Tom Browns, Dorchester

Halfway House. Felt a longer schlep up the hill from the Village than expected. A plain locals bar offering Hidden Old Sarum & Quest, and Goldfinch Tom Brown's, not the best kept ales of the day.

This basic town centre GBG-listed boozer, previously a brewhouse, now buys in all its beer and is the tap for the Dorset Brewing Company. The spit-and-sawdust-minus-the-sawdust air still endures, providing for a traditional feel. Food was advertised, and their pies are celebrated – but there was no food on at all during this visit; the apathetic, non-English speaking bar-staff was unable to explain why. They also advertise live music and big-screen sports viewings. Five ales on draft, I had the guest, Summerset from Yeovil. It was in perfect condition, well kept and most enjoyable. Attitude aside, I do like this place and believe it is a valuable inclusion in a crawl, but I feel its days are numbered unless they can sort their act out.

Operated by the Dorset Brewing Company,this is the pub to sample their wares,which is also a popular live music venue.The side entrance can be confusing,straight ahead is the entrance to the music,you need to go through a modest door to the immediate right to enter the bar room.It has bare floor boards,in the ale house style,with some basic wooden furniture,mainly settles but with a sofa opposite the real fireplace but obscuring the darts throw,I suppose you could just shift it forward if you wanted to play.There is a rear door to the beer garden,while the original pub sign mentioning the now defunct Goldfinch brewery sits above the front windows.The bar is faced in wood with bar stools for the regulars.The open plan interior with hops hanging from the beams feels basic while food consists of Pie Minister pies ,mash and mushy peas for £6.95,while on Tuesdays there is a pie and DBC pint offering of £5.50 all day which seems real value.The are Sunday roast and food is served noon til 3pm apart from Tuesdays.Live rugby from BT Sports in shown on a drop down screen. At the bar there are nine handpumps with 7 working on my Monday lunchtime visit offering DBC Tom Brown's,Dorset Knob,Portland Porter (decent),Anniversary,Flashman's Clout and Fool Hardy with a sole guest Dark Star Original.Looking at the pump clips it appears the guest ale is often from XT,Dark Star or Titanic which shows a good guest ale selection operates here.Eclectic muzak at a back ground volume enhanced the experience and I would happily return to this town centre boozer in the search for some decent real ale,the GBG listing seems warranted.

A terraced pub, eatery and music venue, in white render and brown, with small patio at the back. It is in the GBG 2010. It housed the former Goldfinch Brewery, but it is now, as JB says, a part of the Dorset Brewing Co - perhaps not to everyone's taste as DBC RIP was chalked up in the bogs. The interior has a couple of rooms. The front room has the serving bar and is in mushroom, pea green and patterned wallpaper, with wood panel and wood floor and has a piano, as well as a Chesterfield sofa, stools and old prints, cartoons and photos on the walls. The other room is a small games room in white and chocolate, with a dart board. The service was fine and other clientele somewhat absent. The music was 60s based and at a decent level. They do food, but i didn't eat, so i can't comment on that. Beer; tap stuff, with DBC's Durdle Door, Jurassic, Goldfich's Tom Browns and Pot Belly Crazy Daze on handpull. I tried a half of each and all were fine. The modern elements are perhaps not to my personal taste, but overall the beer was fine. I would go back, but wouldn't stay all night.

In the middle of historic Dorchester is Tom Browns, which, as the CAMRA Good Beer Guide correctly points out, has the feel of a town centre ale house. The main room at the front has bare boards and the usual mixture of sofas and wooden tables and chairs. It feels basically more like a room than a pub, but a piano and an old cash register, inter alia, add a bit of interest and character. The pub is the former home of the Goldfinch Brewery and, although the name has been retained, the beer is, so I understand, now brewed by Dorset Brewing Co in Weymouth. The former pub sign denoting Goldfinch Brewery now leans rather forlornly against a wall in the main bar. A longish corridor leads to a small basic room at the back of the building which houses a dartboard. The walls of this corridor are decorated with a number of Tom Brown's Schooldays framed caricature prints, including a rather tasteless one which depicts a large nude and bears the caption "Flashman's First XV Team Hooker". There's a large garden at the back which I didn't get to explore properly because it was persisting down. On my recent Monday afternoon visit, the pub was virtually deserted and lacked any kind of real atmosphere at all, but I stayed longer than I otherwise would have done until the rain relented. There were 5 beers on in total - Chesil and Jurassic from Dorset Brewing Co , Tom Brown's Goldfinch plus 2 beers from Potbelly in Kettering. The Chesil was rather uninspiring, but the Tom Brown's Goldfinch - £ 2.55p - was superb. The pub is listed in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide 2010. Perhaps my judgement was clouded by the heavy rain outside and the lack of atmosphere inside, but I was rather underwhelmed by the visit as a whole.

Very nice pub, looks like it brews it's own real ale. I usually drink Guinness, but I had a pint of their own brew and it was very good. If you are passing, try it.