Our Disappearing Pubs - Bristol & District CAMRA

PINTS WESTThe Ploughand Ollie’s Army from Acorn brewery.We were keen on visiting Dronfield, a half-hour bus journey fromSheffield across the border in Derbyshire. Part of the attraction wasto visit the Coach and Horses, a pub with close links to Thornbridgebrewery. Five of Thornbridge’s excellent beers were on offer – I hadvery good Lord Marples and Jaipur IPA. There were beers on draughtavailable from the USA (Sierra Nevada Brown) and Belgium (MaredsousBlond). Another attraction for some of us was that that the pubadjoins Sheffield FC, the oldest football club in the world, founded in1857. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived it was dark so all I can tellyou is that Sheffield were playing Quorn on the Saturday!Bus back to Sheffield city centre. The Devonshire Cat did not looktoo promising from the outside. With very loud music coming out, itlooked like being a noisy version of Wetherspoon’s. However, it provedto be another gem. The background music was annoying as this meantthat people were having to shout at each other instead of just being ableto talk (must be getting old), but this did not detract too much. A fantasticselection of beers and an interesting menu. A dozen real ales. I hadtheir own Brew Company Devonshire Cat Pale Ale, which was superb.I also had Blue Monkey Original, Anglo Dutch “Cheers To 10 Years”with its heavy hints of coconut and Acorn Rivalka IPA which was oneof the beers of the weekend. There was a huge menu of over 100 beersfrom around the world. We had not intended on moving away from thereal ale, but succumbed to a bottle of a 10% Black Chocolate Stout fromthe Brooklyn Brewing Company, which was shared amongst us andburned on the way down.A 10-minute walk to the Bath Hotel, which is on CAMRA’s NationalInventory of Historic Interiors. This means that it goes withoutsaying that it is a fascinating pub to visit. A bonus was the five excellentales on offer. We started with a top-quality pale Abbeydale Deception –voted beer of the festival at the last Steel City Beer Festival. This wasfollowed by Raw Dark Peak Stout. Raw is a Derbyshire brewery thatonly started up in 2010, but this beer was top-notch, even when measuredagainst the strong Brooklyn stout drunk a little earlier. We intendedgoing back the following night for the Phoenix, Idle and Magpie beersbut, sadly, this never materialised.We retired to our hotel and had nightcaps of their own Crown breweryBrooklyn Heights (5.8% ABV and really good) and 6% ABV BlackJack Stout. Time for bed.Saturday was bright and blustery. Our morning constitutional compriseda pleasant walk around the botanical gardens. We then caught abus to the Western outskirts of the city. Our first stop of the day was theRising Sun. In many ways I feel that this was the best pub we visitedall weekend and is an object lesson for many landlords on how to runan enterprising and successful pub in these very difficult times. The pubis operated by the local Abbeydale brewery and six of their beers wereavailable. In addition, there were seven guest cask ales. I had DailyBread, Brimstone and Absolution from Abbeydale, then Brass MonkeyOrgan Grinder Stout and Anglo Dutch Jaspers Pale Ale (apricots,replacing last night’s coconut in this one from AD). There were tastingnotes written on each pumpclip so the customer has a reasonable ideaof what they are purchasing. There was a large board explaining thepricing policy, which was very transparent, directly linking beer strengthto price. This was in six bands ranging from £2.40 for a beer between3% and 3.9% ABV, up to £2.90 for beers at 5.7% or higher. There wasa beer menu, comprising over 40 beers from Belgium and other parts ofthe world. Each beer had its own page in the menu, with a picture of thebeer in its glass, a statement on the beer from the brewery and commentsfrom beer guides. There were large bookcases – not filled withthe usual tat, but a great range of books, with beer, sport, history andquizzes strongly featured. Next to one of the bookcases was a large pileof games. Posters around the pub advertised upcoming events, whichincluded tutored ale tasting evenings, Belgian beer tasting evenings,themed food and beer evenings, quizzes, live music, a malt whisky andwhisky sausage tasting evening. The list goes on. Throw in lunchtimeand evening food, comfortable seating, a piano and the day’s papers andthat’s about it. Pretty much the complete pub.A 15-minute stroll (okay, I took the bus and passed the others) andwe were in the Ranmoor Inn. A Victorian neighbourhood pub. Five ales– Bradfield Farmers Blond and Bitter, Theakston Bitter, Taylor Landlordand Abbeydale Moonshine. A short bus ride to Broomhill and we wereat a pub called the York, which we had spotted in Sheffield CAMRS’smagazine, Beer Matters. The York only re-opened as a pub last Septemberand is gaining a good reputation locally. Comfortable and “upmarket”with the beer being expensive for Sheffield at £2.70 to £2.90. Sixales on offer (and mulled cider). We went for the Brew Company AnvilPorter and Kelham Island Pale Rider. A minute’s walk and we wereThe Rising Sunin the Fox and Duck. This is a large, one-room pub run by SheffieldUniversity Students Union. We hadn’t eaten and the Fox doesn’t dofood. They are, however, relaxed about people bringing in food fromoutside, so we nipped across the road for a curry to bring back – washeddown with Wold Top Best (£1.85 a pint) and Crown HPA. A bus into thecity centre and we headed for the Harlequin. Another fantastic real aleemporium. Operated by the Brew Company, it offers nine ales, severalof which changed during our hour’s stay. I had the Brew Company HopMonster (I’m a bit of a sucker for a beer with “hop” in the name) andElland Fireball. Both excellent. I noticed that there were two Brew Cohouse beers available for an attractive £2.10.A short walk for a flying return visit to the Kelham Island Tavern.This was uncomfortably packed with an early Saturday evening crowdspilling out onto the pavement, despite the cold weather. I had swifthalves of Phoenix Monkeytown Mild and Sheffield Summit IPA. It goeswithout saying that they were in superb condition. Our party briefly splitup. Some of us went back to the Barrack for some live music, accompaniedby Castle Rock Black Gold (£2.10). We then all reconvened backat the Gardner’s Rest, where a very fine acoustic duo were playing abizarre mix including Velvet Underground songs! The final beers for theday were Nutbrook Dun Wokkin and Naked Brewer (true!) PalindromePorter.Sunday morning was a bit subdued, spent waiting for our lunchtimetrain back to Weston. Just time for a farewell visit to the Sheffield Tapfor Thornbridge Lumford and Acorn Old Moor Porter.If you are thinking of a trip to Sheffield – perhaps for the nationalCAMRA Members’ Weekend – go. You won’t be disappointed.Tim NickollsPage 29