BrewDog Birmingham, Birmingham

Usual stripped back/industrial styled brewdog interior. Does what it says on the tin.

The usual style of utilitarian Brewdog outlet, though slightly less stark on first impact. Booth seating to the right, a central pillar, then table seating. Usual comedy indecipherable beers and measures above the bar. I ended up with a Brewdog Dead Pony which, despite a kerfuffle about a supposedly dead keg, was actually fine and – coldness and fizziness aside – was a decent drop. The barmaid was nice but a bit flaky though as PSM also experienced, I was asked if I had tried the beer before and was offered a taster, so fair play. At that point I was warming to the place but as I settled down I started to find things that made me grumpy, such as the wince-inducing pretentiousness of a neon sign proclaiming that “the revolution will not be televised”. Then the rumblings from the aircon unit which almost obliterated the trendy piped music. And as a neat segway it was freezing cold and I had to keep my coat on (this has happened more than once in these outlets, do BD think punters have to suffer for their art?). A positive note was the impressive ‘beer glossary’ in the bogs which can lead to damp shoes if you’re not careful. A curate’s egg of a visit.

With a little longer to spare than anticipated before having to catch my train home, I decided to brave this Brewdog outlet, just a short walk from the station. The bar is fitted out in typical 'craft beer bar' fashion, with an exposed concrete floor, bare brick walls, stone bar top and wall to wall hipsters. Modern windows bearing the Brewdog logo lead you in to a simple room with the servery running along the rear wall. Some unusually arranged seating to the right sees a series of small booths created which look fairly cosy as far as this sort of bar goes, whilst over to the left it's more run of the mill, with high tables and stools filling the mid-section and various drinking shelves running around the perimeter. Décor comes in the form of the usual Brewdog promotional material and some hand drawn informative guides to the brewing process. Stairs lead down to a small lounge with very comfortable sofas and armchairs in a compact and, dare I say it, cosy looking bare boarded room. That's certainly not to suggest that this is in anyway a pub for the traditionalist, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and it all certainly makes a change from the normal gun-metal grey pubs Brewdog seem to churn out. It would be too much to expect any cask ale on the bar, but there was the usual strong keg range which offered Brewdog Dead Pony Club, Punk IPA, Baby Dogma, Old World IPA, Lumberjack Breakfast, Brixton Porter and five beers in the IPA is Dead series - Amarillo, Kohatu, Victoria's Secret, Exp 366 and Comet. A further six guest keg brews from the likes of Hawkshead and Buxton were also available alongside the usual vast range of expensive bottled options. The staff were super friendly and when ordering a beer, they asked if you had tried it before. If you reply 'no' they freely offer a taster so you can be sure you're ordering something you'll enjoy, which I thought was great customer service. The cheery barman who served me gave a thorough description of the Baby Dogma, along with a taster before I decided to have a half. It was a pretty tasty beer, but cask drinkers are likely to be put off by the usual temperature/carbonation compromise. I've been a little unkind to Brewdog when reviewing some of their other bars, but I thought this place was a lot better than others I've visited. The staff alone made this an enjoyable visit and I thought the brewery had reined in some of their interior design minimalism excesses, making this a good options for fans of the craft keg movement.