please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Adnams boozer rammed with Col U fans and two officers from Kent Police! U's were playing Gillingham that day. It is an Adnams pub and had good range of ales from them plus couple of guests. I had Ghost Ship from Adnams and find it is always a nice pint wherever sampled. I like brewery pubs that have guest ales from other brewery's, so well done Adnams. Decent boozer and suspect it is even nicer on non-match days.
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Second port of call the Bricklayers before seeing the mighty U’s put in their usual abysmal home display against Notts Co., 0-4. Very popular pre and post football pub, and we visited prior to the game for anaesthetic and post-match to lament another rotten display. I had the Adnam’s Old from the range of Adnam’s and I had a not very nice pint of Clark’s of Wakefield. I like Adnam’s Old and I guess this is the beauty of real ale; this batch had a pronounced, lingering and quite overpowering liquorice aftertaste, so I hope the recipe hasn’t been changed permanently. An irritation was that after checking their website for the opening times (Saturday 11.00) I arrived at 11.20 to find that on football days the opening time is 12.00, cheers! 6/10
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Nice pub running through from one street to another, reasonable choice of real ales all listed on a blackboard with their strength & price, apparently good hot food (though I didn't try it), friendly staff, very handy for 'north' station. I'll certainly go again if I get the chance.
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Handily placed for the decidedly un-handily placed Colchester North station, this pub is but a stone's throw from the buses that proceed to the Weston Homes Community Stadium. Good it is too although we were feintly distressed by a bemusing 'no food on saturdays' policy. The house pint was quaffable though and the atmsophere unpretentious.
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Stopped in at the ever reliable Brickies to drown away the misery of a dismal display by the mighty U's v Oldham. Good range of Adnams and guests, but at this time of year it has to be Adnams Old which was as good as when I first started drinking it over 30 years ago. Great place to discuss the match before getting the train home. One of many very good real ale pubs in Colchester. 8/10
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Fantastic boozer, don't go anywhere else in town until you've sampled it here. Fred and the staff are very good behind the bar - old style mgr who knows his stuff and is charming into the bargain. We went here with a London Branch members club I'm part of and they made us very welcome and fine hosts. Really enjoyed the place, don't miss out and go treat yourself if you're in the area. Not often I give a 9/10.
Mcloj - 29 Mar 2012 15:14 |
Excellent pub, 8 ales on the pumps when i visited. Was busy at Saturday teatime as Colchester Utd had played at home.
Nice friendly staff, would recommend this pub to anyone visiting Colchester, especially by train.
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Decent pub, just getting slightly dog-eared in places. Excellent range of ales and the ones I tried were in decent nick. Curiously, food available any day other than Saturday.
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Excellent pub - good beer and friendly staff. The only pub I've ever been in where people seemed to be absorbed with kayaking and triathlon on the TV. Takes all sorts...
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A decent Adnams house selling pretty much their full range along with a couple of guests - of which the Nethergate Suffolk County on this occasion was a pretty good pint. Away from the town centre but near to the North (and main) station.
anonymous - 11 Sep 2010 22:50 |
My local and I enjoy going there very much. Friendly landlord and landlady, excellent range of beer from Adnams plus a couple of guests (though a mild would be a welcome additiion) and hearty food at lunchtimes.
The pub could do with a little bit of sprucing up especially ditching what remains of the carpet!
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On Dec 28 they had a decent range of Adnams plus Harviestoun Mr Sno'balls, Purity Ubu and Everards Sleigh Bell. Busy after football but got in no problem and served reasonably quickly. Near to the station for an after match pint if you are waiting for a train.
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Enjoyed popping in on 29/08 after picking up 3 points from the U's. Beer range excellent but slightly disconcerting they advertise their beer is "chilled all year round". Nice enough layout.
One issue, can't see the point of employing two bouncers in the car-park on a saturday teatime, especially if two blokes with Yorkshire accents can just say "live locally" and be believed..better to let anyone who wants to appriciate the ale after games pop in and the bouncers can relax awaiting very unlikely trouble.
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One of the best pubs in Colchester for real ales. Good range of Adnams ales plus a couple of guest beers. Service usually excellent. Contrary to one of the previous reviews, I have been in the pub with a mate who returned a pint (first one out of the barrel) as it tasted a bit vinegary - the landlord replaced without a murmur and said thanks for letting him know! Although used by Col Utd fans it isn't a football pub. Most evenings it's a mix of locals, beer fans, studenty types and commuters being a 3 minute walk from the main rail station. Recommended.
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I must re-address my previous review as this has been great since the football ground moved. Fred and Hazel have handled the move well since they ended up in this position. Like the previous review has already commented this is a home fans pub only. Friendly doormen are now only present when certain of the larger fan based teams visit. They know most of the regular home fans and it does not cause us an issue. Friendly experienced staff serve and usually are very good at spotting who is next in the queue.
Around eight beers are usually available on most sessions. Usually there are a number of guests as well as most of the Adnams range. Adnams even do a special branded beer for the pub. Recently Adnams pubs have been allowed to order straight from Nethergate brewery. It was very pleasing mid week to see three dark beers Nethergate Growler, Umbel Magna and Adnams lovely Oyster Stout. Crones and Aspalls cider are also available. I have corrected my Bite score which I must admit I should have done this at least six months ago.
