A Tutbury Beer Research Trip

Mid-April saw seven pub researchers descend on the East Staffs village of Tutbury on a Tuesday lunchtime.  
According to a quick search, Tutbury "has much to interest the visitor; from a ruined castle to a famous coaching inn, from handmade jewellery to a wide range of antiques."

Arriving on the 11:26 train from Derby, I accosted Retired Martin at the station and we set off to explore the sights.  It took us twenty minutes, although to be fair the castle is shut and we skipped the jewellery and antiques.  
Peering over the wall from a mound in the churchyard is as close as I got to the castle.
(See Martin's blog for better pics and an AI view of the castle which I thought I could steal having waited so long to write-up this trip, but decided I couldn't get away with).

Never mind.  The church looked nice from the outside...

We called by the Cask & Pottle micro to see if we could make sense of the opening times, which were unclear.
5-9.30 said Google. 
Noon-2.30 said CAMRA.
'This site can't be reached' said the link to the pub webpage.
No times on the door, so we were none-the-wiser, and Martin was barked at by the guard dog for peering too closely through the window.

More of the dog later.

Declaring tourism of the town as done, we headed into the first pub at noon.
It's a rickety timber-framed beauty... 

The Dog & Partridge (33 High Street, Tutbury, DE13 9LS)
Unfortunately, less-so inside.
The original front door looks like it's been bolted shut a fair few years, entrance now via the car park at the back.  Which is never a good sign.
The bar and much of the seating is located in a more recent extension to the side, with deep leather sofas and table clutter including cocktail deals and promos for matcha coffee and spring soirees.

Four hand pumps to pick from...oh...

The 'London Glory' was passable, if unexciting, although possibly a better pick than a reportedly tired Abbot.

A bit of intrepid wandering took me to the wooden beamed rooms in the historic bit of an inn that dates back as far as the 15th century.  Definitely intended for dining and private functions this bit.

The arrival of the next train saw our numbers swell to seven.  On a Tuesday!
Stafford Paul had made an even earlier arrival than us on home county bus routes; Martin and Will had made the trip down from Sheffield; Shawn from Leicester; Graham from York; and Jon tackled the most intrepid journey from Frome, bravely spending over 2 hours+ on Cross Country Trains.

We moved on to pub number two on the itinerary - a Black Country Ales outpost.

The New Inn (31A Ludgate Street, Tutbury, DE13 9NG)
The New Inn became Black Country Ales' 50th pub.  Something which deserves a plaque...

Perhaps they marked #50 with a radical change in style and just one handpump on the bar?
Nope...

The usual colours, checked fabrics and patterned carpets, with added darts board in pride of place.
Fast asleep on the bench under the window is the micro pub dog.  Had we known that was the owner of the Cask & Pottle we could have checked the opening times and saved freaking him out with our early arrival later.

Twelve hand pumps on the bar included two ciders and four of their own ales, alongside options from Milestone, Salopian, Lenton Lane and Welbeck Abbey and a couple of 'new beer coming soon' clips.  I ordered myself a cherry and vanilla 'Twist & Stout' by Nottingham's Lenton Lane Brewery - an acquired taste that I'm not quite sure I acquired before the end of the pint.  Plus the essential cheese and onion cob.

It wasn't far at all to the next pub on the itinerary.  We were moving from number 31 Ludgate Street to number 32, although somehow they've managed to squeeze two buildings inbetween.

The Vine Inn (32 Ludgate Street, Tutbury, DE13 9NG)
The front porch provides a choice of heading right into the L-shaped bar or left into the lounge.  I'm suspect the lounge was empty, whilst all the action was in the bar, busy with an impressive number of locals for a Tuesday afternoon, dominos in full swing.

I love the menu in the Vine: Chips £2, Cheesy Chips £3, Chip Cob £3, and for the adventurous, Southern Fried Chicken and Chips £5.
What more do you need?
Cask-wise, the choice was Marston's Pedigree or Courage 'Directors'.  Again, what more do you need?
The Directors was quite superb...

