please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Excellent pub, several Wye Valley beers on tap, all in good condition. On Saturday night there was a group playing in the beer garden and the place was absolutely packed.
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Deservedly popular, busy on a Tuesday evening but managed to get a table in one of the many rooms. Having tried Butty Bach earlier I went for the Wye Valley Bitter - in good condition.
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Cracking Wye Valley Brewery pub. Good atmosphere, great beers and good music played too. We were planning on having two here then moving on to the Beer in Hand. Instead we stayed all afternoon. The HPA, Butty Bach, Hopfather, Toras and Wholesome Stout were spot on.
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Welcoming old style boozer. HPA 2 pints for a fiver. Tops. Nuff said.
Muzzy - 22 Jun 2015 15:22 |
Great, no nonsense pub offering beautifully-kept beers served by friendly staff. What more could you possibly need?
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After reading the reviews on BITE we decided to give the Barrels a try.
We were not disappointed. Superb beer. A decent pub.
We will give it another go next time we are in the area.
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Brilliant pub. Wye Valley Brewery establishment, with superb beer. Very well kept, crystal clear pint. Pleasant enough bar, bit basic, but it's a proper ale pub, so don't expect food etc. Well impressed!
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Still a favourite. One of the best pints in the area.
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Truly great! Decent pub, excellent beer, good prices.
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Still one of the few places inhereford you can get decent ale (maybe the only one)
anonymous - 26 Nov 2013 21:45 |
Really enjoyed my first visit to The Barrels. Was recommend to me, plus being new to BITE, seeing reviews backed it up. Great ale, good choice and well kept. Pub itself is a little utilitarian but well worth a visit.
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Welcoming pub with excellent choice of well-kept Wye Valley ales. Bright and clean inside with chatty customers and friendly staff. Some types might find it a touch basic, or bemoan the lack of food, but the quiet buzz speaks volumes for the place. The sort of boozer many of us would like as our local, if the truth be known.
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Cracking pub which was absolutely heaving on a Saturday afternoon with a good mix of ages and clientele.
The full range of Wye Valley beers - all sampled were excellent - and probably the best pub in Hereford.
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A must for any visit to Hereford and I wasn't disappointed. Others in group had been here before. As a lover of Wye valley beers a didn't know where to start. Wholesome Stout, Golden Ale, HPA, Bitter and Butty Bach all on offer. Enough said.
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Locals pub that didn't quite live up to my expectations, especially when compared with the Victory just down the road. It's a pleasant enough pub and as previously stated they had moreorless the full range of Wye Valley beers - Bitter, HPA, Dorothy Goodbody's Golden Ale, Butty Bach & Flower Power, plus Thatchers Heritage cider. A guest ale would be a nice addition. A good pub, but only a 6/10 for me.
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An excellent pub although one suspects that it dominates Hereford drinking too much - nowhere else we visited came close. The clientele is varied indeed and the neanderthal element of a Saturday night seemed less in evidence than in other towns. Good ale from the local Wye Valley brewery, good cider (both cloudy and fizzy), friendly bar staff, a capacious beer garden and a pool table mak this a winner all round. At the heart of a community.
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Popped in for a quick pint. The welcome, beer quality, friendly customers and the choices on the jukebox turned it into a lengthy evening session and more proof that the best nights out are the unplanned ones. One of the best pubs we've been in for a long, long time.
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Really busy pub close to the town centre. excellent selection of wye valley beers all in top condition.
highly recommended!
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Concur with recent comments. Good to see the full range of Wye Valley all in good form. Seems to be the real ale mecca for Hereford as full of aleheads. Probably the only pub worth visiting for real ale in Hereford centre.
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A real pub for real drinkers. Great selection of Wye Valley Brewery's finsest ales. Great welcome and and eclectic mix of customers. Landlord Peter had plenty of time to chat to us.
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Excellent multi-roomed pub with good, slightly bohemian atmosphere. Outside drinking/smoking area was rammed on a Monday night in July. Very cheap beer for the area, and in good nick. Undoubtedly the best pub in Hereford.
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Excellent range of Wye Valley beers at around �2.40 a pint, friendly service, dogs pottering around without a care in the world and a superb curry house across the road. So, can't complain!......Best pub in Hereford by a mile to my untrained eyes.
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One of the best, if not the best boozer in Hereford.
Walked in a stranger walked out a friend and have always recieved a warm welcome.
Beer good, locals smashin', atmosphere top notch, smoking area second to none!
