If one new opening could sum up the drink scene in Bristol in 2013, then it’s Small Bar on King Street.

Beer is currently big news in Bristol, and King Street is its new epicentre with the Beer Emporium and revitalised Royal Navy Volunteer just down the road from Small Bar.

It’s not just bricks and mortar either which have categorised Bristol’s drink scene this year and a look at the selections on tap here prove that.

Beers are divided into pale ale and IPAs, Belgian and German, amber and stouts, sours, lagers, and – last but not least – “crazy shit”.

A healthy selection of these are Bristol based. Where this time last year Bristol Beer Factory may have been the one local choice, on tap and keg here alongside BBF’s marvellous Milk Stout are beers from Wiper & True, New Bristol Brewery and Wild Beer Co, the proud brewers of the crazy shit choice, the 11 per cent Wildebeest.

Of course there are also beers from further afield, from Durham Brewery’s St Cuthbert to London’s Kernel.

All of the beers, including a big selection of bottles, can be found listed in menus hidden within heavy hardback books scattered around the bar.

There are even two lagers from Williams Bros. and Redchurch Brick Lane, although the feeling for most lagers is shown by water served from a Stella Artois pump.

Small Bar is the brainchild of Bruce Gray, manager of the first BrewDog bar in Aberdeen and then becoming a director of the company and managing its expansion up to its eighth bar in Manchester, before moving to Bristol with his wife Hannah and founding a beer distribution company and now Small Bar.

It may be called Small Bar, but in fact it’s not a small bar at all. The name comes from the size of what was going to be their original premises on St Nicholas Street before that deal fell through. But the name stuck, so Small Bar it is.

In what used to be the hideously lime green Sublime, this new bar is split into three areas – the bar itself, a larger downstairs room and an upstairs snug.

Lights hang from old crates, tables are made from barrels and on one exposed brick wall, tea lights shine brightly from Small Bar’s own glasses artfully held in place by nails.

There is no food served yet, but this is included in plans for next year which also include brewing beers on-site.

Bristol’s beer drinkers have never had it so good.

Small Bar, 31-32 King Street, Bristol, BS1 4DZ

www.smallbarbristol.com