The Bath Brew House, Bath

Housed in a pleasing old building,this is the home of the James Street Brewery.The interior is L shaped with a rear extension which houses an open kitchen and a wait to be seated dining area.The decor is quirky with most of the wall coverings and the bar consisting of old door panels,cupboard doors and other wooden furniture parts.Pump clips adorn the two RSJ's that support the open plan structure,while to the front side there is a table football machine and a mix of seating,some of which is more reclaimed wood and scaffolding bars.Trendy and shabby chic come to mind.If you want to see the brewing process,the tap room with seating is upstairs but this space can be privately hired,on my trip to a life drawing class. At the bar there are 7 handpumps offering on my trip James Street Gladiator,Emporer & Ostairius while guests were BBF Seven,Twisted Brewing Gaucho and an excellent Arbor Why Kick a Moo Cow.Keg options seemed more mundane by comparison.I sampled a sausage roll from the starter menu and at £4 it was sizeable and well cooked.The staff are friendly and offered tasting samples. Having been in their sister pub King Street BrewHouse in Bristol,this place maintains the high standard and I would view this as a must visit when in Bath and seeking top quality real ale.It would be first on my list for a revisit.

They had six or so ales on in here, with none from the ranks of the usual suspects. They have an open-to-view microbrewery here, and had three of the house ales on – I noted something called NZ Wai Iti Surgery (5.8%) on, but my companions and I all went for the house session ale called Gladiator (£3.40 a pint and around 3.9%). The pump for this ale had a small sign on it warning prospective imbibers that it is intended to be served a bit hazy. I hadn’t seen this before, but reckon every pub that sells such a beer should have a “hazy beer alert” on the appropriate handpumps, as this would help head off misunderstandings. I also spotted Portobello VPA among the guest ales, plus there was also a cider on handpump. “Food from the Spit” was advertised with, for example, a quarter chicken at £5 with “sides” (such as something called “skinny fries”) at an additional £3. The kitchen is open plan at the back on the left. This pub has been given a complet makeover, to turn it into something a bit quirky. Everywhere you look there is old planking being used as décor – the bar counter frontage is old planking, as is some of the wall. There’s an old and large suitcase being used as a table; sweet jars on the bar back; and an old piece of cast iron machinery as part of a large solid wooden table. There’s also a table football near the front of the micro-brewery. There are a few too many tall tables/tall stools here for my liking; as well as some sofas, and the table at which we sat had only small stools for seating, one of which was a re-cycled beer cask. In fact, I couldn’t find anything which I would describe as traditional pub furnishings. But other attractive features were the distinctive parquet flooring at the front of the room, as well as the stone fireplace on the right. There is a garden at the back, but unfortunately not really usable during a weekday lunchtime at the moment due to the building site next door. I guess it must be dog friendly as there was a water bowl fairly near the entrance, and at the back was a pile of blankets for use by those who might otherwise be too cold in the garden. My only reservation about this pub is the lack of comfortable and traditional seating. The service was friendly and efficient (tasters were offered), although our pints came in dimple jugs with no choice offered. The beer choice was excellent, with the beer well looked after and at reasonable prices. All in all there are many more pluses here than minuses.