brew.ding

The Lyndhurst

📍 88 Queens Rd, Reading RG1 4DG
🍺 Mixed local & national cask & draft
❤️ We love the amount of events we run

This pub has had a good amount of local coverage in the past but now it’s our turn to have a take on its latest incarnation.

The pub is reasonably small but has some good value beer including some local keg & cask. There are frequent music events which give it a lot of atmosphere. (Our limited pictures are from the Reading Village Easter Festival.)

The food menu used to be gourmet & is now a little basic. I think we’d only come back for a cheaper pint or for an event.

Honourable mention for the dreaded unused Smirnoff cocktail tap which will eventually go extinct.

Strata Nauts -

📍 Bought
🍺 Pale Ale
💪🏻 4.2%

We’re at The Nags Head today to celebrate Mysterious Brewing’s 3rd birthday! For the occasion they’ve brewed this very easy drinking pale ale in collaboration with the pub.

Strata hops give it a very subtle citrus peel & passionfruit flavour as part of a light, crisp & endlessly sessionable cask pale.

The party is still rocking so if you see this straight away pop down & join in. Mysterious have taken over a lot of the taps & there is street food to be had in the garden.

The Cunning Man

📍Burghfield Bridge, Burghfield Rd, Reading, Berkshire, RG30 3RB
🍺Standard gastropub draft & cask offering
❤️We love the river setting

Sat on the banks of the Kennet, this pub is out of town but also reasonably accessible. It’s about a 75 minute walk along the river from central Reading or a 20 minute bus from the station.

The huge beer garden is great for the summer. You can order food in most of it. The food is good but not that exciting & not super cheap. The beer selection is your average gastropub beer selection.

Somewhere for a family meal or a beer stop off during a river walk or boat ride.

Fragment 01 -

📍Bought
🍺Hazy IPA
💪🏻5.8%

This is the start of a really interesting project by Double-Barrelled. 6 hazy IPAs over the next 6 months, each with a different 2 hop combination, one for taste & one for aroma.

Each can also has a QR code to scan & a puzzle to solve that will lead to a final reward to those who complete all 6 fragments.

Fragment 01 has a hop combination of mosaic & krush giving citrus peel & tropical fruit flavours. We could happily drink quite a few of these.

Pick a can up at the taproom or local beer shops & be ready to head back to complete the set over the coming months.

Sip ‘N’ Spin -

📍 19 Eldon Terrace, Reading RG1 4DX
🍺 Interesting keg & cask including a few locals
❤️ We love the music focus

Over the Easter weekend we discovered Reading Village’s music focussed pub Sip ‘N’ Spin which opened in this guise last year. Formerly The Weather Station & The Eldon Arms it now hosts live music events & allows to play records while they enjoy their drinks. It also serves a range of cafe food so you can pop in for lunch or a light bite.

The decor is bright & there is a small garden in the rear. The beer selection was really refreshing as well, including some local options from Elusive, Loddon & Double-Barrelled. We didn’t get too many photos during our visit because of how busy it was but the atmosphere was lively & very friendly.

This is a great addition to The Village. Look up their events & head down to enjoy the vibes.

The excellent live music during our visit was & his band.

Fortina -

📍Bought at The Alehouse
🍺Pale Ale
💪🏻4%

A delicious zesty pale ale from Elusive. Very very sessionable to help you power through your weekend festivities. Proceeds from sales are going to MND research so make sure to pick up a pint or two.

Bearwood Brewing -

📍 Unit 11, Anglo Industrial Park, Fishponds Rd, Wokingham RG41 2AN
🍺Wide range of own brewed, collaborations & a few other locals
❤️We love a new RG brewery taproom

It’s a very exciting weekend for RG breweries. Bearwood Brewing opened the doors to their new taproom in the last few days ready to welcome local & travelling beer fans. Their unit is only a 20 minute walk from Wokingham station & as expected was very busy. Live music & food trucks provided everything we needed to accompany the great beer.

The taproom is on a mezzanine level above the brewery, which is fun as you can look down on the tanks but it also makes it a little hot. The space is very well put together & will gain character through the life of the site.

On tap they had 15 Bearwood brews (including collabs), 2 Outhouse, 1 Mysterious (the GF option) & 1 Northern Monk (the AF option).

This is a great new addition to the RG brewery & taproom scene as well as the Wokingham’s already bustling beer scene. Use as a destination for your whole evening, jump on the number 3 bus to Siren & Elusive or head back into Wokingham to continue your day. Alternatively just swing by to pick up some takeaway cans. It’s open Wednesday to Sunday going forward & we expect it to be a great success.

Skyline -

📍Bought
🍺Pale Ale - American
💪🏻4%

The artwork on this beer celebrates Reading’s skyline, that isn’t quite nationally iconic but IYKYK.

There a variety of American hops give it plenty of fruity & floral aromas. At a low 4% is endlessly sipable & sessionable.

We’ve seen it in plenty of pubs all over town. Make sure you give it a try.

Railway Tavern

📍 31 Greyfriars Rd, Reading RG1 1PA
🍺 Standard drafts plus some interesting cask
❤️ We love the refurb

Formerly part of the “Three G’s” of pubs near Reading station this pub has recently returned to its traditional name since changing hands in November.

Newly refurbished it’s a great pub for watching sports or as a meeting point on your way into or out of central Reading.

There are lots of different tucked away tables & areas for a quiet drink plus plenty of more open areas for drinking in a group.

The draft selection leaves a little to be desired but we’ve had some interesting cask the few times we’ve visited.

We Need Jungle -

📍 Bought
🍺 Hazy IPA
💪🏻 5.8%

Welcome to a jungle of fruit flavours. Citrus peel, pine, melon & a little bit of peach are all here in this hazy IPA. Intense but not overpowering this is the best beer we’ve rediscovered this year after its release in October. Head down to the taproom or grab it online.

The Hexagon -

📍 Queens Walk, Berkshire RG1 7QF
🍺 Limited draft options, bottles
❤️ We love having a decent sized venue in Reading

Everyone in Reading knows The Hexagon. Most will have seen something there. A theatre production on tour, a new band on their way up, an old band on their way down, one of the bigger tribute acts in the country or some stand up comedy. It’s also where I first queued to buy Reading Festival tickets (unsuccessfully).

The bars have a drink selection slightly better than that you’d see in a West End theatre & about on par with an older London gig venue. They’re nestled in corners throughout the concrete guts of this iconic structure, on balconies & up or down oddly facing staircases.

Obviously these aren’t bars you can visit without going to see a show but we just wanted to celebrate this iconic structure that brings culture to Reading that its neighbouring towns don’t have.