18 February 2026

Beer and sandwiches: At Have I Got Brews for You in Stony Stratford

This column is our weekly pub review, written by pintsmen, women and children across the nation. Suggestions to letters@newstatesman.co.uk

By New Statesman

Illustration by Marta Signori

Have I Got Brews for You is the craft revolution in Stony Stratford (also known as Stony), a market town that forms part of Milton Keynes. Inside is a combination bar and shop, dispensing pints (and two thirds and one thirds) from its taps to punters sitting on bar stools around tables fashioned from wooden barrels.

Opening two years ago in a former travel agents, it has become a fixture in the local scene, offering up craft beers on its ten taps, alongside fridges and shelves of weird and wonderful bottles and cans. Sadly for the habitual craft beer drinker, from Tuesday to Thursday it’s a quick-pint-and-retail spot, opening for just three hours from 5pm, with more standard late-night hours on Friday and Saturday.

We’ve gone drinking by mistake

Stony, at least in British drinking culture, is best known for being a filming location for Withnail and I – there is a photo still of Richard E Grant and Paul McGann from the film proudly displayed on the wall. Next to the memorabilia is a large pink neon sign declaring, “This is our happy place,” throwing curated lighting on to the bar area.

Sour times

There is always one sour on tap, fulfilling the advice once given to me by a fellow drinker in a bar in Bucharest that “you have to finish on a sour”. Add to this the array of increasingly ludicrous-sounding cans: cheesecake sour? Seasonal mince pie sour? Triple-fruited mango sour? Don’t mind if I do.