Hatters Bar, Burnley

As noted below this is a proper micropub with no music or TVs. The rectangular split level room has a wooden floor on the lower part and a carpet on the upper. The bar is on the left at the front, there are tall chairs at the front window and rear with limited lower furniture to the right. There is a fridge by the bar crammed with wine, bottled beers and ciders. This was the only cider available and isn't strictly speaking "real cider". There were a few in on my early Wednesday afternoon visit. The bar has six hand pumps which had Reedley Hallows Pendleside & New Zealand Pale, Mobberley A Beer Called Clive, Titanic Lifeboat, Rudgate Dark Mild and Wadworth Horizon. I went for the pub owner's New Zealand Pale (£2.25) which was excellent. In fact all the beers are £2.25 which is worth an extra point as it's only slightly dearer than the town Spoons. Those micropubs down South charging four quid a pint should take a good look at themselves.

As previously said, this is a Reedley Hallows pub and is quite decent. Six hand pumps, one off, one a cider and a fine 5% ABV Zenith IPA. Took a seat in the raised area to the rear next to a picture of Burnley winning the 1st Division title. On checking, that was in 1960 - can't see it happening again!

Opened in June 2015, this town centre micro pub operates as the tap for the local Reedley Hallows brewery. The windows that run down two sides of the pub bear the image of a griffin, which is apparently because the pub is part of the Griffin Micro Pub co, although I've been unable to find any other reference to this anywhere. The pub occupies a street corner premises with a split level interior. You enter directly to the bar area which sees the servery run along the left hand wall with a brick effect counter front and plain wall bar back. Opposite, along the right hand side, a long banquette runs under the windows, supplemented by low stools, whilst a few high stools have been squeezed into the space between the front window and the end of the bar counter. The raised section to the rear has a few tables made from old barrels with some high padded stools, so probably not the comfiest spot.The walls are decorated with some great black and white photos of the town, blown up to an impressive size and elsewhere I spotted a Clarets flag, cuckoo clock, barometer and a collection of German bier steins and unusual Belgian beer glasses on the bar back. The pub was packed to bursting when I arrived a couple of hours before kick of at Turf Moor, which made fighting your way to the bar extremely difficult, but the bar staff kept things moving very efficiently and I didn't notice anyone having to wait too long to be served. The pub aims to always have at least one Reedley Hallows beer on handpull at any given time and there were in fact two on the go when I arrived - Pendleside and Clausing Time. Guest ales in the form of Crouch Vale Anchor Street Porter, Saltaire Cascade Pale and Bateman's XXXB rounded out the cask range and a board next to the bar listed several cider and perry options plus a great variety of bottled beers, including many from Belgium. As far as I could see, there were no keg beers available here. I decided to give the Pendleside a try and thought it was a good pint of bitter kept in tip-top shape. Supporters of both teams mingled quite happily here pre-match, with the only real problem being the distinct lack of space, with more customers piling in as I made my bid for fresh air outside. I thought this was a great little pub that I would have almost certainly enjoyed more had I not visited at such a busy time. The beer is undoubtedly the star here and my excellent pint continued my good run with Reedley Hallows, who I've never had a bad pint from. This is a good addition to Burnley's pub scene and was the best of the six pubs I visited when in town.

Quite a nice place though it does have a more wine bar style than pub. 6 cask ales plus a small chiller next to the bar with bottled ales in. Good prices.