05/06/21 - A Good Beer Guide Pub Crawl in Bristol

Good Beer Guide Ticks - #553 - 556

It was a chance conversation with the waitress at Stourport's new tap room that said if we liked this place, we should really go to Left Handed Giant in Bristol.

It was the heady days of the first Friday after what ever stage of easing it was in April, when we could sit outside. Without leaving our table of six, someone had booked Premier Inn's and a date was set.

I didn't mind. There is much work to do in Bristol, which had the honour of being the last new city crawled before all this madness started, back in January 2020.

Lets see if my friends were so keen, after a day of randomly ticking off places in the bible.

Left Handed Giant, Compressor Building, West Coast Pale

A nice walk, through the Saturday Shoppers and Castle Park and the only complexity is how to cross the water.  For this brewpub is moated.

Not a Micro

Unbelievably, we failed to observe the winding bridge seen in the photo.  There were strange smells wafting around Castle Park and that can be the only reason for two man/two woman confusion.

Following a group of six lads, there was quite a wait to get through the scanning checkin in. We were then escorted to a high table, under exposed ducting (you know the drill) and had the rules explained.  How to order. Where the loos were. 40 minute wait time on pizzas.

App related faff that required a side venture in setting up apple pay. Then we had to get our heads around the fact that only two size of beers available were - 1/2 pint or 2/3 pints.

This we can cope with. The snacks we could not. £2 for a bag of lightly salted cardboard squares.

Bring back scratchings!

The Cornubia, Temple Street, Elland Brewery Nettle Thrasher

My sort of Pub

This is where it gets tricky, pub crawling in the current conditions. Do you risk losing your table, where you have sorted out how to order to head off to the next place and run the risk of not getting in?

I have experience and I was also keen to explore the Cornubia, as it was closed on my last Sunday Evening visit.

The cunning plan involved me heading off solo - seeing if I could get in - and then texting back to the party to say it was safe to leave.

And this worked perfectly. With a large beer garden, there was plenty of space. I sat down, waited to be served by a human and then won the prize for thirstiest man in Bristol by ordering four drinks.

They've seen this, and worse, before.

A perfect traditional pub that unexpectedly had a lot of beers from West Yorkshire, rather than the West Country.  

The Shakespeare Tavern, Prince Street, Bristol Beer Factory Lauch Approval

A Narrow Terrace to sit out out the front

A mooch around the waterfront to dodge electric scooters and see if we can find a statue that needs toppling before I direct to posse to a back street that is a relative oasis of calm.

Another fine traditional pub - which the Bible claims to have the longest continuous ale licence in the city.  Inside, its all wooden paneling.  Outside, a little terrace of garden furniture.

Waiter service here and asking whats on provides our host with the chance to impress.  Eight real ales on and he can reel them all off, with type, brewery and ABV.

We had all glazed over by pint two - which of course, was what was ordered and was indeed, gorgeous.  

Oh for the days when you could go for a look.

The Old Fish Market, Baldwin Street, Fullers ESB

More Pubby Lovliness

We'd walked past this handsome pub earlier in the day and I was rather pleased to determine from my hastily assembled google map that it was in the bible.

For it is a Fullers pub - they will have ESB and fortunately, its only just gone pay day.

Outside - we had some seating where we could sit and observe the deliveroo bike riders crash into each other. It makes quite a sound and from the moment we started walking around Bristol, we could see it was going to be an inevitable experience in our day.

Inside - the pub is a delight - huge bar, chesterfields, nooks and crannies.

Everything you need and more.

With most of the centre ticked now, I will be back for the exotic sounding suburbs of Bedminster, Henleaze, Horfield and Hotwells.