A common theme of the Cambridge pub scene is that there's very little in the way of a divide between "Real Ale Pubs" and "Craft Beer Bars" - it seems that beer drinkers in Cambridge have always been fairly open minded and curious, so a lot of pubs have just gradually diversified and started offering a wider range of beer styles, imported kegged stuff, long lists of bottles and so on alongside the traditional brown bitters. This is generally a good thing, although it has the downside that there are very few places that you can reliably find craft-y stuff, so if you desperately want smoked saisons and Imperial IPAs then you might be better off stopping by Bacchanalia to see what you can pick up. Craft keg is also in very limited supply. This might change soon - we nearly had a Cambridge Tap, but it fell through owing to difficulty finding a location, while Brewdog have also got Cambridge in their sights. Something like this would probably have a positive impact on the scene in general, so we're watching for developments with interest.
Anyway, back to the specifics. The following is, of course, highly subjective and based on my personal experience - there are bits of Cambridge I don't know very well, and there are probably good pubs that I haven't been to.
Mill Road
If you drew some sort of map of "cask ales per square metre" in the UK, you'd have to adjust your scale when you came to do the Mill Road area of Cambridge. It's the traditional epicentre of good beer in Cambridge, so it's a natural place to start. In this neck of the woods, the highlights are:
The Cambridge Blue
Probably the definitive Cambridge beer geek pub. Lots of handpumps, all very well kept, several unusual foreign beers on draught, plus a huge selection of (mainly Belgian) bottles. Serviceable food. Nice big garden and plenty of space, although they bugger up the latter a bit by reserving tables all the time. This would be more annoying if there weren't loads of other excellent pubs within five minutes walk. Including...
The Kingston Arms
Smaller and hence often more crowded than the Cambridge Blue. Eight handpumps plus a reasonable range of Belgian beer in bottles. I've got a vague impression that the cask beer's slightly less obscure but slightly more interesting than the Blue, although that's splitting hairs either way. The food's also good.
The Live and Let Live
A lovely pub - the sort of place where you could happily sit all afternoon and read a book or do a crossword. The beer range isn't as broad as some of the nearby competition, but they normally have a couple of Oakham beers, Nethergate's Umbel Ale, and a couple of other interesting things. They also have a massive rum list, which I've yet to sample. No food, though. It's normally a bit quieter than some of the other Mill Road pubs.
Devonshire Arms
It's a Milton pub, so they normally have a whole bunch of Milton beers and a couple of guests. Decent food, plus it's the closest of the lot to the station.
Alexandra Arms
It's a Greene King pub, Jim, but not as we know it. Recently taken over by Craig and Jenna of the Free Press (of which more later), who managed to negotiate the condition that in addition to four standard Greene King beers they could get in four free-of-tie guests. This means that rather than the usual GK "brewed in Bury St Edmunds" guest ale selection you get some really good stuff from the likes of Oakham, Green Jack, Buntingford etc. The food is the same as at the Free Press, ie really excellent, with a lot of really good traditional English stuff. The pies - and we're talking proper pies with shortcrust pastry, none of this slop-with-a-top nonsense - are particularly good.
Salisbury Arms
Sort of included for completeness - it used to be the least good of the four key Mill Road pubs (along with the Live, the Blue and the Kingston), but since the Alexandra and the Devonshire are also good these days it's now the least good of the six key Mill Road pubs. Wells and Young beers, nothing special.
Parker's Piece to Maid's Causeway
The Free Press
A lovely traditional pub with a famously tiny snug. The beer is Greene King plus a couple of guests, which aren't as varied as the guests at the Alexandra (see above) but are normally good and are at least not actually brewed by Greene King. Also, the beer tends to be spectacularly well kept, so if you're going to drink Greene King beers anywhere you might as well do it here - the XX Mild is a decent pint.
The Elm Tree
A wonderful pub of the small dark and atmospheric type, with a sign outside promising "Friendly Beers and Well Kept Staff." An increasing number of Cambridge pubs are selling bottled Belgian beers, but only the Elm Tree has a booklet with extended tasting notes for each one they offer. They also have cask ales from Banks & Taylor plus a good range of guests.
The Hopbine
One of those pubs that you'd visit a lot more if there weren't so many other good pubs in Cambridge. It's in a handy location though, and does some decent beers.
