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

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

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

Smile Like You Mean It: The Story of My Friendship With Rach, Mental Health and Our Latest Adventure.

 I’m very fortunate to have great friends in my life, I don’t think you can put a value on good people. People who have your back, make you laugh, pick you up if you need it, advise you, complement you and at times challenge you. I’m not a great lover of texting or messaging, because it just isn’t the same as being together in real life. To me, a sign of a great friend is someone you can spend weeks or months away from, but when you do meet again, it’s like you were never apart. People come and go, the best people stay.  In 2011, whilst at secondary school, I was elected to Sports Council. At this time I was failing to accept that my rugby playing days were nearly over. I have a lifelong problem with my back, it was getting worse. I was seeing two physios a week, hours of laying on my front having my back looked at, coupled with loading up on whatever pain relief the Dr would prescribe me. That was all to try and get through the rugby matches. Eventually, my consultant, Dr Jen...
2 comments
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