Morning!
myself and Mr P went out on payday for the second Wanderiains of the year. I had more or less finished my tablets (although have started some more the day after) so decided that, and the arrival of funding, would be a good reason to meet up for bose. Having been at the osspickuw anyway, I asked Mr P to meet me in the York in Broomhill.
I first went in the York when I was 17. I had long hair and a leather jacket and glasses and sounded oldish. I was drinking Bass at that age in the York, and was only asked my age once when buying a cider for younger looking but older than me Rob Noble. At the time, the York was a 15 minute walk away, traditional boozer, in Broomhill. Soon it became a fake oirish pub (am guessing around 1994) and apart from having a decent jukebox, where I once played all of Faith no More's Angel Dust, it was a poor version of the former. After a few refurbs and different owners its been run by the Forum/True North Group since 2012 or similar.
The York looks fab in its new guise, but is prone to high prices and the staff don't always recognise words such as hoppy. That said, the food is excellent and they usually have some decent ales on - this time there were four from Shiny in Derby so I had a pint of their Disco Balls pale and another pale called memory loss if memory is memories. Mr P joined me just as the Disco Balls ran out so had a pint of the Shiny Pail, one of their series of two or three hopped pale ales around 4.0%. This was a good start to the nights slaking.
Round the corner and across the road is the Itchy Pig micropub. Its a regular feature of recent Brummell visits and features four real ales, many local, and three or four kegs plus cider and, inevitably given its name, numerous types and flavours of pork scratchings. No Ted this time but the younger bloke was behind the bar, and he didn't need to recommend my choice - a pint of Dark Star Revelation, that gloriously hoppy 5.7% IPA from Sussex. Mr P got a pint of the Abbeydale lower strength special, and we shared a pack of cheese-n-o, sat to the right of the bar.
The pub got quite busy before we left, which means about twenty or so people, and we had two halves of getting (or don't get?) caught in the rain by Blue Bee on keg. Am sure Josh told me it was primed with pineapple, but whatever it is with, it creates a slightly odd balance of sweet and very bitter. Still a good choice for a keg Blue Bee offering.
Back up onto the main road we went to the Little Critters brewery Tap at the Fox and Duck. This is a place I have warmed to since my first visit last year when I was slightly underwhelmed - I admit that this increase in residual temperature is down partly to an improvement in their fare. The pub was busy when we got in, mainly due to football being on, and we both had pints of C-hop from Little Critters, which I think in this case was Citra. The beer is nicely hoppy and not too full-mashy (am not suggesting its full mash, just that their weaker beers remind me of Frog and Parrot output) and was a lovely last beer in actual Broomhill, which we finished whilst watching some footy with some yout (plural).
Further down the road, bypassing the Broomhill Tavern and the Notty, we went in the University Arms. I haven't been in much of late, and it was good to see it was still very much open, still serving real ales and keg, and still popular. We sat at the end of the main room and supped, beer, which came from a handpump, in glasses. I have to admit that my memories of the beers we had that night are at best disparate from here on. Whatever I had was pale and about 5.0%, which is about what I would expect.
From here we headed to our final destination the Bath Hotel. Still, at the end of February, with almost no spirits (I understand the stock has finally been replenished) we both definitely had pints in here. Am not even going to guess what we had, but will claim it was incredibly strong. Since I remember Mr P saying "don't fall asleep" and then waking up by myself. Beefdozing is something am going to have to reign in during 2017.....
The above crawl is short in distance, but peppered with good pubs (and there are others of course in the area) and is, once again, another excellent demonstration of the quality of beers and venues in Sunny Sheffield.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Showing posts with label Fox and Duck Broomhill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fox and Duck Broomhill. Show all posts
Monday, 6 March 2017
Monday, 5 November 2012
Wee Beefy's Broomhill to city centre wander
Hello again,
On Sunday I left late afternoon for a meander around Broomhill heading for the bright lights of town. Here's what happened when I visited some old faces, a new pub, and associated "other" venues en route.
First I had to take a relentlessly long frustrating trip on the dawdle tractor which made me especially thirsty on arrival. Not that I was intending to rush. I had no timetable (much like the 52 bus). I had a tardy Sunday pace about me. I had nothing much of a plan and ultimately no agenda. So no change there then. I do however intensely dislike spending twice as long as is necessary doing something that could be done in half the time. Clearly I needed exercise and refreshment.
I started my wander at the Fox and Duck. I haven't been in for about 18 years and noticed it was much erm, smaller? It was also much less busy than it used to be, when me and various mates tried getting in most New Year's Eves in the nineties, often carrying pints from elsewhere, sometimes underage or inebriated, often both, once carrying the words to all of Auld Lang Syne, and usually with almost no money.
On the bar now there were three real ales including Moonshine, Hobgoblin and Adnams Broadside. I went with the Adnams, a half of which was £1.50, and the pleasant malty smoothness reminded me of almost every beer that I drank in the era of my more frequent visits here. The pub was actually quite relaxing, and, mercifully, devoid of the smell of chips. I like chips, but the stagnant chip fat whiff of nearby student pub the Nottingham House haunts my memories even now, like Rivelin Cafe in the 1980's. I was glad I was spared that olfactory memory, but unsure how much that owed to the Fox no longer being owned by the students union....
