Pretty Decent & Friends, E17

Visited 22/04/26. No cask. Their own brews, split between “core”, comprising the Gulp! Lager, I Could Get Better at T*sco for a Quid session IPA, the Greatest Love Story pale ale, Can You Kazoo AF pale ale, Employee of the Month milk stout, a few listed as collabs (but not stated who with), namely Macc Loves a NEIPA, Spinning Plates and Dogs Who Look Like Dolly completing a NEIPA treble of collabs, and then “other” the Parma Spam DDH pale, the Honk if You’re Sour berry sour, Back Street Whelk Habit a DDH pale, You Seem Familiar a West Coast IPA, I Ain’t Queuin’ For That another NEIPA, Das Fashion described as an “altbier” and Sports Mode a strong DIPA. The only guest beer was the Crafty Apple cider. Brewing site for Pretty Decent. Taproom is a concrete floor high ceiling venue with the bar counter at the rear and rows of trestle tables that were all occupied on my late Wednesday evening visit. The beer vboard is on the wall behind the bar counter. There is also some trestle table seating out the front and a permanent pizza venue was selling food to the loyal disciples of their beers inside. I like their beers but must admit I prefer their smaller scale venues to drink their beers in E postcodes rather than this industrial sized brewhouse.

One of the great joys of beer drinking in the 2020s is traipsing through light industrial estates wondering which strips of tarmac go nowhere in particular and which are actual roads and then trying to work out which of the tatty, though largely similar, tin sheds houses the craft brewery you're looking for today. And so, having wandered further and wider than I'd intended, I found myself in the Pretty Decent tap room which is pretty much the same as any other of the genre, with a dozen wooden tables and benches on a painted concrete floor with the fermenting vessels down one side. There's further seating outside if want a view, but aren't concerned that you don't really have any interesting scenery to gaze out on. The beer itself is all keg, though, errr, pretty decent, so they're on the mark, and the prices are pretty decent as well (£5.95 for a pint of the session IPA). It's the usual selection of pales, NEIPAs and stouts. All in all, pretty decent, but you do have to be in the mood for these places.

As previously mentioned a good sized taproom which unfortunately for me on a Sunday afternoon visit was very popular with the young family crowd along with associated pushchairs, prams and their crying contents, that aside I did find a table and from the choice of ten beers chose It Could Get Better At Tescos, maybe there were fewer kids in Tescos but the beer was ok.

Facebook page of Pretty Decent & Friends - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of Pretty Decent & Friends - www.facebook.com

Official site of Pretty Decent & Friends - prettydecentbeer.co

Official site of Pretty Decent & Friends - prettydecentbeer.co

This is a good sized taproom from this reliable brewery, located at the Southern end of the so called 'beer mile'. It's much in the same vein as the other venues nearby, with the usual concrete floored space under whitewashed walls and a gabled roof, divided in half with the brew kit in the right-hand side of the room and the bar and seating to the left. A drinking ledge separates these two halves, with the usual canteen benches and tables filling the rest of the space, whilst patio heaters have been dotted in between, presumably for chillier winter nights. The servery is to the rear and has a cool counter front with alternating wooden straps and mirrors, to create an unusual visual effect. The bar back is totally dominated by huge beer boards above a long row of taps, with more brewery gear visible behind. Aside from a couple of brewery themed murals on the whitewashed walls, the decor is otherwise a little plain and lacking in visual distraction. There's a long stretch of covered seating outside, all the same uncomfortable canteen-style stuff, some of which is exposed to the elements, and a few people were drinking over the road, where the early evening sun could still be enjoyed. Indie tunes were playing but got quickly lost under an insane hubbub from a packed house. There were no less than twelve Pretty Decent beers on tap along with four more from a Northern Monk tap takeover and one real cider. I tried the Pretty Decent Employee of the Month Milk Stout (£5.20 a pint), which was an enjoyable example of the style. This bar was absolutely packed, which made for a great atmosphere, but also made it hard to get a proper feel for the place. I quite liked it here and thought the beer range was strong, but the unit was lacking in character and felt like a very functional place with very little in the way of comfort. Date of visit - 4th May 2024

The Pretty Decent Taproom was possibly the largest of the brewery taprooms we visited on the Blackhorse Mile and felt like a bit more of a professional setup than some of the others. Despite plenty of brewing equipment, there are plenty of tables and benches in a spacious area with a lengthy bar and multiple serving staff. Beers from Pretty Decent were Top Crop, Dunk!!, Don't Just Stand There, Burnt Mill, Rustie's Whistle, Tiny Cart, Anything To Declare, Safe Space, Disco Corner, Just You Wait & Employee of the Month. In addition, there was also Severn Cider. A food truck was situated outside.