Best of Bristol
Bristol Beer Factory | Optimist (4.4%) | Pale Ale | Southville - BS3 (Gluten-Free)
The Brewery: A fiercely independent brewery at the heart of the Bristol beer scene since it began in 2004. They brew fresh, innovative and consistently awesome sessionable beers that are pioneers of their style. Their single-hopped brew from head brewer Tristan will not disappoint!
The Beer: This golden pale ale will take your taste buds on a journey! There’s a lovely Mosaic hop flavour, with hints of apple and tropical fruit notes. The Vienna malts give it a touch of sweetness. We love this beer!
Arbor Ales | Mosaic (4%) | Pale Ale | Easton - BS5 (Gluten-Free)
The Brewery: Starting in 2007 as a one-man operation, Arbor has continued to grow by emphasising quality ingredients and consistency. They’ve always been creative and experimental, never shying away from exploring and pushing style guidelines - just take their beautiful pint cans as an example!
The Beer: This is a delicious Single Hop American Pale Ale style beer brewed with loads of Sabro hops - hence the name! An incredibly tasty tipple that’ll have you going back for more - thank goodness it's in a pint can ey!
Dawkins Ales | Tremendous Delicious (4.2%) | Pale Ale | Easton - BS5 🆒
The Brewery: Dawkins is an independent microbrewery based right in the community heart of the city, Easton. Their variety of quality beers won them several awards over the years. Make sure to check out their cosy taproom inside the brewery when in Bristol!
The Beer: This amber, creamy bitter has a great smell. It’s the most traditional ale in this hamper but its fruity sharpness will delight real ale drinkers as well as the modern craft beer fans. Overall a very enjoyable malty sweet bitter.
Hop Union Brewery | Moose River (5%) | Pale Ale | Brislington - BS4 🆒
The Brewery: Formerly known as Great Western Brewing, Leanne and the team at Hop Union have recently rebranded and moved to a very cool new site. Rebranding surely wasn’t easy but this family business smashed it, modernised the brewery, updated the beer designs and added a cosy taproom! Exciting times for Hop Union!
The Beer: Exciting on the nose and a delightful tropical fruit taste. This full-bodied pale is packed with Mosaic & Centennial hops which were added at different stages of the brewing process to get this unique taste. The malts give it a little bitterness and make it an overall well rounded tasty ale.
Moor Beer Company | Illumination (4.3%) | Bitter | Temple Meads - BS2 🆒
The Brewery: In 2007, beer-loving American, Justin, purchased the dormant Moor brewery and decided to kickstart the flagging UK craft beer scene. Their brew style follows the German ‘naturtrub’ (natural hazy) approach which led to the creation of Britain's first vegan beer. Add to this the British tradition of secondary refermentation and the American flavour-forward techniques and you are left with uniquely dynamic, sessionable beers.
The Beer: This medium body light bitter is a bit hazy and darker in colour and a fantastic modern interpretation of an English best bitter. This cracking ale has a tasty fruitiness about it and a delicious bitter malty finish.
Frome Brewing | Riwaka (5.6%) | Pale Ale | Frome - BA11
The Brewery: Frome Brewing is run by 4 beer lovers, highly impressive given the diverse range of beers on offer. It was a pleasure speaking to head brewer Rik as there’s a fascinating story behind every beer.
The Beer: A Pacific Pale named after the New Zealand hop used to brew it - Riwaka. Its taste is quite unique - a fine mix of citrusy taste and sweetness. It has a subtle bitter finish which we find very enjoyable!
Mr.Filbert’s | Salt Crust Peanuts | Somerset
The Story: Specialising in interesting, hand crafted snacks, South West based Mr.Filberts has won over 40 taste awards and is the perfect snack to accompany our independent South West craft beer selection.
The Snack: Did you know peanuts were first discovered in South America over 3500 years ago? The infamous salted peanut came to town in 1952 and it’s been a loyal wing-man to beer ever since. So when it came to finding a snack for our South West selection, peanuts were high on the list and this salt crusted nut hit the spot, we think you’ll agree!
All the beers in this selection are suitable for vegans and should be enjoyed chilled (6-10 °c) apart from the ones marked with 🆒 - they should be enjoyed at 10-14 °c (simply take them out of your fridge 30 mins before pouring).
