BrewDog Bath, Bath

The descriptions below need no addition from me. I've popped in twice now before my train this year; the first time I was scared off by the prices, the second time I held my nerve but then nobody appeared at the bar to serve me. I've taken this as a sign from above and will leave it be.

A typical Brewdog, as described by Blackthorn below, situated in the less fashionable part of Bath and convenient for the railway station. Its situation means it’s not plagued by tourists, which is a good point for it. The music was too loud and quite annoying, while the staff were quite helpful. No real ale of course, and the craft prices are as usual excessive. I had a pint of Brewgooder Tropical, which was £6.30 and not really that satisfying. No surprises here, it’s just not my kind of pub.

A relatively recent opening in Bath’s pedestrianised shopping quarter, it’s a fair sized pub being split across two levels, as well as a small amount of seating on the pavement outside to make the most of the outlook, such as it is. Internally it follows their usual approach of being fairly industrial in design with a bare concrete ceiling housing the air conditioning ducting, cable trays, etc and bare concrete walls for the most part, although there was at least some dark wood strip on the floor rather than the more usual concrete screed. The concrete walls had been painted a shade of khaki green at the back and a rather vibrant blue to the right, and there was also some green ceramic tiling along here. There was much plastic foliage draped around whilst the seating was a mixture of long communal benches and regular tables and chairs, with some fitted banquette seating at the front. The bar front was remarkably shabby for such a new pub with much peeling yellow paintwork, but that is perhaps intentional. It looked as though it could have been cut from an old shipping container. There were no real ales on tap unfortunately, but an extensive keg selection with a row of taps along the back wall and a large illuminated menu up above, which helpfully displayed the style such as Stouts & Dark Beers, Pale Ale & IPA, etc, as well as the ABV although it was not immediately obvious which were their own and which were guests. The choice in this occasion was Custom Shop, Electric Bear Mamba No. 5, Overtone NRBC Retro, Northern Monk New Zealand DIPA, Punk IPA, Hazy Jane Guava, Simcoe Solo, Passion Blitz, Mallowlaser Quest, Elvis Juice, Dead Pony Club, Double Punk, Can’t Tell me Nothing, Thinman Musical Chairs, Vault City Strawberry, Grimm Fourever Rainbow, Red Velvet Cake, Shadow Maker, Peanut Butter Cup, Black Forrest and Dark Chocolate Pecan with the latter coming it at a very reasonable £17.70 per pint. Ciders meanwhile were Urban Orchard and Gold Trader. Overall, whilst this isn’t the sort of cosy, traditional pub that I normally go for, I am warming to BrewDog with their unusual beer selection, good service and friendly staff and it certainly has a little more character than many new builds.

Fairly typical example of a BrewDog in a modern retail unit with the usual neo-industrial decor: exposed ducting; dark paintwork; lots of wood and steel. A wall of 30 keg taps serves the expected craft stuff at expected craft prices from £5.40 to £7.20. There is also an upstairs level but this was not open.