Spookton Taproom, Chester

Not an easy find, turn up Queen St off Eastgate, walk up a hundred yards or metres or so, turn right down a narrow road then follow that road round a bit to the right and there’s a typical old industrial building on the left. Once inside its better fitted out than a few brewery taprooms I’ve visited with a proper counter to your left, the breeze block walls are covered up with jolly artwork and some pom poms and flags hang across the building. The seating is that usual bum aching fold up form and tables stuff. The brewing vessels are at the far end and there’s a food dispensary, a pizza oven of course, sat among the brewing vessels. One of their beers was on cask via a single hand pump plus a selection of theirs and others on the 11 keg taps on the back wall. There’s an unlabelled unisex toilet half way down the building. The cask beer was in excellent condition but the keg I tried was too highly carbonated for my tastes.

Had a local expert we met in That Beer Place not led us to this brewery taproom, I doubt the group I was directing would have believed that there was a venue selling beer about to appear at the end of a track off a Chester city centre side road. The Spookton Brewery & Taproom is apparently in a former printworks, a typical warehouse-style brewery which feels like it is on an out-of town trading estate, but is in fact slap bang in the middle of Chester city centre. Unless you are seeking it out, you're unlikely to find it by accident. The interior is the classic bench table seating with a basic bar and furnishings and with the brewery itself behind the bar. I'd come across a Spookton beer in the Bear in Paddington previously, but had never seen any of their beer on cask. Here, they have a solitary handpull on the back of the bar dispensing their Self Entitled, which was very enjoyable. Keg beers on offer from Spookton were Soft Launch, Worth The Squeeze, Odd Complex, Who'll Buy The Drinks, Aspirational Kickflip & Pompidou Discount. A guest beer was Anspach & Hobday London Black. The cider was Red Fin. It was very quiet for our visit, but I would have no hesitation in including this place on any crawl of Chester city centre once again.

New brewery and taproom. Current opening hours are: Thursday: 4pm-9pm. Friday: 1pm-9pm. Saturday: 1pm-9pm. Sunday: 1pm-6pm.