The King's Head, Wells

Hi CaptainEric, thanks for the kind review. Just to let you know, the 'hidden ale' problem isn't quite as big a problem as you may think, most people either see the barrels fairly quickly or are guided to them by staff. Your post gives the impression they are somehow hidden when, in fact, they take up most of the back bar? I actually think it's quite nice to have something a bit different and have all of our ale served straight from the barrel rather than the (usually too cold) hand-pulls?

I can assure you that the barrels are genuine and the only thing that touches the beer between the brewer and your glass is the tap we hammer into the cask, which is as it should be :o) We have a branded blackboard on the top casks simply because they're at eye-level but each brand has a cask on sale and a cask conditioning, so it all depends which cask happens to be on sale when you visit (the top 'branded' one or the bottom 'unbranded' one).

On your point about Fosters bar towels, we use bar towels purely to catch any drips when serving from the top casks but, as we sell almost all local ales, branded bar towels specific to the brands on sale are very rare. But then I'm much happier for the local brewer to be spending his profits on keeping his brews right rather than on point-of-sale items! We sell Fosters on the bar, so it seems sensible to use them for this purpose?

I hope you get a chance to visit again. Once the season starts (from Easter) we'll have additional guest ales; I limit it to the two permanent brands (Potholer and Merlin's Magic) across the winter period, to maintain throughput and, hence, quality. Far too many pubs view the number of ales on sale as more important than their actual quality!

Thanks, Steve (licensee :o)

1 Apr 2011 15:18

The King's Head, Wells

Hi, Steve here again ( a year since my last post)! Thanks for the positive comments, I'd just like to offer my apologies to "LennyBanter" for his poor experience with our beer; if only you'd mentioned it at the time we would have gladly sorted it out? I can only think that you had a one-off end-of-barrel pint, which is sometimes unavoidable? I must say that we are generally known in town for our excellent ales so your companion must be mistaken on their comments - maybe they're still thinking about the King's Head of old (many people in town, unbelievably, think it's still ran by the previous licensee, who left in 2007)!? Please come and visit us again and give us the chance to prove you wrong!!

6 Oct 2009 15:37

The King's Head, Wells

Ok, I would say it's great, as I'm the landlord! But come and see for yourself; I'm confident you'll love it.
We're the only pub in Wells selling cask ale as it's meant to be, straight from the cask into your glass.
Don't worry about the 'bouncer' comments below - we still have them but only Friday and Sat nights, and that's only because we're a busy pub with a late licence so we HAVE to have them by law - they're the friendliest doorstaff you'll ever meet!

8 Aug 2008 13:47