Finzels Reach on a Friday evening hums with conversation and clinking glasses. The Left Handed Giant brewpub sits beside Bristol's floating harbour, its brewhouse visible through glass and brick. The company crowdfunded this site and opened it on 13 June 2019. Today, they serve tank beer just feet from the vessels. Visitors see the brewhouse from the bar, order Pizza Is Lovely from the kitchen, and play pool or darts in the upstairs games room.
Left Handed Giant beer. Photo: Left Handed Giant.
Beer in the back room at Small Bar
Left Handed Giant's About page dates the start to 2014. Rich Poole walked into Small Bar on King Street and handed samples to Bruce Gray and Jack Granger. The three began brewing on a 200-litre kit behind the bar. They moved into cuckoo brewing under the Left Handed Giant name before building their own sites. Be The Business names the founding team: Bruce Gray on front-end operations, Jack Granger on bars, and Rich Poole on brewing.
Small Bar still pours their beer. The brewery lists the bar at 31 King Street, Bristol BS1 4DZ. The shop homepage says the company has made modern beer in Bristol since 2015. This period covers the years between the first Small Bar kit and the later brewery build-out.
Crowdfunding and the 1788 building
The company started its own physical brewery in 2017. They raised over £1 million on Crowdcube to build the harbour brewpub. The brewpub page counts about 1,500 investors. Be The Business reports that the 2018 equity campaign hit its £450,000 target in under 40 minutes.
The Finzels Reach site is a 10,000-square-foot building from 1788. It sat derelict for over a decade. Bruce Gray told Be The Business that a footbridge to the walkway was still unfinished when they first looked at the site. The team committed to the project after seeing Wylam Brewery restore Newcastle's Palace of Arts. Work on the Compressor Building finished for the June 2019 opening. The site has over 250 years of brewing history. Lead brewer Alex Simpson traces this lineage to George's and Courage-era production on the same harbour frontage. He also links the brewery's name to River Avon folklore.
Bruce Gray was previously BrewDog's operations director. He has cited this experience when discussing bar operations and delegation. The Be The Business profile quotes him on hiring for attitude and giving staff ownership of their roles. He aims to sell beer through company taps instead of chasing volume.
Two breweries and six premises
Left Handed Giant now has six premises in Bristol and two brewery sites. These are the St Philips taproom brewery and the Finzels Reach brewpub. Annual production is around 7,000 hectolitres. Most beer sells through the Finzels brewpub, the St Philips taproom, Small Bar, and independent shops.
Left Handed Giant. Photo: Left Handed Giant.
The sites divide production. St Philips brews experimental and modern beer. The brewpub focuses on session pales, traditional ales, and unfiltered lagers. Tank beer at Finzels is the core of this model. Bruce Gray told Duotank that bag-in-tank systems allow beer to move from vessel to tap with minimal distance.
The St Philips taproom has a different rhythm. The room has indoor seating and a covered outdoor yard. It hosts food festivals, brewery trails, and markets. A free pool table and board games are available for quieter visits. Food comes from rotating street-food traders on weekends. Eleven tap lines pour fresh beer, including new releases. Brewery tours run on Fridays at 6:30pm for groups of up to ten.
The Finzels brewpub offers a full hospitality experience. Bar hours are Monday and Tuesday 4pm to midnight, Wednesday and Thursday noon to midnight, Friday and Saturday noon to 1am, and Sunday noon to midnight. The kitchen serves Pizza Is Lovely during lunch and dinner blocks. The top-floor games room opens at 5pm on weekdays and midday on weekends. It has a dedicated bar, pool, and darts. Brewery tours run Wednesdays at 7pm and Saturdays at 12:30pm. These tours are for adults only and are capped at twelve people.
What they brew
The online shop core range shows the house palate. Dream House is a 6.2% gluten-free hazy IPA. It uses Citra, Vic Secret, and Galaxy hops with oats and wheat. Sky Above is a 4.5% gluten-free session pale hopped with Citra, Simcoe, and Mosaic. Run Free is a 0.5% alcohol-free IPA. The lager collection includes Helles (5.0%), West Coast Pils (5.0%), Italo Pils (4.8%), and Starkad (5.0%). All are naturally carbonated and vegan-friendly.
The shop rotates hazy pales, DIPAs, radlers, and collaboration packs. Recent releases include Twin Cities gluten-free pales, West Coast Pale four-packs, and low-ABV table beer. Limited runs often land at the St Philips taproom first. The brewpub serves cask Dark Mild alongside a long keg list.
