BrewDog Leicester, Leicester

Official site of BrewDog Leicester - www.brewdog.com

Official site of BrewDog Leicester - www.brewdog.com

Two entrances both of which lead to bar. Usual board on the wall. All craft offerings but I've been in worse Brewdogs.

Opening in the Spring of 2015, this is yet another addition to the ever-expanding Brewdog empire. The place follows the blueprint of many of their other trendy bars, with a converted street corner premises hosting the usual utilitarian set-up. Some nice wooden floorboards make a pleasant change from the usual concrete flooring you might otherwise have expected, but there is plenty of gun metal grey around the place and lots of bare brick walls, off-set by large windows down two sides of the room. A long U-shaped servery with a stone-topped counter partly divides the room in two and has a series of high tables and stools around it, with comfier padded banquette booths around the perimeter. Stairs lead up to an unexplored first floor seating area and a couple of pinball tables have been strangely positioned on a landing area halfway up the stairs. To one end of the room, a door leads through to the adjacent 'Bottledog' off-sales area, where two rows of large fridges have been packed full of small batch bottled beers. Prices in here were a lot more reasonable than I had expected and the walls have been decorated with some striking bits of modern art. To the right of the bar is the trademark Brewdog cinema-style beer board listing all of the (keg only) draught beer options. The Brewdog offerings on this visit comprised Punk IPA, 5am Saint, This is Lager, Vagabond Gluten Free, Candy Kaiser, Jackhammer plus three prototypes, whilst ten guest beers from various popular micros lined up alongside a single cider option. The Vagabond was £4.30 for a pint and I thought it was a decent enough beer, although it should always be remembered that Brewdog price their beers by different measures, so make sure you've got your ready reckoner to hand before ordering. One upside of the general Brewdog experience is that the staff really know their stuff, which once again proved to be the case here, with bar staff patiently talking customers through various options and offering suggestions where appropriate. Brewdog seem to have mellowed a bit in recent years and I feel that their bars are generally getting better, perhaps as a result of a more customer focussed approach. I thought this was another rateable Brewdog venue and whilst the traditionalist might struggle, it nonetheless offers a chance to try something a bit different once in a while and wouldn't look out of place on a crawl around the city centre.