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Reviews (Current Rating Average: 8½ of 10) see review guidelines
Blue Scrumpy left this review about Tamworth Tap
We finally paid our first visit to the much revered Tamworth Tap yesterday. With 7 cask ales and 43 ciders, you can see why this pub has become so popular with CAMRA who have made it their national Pub of the Year multiple times.
On our early Saturday evening visit, the queue for the bar was almost out of the front door. It at least gave me time to study the cider list which can be found on a blackboard on the right-hand wall. There are a number of tables on the ground floor. Quite a few individuals/groups appeared to be sharing these. What was left of our party headed upstairs. Rooms are all nicely furnished.
Cask ales on our visit were Crossed Anchors APA, Silent Brew Daybreak, Simple Things Fermentations Toledo, Batham's Best Bitter, Bays Afloat, Otherworld Tuesday's Mild & Tamworth Castle Black. Turnover of ales must be high, as North Pier Citra was also on when I returned to the bar for another round.
Of the 43 ciders, I believe there were 9 I hadn't previously had. I managed to get through 6 of these before we had to move on but I could have spent all day here. The full list of ciders was Venton's Sweet Maid & Thirst Responder, Burrow Hill Medium & Alf and Alf, Seacider Hardcore, Sting Tuck's Tipple, Dowding's Tower Brue Medium & Sweet, Appletreewick Medium, Seidr Ci Ddu Scrumpt & Joost, Old Monty Kingston Black, Beardspoon Ciderfect & Undecider'd, Seb's Medium, Chapel Brink of the Hill, Gwynt y Ddraig Farmhouse Pyder, Kentish Pip Craftsman, Temple Medium & Hendre Huffcap, Fletcher's Original, Ross-on-Wye Suzie's Catch & Helen's Single Varietal Perry, Heck's Farmhouse Medium, Williams Brothers Biffyn & Perry, Sisson & Smith Ellis Bitter, South Hams Vintage & Double Apple, Iford Somerset Sahara, New Tradition & Windfall, Hogan's French Revelation & Lonely Partridge, Udders Orchard Yarlington Mill, Nightingale Tenterden, Lilley's Bee Sting Perry, Pineapple Cider, Mango Cider & Cherries and Berries & Broadoak Pear & Chilli Cider, Sloe Gin Cider & Purple Haze.
If all of that wasn't enough, there are also some craft beers - Verdant The Doorway Effect, Vault City Brainmelting Fluid & Face Froster, Low Key From Here to Forever, Cloudwater Chubbles, Left-Handed Giant PVA, Deya Summer Ale & Steady Rolling Man & Anspach & Hobday London Black.
Service was efficient and knowledgeable and a CAMRA discount is offered on halves and pints and on both ales and ciders. Other customers seemed a friendly bunch. We got talking to quite a few.
This isn't going to be the cheapest place in town. It has earned itself an excellent reputation and can choose to dictate the pricing itself. The sheer number of customers would suggest that it is still affordable.
As pubs go, the Tamworth Tap has it all - a good range of beers and ciders, all in good condition, great service, nice surroundings, a relaxed atmosphere and some friendly fellow customers. Where it falls down slightly for me is the wait to be served. The size of the bar dictates how many staff they can fit behind there. They are quick but demand is so high that you can easily wait 10 minutes for each round. For that reason alone, I cannot give it a maximum 10/10. It has inevitably become a victim of its own success. Nevertheless, I sincerely hope I can return here one day.
On 7th June 2026
- rating: 9
[User has posted 3511 recommendations about 3509 pubs]
Quinno _ left this review about Tamworth Tap
A long-overdue revisit, unfortunately timed for the Wassailing on a Saturday evening so the place was rammed. Pretty much as it was when I was last in six years ago, though the Good Beer Guide book spine steps are new and look impressive. The cask quality was good but not stellar – NBSS 3 and 3.5 – though that may simply have been down to ludicrous turnover meaning stuff was going on a bit earlier than normal. Apparently the garden is very impressive as well these days but it was too wet, cold and rammed to go exploring. Won’t leave an updated rating this time as it was hard to really appreciate the place in sweaty melee but it certainly remains an excellent pub. I can also confirm that door staff were in action when we left, to control the numbers inside – something I have never seen before outside of a gig venue. So visit on a weekday, is my advice.
