The Purple Dog, Colchester

Aged timber framed building but a modern and fairly featureless bar within, the wooden fittings glooped-over with duck egg shade paint. GBG listed and a commitment to the cask, with five on over six sticks and it was shifting; Pride, Hophead, Ghost Ship and two local ones from Brentwood and Bishop Nick. A half of the latter's Rejoice was fine, if getting a bit long in the tooth (NBSS 3). Like BF says below, it's worth a drop-in but it's too sterile to really appeal beyond a quick pint. 6.5

The L-shaped bar in the Purple Dog supports a standard and premium keg range alongside six hand pumps. During a recent Thursday evening visit two of these were unused leaving Sharps Doom Bar, Fullers London Pride, Adnams Ghost Ship and Mighty Oak Brewing’s Faye Ray as the cask ale options. Food is also available. The pub is open plan with seating down the left-hand side that runs to a raised seating area at the rear and more seating runs along the front windows between the two entrances. There are a couple of large televisions that were showing muted rolling news whilst some background music played. An enclosed L-shaped patio and smoking area is located at the right rear of the pub past the toilets. This pub has an extended license until 01:00 on Fridays and 01:30 on Saturdays so there is probably some form of live entertainment. This is a decent enough pub that I would have no problem returning to.

Official site of The Purple Dog - thepurpledogpub.co.uk

Official site of The Purple Dog - thepurpledogpub.co.uk