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Well kept Adnams pub close to North Station. Good range of well kept beer.
Gets busy before Colchester United homes games (due to location between the station and the shuttle bus stops) - it is restricted to home fans on match days though - sorry to get the hope up of away fans!
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Will none-smokers ever be satisfied??!! (see below)
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The Bricklayers is our local and we do like popping in for a pint of something Adnams. It's a shame non-smokers are bombarded by cigarette smoke in the garden now; we've ended up sitting inside on a lovely hot day to get away from it.
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Mmm!!, I also found this new pricing tonight at The Bricklayers. The beer quality was not also at it's best tonight. Again I found a barrel of Adnams 'Oyster' tonight, this time at full price. Is this not a February/March beer? Indeed it is, now I have double checked on Adnams web site. Recently I have found this in both the Odd One Out in Colchester and The Lord Nelson in Ipswich. The L/Lord of The Oddie stated that he had aquired for a very good price but it still tasted superb. The Lord Nelson in Ipswich stated that they had over ordered the beer and were only charging �2.00 a pint this Friday. I believe it was �3.10 tonight and not a patch on either of the other two that I had tried recently. My second pint of Woodfordes Wherry �2.75 also was not up to scratch tonight.
I am also reducing my previously high BITE rating for this pub.
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The fact its now �3.10 for a pint of broadside has made me review my previous high score, although its still a decent enough place
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Having recently moved to Colchester I use the Bricklayers as my local. I havn't been often enough to really work out the lie of the land but as a CAMRA member I cannot fault the beer quality and choice. A good pint of Adnams is like an oasis in this GK dominated part of the country. The Landlady seems friendly enough although some of the casual bar staff are a bit wooden. It gets very busy at times.
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Returning to the Bricklayers for the last pint before our train home we ordered 3 different beers from the aforementioned impressive selection on offer and, since this is evidently a proper beer pub, weren�t worried when the Adnams came up cloudy as we presumed it would be changed without a problem, how wrong we were! The young barmaid referred the pint to someone I presumed to be the landlady, who incredibly stated that there was nothing wrong with it and wheeled out the old nonsensical line �Well no-one else has complained!). We�d already asked for a Wherry as replacement and this was sitting on the bar when the landlady told the girl to �charge them for that�. We were drinking the beers, ignoring the ludicrous demand for further payment and were discussing this remarkable turn of events when the barmaid launched into a good impression of a screeching banshee demanding that if we had anything to say we should do so to her face! Get over yourself sweetie, we were talking about such extraordinary treatment of punters by the landlady in an otherwise top-notch pub. Our party of 3 has a combined age exceeding 155 and have drunk more beer than we care to remember, so we wouldn�t be sending back a �good� pint. The episode sent me home seething and put a right downer on the end of the day. I�m changing what would have been a 9, to a 3, so there!
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I�m going to leave two reviews reflecting very different experiences of this pub, both on same day!
Great start to our Colchester crawl and my first encounter with an Adnams house serving guest ales (take note Southwold!), Adnams Bitter, Broadside, Explorer, Oyster Stout, Hooky Gold, Pride, Woodforde Wherry, Castle Rock Hemlock, Mauldons Cuckoo,Crones organic cider. The bar to the left of entrance is the saloon (or �vault� as we�d have it oop north) and is a large enough room with pool table, dartboard with its own space and oche, tv, bar with stools and space to drink, just a couple of central tables & seating, not all pumps are housed on this side but the ales are listed on a chalkboard. The main bar/lounge has plenty of seating, a conservatory to the rear, an open snug-like area with comfy chairs & leather sofa, and again plenty of room to just drink at the bar if you wish. We got a friendly greeting, great beer, and couldn�t really wish for a better way to start the drinking day.
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Just echo what the previous post said - excellent beer, a good range plus one of the few pubs in Colchester where you can get a pint of real cider, Crones being always on tap. The only others I can think of being the playhouse and the odd one out.
My only quibble would be they could maybe be have a bit more variety in their choice of guest beers. But still 10/10.
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A traditional pub that is an Adnams tied pub. It is the closest pub to Colchester North Station. It is just to the right of the station if you are facing it, to the left if you are leaving it. It can be found at the start of Bergholt Road.
Probably the flagship Adnams pub in Colchester now the H/A is rubbish and now they have stupidly decided to sell The Grenadier and The Dragoon.
The full Adnams range and guests available on hand pump. Today Broadside', 'Best', 'Explorer', 'Yuletide', Tally Ho' and 'Old'. Guests of Fullers 'London Pride', Woodfordes 'Wherry' and Everards seasonal ale 'SleighBell'.
The pub is split into a saloon bar and lounge bar. The lounge bar has many seating areas away from the bar. There is one area the first away from the toilets with about 3 different seating areas. The main one having a two seater leather 'Chesterfield looking' sofa in front of two chairs and a table. The second area has many different seating areas including three traditional snug private nice areas. The Third area is a conservatory area with many tables and chairs facing over the rear car park area of the pub.
A great pub in Colchester if you live in this area or if you have a train that is delayed or arrive and require a good quick pint.
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Small front bar by the main entrance, open plan to the rear which includes an attractive small sunken area. Conservatory extension and small garden complete the picture. Just around the corner from the Ipswich-bound side of North station and features the Adnams range and a house beer.
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