Pubs and Bars / Pub of the Week
Bar of the Week: Psychopomp Microdistillery
Psychopomp is a microdistillery that just happens to have a bar attached. But my oh my, what a mighty fine bar it is.
“We’re a working gin distillery,” co-owner Danny Walker says, wearing his trademark hat while serving a new customer. “We sell gin and tonics if people are thirsty while we are making gin.”
Two 30-litre stills are pride of place in their new home on St Michael’s Hill, botanicals sit in Kilner jars in one corner, with dozens of bottles lined up on shelves ready to be filled with the finished product all made with filtered Bristol tapwater.
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Behind a copper bar, the copper stills are connected by copper pipes snaking up the walls towards the ceiling as the gin flows slowly into a large glass beaker. It’s a chemistry teacher’s dream.
Made in a basement in Montpelier for the last two years, Psychopomp could have located to an out-of-town industrial unit and hugely increased production.
They decided not to go down that route, and inside a small former shop (with a former occupant’s historic sign rediscovered and revarnished above the front door) is their unique tap room.
You might not yet be able to bring a two-litre growler like at Moor Beer’s tap, but never say never.
Instead, choose to have a gin and tonic, a Martini or negroni for £7.50, or sample some gin – currently London dry gin Woden, the spring seasonal batch Ogmios or oak-aged Wooden – for £2.50.
My excellent G&T was served in a tall glass with a slice of grapefruit and an ice cube the shape of a Bird’s Eye fish finger. In the window seats, a pair of friends had already moved from G&Ts to negronis.
In the not-too-distant future there will be cocktails and only one beer at any one time depending on which Bristol brewery Danny has visited to swap some of their beer for his gin, now as if by magic created in front of your eyes.
145 St Michael’s Hill, Kingsdown, Bristol, BS2 8DB
07511 934675
Read more: Pub of the Week: Moor Beer Co. tap
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