Hills Road
The Flying Pig
Unless you start getting out into the villages, the pubs in the south of Cambridge are mostly fairly crap. One exception, though, at least for as long as it can avoid being demolished to make way for yet more boring office blocks, is The Flying Pig. The beer is pretty good and it's got nice vibes - it's fairly dark inside with lots of posters on the walls, dribbly candles and an eclectic selection of music. On nice days the surprisingly large back garden is useful, even if it does look suspiciously like a repurposed carpark. Good cheap food at lunchtimes, but nothing in the evening. Popular with the after-work and pre-gig crowds, but closed saturday and sunday.
King Street
The King Street Run, as anyone passingly familiar with Cambridge legends will inevitably tell you, used to be a pub crawl of some improbably high number of pubs. These days it's much depleted, although there are still a couple worth visiting. The eponymous King Street Run itself is a reasonably entertaining rock pub with some interesting decor, while The Champion of the Thames is a decent traditional Greene King pub. The following two are probably the most noteworthy, though.
The Cambridge Brewhouse
The good news is that they brew their own beer. The bad news is that a lot of other people in East Anglia brew better beer, so this isn't much of a bonus. They are the first place in Cambridge to do multiple craft-keg offerings, though. Whether or not this means that we'll all be drinking Watney's Red Barrel again by Christmas remains to be seen.
The St Radegund
As I understand it, the Radegund isn't actually a Milton pub, they just serve a lot of their beer. It's a lovely little place, in any case. They have a signed picture of Dame Vera Lynn on the wall, which has to count for something, and their own rowing club, who probably couldn't all fit into the tiny and oddly shaped pub at once.
North of the River
The Castle
An Adnams pub, with the inevitable selection of five moderately hopped light-to-mid brown-bitters from Adnams plus three guests, which are almost inevitably moderately hopped light-to-mid-brown bitters. It's all very well kept, though, and when you fancy something different they've got some nice continental stuff - dark lagers and the like.
The Carpenters Arms
This pub was closed, almost turned into flats, bought out, re-opened and is now trying to sell itself as a dining pub. It seems to be doing okay, although the beer selection seems to have got a bit less interesting after a promising start.
The Haymakers
Out in Chesterton, a pub which was recently saved from closure by the Milton brewery. They've stuck in a good beer range - generally about three of their own and three guests - and started doing really excellent pizza.
The Portland Arms
It's not much as a pub, but it's one of the very few small music venues in Cambridge. It's the default venue for Bad Timing gigs, which is reason enough to love it.
The Carlton Arms
Way out in the wilds of Arbury, the Carlton merits a mention for its decent range of beers. The fact that people don't often trek out there from the centre is mostly down to the number of other excellent pubs in Cambridge - it's well worth a visit if you're in the area.
The Centre
There is a reason that I've left the centre of Cambridge til last here, namely that it's mostly crap for pubs. Go to the Eagle, sure, tell everyone who'll listen that it's where Crick and Watson discovered DNA or something, have an average pint of Abbot or something and then leave. Go to the Regal, it's massive even for a Wetherspoons. Woo. Most of the rest of the centre is similar. Fortunately, though, there are a couple of better options if you know where to look. Most notably...
The Mill
Nice riverside location - in summer they do plastic glasses so you can sit out by the millpond and watch people make arses of themselves in punts. It's recently been refurbished in a manner which somehow made it seem older than it used to be. More importantly though, the beer got quite a bit better, with a good row of handpumps from local brewers, a couple of passably obscure euro-kegs and (gasp) a craft-keg offering - Black Isle's Organic Porter has usurped the keg-stout slot from the usual Guinness.
The Pickerel
Another pub that's useful rather than actively great, the Pick is a handy place to stop off on the way back from town or to start an evening. It's a nice old building and they have decent beer, although it can get busy.
The Maypole
I've been leaving arguably the best til last. For a long time, the Maypole was owned by Punch Taverns and had the usual whatever from the Punch beer list plus a load of brightly coloured cocktails by the jug. A couple of years ago, though, the family who run it bought the place out from Punch and got serious on the beer selection, putting in sixteen handpumps and getting beer, generally well chosen and well kept, from a mix of local and national independents. They also have an ever expanding list of bottles, mostly from Belgium, Italy and the US. Rather excellently, they also still do the big jugs of cocktails. This, together with their late license and relatively central location, means that the atmosphere of the place tends to be a bit livelier and more diverse than the standard Cambridge real-ale haven. The location and the building aren't the most inspiring, but there's a nice covered patio area, and in any case, who cares when the beer's this good?
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