Cold Bath Brewing Co, Harrogate

Pub SignMan left this review about Cold Bath Brewing Co

This is a lively, two room brewpub at the top end of the town centre, set in what feels like an old workshop but is apparently a former retail unit. You enter via a covered, pavement-side seating area, into the main bar which has a concrete screed floor, plain painted walls and the servery down the right-hand wall. Seating comes in the form of low stools, padded benches, and high stools in the space to the left, with various black and white photos on the walls, a few beer signs and lots of potted plants on display. The bar has a simple counter and a grand modern shelving unit across the bar back on either side of the keg taps, all topped off with a TV screen above, acting as the beer board. A few more seating options can be found opposite and under some huge brewing vessels on a raised platform at the back of the room. If you still can’t find somewhere to sit, you can pass through the servery into a similarly sized dining room to the right, which offers loads more seating and has its own servery with a wood slat counter to one side. A staircase suggests the possibility of an upstairs overspill area, but I never got around to checking out this assumption. Each table had a pretty awesome sounding Asian street food menu - curries, noodles, ramen, bao buns etc... – but as we’d already eaten, we had to leave this for others to enjoy.
As the name and brewing vessels suggest, the pub supplies its own beer, with Cold Bath Stout (£4.90 a pint), Bitter and Blonde available on cask, along with two more of their beers and two of their ciders on keg. These were supplemented by no less than eight guest keg beers from a range of micros, most of which I was unfamiliar with. The Stout was in great condition, if perhaps suffering from a thin mouthfeel, and the place was doing a roaring trade, making for an excellent atmosphere.
I really liked this place, which I thought ticked a lot of boxes, from the quirky, two bar interior, tasteful industrial styling that couldn’t have been much further from those seen in the likes of Brewdog’s bars, the fine, well-kept beer selection, the great atmosphere and the tempting menu. I must’ve walked past here a dozen times after my visit and every time I looked through the window wishing I had the time to pop back again – it was the best pub I visited during my time in Harrogate and would be right at the top of the list for a revisit.

Date of visit - 8th November 2024

On 24^th January 2025 - rating: 9
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