Go West for super service and great drinks at German-inspired bier halle

Pub Spy knows readers enjoy a factoid… so here’s another one you can have for free.

The former Templeton Carpet Factory, on the edge of Glasgow Green in Bridgeton, is inspired by the medieval Doge’s Palace in Venice.

And if you didn’t know that, then chances are you’ve never been to one of the Dear Green Place’s dear places on the green next door.

Not dear as in expensive, mind. West Brewery maybe isn’t pouring pints at the same price as The Londoner or Crimson Star a few yards further up London Road but neither does it have a police presence standing outside it after Old Firm games. So you get what you pay for.

And in the case of West Brewery, what you pay for is Glasgow’s best Germaninspired bier halle, where the beer is brewed on the premises and the vibe is welcoming ( judging by the number of dogs in the beer garden, that welcome extends to four-legged customers…)

This place is dear in the sense that it’s held fondly in the mind of Pub Spy as a place to call in for a pint on a Sunday afternoon after a wander in the town and down through Glasgow’s historic green.

West manages to be both vast and yet intimate, with rows of tables in the restaurant area and some scattered through the bar.

A small function room was holding a wedding reception, creating the incongruous site of well-dressed wedding guests nipping out to the loos through a giant dog-friendly bier halle.

As is typical of a Sunday, the place was heaving, so we pitched up on high stools and ordered our beers – and chicken burgers from the bar menu – on a shelf, peering down at one of the giant copper brewing vessels.

Despite being quick-grabthat-table busy, we were served swiftly. Like the equipment used to make the beer, the serving staff were dispensing pints of the 11 West beers on sale with machine-like efficiency.

West has become one of the most popular lagers to emerge from Glasgow in recent years. Instead of relying on a punky marketing campaign or riding on decades of tradition like other Scottish brewers, they seem to have established themselves on taps all over Scotland through stealth and determination. That, and damn good beer. How very Germanic, some might say.

They even won themselves kudos for setting up a share trust for employees, making them the first brewery in the UK to be owned by the staff, which might explain their efficiency.

If European-inspired architecture of the Templeton factory and European-style beer of West Brewery aren’t enough to whet your cultural whistle, then the place is yards from the recently reopened People’s Palace, meaning West Brewery finds itself slap-bang on the City Sightseeing bus tour trail.

And, unlike Venice, you won’t have to dig your elbows into anyone’s ribs to enjoy it.