Category Archives: Pub Reviews

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Ropewalk leads fight on Nottinghams big real ale rip off.

If you haven’t read the article below this about Blue Monkeys new Canning Circus powerhouse opening in June, then do so, because Canning Circus looks like it could be turning into quite the force!

You will be forgiven for mistaking The Ropewalk as still being under its previous guise of a 'scream pub' other than the repainting of the garish yellow walls not a great deal else has changed exterior wise.

 

A great selection, this picture was taken during the mild trail hence 2 milds.

Amidst Nottinghams sea of inflated beer prices (£3+ a pint is becoming far too common, and frankly ridiculous) it’s nice to see a pub offering geniunely good deals on quality ales, and assuming it’s some kind of dosshole full of students would be quite far off the mark, it’s actually light and very spacious with a good mix of clientele.

 

Nice and open, plenty of seating.

Proper pint glasses.

So here’s the deals, and what makes this probably the most competetive in Nottingham, as the deal states above between 5pm till 9pm weeknights all beers are £1 off, when we went in this makes them between £1.75 to £2.10 a pint.

It’s also worth noting when the above deals not on, it’s 50p off for CAMRA (biggest in Nottingham) averaging the price of a pint at around £2.50, reasonable.

And no, you can’t combine the offers!

 

 

 

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Mansfield Road Holy Gr-Ale turns out to be Holy-Fail

Over 100 beers? erm no actually, not really, and if there ever where it would require a myriad of *† and other cautionary disclaimer notes after the number 100… It’s possible that 100 beers where on sort of, but not at once and some pubs where paying lip service compared to others. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still worth going as they have some great beers on, but the claims of 100 beers whilst true, in a nutshell it’s not ‘all at once’.

Pea

We started at the Peacock Inn, I like this pub and we are due to do a review but I was surprised to see no beer barrels, just the bar full up to its normal quota, that was ‘it’ thankfully Bath Ales – Summer Hare was superb and pulled them out from embarrasment, they had about 7 beers on including regulars, this was not the start hoped for.

Moving onto the Golden Fleece we where greeted with this board,

Fleace

That’s better I thought, but the reality was unfortunately again not all beers being available, inside was a smaller sized menu with ticks showing which where currently on, about a third where available to buy at the time. Thornbridge Jaipur was a great pint but costly at £3.20, but hey at least thats 5p cheaper than in the center of London, because Mansfield Road and the center of London are clearly in a similar business position…

Ok so fair enough moving on to the Nags Head, they do a quality beer festival out in the great patio area they have, the board this time didn’t promise so much but at least all beers where on and available, so fair play to the Nags Head.

Nags

Not promising a massive selection, but fair play for having it all on the bar to buy.

Next off to the Lincolnshire Poacher, which roundly trounced the previous pubs with its usual great bar selection, and just under 20 on gravity available.

Poacher

£2.80 for all festival pints was again reasonable

Many will think after my previous glowing reports of the Lincolnshire Poacher that I have some kind of agenda, well I don’t! I think normally it’s over priced, but tonight again it showed that it was the best of the bunch!

We went at this point to next door,  it seems Fade and the hard to find cafe just plain pulled out, we went there to be told abruptly, and I quote,

we’re not stamping cards

They had 2 beers on, and that was your lot.

Fade

 

This was a festival/crawl that promised a huge amount and didn’t quite live up to expectation, claims of 100+ beers is deceptive given the showing we saw. We didn’t try the Rose of England or Forest Tavern but given the experience from all the other pubs, I think a mixed reaction is the best we can give it, here’s hoping that if this event is back on in 2012 some of the pubs that gave a poor showing pull their weight, as they put the brakes on what could have been a fantastic night out.

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Nottingham to Sheffield, Real ale in the steel city.

PART 2 IS NOW HERE

One thing I had to keep telling myself whilst writing this report was ‘the grass is always greener on the other side‘ yet no matter how much I kept reminding myself of this fact I can’t help but think that’s utter rubbish, because when it comes to real ale Sheffield mercilessly pans Nottingham into the floor, and then some.

