In praise of…The Brunswick Inn, Derby
The Midlands can be a joyful place for the real ale drinker – from the city pubs of Birmingham in the west to the original trailblazers of Burton-on-Trent in the…north? (We’re based in Scotland so forgive our geography). But the East Midlands can also hide some great beery secrets, if you know where to look. Take a train to Derby and turn right out of the station, and a few minutes walk brings you to a long, pointy brick building with high walls – the Brunswick Inn. Originally built as the centrepiece of a railway village, it closed in 1974, but was rescued and restored in 1987. After an on-site brewery was added it became one of the best known freehouses in England – so of course the BeerCast had to pay a visit.
The multiple rooms of the historical layout strike you as soon as you enter, with a ‘family parlour’ immediately on the right. The bar is round a corner to the left – but what a treat for the real ale drinker. Seven handpumps for their own range of beers, and another half-dozen guest ales from other breweries (many from Everards, who bought the Brunswick in 2002). The wooden fittings and flagstone floor give the place an authentic feeling of age – unlike so many ‘restored’ pubs that have the look, but not the character. A glass window on the way to the beer garden (which sadly we didn’t experience) shows the brewing equipment, the kettle and wooden mash tun.
But what about their beer? Well, between myself, Shovels and honorary BeerCaster Gillian (our Cointreau expert) we got through their entire range, plus a bonus from another producer. First up from the blackboard – and priced at a stunningly reasonable £1.70 a pint – White Feather (3.6%), the Brunswick’s latest addition to their stable. It’s very light, as you’d expect given the abv, with a classic sessiony citrus hop taste. It reminded me very much of Harviestoun’s Bitter and Twisted, which has won global awards. White Feather is just as good – to be honest I didn’t want to switch to anything else – plonk me in the beer garden with four or five of those and I would be very, very happy.
But switch we did, and then went for Second Brew or The Usual (4.2%), as it had two names. This was a ruby bitter, malty and very flavoursome – think my Dad would have loved this, as did our Cointreau expert. Being hop fans, we had to sample Triple Hop (4.0%) which with the Second Brew is their other regular offering. It had something of the hops about it at first, but the dryness soon took over and it faded in the aftertaste somewhat – which was a shame as that almost held it back a bit. It has hops in the title, but I actually preferred the weaker White Feather. It wasn’t at all bad though, and neither was Old Accidental (5.0%), another drinkable copper-coloured bitter, with that hint of banana these malty beers sometimes have. At this point I was eating an excellent bowl of chilli, and it brought out the malty sweetness of the ale really well.
Being a railway pub, the Brunswick are almost obliged to produce a porter – Railway Porter (4.3%) ticks all the boxes in the classic British style, dark, coffee, a bit of chocolate, light taste – session beers don’t have to be straw-coloured and hoppy. Valour, the abv of which I missed, is seemingly a seasonal of theirs, and gets the biscuity flavours going right at the start. It’s nice at first, but the relentless dry malty tastes do make it tough going after a while – don’t get me wrong, I love dry beers, but this one was maybe just a touch too much. Speaking of which, Black Sabbath (6.0%) is their strongest ale, although it really doesn’t taste like a 6%er. Viscous and black it may be, but it tastes like a regular porter – albeit towards the coffee end of the spectrum. Malty and very moreish, this one’s very dangerous.
Finally, a quick word to the only non-Brunswick beer we tried, due to a changing barrel near the end of the night. At random from the guest selection we went for Fox Brewery’s Grizzly (4.8%). Despite the animal references it turns out this is a special ale brewed to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown settlement in Virginia. The Norfolk based Fox are located in Heacham, which is the birthplace of John Rolfe – who apparently helped establish the Jamestown colony, became the first to plant tobacco over there, and infamously married a native American called Pocahontas. Anyway, whatever the reasons behind it, Grizzly is a real treat – floral hops, with citrus and grapefruit, this is a classic refreshing session beer.
With that, we were pretty much done – hopefully one day we’ll return to the Brunswick and sample some more of their en-site brews, all of which are worth drinking, and the vast majority truly excellent. There’s plenty of space, the food is basic but tasty, and the most expensive pint of the night (Black Sabbath) was a seriously reasonable £2.70. If only every city had somewhere like the Brunswick.
The Brunswick Inn
1 Railway Terrace, Derby DE1 2RU
Open 11-11 Mon-Sat, 12-10:30 Sun
Official Website
