Brewdog, White Cloth Hall

BrewDog are a fairly new chain of pubs originating out of Scotland - the newly opened Leeds venue is their 11th in the UK. They've certainly got an interesting public image - the brand is positioned as a controversial and rebellious choice, alienating themselves from CAMRA and the traditional cask-ale providers. All the promotional literature available online and in copious amounts in the actual venue itself shows BrewDog to be the 'outsiders' - sticking a middle finger up at commercially successful brands. Indeed, they have recently destroyed Tennants and Heineken bottles in shooting displays & ten-pin-bowling events - all carefully designed to show off their 'punk' side.

However, actually visiting the source of all this rebellion paints a slightly different story. The bar itself is in the historic White Cloth Gallery behind the Corn Exchange, attached to a Pizza Express, and is easily overlooked by people unaware of the location. When you enter the bar, the first thing you see is adverts for their own-brand ales being sold in supermarkets (more on this later), before being struck by the lack of atmosphere. Granted, I turned up just after work on a Tuesday, but there were only 3 people in the bar, all sitting on their own using iPads. The seating arrangement suggested a lack of conversation - rows of barstools all facing one way, not round in a circle. I get the feeling that a lot of the clientele are suited to this sort of arrangement, which is disappointing when I had such high hopes of finding a new exciting venue.

All that aside, the drink itself is excellent. I had the PunkIPA, which was beautifully fruity and strong, but there were other options that I definitely would like to try. Unusually for bars like this, there was a comprehensive drinks menu available, which showed the strength and taste of all their own-brand products - a real help for a relative novice like me. One major criticism though - the drink was served in a warm glass, which immediately causes the beer to become lukewarm - i'd have thought a company such as BrewDog would have been well aware of this.

Later that day, I sent a message via twitter to the bar, asking where I could buy the Punk IPA - the response came back as 'you'll find it in most big supermarkets'. This was probably more indicative of BrewDog's brand than any of the sweary literature & controversial marketing - the fact is, they're a hugely successful company who benefit from tie-ins with large corporate bodies, not some back-street ale-house who genuinely try something different. A true 'outsider' company would have promoted the availability in local beer sellers such as BeerRitz or Gerry's Spirits (as another twitter user thankfully mentioned), or even that they sold 'take-home' products themselves ! But no - they'd rather promote Asda and Tesco, which is disappointing but not altogether unexpected.

So, the visit was a definite success, as I've found some new beers I want to try. Thankfully, they have pointed me towards the supermakets, which means I won't have to bother going to this 'style over substance' fun vaccuum ever again...