the day. They seemed a bit surprised that a customer was coming in and ordering their 8.5% imperial stout during the day! This was something a little different to the other places we visited in the town yesterday and if you do fancy a craft beer, this is the place to head to.