Been a tad busy, of late so I've concentrated on drinking beer, rather than writing about drinking beer.
But - we've got a few days in Bristol and some of it is R&R...
Having arrived in the afternoon, we'd planned to meet friends we hadn't seen in a while in the Barley Mow. This pub pulls off a really good trick of seldom seeming to be stupidly busy and yet clearly turns around its beer very quickly. Yesterday was a case in point - having had a couple of really good pints of this and that (mostly BBF beer) we went back for a top up and S chose a pint of BBF "Malz". As the chap was pulling it he said "hmmm...think we might be at the end" then gave S the chance to try it before buying. It was still in top condition which can only mean it hadn't been open very long. Good cellarmanship and top bar keeping.
Today the lunchtime part of our plans were thwarted so, instead, we tried a bit of light Christmas shopping. After a successful initial foray we tried a new place - The Christmas Steps at the bottom of...well, Christmas Steps. It had a fairly rotten incarnation a while ago as the Three Sugar Loaves so I wasn't sure whether the new version would be any good. We were pleasantly surprised.
The website doesn't really do the pub justice inasmuchas the pub is warm and full of character and interest (the website really isn't).
We greeted by a very friendly lady - this is always a good start. The had four beers on - two by Arbor, one Harbour and Dark Star APA.
We were pleased to be offered a try of the beers without even asking, but we didn't really need that and tried the two Arbor beers (both a bit more subtle than I'd come to expect from this excellent brewer. The food was pretty good - a short menu but a nice mix of stuff. Really good burger and a lovely chicken and bacon club sandwich (and someone not afraid to use thigh meat in a sandwich which is great). All in all a really nice place and I'm pretty sure it won't be long until we go back.
After a stroll we landed in the Three Tuns for the first time in ages.
It's an odd place - the beer is pretty much all "modern" in style (that is, light and hoppy) but it's brilliantly kept and we were happy with our choices (Clouded Minds for me, and something unfined and IPAish for him). Thing is, the furniture is tricky in this pub -only half a dozen people in the front part of the bar can make it difficult for other people to sit down so you end up in the slightly draughty back section in the sofas...and it just doesn't make you want to hang around no matter how good the beer is. Bonus point were available for the chap behind the bar, though, when I mentioned that I'd previously had the Clouded Minds 2.7% beer and liked it he chatted about other good 2.7% beers that are available. We'll be revisiting more Bristol pubs over the next few days - I might even let on where we've been.
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