King Street Brew House, Bristol

A recently opened addition at the end of King Street opposite the river, this extends the so called “Beermuda Triangle” of craft beer venues further down the street, and like the Small Bar this includes it’s own micro-brewery on site. Housed in a building that was previously an Indian restaurant which had quite a contemporary feel to it, this has been completely transformed and is now much more rustic. The upper floor which was the bulk of the restaurant area appears to not be part of the pub. The harsh acoustics made it slightly noisy, not helped perhaps by some large groups that were visiting on this sunny bank holiday afternoon. Internally it’s all one large, open plan room with dark wooden boards on the floor, and a mixture of maroon paintwork and glazed green tiling on the walls. There were also some smaller areas of exposed brickwork, and some parts of the ceiling were also boarded. A few booths at the far end contained bench seating and the wall behind this had made a feature out of a number of old suitcases. Some old beer barrels had a tartan cushion affixed to the stop to be used as stools and the light fittings were all made from bits of old pipework. Some of the brewery tanks were visible behind the bar as well behind a glass partition in the downstairs “tank room” where there were also numerous sacks of malt stacked up ready for the next brew. Beers on this occasion were Dark Star Original, Bristol Beer Factory Bitter Kiwi, James Street Ostiarius, XT3, James Street Emperor and their own Socks and Sandals. A sixth pumper appeared to have run out, whilst there were also another five or six craft ale options on keg. Ciders meanwhile were Symonds Founders Reserve and Thatcher’s Gold, the latter of which was perhaps slightly past it’s best. All in all I thought this was a welcome addition to the burgeoning King Street scene and I will certainly come again.