High Street Social Tap, Bedford

This is a fairly typical branch of the Brewhouse & Kitchen chain of brewpubs, making use of a large single room interior with the usual mix of comfy furniture and homely decor mixed in with various industrial fixtures and fittings including the small onsite brewery. You enter via a large porch with a striking chandelier made from beer bottles, emerging into a large bare boarded room with the bar down the right-hand wall. The front seating area is under some very large floor to ceiling windows and offers formal tables and chairs in a space partitioned from the rest of the pub by a low wall with one of those huge German-style beer fonts on the top. The bar has a timber clad counter and a bare brick and white tile bar back, with a string of muted light bulbs suspended above. The large space opposite the bar has been filled with a series of high tables (and one storage unit) surrounded by bar stools, with a plain painted or glazed tile pillar at the end of each table. The brewing kit is to the left of this area, all gleaming brightly and looking like it’s brand new, whilst a ‘Wall of Fame’ board propped up in front of the brewing vessels, shows photos of all the punters who’ve had a brewing session at the pub. Further back, there’s a nice seating area with timber clad walls, including one with a glass case full of hops, comfy chairs serving tables of varying sizes and a large sign reading ‘The Junction’ to the left, under some shelves holding bottles, tankards, glassware and other such pub staples. Three steps at the back of the room lead up to a final small space with a few more tables and chairs, but this area is rather bland compared to the rest of the pub, with plain walls and little decor. A door back here leads out to a beer garden, which I didn’t explore, although the dreadful pop music playing in the background was enough to make me consider a bit of al fresco drinking. As usual, the bar is dominated by homebrew, with three such beers - Varsity, Banker’s Draught and Intrepid - available on cask, with a fourth listed as being due to come on in a couple of week’s time. One of the keg fonts was also dispensing house beers, whilst another offered guests from the likes of Thornbridge, Deya, Big Drop and the like. My pint of Intrepid would’ve been better named ‘Insipid’ - a problem I’ve encountered in a few of these Brewhouse pubs over the years. The barman was friendly enough and I was a little surprised to find just a small handful of other customers, with other town centre pubs doing a much better trade. This is another nicely fitted out Brewhouse pub, with plenty of comfy seating, attractive decor and a wide selection of home brewed beer. The main problem is the beer quality, particularly the cask ale which really wasn’t up to much on this occasion, and is something that would probably make me think twice about returning in the future.

Large classy building on High Street, brewery is in the middle, dimmed lighting. Chunky tables, various seating. Nice B&K establishment

My first experience of a Brewhouse and Kitchen and it was a decent one and, I'd guess, preferable to it's former incarnation as a 'spoons. It's well described and the Brewhouse and Kitchen operations seem to work to a formula of attractive, copper equipped breweries internally with the brewer having license to pursue his craft independently. It works in here and forthcoming brew nights were well advertised. A quick glance at the menu revealed a fairly standard urban pub offer with the focus on burgers. Beers on were Bankers Draught, Braxator, Intrepid and Invarsity as well as various keg offers. The Invarsity was a very reasonable 5% IPA in decent condition which went down well. Probably the best for beer in Bedford town centre.

Externally it still looks very much like the 'spoons it used to be,but I suppose it's difficult to change the appearance of a modern building.Internally it's large and open plan but of course has the added interest of the brewing kit ,all shiny and copper.There is also more industrial piping and conduits on the ceiling.The very long bar is down the right side,there are high tables opposite with more normal tables both front and back.The presence of doormen on a Friday night seemed unwarranted,it was quiet internally,although there is a dance area at the back with some flashing lights but with muzak at reasonable volume. The resident brewer has done a good job and offers 4 cask and 4 Keg beers,this being topped up with a further guest list of 9 keg beers from taps in the walls.The real ale options were called Invarsity (great strong IPA),Intrepid (very decent pale),Braxator and Bankers Draught ,a nod to the old spoons name. It's rightly in the GBG and is prepared to offer pokey ABV brews,a comparative rarity in Bedford and along with the Wellington would be my choice to revisit in Bedford if seeking a decent pint or three.

As the name suggests this is a bank conversion but may just as well have been any old retail outlet as it's quite a boring building. It's a large open space with the bar on the right and a stairway leading to the toilets. There is some sort of garden at the rear. The bar had two banks of five hand pumps that on this occasion was only saved from being dreadful by the presence of two Locale Vale beers. The line up consisted of the two GK Beers, Doom Bore, Broadside, Old Speckled Hen, Butcombe Bitter, Thwaites Wainwright and Vale Gravitas & IPA. I went for the Gravitas which was in very good nick. I thought the other Spoons was better but Bedford is such a boring place that either is more interesting than strolling around the town.