Kingsmead Street Bottle, Bath

Side street craft micro-cum-offy. Fairly minimalist stylings but stays on the right side of inviting; bay window bench seating and some simple decals, plus a wood strip bar. Easy on the ear piped music from the late 60s. Very friendly, talkative and knowledge barman - maybe the same one Blackthorn encountered. 10 keg with a good mixture of styles. My Pastore Berliner was a very nice drop, so I decided to have another on the barman’s recommendation, the Newbarns Stout, which was also very good. I'm normally sceptical of these kind of places but this one won me over and I’d pop in again.

Disappointment of the week goes to what should have been a good visit but was actually not.  Five craft beers on keg, all over-priced and over-chilled, and an insistence that one of them was a ‘session IPA’ just didn’t wash.  Much like the barman, who apart from that was rude, unhelpful and over-familiar.  The other customers in were indeed the hipster breed mentioned by BF, below, and there was none of the conviviality or atmosphere that one might ordinarily expect in a micro.  No cash payments were accepted either.  I shan’t rush back.