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Tag: Brewdog

  • York – Brewdog

    York – Brewdog

    I’m writing this shortly after the Prime Minister’s announcement that all pubs, bars and restaurants should close from tonight. It was a week ago today that I was in Brewdog in York, feels much longer given how much has changed with the virus situation. Anyway, it’ll all blow over soon hopefully.

    I hadn’t realised that there was a Brewdog in York, it was only walking by that I happened to notice it, a reminder that I need to look at their list of UK pubs more often. Well, after this virus has finished faffing about with the British pub scene anyway.

    The staff member was friendly and helpful, something that the chain tends to get right. Not the most vibrant of atmospheres, since there was only one other customer on a Friday afternoon, but I didn’t require a nightclub feel, so all was well.

    I opted for the Velvet Merkin by Firestone Brewing, all the way from California. It’s not cheap, at just over £10 per pint, but this isn’t a drink that needs to be purchased in such a large measure. It felt like its 8.5%, with this being the barrel aged version of the brewery’s Velvet Merlin beer. The beer was marvellous, rich in initial flavour and there were afternotes of chocolate, vanilla and coffee. A multi-layered drink and very decadent, an excellent guest choice from Brewdog.

    The packed bar….. Everything felt welcoming about the location though, no loud music, the temperature was appropriate and the toilets were clean and fully stocked, something particularly important at the time.

    There are a few different sections to this Brewdog, this is the seating area at the rear. It makes me feel rather quite sad to know that for several weeks this bar, and tens of thousands of others, will be closed.

    Anyway, the pub is well reviewed on-line, but I felt the need to have a little look at the grumpy reviews on TripAdvisor. This is one of the 1/5 reviews, they didn’t like what I would call the on trend decor:

    “The worst part though is the venue itself. It’s like walking into a building site. What a total mess it looks. Maybe they are trying to be trendy I don’t know but it’s a right tip. Rough walls, filthy floor, cables and tat hanging from the roof. The bar is made of outdoor road paving slabs that looked like they hadn’t had a wipe down in days. The front of the bar is just rough old pallets with bloody great splinters sticking out.”

    And another unhappy customer who didn’t like the design:

    “The decor is a dump.. think it’s meant to be trendy, but it’s still a dump… and beer at up to £12.50 a bottle… mmmm don’t think I will bother again..”

    On a matter of principle, a really innovative craft beer bar is inevitably going to have bottles at over £10, such as the cost of importation.

    “Shame. I loath decorating and DIY so why would I feel relaxed in a placed that intentionally gives itself the ambience of a renovation project?”

    And another one, the bar seems to get more complaints about its decor than anything else.

    I imagine there’s quite a student feel to this bar on evenings throughout the year, it’s on the infamous Micklegate bar crawl and it’s all suitably on-trend. I liked this Brewdog though, and the staff member remembered what I’d ordered and asked if I’d enjoyed it. Now, I accept that this wasn’t a huge feat of memory given the number of customers, but it’s still a nice touch.

     

  • Florence – Brewdog (One Good Visit, One Bad Visit)

    Florence – Brewdog (One Good Visit, One Bad Visit)

    OK, I’ll start with the bad visit, which was the second one that I made. I had booked to go to the bar via The Fork, which had otherwise worked brilliantly this weekend, and would give me a 20% discount. Unfortunately, despite the bar having that booking they decided against opening which is fine if they had bothered to tell me. So, probably best not to book for this bar unless visiting in the evening.

    Anyway, back to the first visit, which was much better.

    The Brewdog in Florence is smaller than most of the others in the chain that I’ve been to, which is also reflected in the smaller selection of beers. However, the selection is still well-balanced and there was plenty of choice available. I had the Zombie Cake porter and it tasted as I expected, rich with plenty of chocolate in flavour, as well as some vanilla. The prices were as I’d expect from Brewdog, it’s not the cheapest, but the quality is pretty much guaranteed.

    The bar was relatively compact, but there was a reasonable amount of seating available as there are two floors to the building. The welcome at the bar was friendly and immediate, with the staff member being engaging, helpful and polite. All rather lovely.

    The downstairs of the bar, which shows live sports and can I understand get a little crowded in the evening at times.

    This is the well, one of the features of the downstairs bar, which also felt slightly damp (the downstairs that is, not the well which was had no water in it at all). The atmosphere was laid back on the first visit, it’s a safe and comfortable environment.