Not only did the steel city offer up a wider selection, but it was significantly cheaper than most of the pubs in Nottingham, the cheapest round coming to £6.75 for 3 pints (no, not in a Wetherspoons) this brings a lot of things into perspective, not only does it appear Nottingham is overly expensive for no real reason, but a lot of Nottingham pubs could really do with bucking up their ideas. It’s worth keeping in mind this trip was taken on a Tuesday, not a weekend, if you drank this kind of time mid-week in Nottingham you’d be lucky to get a few beers on, with many turned round preparing for Friday.

We started the day off in the Bankers draft, which is an easy walk from the train station and right outside the tram network, this is a large Wetherspoons/Lloyds #1 with a hotel lobby feel to it, it’s large, well decorated, modern and clean, something that makes you realise just how bad the likes of other Wetherspoons such as Nottinghams Roebuck Inn, really are.
Hawkshead – Cumbrian 5 hop was the drink I started the day off with, and it was superb, it turns out that was just a taste of things to come, we went outside, then got on the blue route tram to Shalesmoor.

Additional; I went to Sheffield again recently, 4 can go using a group saver ticket for £23, that’s £5.75 each including return!

The Wellington

The Wellington is just literally up the road from the tram stop at Shalesmoor, making it the perfect place to continue proceedings, the tram ride was under 5 minutes and was £1.50.


Wellington, Rear

Beer barrels at the rear suggest this is more than an elaborate Skoda advertisement.

The Wellington, Sheffield

 

Wellington, Little Cart

As you have probably gathered from the above picture the Wellington is home to The Little Ale Cart and as expected many of their beers are on the bar, many even now are around £2.20 a pint, which belies just how good they are, more on that in a moment though.

 

Bar, The Wellington, Sheffield

A proper bar, reminds me of the Dewdrop in Ilkeston

Wellington, Sheffield, Interior

The Wellington is a no nonsense pub serving around 10 ales at once, it’s basic and the focus is on the beer as you can see above, of note was a beer the Little Ale Cart brew called Father Ambrose, which was fantastic. Though I can have no complaints about the other 4 beers I tried.

After finishing up in the Wellington we looked at proceeding to the next pub, thankfully this is viewable from the Wellingtons doors, easy enough!

 

Wellington, to the Ship Inn

The Ship Inn, as viewed from the tram tracks outside the Wellington

The Ship Inn

The ship is one of the oldest pubs in Sheffield I’m told, but I wanted a pint then, not 100 years ago, so less of the history lesson.

The Ship Inn, Sheffield

Ship Inn, Sheffield Inside

The Ship had the smallest range of the day, serving around 4 ales, however the two tried where yet again up there with the best,  Thornbridge – Chiron being another quality beer from the Thornbridge stable, but it was well beaten by Bradfield – Farmers Blonde, I wanted to sample more from the Bradfield brewery, but there’s only so much a man can drink so we set off to the next pub, these are a little tricky to find but the barman of the ship was nice enough to point us in the right direction, top bloke.

 

Fatcat, Kelham Island

The Fat Cat & Kelham Island Tavern are either side of this road, the Fat Cat on the left, Kelham Island Tavern on the right.

Kelham Island Tavern

 

Kelham Island Tavern, Sheffield

Kelham Island Tavern, Sheffield, Bar

Kelham Island Tavern, Sheffield, Bar

The Kelham Island Tavern offered another large selection of just over 10, the pick of the bunch here being Bank Top Brewery – Sir Henry Morgan (pictured with the skull and crossbone) One mistake I did make was not trying the Branta as pictured above, we assumed it would be on at the Sheffield Tap, wrong! Another thing to note about this pub is they have signs up saying that you can be refused further service for swearing, so watch your mouth! Oddly enough we didn’t spot a single Kelham Island brewed beer on.

Additional; after a further visit to Shefflied this week, I can confirm that the majority of beers are priced at £2.10 a pint in the Kelham Island Tavern.