March 2020
Look and feels like an upmarket micropub on approach but don't be fooled, there are three storeys to this brewpub (Tamworth Brewing Company) with plenty of little rooms and nooks to be found. The action is on the ground floor in a really nice space which is atmospheric; heated bench seating, dried hops strung around and dimmed sodium style filament lamps. Head up the rear stairs for other rooms, each individually styled. To the rear is a tidy garden area with views of Tamworth castle. Eight ales on, two from Tamworth, Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby, Bathams Bitter, Beowulf Dragon Smoke Stout, Wily Fox Karma Citra, Mad Squirrel Sapling Session, Bristol Beer Factory Mission Bay, plus a load of cider. I tried both the Tamworth brews (NBSS 3.5) and the Bathams (3.5 though no sparkler, oddly). The downside was that the two young staff members disappeared for long periods doing chores so you felt like a lemon standing at the empty bar. That said, the lass asked if I was CAMRA (am I that obvious?). It filled up quickly with a relaxed crowd of imbibers. I really enjoyed it in here and it ended-up being my favourite of the day despite some stiff competition. If wasn’t for the Houdini staff it’d have got close to a 10. Rated 9
On 2nd May 2026
- rating: 9
[User has posted 6166 recommendations about 6146 pubs]
paulof horsham left this review about Tamworth Tap
This award-winning venue is, in my view, far too big to be any kind of micropub, with most of the nooks having more seats than the entire Butchers Arms where it all started. Hops, old photographs and beer signs (many of them Belgian) hang on the walls.
On the ale front it's all indie, with the legendary Bathams (Best) as well as Uley, Round Corner, Windsor & Eton and more on the 8 pumps. Keg stuff, meanwhile, seemed relatively mainstream from my brief glance at the taps. Not for the first time in Tamworth, an unsolicited CAMRA discount was offered (I clearly look the part).
A good range of beer, though the seats aren't the best, being a little bit too narrow to comfortably park a beer drinker's backside. Nevertheless, an essential stop for the Tamworth pub crawler.
On 17th December 2025
- rating: 8
[User has posted 663 recommendations about 616 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Will Larter left this review about Tamworth Tap
A chance for a visit between trains on my way back from Milton Keynes - who does not need a beer after being in Milton Keynes? I had barely looked at just one pump clip when the bar tender sprang into action. I asked for a bit of time to peruse the eight cask beers (see photos), and in the meantime please serve the next customer. Are you sure, said both server and customer. I eventually plumped for Hobson's Green Hop, which was in very good nick (NBSS 3.5), though perhaps not as good as some other green hop beers I've had before - not, I hasten to add, down to any fault of the cellaring or presentation, just a slightly underwhelming flavour profile. The atmosphere was pleasant here, with people making room at their tables, and general conversation almost dominating the grating pop music constantly being pumped out of the speakers.
On 29th October 2024
- rating: 7
[User has posted 4804 recommendations about 4399 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Strongers . left this review about Tamworth Tap
The Tamworth Tap is a wooden floored shop converted pub with seating across the front and up the right to a staircase to more seating on the first floor, I didn’t wander up on the occasion. Every inch of wall has breweriana including tankards, posters, old clips and a few hops thrown in for good measure. Unsurprisingly there is no television, but there was some 80s background music playing on a recent busy, but still comfortable, Wednesday evening. The eight hand pumps were drawing Great Newsome’s Holderness Dark, Fownd Brewing’s King Korvak’s, Leighton Buzzard Brewing’s Restoration Ale, Batham’s Best, Riverhead Brewery’s Sherbert Lemon, Acorn’s The Last Samurai, Otherworld Brewing’s Acheron and Black Iris Brewery’s Let the Devil In. I went for the Sherbert Lemon which wasn’t great, in fact I took it back up to the bar to let them know it had gone. I was very politely informed that it had only gone on the day before and I wasn’t the first to query the quality, but it was fine to drink and had been served as the brewer intended. I preserved with it and I can report that I didn’t shit the bed so it was just a crap beer… Who the hell orders Sherbert Lemon Ale anyway, doh! I liked the vibe of this pub and would definitely return.
On 20th September 2024
- rating: 8
[User has posted 6673 recommendations about 6635 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Old Boots left this review about Tamworth Tap
CAMRA national pub of the year two years in a row, at street level a dark woody traditionally furnished single room, there’s a lower level courtyard garden reached via a ginnel at the left hand side of the building and more seating upstairs. Eight pumps of smaller brewery products on the counter half way in, and on a front counter a few kegs and a good number more keg taps lurking in the back area of the servery. Lots of brewery ephemera as decor, hiding in amongst which is a blackboard of “coming soon”, so don’t be mislead as some were, and there’s a laser display screen of what’s probably on. Many Camra awards cover an alcove at the rear called “Camra Corner”. Dangly hops are also part of the decor. The toilets upstairs have urinals which are cut open kegs, ho, ho, ho. I didn’t really get the hype surrounding this place although some of our party did.
On 26th May 2024
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 4096 recommendations about 3757 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Thuck Phat left this review about Tamworth Tap
Having visited the Tamworth Tap on various occasions since shortly after opening it felt like time for a review.
This is probably the best shop to pub conversion that I've visited with a great deal of care taken to create a cosy, atmospheric, pub style drinking establishment. Lighting is clever and gentle with well designed, dark wood seating, plenty of breweriana including attractive, traditional tools and well placed hop sprays. There is also a wood burning stove which has been welcome on chillier evening visits.
