Pretty Decent & Friends, E17

Housed in a rather anonymous older industrial estate unit, it looks a bit scruffy from the road but the interior looks more organised. The taproom shares the single large space that benefits from some extensive rooflights, with the bar towards the rear and the canteen-style tables lined up in the centre. I found 13 beers and a cider available from the array of 20 keg taps on the bar-back, including my Love Story (£3.15, half).

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.