 

The Fat Cat

The Fat Cat, Sheffield

The Fat Cat, Sheffield

Go nuts

The Fat Cat, Sheffield

The other half of the main bar (with nuts)

The Fat Cat, Sheffield

The side bar with questionable clock

The Fat Cat, Sheffield

This used to serve Kimberley ales, not now though obviously

The Fat Cat, Sheffield

Proper home made pork pies

The Fat Cat was packed full of character, I thought the Wellington reminded me of the Dewdrop in Ilkeston but this did even moreso. The Fat Cat with its wonky floors and strange bar layout was probably the most unique of the day, serving up even more quality beer,  Prior’s Well – Gardener’s Tap being the pick, another pub I could have happily spent the rest of the day drinking in.
I’m assured the pork pies where top notch, and Monday nights sound interesting, where between 8-11pm a select Kelham Island beer is £1.30 a pint!

 

The Riverside

In the summer this place will be unmissable, alas as you can see from the pictures our visit was very dark, cold, and wet. There are around 8 beers on and the clientel is an excellent mix of young and old (even on a Friday night when visited) the vibe was pleasant and friendly, the outside seating area was excellent and I can’t wait to go back when it’s warm, then I will take some better pictures of course.

As you’re walking from the Fat Cat, follow it round on the same side of the road as the little tesco, easy.

1 Mowbray St, Neepsend, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 8EN

The Harlequin

Harlequin, Sheffield

The Harlequin is the creamy coloured building on the left.

Harlequin, Sheffield

Harlequin, Sheffield

My beer of the year so far Nevada, next to the very pleasant Red Ghost IPA

Harlequin, Sheffield

Harlequin, Sheffield

Proper cobs

Harlequin, Sheffield

I tried to get the whole bar in shot, I failed.

 

Harlequin, Sheffield

The decor is spacious and comfortable.

The Harlequin again offered up a selection worthy of spending the rest of the day trying, it had the greatest selection with around 15 pumps and many craft beers in bottles (a full range of the tasty yet expensive Flying Dog brewery) this was also the largest pub with multiple seating areas.
It’s fair to say the standard was already pretty high, but Sheffield hit me for six again with local boys The Brew Company – Nevada being easily my best drink of 2011 so far, ‘hopped with citra’ it said, you can hop it with whatever you like when it tastes as good as that!

Sheffield Tap

We concluded the day by re-tracing our steps back to the station where they just happened to have yet another brilliant pub right on the platform.

Sheffield Tap

Sheffield Tap

If you like Thornbridge, you might want to get on a train to Sheffield

Sheffield Tap

You can see onto platform 1 whilst drinking, so no excuse for missing the train.

Sheffield Tap

Interesting decor with a shimmering look on the tiles, it changes colour as the light hits it.

Sheffield Tap

View from the platform

The Sheffield tap concluded the day nicely, not only did they have a great range of Thornbridge, they had 5 titanic beers on the other side of the bar, I couldn’t get a shot of those, but in all again they had around 10 beers on.
A beer of note for me in here was Matuska – Raptor IPA, which weighed in at 6.2% and was brewed in the Czech Republic, it was lethally drinkable, thankfully the train was due, a day on that would test the best of drinkers…

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Oooh, that was a long un! Well that concludes the longest post on Nottsbrew by a country mile, I think I will take a break now as this has taken me an age to piece together! Sheffield really is worth the effort to try, the train fare is cheap and it’s under an hour to get there. I hope from the pictures and my small write ups on each place it gives you an idea of what it’s all about, quite honestly you could spend a full day drinking in any of the pubs above, I’m not sure I could say that about too many in Nottingham…

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Plough Inn Radford, Nottingham / Nottingham Brewery

What a diverse area I thought, as I caught the bus from Upper Parliament street outside the ‘private triple x’ shop, and progressed my way from the city centre into Radford, destination, The Plough Inn – home of the Nottingham Brewery.

Carpark

It looks like a normal carpark, because it is. Behind this though is the brewery.

The Plough is a bit of an odd one to get to from the city centre, it requires a 10 minute or so bus ride and then a short walk that you really need to look into on google maps before setting off, with that said it is easy enough to find once you have a general idea of where you’re going* you would be forgiven for being a bit touristy in trying to find it, especially as other than the group I was with I didn’t hear anyone else talking English.

*we took the number 28 bus on the pink line and got off when we saw the white horse cafe (which looks like a pub) then walked up St Peters’ Street

 

Plough

The Plough, untouched by time.