    I was so pleased with the first visit that I decided to go back for food, but as mentioned earlier on, the bar didn’t open. There’s one thing opening late as there are likely many reasons, but perhaps it’d be helpful just to alert customers rather than just ignore the situation. It might have been that they opened just a little late, but if I had known, I could have waited, but I’m not going to stand outside for what might be hours. So, unfortunately, I can’t say much about the food, but I like that they’ve got some localisation going in, rather than just having the standard menu which we have in the UK. Incidentally, they have free snacks in the evening, although I’m not sure between what times, although I suspect they’re probably erratic…..

  • Warsaw – Brewdog

    Warsaw – Brewdog

    This is puzzling, Warsaw had a Brewdog, but it was open for just under one year. I can’t work out why they shut it, whether it was a lack of trade or there was a problem with the building. It must have been an expensive exercise to open the bar for just one year and I’m a little surprised that there wasn’t the trade for it. There was a lot of press attention when they opened, but very little coverage of the closure. It also means that there are no Brewdog outlets at all in Poland, surprising given that some neighbouring countries have them…..

  • Norwich – Brewdog (Out of Office)

    Norwich – Brewdog (Out of Office)

    How marvellous, Brewdog nationally this week are running an “out of office” campaign, so anyone who comes to one of their pubs between 12:00 and 14:00 can claim a free pint of beer from a handful of choices. Quite marvellous. Technically, since I take my laptop and get so much work done in pubs, cafes and restaurants, I sort of ‘came to the office’ to take part in this promotion.

    But, nonetheless, a generous campaign and the pint of Punk IPA was all very acceptable.

  • Norwich – Brewdog

    Norwich – Brewdog

    I’ve been slowly working my way around numerous Brewdog outlets across the UK and mainland Europe, having been won over by their beer and food. Although, it’s the service element that Brewdog seem equally strong at, all combining to make this a popular and on-trend location.

    I had reserved a table for James and myself to try their unlimited chicken wings. This allows diners to have as many chicken wings as they’d like for £10, with the staff bringing out more on request and there is also a vegan alternative involving cauliflower. We didn’t really investigate this option, but I’m sure it’s, well, lovely. We managed to arrive early and the staff member at the bar was helpful and suggested that we order drinks and then we could take a seat in the bar whilst waiting to be shown through to the restaurant area. This all happened efficiently and our table was reserved with a clear sign, it was just like being back in Liverpool for my Deskdog experience….

    This is the first plate that is brought out, with something like twelve chicken wings on it. This is a perfectly generous portion in itself, with a blue cheese sauce and the wings looked appetising and well presented. They also tasted of an excellent quality, with the outside being crispy despite there being quite a thick sauce on them. The sauce was also flavourful, with a slightly hot taste to them, mixed in with some honey. The chicken was also tender and they were very moreish. Which is handy. Also, they were served hot and they seem to have been freshly cooked.

    One thing which is quite unlike Brewdog is that they seem to have fixed some rules to this promotion, although I’m not sure what they are. The first rule is the clearest and is that this promotion must be booked in advance, whether on-line or in the bar in advance (although perhaps it’s possible to negotiate with the bar staff and take part if it’s otherwise quiet). With regards to the other policies, I’ve only discovered these rules from reading reviews of Brewdogs across the country, where some people think they have one hour to order, others two hours and others mention no limit. We weren’t told of any limit and nor we were stopped at any stage, so I imagine that the process is a little informal and flexible. James kept going much longer than me, as I’m far too concerned about maintaining my recent weight loss.

    Another policy is that the blue cheese sauce provided with the first set of wings is expected to last the entirety of the promotion. When diners finish their first twelve wings, they can request another portion and then five wings are brought over. This seems sensible and avoids waste, although the staff member varied in pro-activeness in offering more wings. When James wanted more blue cheese, they didn’t mention this was possible only with an extra payment, which seemed unusually unclear for such a precise chain. It didn’t seem worth querying this 50p when the bill arrived, although if they’re going to charge like that, they should perhaps mention at the beginning that only one portion of blue cheese sauce is included.

    Overall, I was entirely satisfied with the whole promotion and the staff were warm and friendly. Service was sufficiently prompt, although it could have been more pro-active for anyone who wanted to plough through a lot more wings, and I’m sure that there are some. But, Brewdog didn’t fail in terms of providing a clean environment, as well as a comfortable and fun atmosphere. All rather lovely. But they should have mentioned the blue cheese sauce.

    And, I don’t want to make this some Man vs Food blog post, but James went through ten more wings than I did (I think I stopped at 22 wings) which was very impressive.

  • Shoreditch – Brewdog

    Having arrived into London Liverpool railway station, I had no shortage of food and drink options in the Spitalfields and Shoreditch area of the city. I’ve been converted to Brewdog now, after initially taking a slight dislike to them for their corporate practices (which seem to have  now been moderated somewhat), so I thought that the ten-minute walk to their Shoreditch location was worth it.