The place was already fairly busy at 4.15 and a mixed bunch of punters continued to arrive until our early evening departure. I've always found it well frequented without it being uncomfortably rammed both before and after the 2022 and 2023 CAMRA National Pub of the Year awards. I'm sure this is helped by a decent sized room upstairs and a well appointed garden overlooked by the castle for sunnier days.
As ever, our welcome was friendly, smiling and chatty and, having sat close to the bar, we noticed it was extended to allcomers. Informed, intelligent and relevant advice is also given on beer choices when asked and tasters are freely offered.
There is a small cabinet by the bar with rolls and pies but at 5 o'clock a more extensive menu (picture added) was brought round from which two excellent pork pies were had.
Other features include live music on Sunday evenings with the next 6 months or so booked, a "Request an Ale" pot on the corner of the bar complete with forms and pens and a small but perfectly visible board above the door displaying live train times. Useful given Tamworth's multiple rail connections.
The beer selection has always been excellent although they no longer seem to brew which is something of a shame as I had one or two crackers from them in the past. On this occasion the 9 handpumps were pulling: Bristol Beer Factory Everytime, Attic Beams, Ponoma Island Amateur Historian, Thornbridge Jaipur, Holden's Golden Glow, Burning Soul Mild Obsession, Ossett White Rat, Bradfield Farmers Stout (Vanilla) and Three Tuns Charter. A very solid range with the Attic Beams being replaced by Tiny Rebel Fruit Machine. None are eye-wateringly priced with Jaipur at 5.9% being the most expensive at £4.50 a pint. We tried a few and all were in excellent condition and expertly poured.
There were also 8 craft beers available with breweries such as Vocation, Deya, Homerton and Pomona Island represented and then another bank of pumps to the bar to the left which seemed to have some more esoteric and Belgian beers on.
I've thoroughly enjoyed each of my visits here and hope for many more. An absolute gem.
On 21st May 2024
- rating: 10
[User has posted 694 recommendations about 693 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about Tamworth Tap
Town-centre brew-pub in a micro-pub size converted shop, with a few small tables squeezed in beside the brewing equipment and a compact counter (and one more chair can be found at the bottom of the staircase leading up to the toilets!). Also has an upstairs room and a few small tables out on the front patio strip. Traditional furniture but more modern lighting. Use It or Lose It from Round Corner Brewing (£4.00 with Camra discount) from a great selection on the eight handpumps on this revisit. Excellent place, although possibly suffering from its recent fame as there can be door staff restricting the numbers trying to enter because of the limited seating and no space to stand around the bar.
On 25th February 2024
- rating: 8
[User has posted 9165 recommendations about 9165 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Will Larter left this review about Tamworth Tap
Since my visit nearly two years ago this pub has won Camra's national Pub of the Year award. I raised an eyebrow at the news, since my memory told me that the place is badly designed, with the bar counter forming a cramped area and causing a bottle neck for people going past. It was just as busy as I remember it from my previous visit, possibly busier, and I felt a bit rushed in choosing my beers, so plumped for a pint of Bathams Bitter, a name that I recognised. I well remember having this beer for the first time in Bridgnorth but this was not in such good condition, and wasn't helped by its big frothy head. I found a less crowded area upstairs, but there was loud background music here that I found intrusive. Luckily, I hadn't been part of the assessment process for Pub of the Year.
On 17th October 2023
- rating: 6
[User has posted 4804 recommendations about 4399 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Will Larter left this review about Tamworth Tap
An early evening visit between trains on my way home from Stafford, and as it turned out my train was 10 minutes late so I could have stayed for another half. It was quite busy and I didn't have the opportunity to look around. The bar counter felt a little cramped, with eight hand pumps serving a wide variety of beer styles from mostly well-established independent breweries (Thornbridge, Oakham, Chalk Hill, Twickenham, Beowulf, Uley), plus the never-heard-of Bang the Elephant (from Langley Mill) and just one beer from the premises behind the bar. I went for Tamworth Ale, not realising that it was actually a murky grapefruit pale and not to my taste at all - the first time I have not finished a beer for a very long time. I swerved the beer from Langley Mill (an "alpine snow strawberry pale stout" which I presumed would live up to the brewery's slogan "Subvert the Stereotype", but wasn't prepared to invest the time or money to find out) and went for Uley Harvest Special, a bitter made with fresh hops, and this one went down a treat.
As I said, it was busy here with what I took to be a post-work crowd of mainly younger people, but I found myself a seat near the front window and within beneficial distance of the stove and had a little chat with two men of not quite my age who were drinking the Twickenham Yakima Valley ABA (an American brown ale) which they said was very good. As has been mentioned previously, Tamworth is coming up in the world in terms of pubs and beers for the discerning consumer, and I will certainly be back before long.
On 28th November 2021
- rating: 7
[User has posted 4804 recommendations about 4399 pubs]