After a stroll through modern Britain it was nice to see the Plough is an old fashioned honest boozer, much like their rivals Castle Rock the Nottingham Brewerys Plough is very much of a traditional decor, or as some would pen them ‘spit and sawdust’ the interior is what it is and after seeing the picture of one of the lounges below, you will know if it’s for you or not.

Interior

One of the lounges.

I set out to the Plough for one reason if I’m honest, to try one of my favourite all time beers again Nottingham – Supreme, I hadn’t seen it in what seemed like forever, so where else better to go and get some? Well, as it turns out they canned brewing Supreme 2 years ago, this news knocked me back like a pint glass to the face (not that I have exprienced that, but it was unpleasant news) this was not the start I was hoping for.

Board

Add 4p due to todays budget.

The Nottingham Brewery do some great beer, we’re both huge fans of Rock Bitter and E.P.A, so despite the Supreme dissapointment I made my way through their card. I always get my hopes up when going to a brewtap expecting the beer to be the literal best example I have ever had, however it simply wasn’t the case; now don’t get me wrong they where good pints so perhaps I got my hopes up too high, another thing to keep in mind is I have had Nottingham beer in countless pubs round Nottingham, consuming a huge number of pints, versus the 5 on this one evening!

Which really brings me to this, despite being a very nice pub it’s hard to recommend  this colourful trip out when Nottingham beers are so freely available in the city centre.

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Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem – Review

Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, or just The Trip To Jerusalem, or more realistically ‘The Trip’ so where do I start? well it’s old, infact world record old though this is contested, thankfully I went there to drink last week not a few hundred years ago.

Jeru

I won’t mix my words here, at one point The Trip was embarrasingly bad, though this was several years ago when Greene King first took over, I’ll hold my tongue on my beef with Greene King somewhat but needless to say a popular tourist attraction was serving up the blandest Greene King beer they could ship in from their HQ in Bury St Edmunds.

pine

In real life pinecone people will not serve you, sorry.

As you can see from the bar picture, this is now thankfully not the case as they have a couple of Nottingham beers on (EPA and Legend, both tried, both very pleasant as expected) not only that they have a second bar round the corner as well.

bar2

On this bar was Nottinghams Rock Mild, and the best beer they had on; Seance by the Full Mash Brewery which was one of the best pints I have had so far this year.

mix board

Calm down, you don't do that many beers.

So would I recommend it? yes, it’s a great pub with a decent smoking area and cave walls (not all real) it often has ghost hunts and suchlike and is steeped in history, it used to make tourists think Nottingham can’t brew, now it doesn’t, that’ll do from the boys from Bury St Edmunds.

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Review: The Kean’s Head (Nottingham)

The Kean’s Head is a small but bustling real ale pub owned by Castle Rock (makers of the Award Winning Elsie Mo and delicious Screech Owl) situated in the Lace Market of Nottingham (and down the road from where I work….very handy)

Outside

Named after “Edmund Kean” a noted 19th century actor. Anyway enough of the history lesson.

Outside

The Kean’s Head is a remarkably small pub and fills up quickly and with good reason. The interior is rustic and comfortable with sofas, comfy chairs, stools and regular tables.

But onto the good stuff. The beer selection is pretty darn good.

Pumps

Usually stocking 2-3 Castle Rock beers and another 1 or 2 guests. The beer is kept (in my opinion) in top notch condition. Although the guests are little on the pricey side it runs the usual Castle Rock brewery 8 ball scheme where if you fill a card with stamps from different beers you get a free beer.

Aside from the real ale there is a great selection of other stuff for those who fancy a change such as Cherry and Raspberry Beers, Oyster Stout, Duvel and a few other continental beers.

One of the real eye poppers of the Kean’s is their fridge full of bottles. It’s literally one of the best selections of … well everything I’ve seen in a long time. You’ll have to excuse the below photo being blurry, often taking these photos is a covert affair as it can raise some eyebrows.

Bottles

But you get the jist, this fridge is full of stuff. Ranging from the most of the “Brewdog” range to “Coopers Sparkling Ale”. There are plenty of the stronger trappist beers, fruit beers all the way to American microbrews rarely seen in the UK.

inside

All in all this is great for a chuckle if the real ales currently on don’t meet your fancy.