We suffered a pub fail at planned stop no.4, The Leopard.
Members of the group who hadn't loitered on the way from the Vine discovered an absence of real ale at this 3pm opener.
A disappointment as this was supposed to deliver our first pint of Bass of the day.

So, onward we trekked.
Three of us set off on foot for the mile walk to neighbouring Hatton.  And pleasingly beat those on the bus to our destination across the county line.

When we reached it, The Tavern didn't look to be brightly lit and fears of a wasted journey arose when Martin tried the front door and declared the pub shut.
Luckily someone had the good sense to search out another way in from the car park.

The Tavern (Station Road, Hatton, DE65 5EH)
Once we'd all made it in, this was a delightful pub.
There were a handful of mid-afternoon punters, included a couple of chaps who got chatting to us having recognised us as "that lot again" from the New Inn.
The Tavern consists of one open-plan space which extends into a conservatory with pool table.  The bar area has a fairly traditional feel to it, with the except for those excessive fairy lights.

Cask ales on offer were Pedigree or Bass.
One half of the couple who've run the pub since 2021, a young lady named Hayley, came to chat to the oddbods with seven pints of Bass in front of them.  Obviously a very enthusiastic and keen licensee, Hayley took pride in serving a good pint and was rightly smug about anticipating demand for National Bass Day - the excuse which had been provided at the Leopard for the lack of cask.

Leaving the Tavern, we made the trek back across the railway lines for a return to Tutbury and an assault on the micro pub.

Cask & Pottle (2 High Street, Tutbury, DE13 9LP)
Whilst the door was open at 4pm, I'm beginning to wonder if that 5pm time on Google may have been correct after all.  The owner seemed quite put out by our arrival and mumbled about people not usually coming in so early, opting to rearrange beer mats rather than serve us.

This was a proper micro of the original Kent variety with high benches around the sides, chunky tables, no music or TV, and no bar counter.
Beers were fetched from stillage in the ''Apparatus Room'.  You needed to walk around that room and past the considerable worktop clutter to reach the single WC which wasn't about to win any Best Pub Toilet award.

Here's Graham from York, getting his bearings...

Here's the pub dog...

And here's the beer range...

The Green Duck beers make it down to Oxford in The Grapes and Blenheim fairly regularly, so I picked the lesser-seen 'Piffle Snonker'.  Which sounds like something I should be looking up in my Collins Book of Birds.
This was a fine, well kept, pint of pale ale from Birmingham's Froth Blowers.

To be fair, once we all had pints in front of us, the owner got chatting and became quite hospitable in contrast to the dubious welcome.  Bringing out tasters of the two Dutch beers he had on draft led to several members of the group ordering halves of these and staying longer.

Myself and Sheffield Hatter strode on ahead to the Crosse Keys up the hill...

The Crosse Keys (39 Burton Street, Tutbury, DE13 9NR)
The side entrance led to a sizeable and deserted rear extension - a decent number of customers all located in the more traditional front bar.
Bass or Thornbridge 'Bother Rabbit' available on cask, along with craft keg from Glasshouse, Weekend Project or Northern Monk - a selection I wouldn't have expected based on the location and my initial impression of the pub.
 
By this point pub pictures were reducing in quality.
Dog...carpet...that'll do...

We only had time for a half of Bass in the Cross Keys - served in good condition.  Although that half was tackled at a much more sensible speed than by those who caught up us with us having stayed for Dutch IPA in the micro.
Martin led us down a short cut in a quick march to train station. 

Tutbury comes with the jeopardy that there is no footbridge, so if the barriers came down whilst we were on the wrong side of the tracks we'd be stuck.
Probably best not to prance around taking pictures of fence post decorations by the allotments, then.

We made it in plenty of time, disembarking in Derby and heading into the Victoria, remaining pub researchers having varying time to spare before homebound trains.

"One pint too many?" asked Martin.
I thought I was telling the truth when I responded 'no' and insisted I was walking to the Creaky Floorboard micro when I finished my Leatherbritches 'Dovedale'.
Turned out it absolutely was one pint too many (how did he know?!).  I never did make it to that micro.