Bristol beer tours & brewery tastings

Bristol has been brewing for the best part of a thousand years, and for most of that time it brewed because it was a port. Ships needed beer. The docks needed workers, and the workers needed pubs. The city's old brewery sites — several of which you sail past on our tour — sat where the water was, because that's where everything arrived and left.

What makes modern Bristol interesting isn't the history, though. It's that the city never really went in for the big national brands. When British beer consolidated into a handful of enormous breweries in the second half of the twentieth century, Bristol kept drinking locally, and when the craft wave arrived in the 2010s the city was unusually ready for it. Today you can walk between working breweries in a single afternoon — which is precisely what we do.

The three areas worth knowing

The Floating Harbour

The heart of the city and the best possible introduction to it. Bristol's harbour was engineered in the early nineteenth century so ships would stay afloat regardless of the tide — hence "floating" — and the water is still lined with the cranes, sheds and warehouses that made the place. Harbourside bars, the ferries, and a genuinely lovely walk. Our tour starts here for good reason.

St Philips and Old Market

Bristol's brewing quarter in all but name: a run of industrial units and railway arches east of the centre where a surprising number of the city's breweries have set up. It's not a picturesque part of town, and that's rather the point — this is where the beer is actually made. Moor Beer Company, our second stop, is here.

King Street and the old city

Cobbles, timber frames, and one of the densest concentrations of good drinking in England. King Street runs from the harbour into the old city and packs in historic pubs, craft bars and cellar vaults along a stretch you could cover in five minutes if you weren't stopping. You will be stopping. Our tour finishes here, deliberately, at around 4pm.

Bristol breweries worth seeking out

You'll visit some of these with us. The rest are worth your own time if you're in the city for a weekend.

• Moor Beer Company — one of the most decorated independents in the country, known for serving beer unfined and unfiltered. A stop on our tour, and the taproom is worth a visit in its own right.
• Bristol Beer Factory — a Bedminster institution, brewing on a historic south-Bristol brewery site. Their beers are what you'll taste on the boat.
• Wiper and True — a Bristol brewery with a serious reputation and a taproom that's become a destination in its own right.
• Lost and Grounded — precision lagers and Belgian-influenced beers; their Keller Pils is on bars nationwide.
• Left Handed Giant — modern, ambitious brewing with a well-known brewpub overlooking the water.
• Good Chemistry Brewing — a small, consistently excellent independent brewery in the east of the city.
• Arbor Ales — long-standing Bristol brewers with a deep and frequently changing range.
• Little Martha Brewing — a railway-arch brewery and taproom in the St Philips cluster.

When to visit Bristol for beer

Our public tours run on selected Saturdays year-round, at least monthly, with more dates through the summer. Summer is the obvious choice — the harbour is at its best in the sun and the walking is pleasanter — but a bright cold Saturday in February on a boat with a beer is a very underrated experience, and dates are far easier to get.

If you're planning a trip around a specific date, book early. Public tours cap at 30 guests and the summer Saturdays go weeks in advance.

Getting around

Central Bristol is walkable, and everything on our tour is covered on foot or by boat. Bristol Temple Meads is the main station, roughly 20 minutes' walk from our meeting point on Hotwell Road, or a short bus or taxi ride. Don't drive — you'll be drinking, and central Bristol parking is its own kind of endurance event.