If spirits are your game then they have a pretty mind boggling array of spirits from around the world. Not for the faint hearted due to the cost but it’s the perfect thing to top a night off. I myself am partial the Islay malts (the Japanese whiskey is worth a go too!)

The food at the Kean’s Head is more expensive than your average pub fair but with good reason. It’s delicious and well done English/Italian food. You’ll find a large selection ever changing on the board as below, its definitely worth a try.

Food

All in all the Kean’s Head is an excellent pub with a great selection worthy of a place on any pub route.

To find the Kean’s Head follow this google map

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Review: The Salutation Inn (Nottingham)

The Ye Old Salutation Inn is one of the Oldest Pubs in the UK, I say “one of” because 2 other nearby pubs lay claim to the same title and rather than get involved in this argument ill be straight and say CBA.

Sally

If I’m honest however I would say the Salutation is the “least modernised” of the pubs which lay claim to the title and represents an authenticate English pub to the tee. To give you an idea of how old this place is it was built in 1240, lets not beat about the bush, that’s bloody old.

pete

The interior is made up of a lot of stone and a lot of old timber which makes a beautiful change to the usual modern pub interiors, its obvious the owners have been careful not to change the old feel of this pub.

inside

Beneath “The Sal” are caves (Nottingham is known as the “City of Caves”) which date back to the 9th century which people are free to take a look at (assuming Pete the landlord is in a good mood likely) and are usually given to “LARP” and role-playing geeks (and to be clear I myself in the past have role-played occasionally)

Inside 2

Keep your eyes peeled for the resident ghost which is apparently a small girl (no really..)

The pub is broke up into 4 main rooms. 2 smaller rooms near the entrance are nice and cozy, the main bar is a quite large room with a great jukebox (usual MP3 one with a zillion choices, however is usually dominated by rock/metal)

The upstairs is a large room usually for functions or karaoke and live bands. I had my wedding reception up there (for a small fee Pete kindly put on a barman and a barrel of Nottingham: EPA which was sublime) which was fantastic.

The Salutation has a great selection of beers on, usually with a great backup of real ciders and a myriad of bottled beer/cider and spirits (They even have the Dan Akroyd vodka in a skull bottle)

To be clear the selection in the Sal rivals wetherspoons for sheer volume

Selection

There is usually at least 3-5 real ales on as well as the usual fare. The beer is always kept excellently with a great selection usually rotating daily. The Sal doesn’t appear to favour any brewery over another with guests from The Nottingham Brewery, Blue Monkey (Pete seems to have a monkey fetish), Milestone and many more regularly appearing.

Occasionally there is a beer festival and about 10-15 barrels materialise in the main bar.

CAMRA discounts apply here if you’re a member.

Another great point of the Sal is the food. You would be forgiven for looking at the beer stained folded sheet of paper with the menu printed on and thinking “cripes”. The reality is The Sal has a great chef and do some great food at decent prices.

The Chilli the salutation do is literally the best I’ve had anywhere. Its nice and spicy and well worth a try. The burgers are handmade and excellent.

While the Salutation is primarily a rock pub (Its motto is “Rock and Ale”) don’t let that put you off. The Sal is a friendly pub, with friendly staff, great food and ale.

Just what you should expect from a real ale pub.

Click here for google maps location

Cheers!

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Riverside Farm and the Nutbrook Brewery

Food isn’t really our focus here, but it’s mixed with ale, so get over it.

Riverside Farm is located at the old Harry Ramsden site next to the Riverside Retail park. It’s a little out of the way but offers something different for those willing to make the short journey, or perhaps have been out shopping and need something to shut the kids up, or can’t be bothered to cook a meal.

Riverside Farm

The food is pretty much standard fare, portions are average and having been three times now nothing much on the menu sticks out as being exceptional. The puddings are certainly worth avoiding however, they’re expensive and small, to somehow ‘fool’ the customer a mountain of whipped cream is put on top of pretty much everything, lame.

Thankfully the Nutbrook Brewerys beer single handedly rescues little issues such as above, they have 2 dedicated Nutbrook pumps rotating and they’re always quality ales. The last visit offered Bitlyke (4.2%) and Responsibly (4.4%) the former being the difference between a good and an average meal, a real top pint.