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Excellent pub, nice beer garden - make sure you see the fish in small pond ! Thatcher's Heritage @ � 2.10 a pint went down well - the three ladies serving behind the bar were a credit - must visit place - will definitely be going back
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A decent alehouse of two rooms of the old style with a good selection of ales mainly from Wye Valley. Pleasant smoking yard/patio with water feature out back. The beer was reasonable, tried the Wye Valley Bitter and the HPA and at �2 and �2.25 a pint respectively were certainly value for money but considering this is the brewery tap for Wye Valley I have better pints of both in other pubs. Still rates highly - think it gets in the top ten here as Hereford is so bereft of proper boozers.
anonymous - 30 May 2010 11:38 |
Cracking pub serving about 8 Wye Valley beers. Bar seems to run through various public bar and lounge style areas. Basically a friendly down to earth boozer.
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Very nice found it by chance, love the bar idea with the barrels underneath to hold it up, wye valley pub had a good selection more than I could drink in the space of 3 hours, friendly locals and a good time I had
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Made to feel like a local ( even though I'm not! ) as soon as you walk in.
A great place.
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Went back to Hereford for the first time in five years this weekend and glad to say the Barrels remains a stunning pub. Not sure about the posh extension out the back though - but the inside remains brilliantly individual and the beer reange not only extensive and great quality, but also excellent quality.
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The Barrels will not win any prizes for historic or plush interiors or the like. But this is a proper, lived in boozer, with locals, their dogs, visitors, young an old punters. I also like the leaded windows, whether original or not. They are in the spirt of a traditional pub. And there were no kids and tables full of foodies stuffing their faces and clogging the bar for hours with extensive and complex orders.
It appears to be the flagship of Wye valley breweries and the range of beers on offer was a revelation:-in my part of the world many pubs sell Wye valley beer but it is almost universally HPA. I tried the bitter and , although low gravity,it was a great pint and for only �1.90 (�2.70 is my local norm). I think the bitter has won an award and the pub was CAMRA pub of the year last year. Perhaps its only downside is that it is maybe a "blokes" pub and not so appealing to the ladies. But I could be pre-judging the tastes of the good lady folk of 'errrfod"
A proper pub, great beer and a friendly barmaid. Result. The great and endangered British pub is alive and well in Hereford!!. Must come back one day and install myself for the happy hour offers!!!
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Not a bad pub, visited on a football trip to Hereford, friendly locals to chat to in the bar and a great range of ales. Good service from behind the bar as well. Slightly puzzled as to the reverential nature of some of the reviews and the write up in the CAMRA guide. Wouldn't mind it as my local though!
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What can I say? This fine establishment has been one of my favourites for many years, dispensing fine foaming pints of Wye Valley Ales in convivial surroundings. Its nice to see that one or two of the local ciderheads are still welcome here. My visit last week was only marred by the appearance of a minibus full of loud rugby club fatheads who seemed to think braying loudly and painting their faces red made them terribly amusing to the rest of the clientel. It didn't, next time p*ss off down the road to W*nkerspoons where you belong.
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Fantastic pub with a great range of ale. Pool table in one bar and a beer garden out the back. Friendly service and very well kept beer. A must for any ale drinker visiting Hereford.
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Quality boozer, loads of good ales on offer. One of the best pubs i have been into in a long time.
Was in there on a saturday night and it was packed all night which is the sign of a good boozer. If i am ever in town again it will be top of my list if visit.
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Definitely the best pub in Hereford. When we approached all we could see was the large Lamb Hotel writing and did not realise until we saw the smaller sign. Five perfect Wye Valley beers on hand pump; Wye Valley Bitter, HPA, Butty Bach, Dorothy Goodbody's Golden Ale and St Georges Bitter. The St Georges Ale is April's beer of the month; a different one appears every month. The beer was well priced here at just over the �2.00 mark depending which beer you were drinking. A bit of a disappointment that DG's Wholesome Stout is not available on draught all year round. Never mind DG's Wholesome Stout and DG's Country Ale are available to buy here in bottle conditioned form at �2.50. I believe the DG's Golden Ale and Butty Bach were also available in this form. Our group found this very handy for our long train trip home yesterday afternoon.
There are quite a number of different areas in the pub. A pull down large TV was showing the FA Cup semi final on Saturday night so they obviously have Setanta Sports. This was handy to watch from the bar as you arrive from the front. There was another permanent TV in the next bar where the toilets are also situated. The bar to the left side from the front has a pool table which you can also get to by walking round the pub anti-clockwise. The courtyard at the rear was absolutely packed on a mild Saturday Evening. The staff and locals were friendly to our large group on both visits. I had to request the removal of the sparkler until they remembered. They did however point out that they are brewed to be sparkled. I still preferred the taste of the beers unsparkled as for my first beer I did not notice quickly enough. I recommend the Indian Restaurant across the road where we enjoyed a lovely meal. We even made it back for a couple before closing time.
