A pub in Bedminster has been named in the UK's Good Beer Guide only a year after opening. Old Bookshop on North Street joins six other Bristol pubs in CAMRA's highly coveted list of the UK's best for its 50th-anniversary edition.
Laura Guest, co-owner of Old Bookshop with partner Neil Hemus, has just celebrated the pub's first anniversary since the couple took it over in 2021. They have a high focus on having good quality beer, wines and spirits from independents.
Speaking to BristolLive, Laura said: "We're really quite pleased and proud. We're only just one year old now so to be recognised already feels like a huge personal achievement for us. Cask beer, especially, is something that we really care about.
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"Neil has over ten years experience in looking after cask beer so it's always been a thing since we opened the pub that we want to serve it well, to give the best experience of enjoying what cask beer can be."
Old Bookshop has plans in January next year to extend the bar to offer two new cask lines and have a wider offering and showcase other UK breweries. The seven Bristol pubs newly featured in the guide are:
- Llandoger Trow, King Street
- Zerodegrees, Colston Street
- Old Bookshop, Bedminster
- Green Man, Kingsdown
- Robin Hood, Kingsdown
- Stag & Hounds, Old Market
- Golden Guinea, Redcliffe
Author Laura Hadland has chosen the local beer highlights across the South West of England, including Bristol. In her forward written the CAMRA's guide, released today (Thursda, October 27), Hadland notes that it’s “one of the UK’s traditional cider and perry making regions,” and home to "some of the most exciting breweries in the country".
The Good Beer Guide, which reviews over 4,500 pubs across the UK, has "an important role in acting as a barometer of the beer and pub industry", said CAMRA National Chairman Nik Antona. There are 520 pubs in the guide from Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire and Bristol, Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire.
St Philips brewer, Little Martha Brewing, is the only new addition in the best brewers category. You can view all of the pubs listed in CAMRA's new Good Beer Guide app, available on iOs and as a web-based app at gbgapp.camra.org.uk
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