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Beer of the Week (w/e 14th April 2024) with Mobyduck
on the Pub Forum
Image posted by Just a quick pint, then I'm off
Submitted on Monday, 12th April 2021
With picture contributions to 9808 other pubs
View all this pub's pictures (11 more images)
Detail Pages
The Little Gem, Aylesford
Aylesford
ME20 7AX
Served areas
Reviews of The Little Gem (Average Rating: 8½ of 10) see review guidelines
Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Little Gem
The Little Gem is appropriately named. Whilst it sounds like it should be a micropub, it's actually a quaint and very old (12th century) village local, nicely restored and re-opened by Goacher's.
We sat at the bar and enjoyed good conversation with the locals, despite us already having consumed more than our fair share of beer and cider throughout the day.
Beers were all from Goacher's. Their Fine Light Ale is a regular. They also had their Mild & Imperial Stout. Ciders from Turner's were Medium, Elderflower Cider, Rhubarb Cider & Apple Pie. My Mild was enjoyable.
Watch out for the low ceilings and doorways here. I nearly took my head off on the way to the toilets! If you can keep your head, this pub is well worth seeking out, being just one stop from Maidstone Barracks station and 2 from Maidstone West and then a 15-minute walk from the station eventually crossing the village's medieval bridge.
On 17th May 2023
- rating: 8
[User has posted 2452 recommendations about 2451 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
E TA left this review about The Little Gem
How wonderful that this iconic pub is open again, and that I was able to go in and enjoy it some 40 years after my previous visit. It’s also one of the first pubs where I ever binged, when Old Peculiar was 33p a pint, and the alternative was Young’s Special at 28p a pint. It’s certainly been cleaned up since I last came in, and I have to admit that the trip down memory lane was marginally devalued by the new, clean tiles in the gents’ which replaced the old graffiti – which if the legend is true is where the old saw about Old Peculiar was first recorded: ‘I used to think the bottom was dropping out of my world, then I drank 4 pints of Old Peculiar, and now the world’s dropping out of my bottom’. Now a Goacher’s pub, there were 2 on draft and 3 on gravity. All the beers were predictably excellent, the staff were welcoming, and there was good chat to be had with the regulars (I can no longer consider myself a local). I shall certainly be coming back now whenever I come to Kent.
On 28th September 2021
- rating: 9
[User has posted 3277 recommendations about 3242 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about The Little Gem
I'll admit that I never thought this place would reopen, but now taken on by Goachers, the Maidstone micro-brewery. As you would expect from a building of this size, there isn't a lot of seating in the bar, although there are several more tables up on a low mezzanine and a few seats out front. I found the Fine Light on handpump, with both Best Dark (£3.30) and Silver Star available on gravity from casks perched on the bar-back. Overall, great to see this 'little gem' back.
On 7th July 2021
- rating: 8
[User has posted 8086 recommendations about 8086 pubs]
View more reviews of The Little Gem (6)
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Pub Details
Pub details supplied by members of this site to the best of their knowledge. Please check with pub directly before making a special trip.
- Accommodation : No last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- Bar Billiards : No last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- Beer Festivals : No last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- Beer Garden : No last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- CAMRA Discount : No last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- Car Park : No last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- Child Friendly : No last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- Darts : No last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- Dog Friendly : Yes last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- Function Room : No last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- Hot Food : No last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- Jukebox : No last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- Karaoke : No last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- Live Music : No last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- Live TV Sports : No last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- Micropub : No - Ironically not though it feels like one - last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- Pinball : No last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- Pool Table : No last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- Quiz Night : No last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- Real Ale : Yes last updated 09 May 2014 by Dave McNally
- Real Cider : Yes last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
- WiFi : Yes last updated 08 September 2021 by E TA
