Brendan's Brewtique, Clifton, Bristol

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Blackthorn _ left this review about Brendan's Brewtique

A recent opening just off of The Triangle, this is in fact very much a bottle shop rather than your regular pub, but does nonetheless have a small selection of drinks on tap that are available to either drink on the premises or to take away.

Clearly converted from a couple of shop units, it still has suspended polystyrene tiles on the ceiling which don’t do much for the ambience, along with ash wood strip on the floor and mostly whitewashed walls although there was some contrasting burnt orange on the back wall. The rest of the perimeter consisted of shelves of racking stocked with bottles of beer, along with a further island in the middle. Seating was limited to three small metal tables in the window at the front of the pub. Overall, it all felt very sterile with no atmosphere, and you certainly did feel as though you were sat in the middle of a shop, rather than a pub. Increasing the music volume would have helped a little perhaps, it was so quiet as to be barely audibly and with only one other punter in there, there was nothing else to break the silence.

Beers were all keg rather than cask, dispensed from a row of taps affixed to the back wall behind the counter. On this occasion they consisted of Arbor Mosaic, Crofty Tempete, Siren Soundwave and Lervig House Party. The solitary cider was Worley's Beatnik Billy, served from a box on the shelf below all the cider bottles. In terms of choice there is certainly an extensive collection of bottles, so if you’re hunting down something unusual it might be a good place to try, but don’t expect a regular pub ambience. The hours too are definitely more shop like than pub like, with the premises closing at 8:00pm, I believe. This is also very much a beer shop rather than an off-licence, with no sign of any wine or spirits for example. That said, they did have the German Paulaner lager on tap which went down well with Mrs. B.

On 26^th January 2019 - rating: 6
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