Tap Dancing

We were on a mission, this trip.

We'd asked the lovely Gregor, from our bottle shop in Eastbourne, which of the Bristol breweries we could list was he aware of.  The man's a complete beer geek and so knew a lot of them (Moor, BBF, Wiper and True, LHG, Arbor...) but there were a few he hadn't heard of.

One brewery doesn't have a taproom yet (Incredible) and one we weren't particularly interested in visiting having had some of their beer a day or so earlier (it wasn't bad beer, just not to our taste).

So we planned to visit some other taprooms we hadn't yet made our way to and see if we could also find a can or two for Greg.

Friday evening we popped around to Croft Ales - now we've been here before but as we were in the area it seemed rude not to reprise.  It's a very basic set up but the staff are smiley and the beer's good.  A couple of pints down we also managed to pick up a can of their APA (we really wanted BS2 purely for the name but they were out...).

After that, we strolled the quarter mile or so to the New Bristol Brewery.  Again, we know this place since we attended a brewing course a couple of years earlier, but it's still a friendly, jolly place.  Beer was great - no cans available though, sadly.

We can't manage more drinking than that so then it was home for food.

Yesterday, post-Tour, we went for a pleasant stroll to St Werburghs.  I have to admit this isn't a walk that everyone would enjoy.  It's a little run down and unloved part of town and along the course of the river that's overgrown, alongside old industrial buildings.  Pretty, it's not.  But it's very grounding. 
The walk leads you to a junction of the M32, and you have to navigate a large junction roundabout.  The boy was confident that he could navigate to the first brewery: Fierce and Noble.  We couldn't remember having had their beers but we know they've been around for a few years.
Having crossed the big roundabout, we weren't certain where we were but Best Beer Buddy said, "it should be really close to where we are now".  And then we looked up and lo, it was indeed.

The taproom snug has been beautifully done - warm wood, dark, comfy chairs.  It was warm and sunny, though so we chose the outside seating area.  We bought our beers and picked up a loyalty card (how awesome is that?) - and settled down on a slightly rickety seat/bench made from pallets. The outside is a basic set up - it's a brewery yard, after all, but it was chilled and welcoming.  We also watched the contract canners do their work.  Again, we drank 4 pints between us:  an APA, a Brown Ale, a black IPA and a modern hazy number by the smaller brewery which shares their premises (Masquerade) all of the them were great.  We stopped to purchase a can of Black IPA and headed off to our last brewery of the day  - Wiper and True.

To say that W&T was a different experience would be to totally understate.  The two breweries are no more than a quarter mile apart from each other.  Both are in industrial buildings, both have indoor and outdoor space but nothing else about them are similar.
W&T are slick and practiced in their hipsterness.   The outside seating was already full and the clientele were subtly different to those in F&N.
There was a food truck selling Japanese street food.
We went inside to get beer - staff were friendly but not overly enthusuastic.
We found a pleasant indoor seat next to a FV and enjoyed the view of the brewery kit and enjoyed the DJ who set up just across the way and did a brilliant job of mixing music that you could listen to but not be distracted by.
Of course the beer was good - it's Wiper and True - and I was intrigued that my first beer was from "the tank"
The number of people and the atmosphere was so different from F&N, despite being so close, that we spent some time musing on the reason for that.  We didn't come to any firm conclusion other than it's got a more cult reputation than F&N. 
Unsurprisingly, although we really enjoyed being there, we definitely preferred the atmosphere of Fierce and Noble.
It was quite late when we left so we knew we needed to eat on the way back - so we stumbled into Cauldron to check it out.  We were not disappointed.  They had good beers on tap but we decided to drink wine. Staff wer friendly, menu was short but intriguing and portions were just right for us (shared starter, two mains) and we left feeling pleasantly full but not stuffed. 

After that, it was time to stagger off home the mile and a half or so and go to bed.

When I woke up this morning I was still smiling at what an enjoyable night out it was.