As our train selected was not due until 13:30 yesterday we decided to phone to see if the pub was open. They advised midday but check round the back as it was open slightly before then. We were absolutely delighted when we found the happy hour prices of �1.50 on all the ales. The courtyard was great in the sunshine yesterday lunch time. You can see the original home of the Wye Valley Brewery that we were facing. Behind us was a classic table football machine at 20p a go, which took us all back. Thanks for a great trip and hopefully we will meet Hereford United again in the not too distant future so we can visit again.
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Still one of the greatest in the land,with keen staff braced to fill your glass with incredibly high quality and reasonably priced Wye Valley ale . We were a group with many "southerners" and what I thought was excellent was how the staff asked if we wanted the (wretched) sparkler on or off. Its all been said before. They don't come much better than here.
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Hard to follow the last comments apart from agreeing with everything. This is a great pub, and serves great beer. Enjoyed their Mappa Mundi as well as a Dorothy Goodbody's this visit. Lovely rooms to wander round and I do love the drawings of Binge Alley and Pub Street. They should sell postcards of those. Great outside area too.
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First visit to the legendary Barrels last month and was well-worth the 2 hour journey from Reading!
Interior is very old-skool, with a working-man's back-street boozer feel from the 70's. The pub is divvied up into four separate bar areas which each feel a little different to the other. There's a TV in the far bar, which gets used for sports.
But the star of course is the beer - this is the Wye Valley brewery tap. If you think you've had a good pint of Wye Valley elsewhere, you should come here for the real deal. Great range of beers in amazingly good condition. The prices, as noted elsewhere, are around 5 years out of date so you can have a great session in here for under �15. Magic.
The punters were mainly older males when we first stepped in, but the average age lowered and the lady count increased in the build-up to Wales-England rugby. The place was HEAVING at kick-off time.
The staff were friendly and very efficient - barrels were changed over in under 10 minutes - loved the communication between the bar and cellar of banging the floor/ceiling...one knock for yes, two knocks for no is it...?
The only small gripe was that the toilets, whilst clean, were a bit on the dark and grim side. Some new tiles and strip-lights wouldn't go amiss. But that is a minor gripe.
All in all, one of the best town boozers you're likely to find. Well done.
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Been to The Barrels a few time now, never had a bad time. Great pub to have in the centre of Hereford. Great location if on the way to or from Hereford Beer Festival.
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Had a fantastic night out here when the little town of Presteigne invaded the lights of Hereford. The barrels was the best pub of the evening, the back yard is just trick. I think we even saw a UFO!
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Not just the best pub in Herefordshire, the best pub in the UK. Great staff, great beer, unpretentious, friendly attitude, and good prices too. Definitely worth a visit.
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Best pub in town by a country mile. HPA is the best beer I've ever had. Went to the first Beer Festival and about 12 others since. The Blockheads playing last year was a particular highlight. Pete has done an excellent job at keeping the original vibe of the pub going, the family atmosphere and great cheap ale. Long may it continue. New York, New York!
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Yes definitely best pub in Hereford. Great ales, cider and jukebox which is always loaded with the latest tunes and plenty of classics too. They still play New York New York at kicking out time.
Just watch out for the landlord if he's had a few, he's skipped over �2 worth of my jukebox songs in one go because he didn�t like them! He gave me my money back when I asked him.
They let you eat your takeaway from elsewhere provided you sit outside and tidy up after yourself.
Has also done a lot of work decking out the back, and has a covered smoking area with heaters, lots of tables and two tabletop footy games.
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Superb selection of great value real ales. Buzzing atmosphere, normally packed. Upholds ethos of what a good town pub should be.
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This place is a gem. Not OTT in anyway just a really good pub. Had a nice pint of Butty Bach and a sandwich. This is the best pub by far in Hereford.
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I've been coming here a couple of times a year for over 20 years, its fabulous, one of my top 10 pubs in Britain. Its one of the few that I could spend all day in, superb beer, basic but friendly surroundings and no frills. Long may it continue.....
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The thing that made the August Bank Holiday Beer Festival special was the fact that all the beers were on handpull in the old brewery building. Imagine a bar with sixty handpulls. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.
