The Union Beverage Critic

Picture the scenario: You’re walking into the union completely sober, and its in thestate that it usually is around 11 PM on a Wednesday night. We’re talking long queues in Beer Bar, random conversations between strangers in the bathrooms and you could probably make a river out of all the drinks consumed.

BEER BAR

Where the action starts. Getting to the Beer Bar for around 10PM should guarantee you a place to sit. Most people dive straight into the Pints of Fun but here we have more options of what to drink. The draught Guinness is very popular as one would imagine - however the Belgian beer Blue Moon is another option if you’re a beer fanatic. It’s nice to have this more unusual choice at the bar. For Six Nations watch-alongs in the Beer Bar, Blue Moon is a great shout. They also do the ginger beer Crabbies, so they have a great array of noteworthy drinks. My recommendation for Beer Bar on a Wednesday, however, is two orange pints of fun. You’re going to need something big to set you off for the rest of the night - and two pints of fun in Beer Bar will do the trick.

BASE

As soon as you walk into Base you’re going to hear somebody (probably fifteen pints of fun deep) murdering Unwritten or Riptide on the karaoke stand. Like Beer Bar, there is plenty of benches and booths to sit if you get there at an early enough time. I’ve always found that the queue for the Base Bar is always shorter than Beer Bar or the others - so this is the place to get your drinks. My advice- go with two cherry pints of fun here to set you up for…

THE WELL

Before you spend the rest of the night in Hive, pop into The Well and go for a few drinks. Their Sambuca is deadly (speaking from experience). But The Well definitely has the most expansive bar and great options outside of pints of fun. Jagermeister, tequila, whisky - you can find plenty of spirits. The only thing that might be longer than the wait for the bar is the amount of people waiting to try out the pole in the centre of the dancefloor.

HIVE

Cometh the hour, cometh the Hive. About 90% of orders at the bar here will be pints of fun. There’s plenty of options. Ice, Apple and Tropical are all hits. I especially like the Blue one. But the most popular one would be Cherry.

When the night's over, you’ll head home and probably be a bit out-of-sorts the next morning. One pint too many. But we all know we’ll be back there next week. Let the drinking continue.