Features / Beer

Drinking beer in the Bank Holiday sunshine

By Polly Allen  Sunday May 5, 2024

Huge crowds descended on some of Bristol’s best breweries at the start of a sunny Bank Holiday weekend.

East Bristol Brewery Trail was back for its first 2024 event, with six breweries taking part in the fun on Saturday and Sunday.

Beer drinkers flocked to Arbor Ales in Easton; Wiper & True in Old Market; and Left-Handed Giant, Good Chemistry, Moor Beer and Little Martha in St Philip’s.

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Since May 2016, the trail has provided the chance to explore the many breweries in this part of the city, all located conveniently close to the Bristol & Bath Railway Path.

We began Saturday at Arbor, where crowds cheered as the gates opened at midday. With a packed schedule of music kicked off by Felix Joy, and with food from the Little Taquero and the Pizza Rocket, the tone was set for a memorable first pint of the day.

Just a few of Arbor’s awesome ales – photo: Polly Allen

Arbor’s huge range of drinks means you’re spoilt for choice, but with May 4 being Star Wars Day, we had to start with Jabba the Nutt, an impressive 10% Walnut Whip stout that really packed a punch.

This stout was aged for 12 months in oak barrels; some of which formed tables for this weekend’s trail guests to perch their drinks on.

If you’re not a fan of stout, you could have joined punters in ordering the likes of My Little Sabrony (5%), an American pale ale, or Arbor’s collaboration with Bristol24/7, B24/Session (4.7%), with a blend of different hops.

Because Bristol’s brewing scene is always innovative, there have been quite a few new beers launched since the last East Bristol Brewery trail in August 2023, so this is definitely the kind of event you can keep coming back to, safe in the knowledge there will be something different to try.

At Arbor, that meant T-Shirt Weather (4.2%), a yellow haze recently released to celebrate ten years of Bristol artist Chris Wright’s tongue-in-cheek Turbo Island illustrations.

It was a brisk 15-minute walk from Easton to the Wiper & True taproom, where I ordered their award-winning alcohol-free Kaleidoscope, launched in January, which also taps into a growing trend, with many drinkers in the UK and globally lowering their overall alcohol consumption.

In January, a YouGov poll found that 44 per cent of UK drinkers aged 18 to 24 occasionally or regularly order a low or no-alcohol drink, and 75 per cent of all UK drinkers have at least tried a low or no-alcohol option.

Punters enjoying beers in the sun at Wiper & True – photo: Polly Allen

Many of Bristol’s breweries also release seasonal products, so the trail is a great excuse to try something in a limited edition.

At Wiper & True, seasonal releases on tap include Happy Hour and Earth Day, and there was a hot debate in the queue over what to have at their taproom.

Of course, there will always be some crowd-pleasing old favourites, like Today (4.8% lager), to enjoy with friends in the plant-clad beer garden. The taproom’s street food also went down a treat, with gyoza from Eatchu a particular treat.

Wapping Wharf cafe New Cut had a pop-up at Left Handed Giant – photo: Polly Allen

Over at Left Handed Giant, bar queues snaked out of the building and right through the courtyard as the sun beat down, so it was the perfect time to grab a refreshing Radler (2.5%) brewed with Sicilian lemonade, or a Twilight Glow (4%) with rhubarb, raspberry and cherry flavours.

Mr Noodle and Los Hermanos kept punters well-fed, with a pop-up cafe from New Cut providing a caffeine fix (though, this being a drinking event, there was also an espresso martini option with cold-brewed coffee).

We also spotted several drinkers checking out adverts for the brewery’s Run Club, which welcomes people to lace up their trainers and run from their city centre brewpub in Finzels Reach or the taproom – just one of the many community-focused schemes run by Bristol’s breweries.

Good Chemistry’s brewery and taproom is affectionately known as GCHQ – photo: Polly Allen

Good Chemistry may not have a running club but it does have an initiative to celebrate cis and trans women, non-binary and gender non-conforming people, called She Drinks Beer.

Events are held in its two pubs – the Good Measure on Chandos Road in Redland and the King’s Head on Victoria Street – to combat the traditionally male space of pubs.

With such a push for inclusion, it’s probably not a coincidence that Good Chemistry’s taproom had the most gender-diverse crowd of the trail on this opening day.

Food came from Soy Ahoy and Pizzarova, and drinkers enjoyed everything from the German-style wheat beer Weiss City (5%) to the fruity Galaxy Smash (4.8%) and Kokomo Weekday (4.3%), which the team at GCHQ modestly describe as Bristol’s favourite pale ale.

In the Pizzarova queue, we spoke to local resident John, whose dad used to take on the brewery trail by bike. In fact, the trail weekend is a real family affair across all the venues, as you’re just as likely to queue behind a mother and baby as a group of friends in their 60s.

The Tardis-like Moor seems small on the inside – photo: Polly Allen

Next up for us was Moor Beer which was also offering up something for Star Wars fans with its new limited edition Mando West Coast pale ale (5%) – a nod to The Mandalorian.

We also spotted customers enjoying PMA, a West Coast pale ale (5.3%); and Revival, a pale bitter (3.4%). Moor definitely has punk spirit, with edgy packaging on the cans, Bad Religion playing on the speakers, and also a handful of live music gigs on the calendar for upcoming visitors.

It was a short walk to finish the trail at Little Martha, tucked under some railway arches near Temple Meads, where customers paired their beers with Cornish pasties.

Popular beers here included Wavelength, a 5% stout; and Neighbour We Left Behind, a 6% IPA cold-steeped in tea. Now six breweries in, it was perhaps time for tea and a sit down for those of us over the age of 30.

For those confused by the space theme of each beer’s branding, it’s actually tied into the company name: Little Martha was the first rabbit sent into orbit by Russians. Keep that fact handy for any future pub quizzes.

Little Martha can be found in a railway arch on Oxford Street – photo: Polly Allen

Main photo: Polly Allen

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