    Not particularly busy at 16:00 in the afternoon, although it did get busier later on. Lots of different seating styles, including bar stools, tables and booths. All clean as well, with the surfaces not being sticky, which is an irritating feature of some large pubs.

    The Brewdog beer fridge, with choices to take away, or for a premium, drink at the pub.

    The beer choice, but my preferred option of Zombie Cake had run out and the only other dark option was an imperial stout and I didn’t want that strong a beer.

    Half a pint of Dead Pony Club and a sample of Clockwork Tangerine. There are a lot of hops in the Dead Pony Club, which is fruity and citrusy. Not my preferred type of beer, but full of flavour and very drinkable. Incidentally, I didn’t think that the Clockwork Tangerine had quite the strength of tangerine that I was expecting, but it was also light and drinkable.

    The meat feast pizza, which was a slight challenge to eat as the ingredients slid off the base with some ease. But, food should sometimes be messy, so it’s all about the taste. Actually, it’s about the temperature as well, which was very hot and I was a bit too eager to get started so nearly burnt the top of my mouth.

    As a pizza, we’ve established it was served at a hot temperature, but the ingredients were decent, the base was light and the sauce rich and flavoursome.

    The manufacturers of Dalston chillies say that “there is no junk” in their products and I have to say, I liked it. Quite a powerful little kick without being stupidly hot, so this complemented the pizza well. Although I might have got a bit exuberant with the amount of the sauce I put on one piece of the pizza, which required another emergency drink of beer.

    It’s painfully clear from the customers that this is a very on-trend brand and it’s perfectly suited to Shoreditch. There’s a contemporary and modern feel to the whole proceedings, which is also coupled with excellent customer service.

    If I could find fault, it’s one of those locations where some of the staff seem to be doing the majority of the work, whilst some of the others were perhaps preening themselves just a little too much. But, all told, the surroundings are comfortable and everything was as I’d like it to be. Other than they needed more darker beer selections.

  • Hamburg – Brewdog

    Part of me doesn’t really like Brewdog for some of their corporate practices, but more of me is liking Brewdog as they have interesting and intriguing beers, as well as friendly and engaging staff. The Brewdog in Hamburg only opened last week, so given that, I thought I’d pop in. It’s located on the Reeperbahn, which is perhaps the most suitable street for such a bar in the city. Which would explain why they put it there….

    The beer fridge, with numerous tempting options.

    The beer menu above the bar.

    Photos of the interior, all looking contemporary, on-trend and welcoming.

    And the nitro milk stout, which is Jet Black Heart, which I’ve had before, but it’s a delightful drink with a richness of flavour and a slightly sweet edge. It was at the slightly chilled temperature that I’d expect and I liked the depth of taste that the stout had. It’s not the cheapest of drinks, although Brewdog isn’t really known for being entirely cost effective.

    The staff member who served me was enthusiastic, helpful and engaging. The process was made particularly easy for me as not only did the staff member speak English, she was British, which made selecting a beer much easier. There’s a friendly atmosphere in the entire bar and the selection of craft beers was extensive, the widest that I’ve seen in Germany.

    So, if nothing else, here’s to Brewdog at least bringing craft beer to more people. Perhaps in a few years there will be tens of these innovative bars opening up across northern Europe, and perhaps even southern Europe.

  • British Airways – Speedbird 100

    British Airways have got a bit of a partnership going with Brewdog at the moment, including a new bar at their New York Lounge run by the Scottish brewing company and they also have a new beer which has been brewed for the airline.

    The beer which has been produced is Speedbird 100 which is available for purchase in Euro Traveller and is being given free to those in Club Europe. It’s also available free of charge in the British Airways operated lounges in the UK.

    I’m not an enormous fan of Brewdog as a company, but their beer is, generally, excellent. There’s a depth of flavour to the beer that they brew and some innovative and interesting flavours. Best of all, it’s progress for British Airways to be looking at craft beers in the way they are, something which should be encouraged in my view.

    The Speedbird 100 is also rather drinkable, with a strong citrus flavour of grapefruits and oranges. As a summer drink it’s refreshing, although a little strong with an ABV of 4.8%. I do like this development from BA, I hope it’s something that evolves in the future.

    Also being stocked now in the lounges is Brewdog’s Punk IPA. I go on about this a lot, but I’d like a darker beer and Brewdog do this to a very high standard. However and nonetheless, Punk IPA is entirely acceptable and it’s positive that there is a choice of two beers from the company. The lounge also has cans of Tribute Pale Ale, the largest choice of beers they’ve had in years.

    The next step is to increase the options from three to four beers and I shall help BA by sampling numerous beers every time I visit their lounges.