Pub of the Week: Moor Beer Co. tap

“A growler?” exclaimed a visitor to Moor Beer’s brewery tap, where the two-litre bottles are for sale and can be refilled on later visits. “One of my friends calls her lady bits that.” 

It was the same day as Queen Victoria’s statue on College Green had her own lady bits added, so the conversation was apt.

The growlers at Moor Beer are versions of a bottle dating back to the 19th century, the name a nod to the noise that sealed pails of beer made when they were cracked open.

Back then the booze was for thirsty workers but these days it’s more likely to be picked up by craft beer fans keen to stock up on beer that you can’t get in bottles yet because they are seasonal or limited. Or just more of their favourite tipple to take home.

Moor Beer was founded in 1996 on a former dairy farm in the Somerset Levels. Over the years it grew in size until moving to its current premises in a former car repair shop in the Dings in 2014.  

As the brewers clock off on a recent Friday, they congregate in the tap just the other side of a dividing wall from the brewery, arranging to meet up the following day in their place of work – a day that saw Moor’s first party of the year sticking a middle finger up to dry January with all 10 taps flowing, a giant Hungarian beer goulash cooked by chef Tomi, and punk blasting from the speakers. 

“It’s really not complicated stuff,” Tomi himself explains. “If the food is good quality it’s okay.”

Good quality is certainly something that Moor hold dear, with one of their most celebrated beers, Old Freddy Walker, winning Camra’s Champion Winter Beer of Britain in 2004. The majority of their beers are now sold in cans, said to be better for the beer as well as being better for the environment.

Thirds are the order of the day at the tap, however. Any excuse to try more Moor beers: porter, wheat ale, stout, IPA, bitter, smoked rye and plenty of others.

All can be talked through by knowledgeable tap room and events manager Jemma Kington, whose personal favourite is the Confidence red ale, with tasting notes of bittersweet caramel and pungent fruit.

Propped against the bar is prime position here at the tap, but if you don’t bagsy those positions there are wooden picnic tables and benches on one side of the front door, and wooden barrels and bar stools the other.

Source in St Nick’s Market provide the meat and cheese for the platters (£5), which come with bread from Hart’s Bakery at Temple Meads.

Old Freddy Walker (“liquid Christmas pudding in a glass”) tops the potency scale at 7.3 per cent, while the TFA black ale is not far behind at seven per cent. It stands for “totally fucking awesome” and the brewers aren’t wrong. 

Moor Beer Co, Days Road, Bristol, BS2 0QS
0117 941 4460

www.moorbeer.co.uk

Photos by Darren Shepherd