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Chat about:
Beer of the Week (w/e 27th April 2025) with Thuck Phat
on the Pub Forum
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7½ of 10) see review guidelines
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about Briarbank
Brewery tap located at first-floor level directly above the brewing vessels. Although housed in what appears to have been some sort of industrial building, there are a couple of indications that this was once a Lloyds bank, and there are plenty of windows along the frontage of the rectangular bar so probably offices originally? Anyway, it looks quite sparkling with the Christmas decorations up and is quite a pleasant spot inside. There are five handpumps and six keg taps at each end of the bar-back, with six of the former and all of the latter in use when I visited (with four in total being devoted to ciders). Went for the Briar Cobnut (£5.00) in the end, and this proved to be a good choice.
On 28th December 2024
- rating: 7
[User has posted 8679 recommendations about 8678 pubs]
Blue Scrumpy left this review about Briarbank
The last time I tried to visit the Briarbank during Covid and when outdoor drinking restrictions were still in place, it was still closed. There is not much of an outdoor area available for them to use. I had to make do with Isaac's around the corner, who were selling the Briarbank beers.
With such restrictions thankfully well behind us, you now enter the Briarbank and passing the brewery on the ground floor, you head up a flight of stairs to the brewery's first floor taproom. Considering the posted opening time on a Saturday is midday, it was already very busy shortly after on our visit.
There is a long, thin room with the bar on your right-hand side as you enter. TVs were showing a Premier League football game. So, it was popular with football fans heading to a game at Portman Road.
Both cask and keg beers are served from taps behind the bar. On cask, all beers were from Briarbank. Perpendicular is their regular ale. In addition, there was Briar Bitter, Briar Cobnut & Spiced Pumpkin Ale. Ciders were Mango Cider & Rhubarb Cider from Lilley's. I believe there was a third on keg. Draft beers were Hop To It DDH IPA, Briarbank Black Horse Stout, Mango NEPA, Grapefruit IPA, Suffolk Haze, Mocha Porter & Thomas Wolsey 550 & Tindall Summer Loving.
The two beers I tried (Briar Cobnut & Spiced Pumpkin Ale) were both enjoyable. So, I quite liked this place and wouldn't have minded staying longer had we not had a couple of pubs to visit much further away before also heading to the football match. It's 2025 Good Beer Guide listed.
On 22nd October 2024
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3040 recommendations about 3038 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about Briarbank
Odd place, a brewpub in a nasty-looking building in what feels like an old builders yard. Hard to know what to do on the approach as there’s an outside bar and marquee which confused us but a local clocked and advised us to go up the stairs. This hits the main bar which is really impressive, nicely kitted-out with flagstone flooring, barrel insets at the bar, red wine coloured banquettes and lots of brewery mirrors. Busy with footy fans, a mix of Ipswich and Morecambe rubbing along quite happily. Three cask on the go alongside some keykeg, and the beers were advertised via a large screen above the bar. We tried their Cob Nut (NBSS 3.5) Samuel Harvey VC (sweetcorn-tasting drek,1). Also gave a couple of their kegs a go, the Black Horse Stout was like a Perrier version of the stuff, with the Mocha Porter being a bit better but still over-bubbled. A curate’s egg – I rather liked the pub itself but one out of four beers being above par on the quality stakes is a poor return. At least the keg is fixable by venting the containers...I'd try it again, with reservations. 6.5
Visited early August.
On 12th September 2021
- rating: 7
[User has posted 5552 recommendations about 5533 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about Briarbank Tap
Opened in 2013, this is a small first floor tap room for the Briarbank Brewery, who operate from the ground floor of the same building. I arrived to find a beer festival in full swing, with a large marquee in the car park set up to sell six Briarbank beers and a lot of local guest ales. The main bar is accessed by a staircase which is reached by passing the brewing plant. The stairs are lined with lots of photos of local scenes and emerge into a compact but nicely put together room with a quarry stone floor and the servery down the right hand wall. The bar counter has some nice woodwork and is supported by some pillars which have been sunk into old beer barrels at either end of the counter. All of the pumps and keg taps are located on the bar back, with the taps protruding from some nice wooden panels. There is a padded banquette under a large Briarbank Brewery mirror at the top of the staircase and a row of high tables and stools run down the left hand wall in a cramped area opposite the bar. Most of these high tables are rather subtly created from large beer barrels as well. To the rear there is more banquette and standard seating under a couple of huge, side-by-side brewery mirrors and more black and white photos of old Ipswich pubs. A TV screen was visible behind the bar, but it remained switched off in favour of background music which easily got lost under the hubbub created by a good afternoon crowd. CAMRA's Whatpub website mentions that a membership scheme applies, but there appeared to be no such restrictions to entry and I wasn't asked to provide any kind of ID.
Aside from the festival ales, the bar had five Briarbank beers on cask - Ipswich Pale Ale, Samuel Harvey VC, Grand Slammer, Brian Bitter and Dark Knight - plus seven other Briarbank brews on keg dispense. I tried the Dark Knight and it was in great shape. The staff were all very pleasant and chatted about the success the bar had experienced and their efforts to further promote it.
I thought this was a really nice brewery bar - certainly a massive improvement on drinking in the industrial units associated with London microbreweries - and clearly a good deal of thought has been put into the presentation of a bar to showcase their own ales. This is a great place to sample some good brewery-fresh beer and makes a fine double header with the Lord Nelson over the road.
On 22nd June 2015
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3350 recommendations about 3350 pubs]