Drygate, Glasgow

On the fringes of the city centre, this is a large modern brewpub stood right next to the massive Tennants Brewery. The pub has a large single room layout which has been broken up into a series of somewhat smaller spaces by some large shelving units. The room has some nice, new parquet flooring throughout, with the servery running along the rear portion of the left hand wall. The bar has a copper topped counter and steel bar back where all the keg taps are lined up, in keeping with the bar’s industrial feel. Large floor to ceiling windows at the far end of the room presumably allow plenty of light in during the daytime, brightening up the large seating area opposite which has been filled with chunky tables and long canteen benches. The front of the room has banquette and metal framed chair seating which serves a large amount of regular tables and the same sort of seating arrangement extends into the right hand side of the room with the only notable difference being that the tables on this side had all been set for dining. Some fancy looking art on the walls contrasts with the rather industrial feel throughout and I noticed an open kitchen over to the left plus a bottle shop area to the right. There is a decent sized front garden area with sturdy benches and large umbrellas but I couldn’t establish whether there was a back garden area or not. There were three beers on handpull – Drygate Seven Peaks IPA and Pale Duke plus Siren Half Mast QIPA. These were supplemented by nine further Drygate beers on keg dispense plus six more craft keg guest beers which included a few from Scottish micros. I tried the Seven Peaks IPA but clearly wasn’t specific enough when I ordered, as I wound up with the keg version by mistake. It turned out to be a pretty drinkable pint although it would’ve been preferable to try out the cask version. Extensive drinks menus were available on most tables and there are a few different food menus as well, including a limited bar snacks selection. This place certainly isn’t one for the traditionalist and its large barn-like interior doesn’t come across as the most inviting place to spend an evening, but there was enough of interest here to certainly merit the short walk from the city centre in order to try out some of their own beers. A good alternative to the more established ale houses in the city centre.

A Friday lunchtime visit to this large brewery beer hall. Only a couple of people in when we arrived around noon, by the time we left it was pretty busy with several large groups in. We were asked to move from one of the large tables as it has been booked for a group. This place is a beer drinkers heaven, its large, clean, has good service and you can see the mash Tuns through the glass panels at the end of the bar. Now onto the beers, there was 9 cask ales on, of which 7 were from Drygate. On Keg there were 12 ales with 9 guests on. During my time here I had all the following from Drygate Gladeye IPA @ 5.5% ; Outaspace Apple Ale @ 4.3%; Celtic Connections Festival Brew @ 5.4% ; Pale Duke @ 3.8% ; Bearface Lager @ 4.4% ; Ax Man @ 5.0% and Seven Peaks @ 5.0%. Nearly all of the ales were excellent but the IPA's were my favourite. I think Drygate is a great place for a dew beers, yes its not a traditional pub in the sense but it's something more than that and is worth the short walk from the city centre.