Alpha Bottle Shop & Tap, Bristol

A recent opening in an area that has for many years been the less salubrious end of Bedminster, but now seems to be starting something of a renaissance with a couple of other nearby opening such as the Bristol Loaf starting to drag the area up. As it’s name suggests, this is very much a bottle shop as opposed to a pub, but there is nonetheless seating available for drinking in and a small selection of keg options on the bar. Internally it’s a reasonably compact space and has something of a rustic, converted warehouse feel to it with a high ceiling and exposed brick walling. Full height windows at the front along with further windows to the side gave it a light and airy feel, whilst the end wall behind the bar counter was clad with roughly sawn boards. Flooring was some type of screed, whilst the smooth black ceiling had a prominent oval cable tray suspended from it, as though that was in itself something of a decorative feature. Suspended from this were exposed filament light bulbs, which of course are de rigueur in any sort of trendy pub opening these days. Seating was a mixture of tables in the centre of the room, one fashioned from an old cable reel and high stools around the permitter with a wooden shelf running along the window at the front to rest your pint on. There was also a large beer barrel for vertical drinking. The back wall was largely taken up with refrigeration units housing the off sales, and these were divided in to sections such as pale/lager, ipa/dipa, stout/sour and cider/wine. A quick glance showed an unusual and interesting selection, with several local micro’s featured, but plenty from further afield as well, although very little in the way of cider unfortunately. As mentioned earlier, there were no cask options available, but then I doubt that they would get the throughput to warrant it. Keg options were Full Circle’s Rotator, Verdant’s Even Sharks Need Water and Wiper & True’s Purple Rain. The solitary cider meanwhile was Pilton Murmuration. All in all, I quite liked it here, the guy running it was friendly and helpful and it had a chilled out and relaxed vibe to it. I just hope that East Street is ready for something of this nature, I can’t help feeling it would be much better suited to North Street.

Official site of Alpha Bottle Shop & Tap - alphabottleshop.co.uk

Official site of Alpha Bottle Shop & Tap - alphabottleshop.co.uk