BrewDog Shepherd’s Bush, Shepherds Bush, W12

Actually a good BrewDog, trendy inside, with a theme of gaming machines. Cask Punk is back

Shepherd's Bush seems like a fairly obvious location for a Brewdog bar and this place has a great setting, just off the Common and close to the Empire. It's probably the largest Brewdog bar I've been to, with a sizeable seating area to the front and down the left hand side, and the servery along the rear wall. The bar has a corrugated counter with a black metal top, whilst the bar back is dominated by huge backlit cinema-style boards which list the vast range of beers available (plus the usual confusing, potentially misleading pricing structure). A mix of bench and high stool seating fills most of the front part of the pub, under the large windows and alongside the wooden plank walls with graffiti art that run down the sides of the room. Usual quirky Brewdog style art adorns the right hand wall, including a 'Meet the Team' caricature feature and a Space Invaders themed merchandise display. The room extends past the bar to the rear left where you'll find some brilliant retro slot machines and two pinball tables. Some more standard tables and chairs can be found back here in a space with bare brick walls and small lights suspended from metal pipes. The room swings round to the left into a further seating area which is screened from the rest of the pub, making it comparatively peaceful. The stairs leading down to the toilets are lined with posters for various beer styles and a rather excellent hand-drawn periodic table of beer. The beer range here cannot be inferred from the plain keg fonts, but looks spectacular when viewed on the aforementioned backlit boards. I counted 38 beers available on this visit in total, including 14 from Brewdog such as Punk IPA, Dead Pony Club, This is Lager, Hardcore IPA and Brixton Porter at £4.95 for a pint. The guests were all from small batch brewers, providing a good mix of familiar craft brewing names and obscure beer geek favourites. I tried a very good pint of Buxton Jaw Gate and a pleasant enough half of the Brewdog Brixton Porter, both served by members of the very friendly and helpful bar staff team. I've been critical of Brewdog bars in the past for their drab interiors and clinical approach to pub presentation and beer dispense, but I felt this place was a much more positive set-up, from the friendly staff to the dizzying beer range. I appreciate that the lack of cask conditioned beers will continue to alienate a lot of potential customers, but against all expectations, I would probably make this my first port of call when drinking in Shepherd's Bush.

Official site of BrewDog - www.brewdog.com

With no less than 40 lines, this must be considered Brewdog's flagship and I have to say, of the 3 Brewdog bars I've tried, this is the best. That will be down to the choice, of course (there really ought to be something for you amongst all that lot), but also the staff who are knowledgeable, friendly and helpful in my experience. The major failing of this and, indeed, any Brewdog bar, is the shortage of beers at a sessionable strength - only Dead Pony Club came in at under 5.5% if I recall correctly, so this is not the place to quench a thirst, or knock back a few quick pints. That's if a pint is available, since this bar does pursue the bewildering combination of serving size / ABV / price which the brewery is known for. My strategy is to decide on a rough strength of beer that you can face, consider the style you might like, then see if there's anything in the approximate price range: note that they will sell you a half if the beer's priced at 2/3 of a pint, but they won't sell you a pint. I think I'd recommend this venue as somewhere to pursue a beer education - you could compare single-hop 'IPA is dead' efforts (there were two examples on my visit) or various attempts at Belgian styles from a variety of brewers from home and abroad. Finally, I was particularly well-disposed towards this bar by the low number of beards on show and the total absence (so far as I could tell) of folk wearing a hat indoors - Shepherds Bush seems a bit too off-piste for hipsters, for which we should all be grateful.