Skip to main content

The Best Of Bedford: Three Mirages In A Beer Desert

 One of my best friends lives in Bedford and thus I spent a fair amount of time in the market town turned commuter town. It’s not a bad little place, of course it has some issues, the riverside is very much a delight. 


What isn’t a delight is the beer scene. Bedford’s beer scene is dominated by mediocrity, in the forms of generic Green King and Charlie (formerly Charles) Wells pubs. Even the latter’s new brewery complex, Brewpoint, doesn’t make it onto my Bedford beer shortlist. I’ll file that place under nice place, shame about the beer. There are however three places actually worth visiting, let’s get to it. 

BeerFly 




A beer shop with six taps, occasionally one cask and multiple fridges that showcase the best craft beer available. BeerFly is the standout beer venue in Bedford. The range of beer served here is nothing short of impressive. From sours to lagers and imperial stouts, BeerFly has something for everyone.



The Wellington Arms


A sister pub to The Live in Cambridge, The Welly is your classic back street boozer. It’s your stereotypical CAMRA members dream, though don’t let that put you off, because of the range of cask beers and brewery themed decorations. The beer line up varies, but usually there’s some of Nethergate’s offerings available. 

Craft beers are also available


The Devonshire Arms



Hidden amongst a row of houses is The Devy, my favourite pub in Bedford. The Devy is run by Ronnie who is an absolute legend and is sure to give you a warm welcome. The cask quality in The Devy is sublime and Guinness is excellent too. The Devy also boasts my pick for best beer garden in Bedford. The garden is even covered in winter, making it useable all year round! 


 

Good beer in Bedford might be limited, but quality can beat quantity. Thanks for reading. 

Labels:

Comments

  1. retiredmartinOctober 29, 2023 at 12:40 AM

    I'm grateful to you for blogging about Bedford. There's not much about Beds on the web, bar BRAPA's many trips a few years ago and a couple of ladies who visited nearly all the pubs a decade ago.

    It's been a disappointing town and I think you've picked the highlights, though I've never heard of the Beerfly. The Brewhouse & Kitchen was a bit ropey.

    The town museum is excellent.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Supermarket Weep - Lidl

  It’s been a while, but Supermarket Weep is back! The series where myself and some ‘lucky’ guests, try supermarket own brand beer and beers brewed specifically for supermarkets. In previous episodes we all went wild in the aisles of Tesco and Aldi. Welcome to Supermarket Weep - Lidl.  A piece of advice for you, don’t trust the terrible cupboard holders that these beers come in. I opted to go without a bag or a trolley and regretted that decision.  The beers all fell out of the cupboard and onto the floor. I stuffed my pockets with some of the beers, which caused my shorts to fall down. A new low for me is accidentally exposing myself in a Lidl… Trolley to the rescue! Ignore than BrewDog, that was for something else!  For this episode I was joined by friends of the blog, Dan and John. We kicked things off with Excelsior Lager, a French inspired beer. This was bad, like really bad. It’s a really watery beer, with a weird sweet taste. Awful.  Next up was San Marti...
Post a Comment
Read more

2024 In Review & The Beer Moose Awards!

  “Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time” sang Pink Floyd in 1973. They’re sort of right, each year feels shorter than the last. In fact, it does not feel like a year since I was last writing a blog like this one. Contary to what Pink Floyd said, I found time to do quite a lot in 2024! I rode a new personal best 211 rollercoasters! 2024 will remembered as a bit of a rollercoaster (sorry). Great heights and moments balanced by a devastating loss and a rather poor Cambridge United team. This blog is aiming to be a review of my year, with some awards thrown in! Let’s get into it!  January:  January started with an FA Cup tie, away to Blackburn. I decided that Blackburn was sort of near Liverpool, so like all good away days we made it into a pub weekend.  It was an absolute goal fest! Sadly, like most goal fests The U’s are involved with, it ended with United on the losing side. 5-2 Blackburn.  Golden bird I liked Liverpool, it’s a smart and nic...
Post a Comment
Read more

Away Days 24/25: Is It Over? Wigan

  Welcome to the first instalment of a three blog series from the Northwest! I had a great weekend, football aside, visiting Manchester, Wigan and Stockport. This should really be the second part of this series, where’s the fun in doing things in the correct order?  We made the short train journey from Manchester to Wigan. Rach had found us a bakery to grab a pie or Wigan Kebab but I was distracted by a sign saying taproom. We had time so called in for a beer! Except  what we actually did was walk into a pub, rather than the planned taproom!  Wigan Central was great! A pint and lime soda cost £4!  The US Session was crisp, fresh and super tasty! A 10/10 pint. As we enjoyed our drinks I had a renewed sense of optimism that Cambridge were going to win today. We started making our to the ground and stopped at the bakery Rach found for lunch. Rolling Pin Bakery. This was easily one of the best pies I’ve ever had!  Marvin was also after a pie! My renewed optimis...
Post a Comment
Read more