Eighty-eight pubs from across Staffordshire are toasting success after making it into the 2024 edition of the Good Beer Guide.
The latest prestigious list of the nation’s best pubs has seen 21 venues added from the county, and 35 breweries are featured, including Stoke-on-Trent’s Titanic Brewery, which has nine of its venues featured.
The guide, compiled by the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA), has a limited number of places available for each town and inclusion is determined by campaign members.
Decisions are based on a wide range of factors including the atmosphere, customer service, facilities and beer quality.
“To have nine of our sites included in the 2024 Good Beer Guide is a fantastic result, and a testament to the hard work that our staff put in day after day, week after week,” said Jonathan Wright, Head of Retail at Titanic Brewery, based in Burslem.
“Our pubs have featured in the Good Beer Guide for a number of years, and we are delighted that local CAMRA members enjoy their visits so much so that many have managed to retain their places for another 12 months.
“We were particularly excited to see that bod Matlock has joined bod Stafford in the guide.
“Our bod café bars may be very different in how they look and behave when compared to a traditional real ale pub, but serving cask ale of the finest quality is still an important part of what makes our bods the thriving community hubs that they are.”
Other new Staffordshire pub entries for this year include Benks, in Leek, Tutbury’s Cask and Pottle, The Ecclian, in Eccleshall, The Horse and Jockey, in Penkridge, Lichfield’s The Pig and Bursley Ale House, in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent.
This year’s Guide includes some 4,500 pubs, bars and breweries from across the UK and features a cover illustration by Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson.
CAMRA Chairman Nik Antona said: “The last few years have been an incredibly difficult time for the industry, and we need more support than ever before to keep our nation’s pubs and breweries open and thriving. I’d encourage everyone to use this year’s Guide to visit the very best pubs and breweries across the UK and support them for generations to come.”