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Beer of the Week (w/e 27th April 2025) with Thuck Phat on the Pub Forum

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Submitted on Sunday, 12^th April 2015
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High Street Social Tap, Bedford

Pub added by elizabeth mcgraw

115-117 High Street
Bedford
MK40 1NU

Phone: 01234342931

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Served areas

Bedford Central

Reviews of High Street Social Tap (Average Rating: 6½ of 10) Add Review see review guidelines

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Pub SignMan left this review about Brewhouse & Kitchen

This is a fairly typical branch of the Brewhouse & Kitchen chain of brewpubs, making use of a large single room interior with the usual mix of comfy furniture and homely decor mixed in with various industrial fixtures and fittings including the small onsite brewery. You enter via a large porch with a striking chandelier made from beer bottles, emerging into a large bare boarded room with the bar down the right-hand wall. The front seating area is under some very large floor to ceiling windows and offers formal tables and chairs in a space partitioned from the rest of the pub by a low wall with one of those huge German-style beer fonts on the top. The bar has a timber clad counter and a bare brick and white tile bar back, with a string of muted light bulbs suspended above. The large space opposite the bar has been filled with a series of high tables (and one storage unit) surrounded by bar stools, with a plain painted or glazed tile pillar at the end of each table. The brewing kit is to the left of this area, all gleaming brightly and looking like it’s brand new, whilst a ‘Wall of Fame’ board propped up in front of the brewing vessels, shows photos of all the punters who’ve had a brewing session at the pub. Further back, there’s a nice seating area with timber clad walls, including one with a glass case full of hops, comfy chairs serving tables of varying sizes and a large sign reading ‘The Junction’ to the left, under some shelves holding bottles, tankards, glassware and other such pub staples. Three steps at the back of the room lead up to a final small space with a few more tables and chairs, but this area is rather bland compared to the rest of the pub, with plain walls and little decor. A door back here leads out to a beer garden, which I didn’t explore, although the dreadful pop music playing in the background was enough to make me consider a bit of al fresco drinking.
As usual, the bar is dominated by homebrew, with three such beers - Varsity, Banker’s Draught and Intrepid - available on cask, with a fourth listed as being due to come on in a couple of week’s time. One of the keg fonts was also dispensing house beers, whilst another offered guests from the likes of Thornbridge, Deya, Big Drop and the like. My pint of Intrepid would’ve been better named ‘Insipid’ - a problem I’ve encountered in a few of these Brewhouse pubs over the years. The barman was friendly enough and I was a little surprised to find just a small handful of other customers, with other town centre pubs doing a much better trade.
This is another nicely fitted out Brewhouse pub, with plenty of comfy seating, attractive decor and a wide selection of home brewed beer. The main problem is the beer quality, particularly the cask ale which really wasn’t up to much on this occasion, and is something that would probably make me think twice about returning in the future.

On 22^nd February 2022 - rating: 6
[User has posted 3350 recommendations about 3350 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Danny O'Revey left this review about Brewhouse & Kitchen

Large classy building on High Street, brewery is in the middle, dimmed lighting. Chunky tables, various seating.

Nice B&K establishment

On 27^th January 2019 - rating: 8
[User has posted 1542 recommendations about 1519 pubs]

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Thuck Phat left this review about Brewhouse & Kitchen

My first experience of a Brewhouse and Kitchen and it was a decent one and, I'd guess, preferable to it's former incarnation as a 'spoons.
It's well described and the Brewhouse and Kitchen operations seem to work to a formula of attractive, copper equipped breweries internally with the brewer having license to pursue his craft independently. It works in here and forthcoming brew nights were well advertised.
A quick glance at the menu revealed a fairly standard urban pub offer with the focus on burgers.
Beers on were Bankers Draught, Braxator, Intrepid and Invarsity as well as various keg offers. The Invarsity was a very reasonable 5% IPA in decent condition which went down well.
Probably the best for beer in Bedford town centre.

On 6^th September 2018 - rating: 7
[User has posted 683 recommendations about 682 pubs]

View more reviews of High Street Social Tap (7)

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