The Jolly Brewmaster, Cheltenham

A long walk from the town centre and Cheltenham isn’t the most pedestrian friendly town, the late week day opening and £5 minimum charge for cards are also a bit off putting although it might be rude to say it sounds like them saying “you should be grateful to be able to drink there”. However it’s got a nice and interesting interior and a good selection of beers and ciders, eight cask beers, five cask ciders, and there’s a low T-bar if you must. Internally a square room with a tail, it’s subdivided by residual walls, stained glass partions and a raised balustraded area. The light wood counter is semi circular and is topped with a shelf groaning with hops held up by nicely turned balusters. It has a hand rail secured by elephants a rare feature but I’ve seen it a few times. Dark walls and woodwork with a white frieze above work well especially with brighter art work. With that pump count it’s obviously GBG2022 listed and yes I do think worth the walk.

An unusual looking pub in a largely residential street, it has something of a New Orleans look to it perhaps with pale grey paintwork, black painted columns and an archway through to the garden. It has won numerous Camra awards I believe, so we had high expectations. Internally it’s largely one open plan room, although there is some stained glass partitioning to break up the space somewhat. A large horseshoe shaped bar is towards the rear, and this sported a good selection of handpumps. Flooring was some sort of wood strip whilst further dark wood panelling was on the lower part of the walls. Elsewhere the paintwork was mostly a deep maroon shade and there were plenty of hops strung up above the bar. A couple of small fireplaces were at the front of the pub, one of which was lit which was a welcome touch on a cold February evening. Seating was a mixture of bench seats and stools. An old world map was on one wall, whilst there were several sun references around, such as a copper coloured sun on the wall and sun motifs in the stained glass. Perhaps that was the pub’s name in a former life. Beers on tap were Exmoor Gold, Moor Stout, Butcombe Original, Salopian Oracle, Arbor Simcoe and Black Sheep Bitter. Ciders were very well represented with Cotswold Voodoo Pulp, Dunkerton’s Organic, Iford New Tradition, Abrahalls Thundering Molly along with Sandford Orchard’s Devon Mist and Devon Red. Overall, a cracking pub and well worth tracking down.

Award winning pub that’s worth seeking out. Quite a plain interior with a central horseshoe bar serving 7 real ales and 3 ciders.