At Finzels, Pubs Galore reviewers described thirty keg lines and two handpumps. The gantry lists guest beers separately. This volume allows regulars to choose by style rather than a single flagship.
Visitor and local feedback
Left Handed Giant Brewpub has a 4.1 out of 5 rating on Tripadvisor from 142 reviews. It is located at Hawkins Lane in Finzels Reach.
Quinno_, writing for Pubs Galore in May 2025, called the warehouse brewpub "functional and convivial." He noted over thirty kegs on the bar and a fine mild. E TA, in April 2025, praised the cider choice and called the house Dark Mild "a really good pint with a nostalgic twist." Bucking Fastard described it as a hip modern brewery tap with keg taps grouped by style.
365 Bristol's 2021 feature called the Finzels room an open-air beer hall. It noted the company's community ownership. Untappd check-ins show guests enjoy the smooth Dark Mild, fruited sours, and guest imports. This feedback matches the brewery's goal of mixing modern hazy beer with cask mild and lager.
Practical information
Finzels Reach brewpub: Hawkins Lane, Finzels Reach, Bristol BS1 6EU. Email brewpub@lefthandedgiant.com for accessibility questions. The brewpub is walk-in only and does not take table bookings. It is cashless. Children are welcome until 8pm with supervision. Dogs are welcome. Step-free access is available via Counterslip. There is a ground-floor accessible toilet and a lift.
St Philips taproom: Unit 3, Wadehurst Industrial Estate, St Philips Road, St Philips, Bristol BS2 0JE. Open Thursday and Friday 5pm to 10pm, Saturday 1pm to 10pm, and Sunday 1pm to 5pm. The site has flat wheelchair access. Accessible toilets are available only on summer event dates. Dogs are encouraged. Under-18s are welcome until 8pm. Groups can request tables through an online form. There is no on-site parking. Temple Meads station is a ten-minute walk away. Old Market buses are also ten minutes away.
Beer ships UK-wide from lefthandedgiant.com. Free mainland delivery applies to orders over £50.
Bottom line
Left Handed Giant is a Bristol story told in two rooms. The Finzels brewpub is the showpiece with harbour views, tank-fresh lager, pizza, and pool. St Philips is the industrial brewery tap with experimental drafts and street food. For community-owned beer and gluten-free hazy IPAs, Left Handed Giant belongs on a Bristol beer itinerary.
Sources
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LHG Brewpub. Left Handed Giant. https://lefthandedgiant.com/pages/custom-pages/lhg-brewpub-bristol (Accessed May 2026).
LHG Taproom. Left Handed Giant. https://lefthandedgiant.com/pages/custom-pages/lhg-taproom-bristol (Accessed May 2026).
Small Bar. Left Handed Giant. https://lefthandedgiant.com/pages/custom-pages/small-bar (Accessed May 2026).
Lager. Left Handed Giant. https://lefthandedgiant.com/collections/lager (Accessed May 2026).
Left Handed Giant | Bristol Brewery & Venues. Left Handed Giant. https://lefthandedgiant.com/ (Accessed May 2026).
Simpson, Alex. "Of Past & Present." Left Handed Giant Blog. https://lefthandedgiant.com/blogs/news/of-past-present (Accessed May 2026).
Meet the Bristol Brewers: Left Handed Giant. 365 Bristol. January 13, 2021. https://365bristol.com/story/2021/01/13/meet-the-bristol-brewers-left-handed-giant/11896/ (Accessed May 2026).
Left Handed Giant shows why hiring for attitude over aptitude really does work. Be The Business. https://resources.bethebusiness.com/real-business-stories/left-handed-giant-shows-why-hiring-for-attitude-over-aptitude-really-does-work/ (Accessed May 2026).
Case study: How Left Handed Giant brewery started with the Duotank solutions. Duotank. https://www.duotank.com/case-study-lhg-brewery/ (Accessed May 2026).
Left Handed Giant. Pubs Galore. https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/87848/ (Accessed May 2026).
Left Handed Giant Brewpub. Tripadvisor. https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186220-d17653047-Reviews-Left_Handed_Giant_Brewpub-Bristol_England.html (Accessed May 2026).
Little Summer Beer Bash (venue address). Left Handed Giant. https://lefthandedgiant.com/pages/little-summer-beer-bash (Accessed May 2026).