Is the Riverside Farm worth a visit? why not really, Nutbrook beer isn’t exactly everywhere in Nottingham, so just for that reason it’s a decent enough shout, just watch out for that whipped cream…

http://www.riversidefarmpub.co.uk/

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Review: D.B.A (New York City, USA)

Another great bar in NYC which is off the beaten track so to say which myself and Mrs.Hoppkins  set out to find is D.B.A.

What D.B.A stands for is a long standing mystery it seems, or perhaps the landlord just winding everyone up. But common theories are:

Don’t Bother Asking
Drink Better Ale

As much as i would like to think its the latter I’m sure the landlord is cackling behind the bar the whole time at the hilarity of the gag….possibly….who knows….anyway

First off if your looking to get to this bar prepare for some confusion unless you’re actually from New York. Me and my wife came out the subway and immediately set off in the wrong direction. After we got our bearings and found a good landmark to work from (Katz Delicatessen from “When Harry Met Sally”) we found the place.

DBA

This small and dark looking bar holds possibly the largest beer selection I have seen in any pub in any country. It is phenomenal…

As you can see from the below pic it doesn’t end at beer…they stock a gob smacking selection of Whiskey, Tequila, Vodka…you name it.

Woah

I dived in and had half of an excellent Japanese Beer (which tasted distinctly Belgian) which was matured in sake kegs. It was veeeeeery heavy but absolutely delicious…and cold…which in the heat it was that day was a pleasant thing i can tell you (About 32 degrees Celsius plus and very humid)

sake beer!?

The bar is quite small, dark and cramped but since you can drink at the bar and there are numerous small tables and a nice beer garden its not an issue. For its size the bar is stocked like its ready for war…on your liver.

I would of got a picture but I’m not sure people sitting in a veeeery dark room would of appreciated a camera flash going off in their eyes.

If you drink at the bar you get a complimentary cheese platter at certain times (Check website@ DBA Website for details of times of any offers)

Despite the majority of the beers on offer being bottled there is a pump selection seconded only by the Bree Louise in Euston, London (UK)

Not even Wetherspoons has a real ale selection this wide and this place is 1/10th of the size of an average spoons. The beer was kept beautifully and although the price is high, its the price you pay for excellent real ale (more importantly in my opinion the price you pay for great ale you have never seen)

Another redeeming feature of this great bar is they have a sit down pac man machine (Dr Lovesale will appreciate this I’m sure being a fervent pac man lover)

In short this is a bar not to be missed if you swing by New York which has a great selection, great atmosphere with friendly staff.

Easiest way to get to DBA is:

Subway
# F Train – The Second Avenue stop is closest to d.b.a.
# 6 Train – Take the #6 to Bleeker Street and walk to First Avenue.
# R Train – d.b.a. is equally close to either the Prince Street or 8th Street stops.

CHEERS!

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Roundhouse Nottingham : Review

In-case you’re wondering, the roundhouse got its name because of its large triangular nature.

This magnificent hexagonal beast is located at the top of St James’ street and is actually part of Nottingham’s old general hospital, hence the trapezium shaped nature, synonymous with UK hospitals at the time.

This is a great pub actually, and due to its location one of the best ways to kick off a pub crawl, it’s easy to float down into the heart of the city centre as it’s pretty much all down hill, much like your night likely will be.

Round House Bar

Quality beers, and make sure to try the Tyrells crisps!

The bar is well stocked with a good selection of Ales which change frequently, The Roundhouse have a deal in place with the Full Mash brewery, they brew an exclusive Ale Roundhouse Gold (4%) and sell it at £2 a pint, it’s worth visiting the pub for this beer alone.

Because of its previous usage and the fact that they sell food (which is a popular choice) the roundhouse has a lot more comfortable seating than an average pub as well as benches in a courtyard at the rear for the summer, or winter if you’re a smoker.

The Roundhouse is a characteristic pub with a warm friendly atmosphere and offer a lot more to drink that just ale,  it’s well worth a visit, so if you haven’t do so.

You can check out menus and more from the official website by clicking here.