Buxton Brewery Tap House, Buxton

Occupying a semi-basement level, or lower ground floor (careful of the ramp inside the front door), the Buxton Tap is surprisingly spacious and airy, having been well-designed and showing the benefits of quality materials throughout. Decorated with dried hop bines, there's no mistaking this for anything other than a pub, though there's a strong food element too. The bar counter is prominent on entering, with just two hand pumps and a gantry with keg taps dominating. All the beers, as far as I could see, were from Buxton Brewery and were listed in that way that those of us of a certain age find confusing, priced variously by the pint, by two-thirds, by the half and by a third (see photos of beer lists). Apart from the cask Buxton SPA 4.1% £3.40, all the beers worked out at more than £4 a pint, in some cases a lot more. The Axe Edge IPA 6.8% was £4.50 on cask but £4.95 on keg; this beer has been highly praised elsewhere, but I find it rather crude, tasting of reconstituted orange juice with a smidgen of passion fruit thrown in at the end. It pummels the taste buds in a way that suggests that subtlety is for wusses; so OK, I'm a wuss - where do I sign up? The beer aside, it was quite pleasant to sit here while waiting for my train out of Buxton - better than sitting on the railway station anyway! The staff were all very efficient and attractive, and one of them even managed a genuine giggle when I suggested that the beer was so expensive because it came from a long way away: you don't get service like that every day of the week.

Decent busy place which had three cask pumps, one unused and 16 craft/keg pumps. I had Axe Edge IPA @ 6.8% ABV which was good. Would definitely revisit.

Decent pub that sell real ales from Buxton Brewery. Easy to miss as its dwarfed by large sign for the Lone Star restaurant occupying the same building.