Arbor Ales Taproom, Bristol

Blackthorn _ left this review about Arbor Ales Taproom

Conveniently located within the grounds of the brewery, this is the tap room for Arbor Ales and although it has been here for some years it has previously only been open for special events such as the East Bristol Brewery Trail. Now though it operates with more regular, albeit still fairly limited, opening hours.

It’s a relatively small pub, although there are a few additional picnic benches in the yard outside. Décor wise it’s somewhat less industrial than many brewery taps, probably due to the fact that it is housed in a separate building rather than just being a space within the brewery, as is so often the case. It consists of one long open plan room, with bi-fold doors across much of the front to make the most of the current warm weather. Some sort of faux wood strip was on the floor, whilst the top part of the walls had been painted turquoise and there was blue wood panelling on the lower part. The brewery name was spelt out in large white letters along the back wall, whilst a side wall had images of many of their canned products. Seating was mostly wooden tables and slightly uncomfortable plastic chairs, but there were also a couple of brown leather sofa’s at the far end. A projector screen was rolled up at one end, so perhaps major sporting fixtures are shown, although I did not see any sign of the projector.

There were no real ales on tap unfortunately, although perhaps the limited opening hours preclude this. There were also only two options on keg though, Motueka and Best of Both Worlds, whereas you would normally expect a tap room to carry a good percentage of the brewery’s wares. They did though have the full range available in cans in the ‘fridge, and so besides the Motueka I also had a Faked Alaska to take away.

On 16^th August 2026 - rating: 6
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