Beeropolis, Burton On Trent Town, Burton on Trent

Small micropub with a few tables and the bar and a fridge in the rear right-hand corner. A screen displays the range of beers, of which there were two on cask. There are also a number of ciders and a good selection of craft beers. Of 4 handpulls, just 2 were clipped. The 2 real ales were Frome RA & Mr Grundy's Golden Dawn. Ciders listed on an A4 sheet behind the bar were Lilley's Mango Cider, Snail's Bank Rhubarb Cider, Weston's Old Rosie, Thistly Cross Whisky Cask & Heck's Farmhouse Perry. Craft beers were Thornbridge Jaipur, Triple Point Cryo First Chop WSTCST, Staggeringly Good Mr. DNA: Double Helix, Gweilo Rainbow Sherbet Sour, Brew York Papa Goose, Fierce/Vault City Bananas Foster, Castle Rock Oatmeal Stout, Beer Ink Dreamin' of Sugar Plums, Polly's Wither & Brew York/Overtone Winona Ryder. The barman seemed a friendly chap and so did the gaffer who we met briefly. Customers on our Sunday lunchtime visit were all men and were all seemingly people knowledgeable about beers. Dogs and children are welcome. This was the first ever pub I've visited in Burton. So, unlike the previous reviewers, I have nothing else in the town to compare it with. However, I was reasonably impressed. I'll be back to try some more pubs in the town soon.

Blessed with a good central location, handy for the High Street and any number of other decent pubs, this is a simple, shop-converted micropub which was featuring Thornbridge beers on my visit. The usual single room set-up prevails, with scuffed floorboards throughout and walls painted in a pleasant shade to create a smart overall look. A small, raised space under the front window looked like it might double as a stage at some point, but was currently occupied by a couple of tables and chairs and a long pew, whilst the window had been draped with loads of fairy lights to allow for a degree of privacy during the hours of darkness. Elsewhere, pew and low stool seating runs down either side of the room, serving a mix of standard and low copper topped tables. The servery is in the rear right corner and has a very short bar counter and plain bar back, with a TV screen to one side listing the full draught range. As with pretty much all pubs I visited around town, the walls are decorated with plenty of old black and white photos showing the town’s brewing history, and this contrasted nicely with a few arty prints here and there and a nice pub mirror on the back wall. The place was busy on a Friday evening, as I managed to bag the last seat in the house, and unlike the experience of previous reviewers, the lighting was nicely muted, creating quite a cosy atmosphere. I’m not sure whether the pub has any permanent tie with the Thornbridge Brewery, but their beer dominated the bar, with Chiron, Sequoia, Jaipur and one other on cask and plenty more as part of the keg range. I gave the Sequoia a try and thought it was a tasty enough pint in decent condition, whilst the barman was nice and welcoming despite very nearly short-changed me before spotting that he’d made a mistake. I thought this was a decent enough micropub, with friendly staff and pleasant enough environs, but it didn’t really stand out from the pack once I reflected on all the pubs I’d visited on this crawl and I would say it’s a decent enough addition for a crawl, but perhaps not a destination pub in itself.

Yes I will go along with others that this is a fairly standard “paint by numbers” craft focussed micropub. It wasn’t a dark experience for us however as we visited after dark when all the lights were on and it was very bright, in fact probably too bright, giving the gold fish bowl drinking experience. Single square room with a modern farrow and ball shades of blue and green colour scheme with assorted pictures and a large branded mirror at the far end to try and give the place some character. The serving area contains a 12 keg tap wall and two real ale pumps is on the far right hand side as you enter and a large flat screen above details the ales available. For our visit Magpie Brewing Aquila American Pale Ale and Wantsum Brewery Turbulent Priest at a respectable £3:80 and £3.60 a pint were being dispensed from the pair of ale hand pumps. Then the keg taps had a good mix of different craft styles with the focus very much on Midlands and Northern Brewers with brews from Cloudwater, Verdant, Castle Rock, Thornbridge, Play Brew and BrewYork included. And on the whole mostly at sensible ABV’s and pricing levels with the highest being the 10% BrewYork stout at £4.50 a half, which I didn’t think was outrageous for a coconut and coffee stout of that strength. Stayed on the cask however, to keep the theme of the day and my half of the Turbulent Priest was perfectly respectable. Totally agree with the previous reviewers that this one is well worth a visit to check out the beer list, but when considered alongside other modern beer bar additions to the Burton drinking scene, I didn’t warm to it as much as the Last Heretic or thought it was a patch on the Beers of the World when it came to the drinking experience.

Rather ordinary micro-pub in a typical converted small shop unit. Reasonable amount of seating, but quite dark inside so it is difficult to make out what the pictures on the walls show (although it appears to be a mixture of local history photographs and breweriana). Aquila from Magpie (£1.90, half) and Wantsum's Turbulent Priest available from the pair of handpumps on the compact counter, with two more off to the side currently disused. Also has ten craft keg taps on the bar-back.

A pretty standard micropub setup, a couple of cask on and ten or more craft keg, worth a look for the beers but the drinking experience is pretty average.

Facebook page of Beeropolis - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of Beeropolis - www.facebook.com

As noted, Beeropolis is from the same stable as The Last Heretic and, although just as cleverly done, it feels quite different. This is partly down to the shape of the space but it also feels plush and comfortable. As with the Last Heretic, the welcome is warm and knowledgeable on the beer front. Again, the choice is wide but with the focus more on keg than cask and displayed on a screen. Cask options were Allsops Pale Ale and Purple Moose Whakahari with 12 keg selections which included Titanic Plum Porter, Thornbridge/Big Smoke Pigeon Fancier, Brew by Numbers Farmhouse Pale, Play Brew Pina Colada Sour Trinity Milli Van Chilli, a chilli chocolate stout. Styles took in stouts, including an excellent white stout, porters, IPAs and sours with strengths from 4% through to 10%. Plenty to go at here with some intriguing beers to try.