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Excellent Pub with its own Wye Valley and Dorothy Goodbody beers which were originally brewed at the Pub until a few years ago. Beer here is somewhat cheaper that you' expect and I visited during th August Bank Holiday Beer Festival which offered over sixty beers as well as cider and Perry. All in all, unmissable if you're ever in Hereford
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Best pub in the City by some distance. If you ever wondered where the real pubs went, then visit the Barrels. Great beer, real cider on tap, but the real gem is the enormous courtyard, much of it under cover. Prices are about 5 years out of date so it won't blow a hole in your pocket. Don't bother with the Barrels if you want a pretentious, plastic pub with kitsch on the walls. Jalsagor curry house across the road worth a try too.
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Been coming to Hereford for years & only discovered this pub this year. Quality establishment. Great beer, friendly staff & great atmosphere.
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It's certainly one of the best pubs in the area. Locals (if thats what they are) are friendly enough once the ice is broken. I got the impression that many of the 'locals' are from the local (top secret SAS) barracks, or at least are ex-service. Recomend this pub to all.
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A fine selection of real ales and all at a reasonable price. particularily fine Golden Ale. interesting clientele which occasionally includes the cider heads from over the road as well as locals and visitors like myself drawn bt the beer.
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Always a pub to visit when in Hereford and we enjoyed our Wye Valley Trekkers and Butty Bach on this visit. Have intersting rooms and an excellent courtyard area. Interesting features on the walls too. Friendly staff.
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Excellent pub,one of the best in the country. Got SEVERELY mashed here on the Stout and the Golden ale,which surely didn't do their quality justice!!!! BTW the Stout was �1.50 a pt. Met some nice regulars who's names I can't remember............. Staff were friendly. Good courtyard for the cancerstick addicts. Soccer on the telly but at reasonable volume. Rock and oldie jukebox.
HEAVEN IN HEREFORD!!! A 10/10. And I'm choosy...
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WHAT a pub. 6 hand pulled real ales & 4 ciders & all the usual Carling , Guinness etc
Went to Hereford for the first time at the weekend & this is EASILY the best pub in the town. Brilliant atmosphere & a really good pint. Good prices too
Live music in the back & a huge outdoor area.
AND a superb curry house (The Alsogor) right opposite. What more can anyone want ?
TOP TOP pub - I shall be coming back to Hereford & this is definitely worth another visit
yam69 - 20 Apr 2008 17:41 |
Great boozer and with quality ale at around �2.00 a pint how can you go wrong?
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Nirvana. A wonderful pub with gloriously eccentric fun-loving clientele. A Mecca for real ale fans (can you say that nowadays?)
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A bit hectic on a busy Friday evening session but service and ale quality were both excellent.
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One of the must visit pubs while in Hereford and was not disappointed at this visit. Enjoyed our beers and wandered round the busy rooms to get a feel of the pub. All rooms busy and the playoffs on the TV being enjoyed. Will be interesting to see how July 1st affects it as it was rather smokey.
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What a boozer - thought I was back in Manc! Ales of the very highest order from the local Wye Valley Brewery, great atmosphere and friendly landlord.
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Friendly staff and good beers...very busy...large backyard with tables...nice on a warm sunny day!
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Busy pub with lots of rooms, much character and the excellent Wye Valley beers. Bar staff are very much on the ball. Highly recommended.
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Homer, I have agreed with most of your postings on Hereford pubs. My main gripe with Hereford pubs is the cliqueiness. In five years living in Hereford, this is the only pub where anyone has EVER started a spontaneous conversation at the bar.
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Not bad...although slightly over rated I feel.
Seems rather clicky to an outsider...I remember watching England V Wales in the Rugby here about 5 years ago and slipping a disc in my back....much joy!
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Splendid pub. gr8 beer.
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A lovely pub... An extremely odd yet charming cliental. Well worth a visit.
Julian - 21 Jul 2004 19:22 |
One of the few real pubs in the town centre, they know how to keep a good pint. Popular with students and giffers alike. You can take the dog with you, buy a pickled egg with your crisps, smoke at the bar and they fill milk cartons with beer as a takeaway service. Magic.
Al - 7 Jul 2004 14:01 |
Best pub in Hereford, even now the brewery has moved. Although no guest beer, always a good range of Wye Valleys own products.
Jimbo Smith - 7 May 2004 18:46 |
When I was 18, I though this was the best pub in the world. I may well have been right.
They play 'New York, New York' by Frank Sinatra every night at kicking out time and there's a dedicated pool room for hanging out in. The beer is great and the punters are very friendly, a mix of hippies, old blokes in hats and random Herefordian characters.
The beer festival is always great fun- August bank holiday weekend. 10/10
sue - 16 Sep 2003 15:51 |
Divided into 4 rooms all offering warm cosy atmospheres, this is a gem. The Wye Valley beers are exquisite and must be tried. Live music, and festivals, often staged here.
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