Beer Matters

Beer Matters opened on Tuly Street in Barnstaple on 7 December 2022, run by Simon and Alison as a one-room micropub built around cask ale rather than lager taps or screens. Three rotating cask ales and a real cider share the bar with bottled beers, sourced from breweries such as Firebrand, Quantock and Taw Valley that rarely reach North Devon otherwise. There is no television and no music loud enough to interrupt conversation, and children are not admitted, a formula the pub keeps deliberately old-fashioned. North Devon CAMRA named Beer Matters its Pub of the Year for 2025, recognition for a small independent free house built from scratch rather than converted from an existing pub.