On round the corner next to the distinctly un - bright lights of The Place. My first visit, I knew it was a new (ahem) build pub aimed at students so adjusted my expectations accordingly. Inside, with the surround sound echo of huge TV screens on every side of the room, I spotted a decent if similar beer range was offered, but with the addition of Jaipur at £1.50 a half. Even the slightly ominous threat of cellar cool, which usually indicates a cellar based in the arctic, did not ruin a very palatable and well kept Thornbridge ale. Still missing most of its better ingredients, but now seemingly getting slightly more likeable on cask (or am I just no longer able to remember how good it used to taste?)
Off down Nile Street and past the Rutland Hotel, which I considered might have a bar but couldn't be bothered finding out if it sold real ale, I made a snap decision to visit the old art block of King Teds school, now The Francis Newton on Clarkehouse Road. I'd last been when it was Aunt Sally's and only because my mate got a Spirit Group (shudder) discount. No real ale was available then, alas, but theres now a Locale sign on the wall and its run by Wetherspoons.
Inside its still pretty foody but there are 4 real ales and 1 cider with every pump utilised. Are you listening, other Spoons? Not a turned round pump clip to be seen!
I had two halves here, one of the Adnams Fisherman, AKA Old, and one of the very enjoyable Exmoor Gold. Exmoor Gold was one of the first beers I tried at Archer Road Beer Stop in 1994, and has always carried a sort of connoisseurs reputation for me. It was possibly different to how I remember but none the worse for it. The other beers were Wood Street Larch Bitter and Exmoor Fox; all beers were £2.00 a pint, and, they sold 3rd pint measures.
I sat down in a comfy seat and read the beer festival leaflet with interest. Its fair to say that nothing really appeals about a Spoons festival, possibly an opinion formed on the basis of some of their more grim hostelries, but I have to admit to a sneaking admiration for the range of beers available, and the wealth of collaborations, even if they all seemed to be between overseas brewers I'd never heard of and big UK Nationals. I decided I'd have to stop by a bigger Spoons later to try and find some of the range...
Soon I was crossing the ring road and heading down the dark side streets to Convent Walk, popping out at the Bath Hotel. I had been expecting to be starting my exploring at 12.00 in town and had queried whether the pub would be open at 16.00 as advertised - alas no response from Twitter... Perhaps it seemed like a hopeless cause to confirm the dreaded facts, since when I arrived at nearly 18.00, I was the only customer.
Luckily the wearisome Allgates cere-ale had disappeared, but the Marble bitter was wrong on so many levels, so I went for a pint of the Brock, which was £2.90. It was a pleasant if unremarkable beer, not eliciting the excitement that it used to, and left me feeling a little forlorn at how there was so little on sale in the Bath these days that I wanted to drink. Its a fabulous old pub that I love, but I'm starting to run out of things I can be bothered to drink in there of late. If I encounter another ropey Allgates 3.9% beer or a malty Kipling I might have to withdraw my custom in protest. And then where would I be?!
Well, certainly not in my next venue that's for sure. Having been wooed by the exotica alluded to in the beer festival programme I sought out a Spoons with a large number of handpumps, that being the Bankers Draft, where I'd had a decent Pewsey Vale offering last time out. This time however, there were only 3 real ales available - Abbott, a Milestone Ruby something, and Batemans Combined Harvest, plus 2 "Available soon" pump clips.
Whilst the above moniker is marginally less annoying than simply leaving the pumpclip turned round when the beer's run out, the tawdry range did nothing for me, and not using 7 handpumps, albeit on a Sunday night seems a very poor show.
Off to ever reliable haunt the Rutland Arms next, with rumours of a decent dark beer afoot. I had a pint of the Vigilante Brewing Co Dark and Stormy Stout, plus a half of the rather strong Black Iris Intergalactic IPA (6.0%). The dark and stormy suffered slightly from hype and the flavour smash of the strangely creamy but delightfully balanced IPA, and was a bit listless by the end. But I enjoyed my chat with Paultous the boy barman and my pickled egg with chilli sauce. How my Dad managed to consume half a tub of this oddness with his rambling mates back in the day is beyond me. I only bought it out of curiosity, and to find that the Rutland didn't have an egg fork made the experience much less enjoyable than it could perhaps have been.
I refer only to the experience of the egg, of course, since the Rutland delivered on all fronts as always, although, thinking about it - get some bleedin pork pies in....
My final port of call was the Sheffield Tap. Here I had a half of the Tapped Brew Co NZ and a pint of Gadds Number 7. The Tapped was also nearing retirement which was a shame, and I think someone had sneaked in and stolen the Kiwi hops, but it is still trial brews at present (opening December the sign proclaims).
Sadly the Gadds was possibly more of a let down just because of its surprising lack of flavour. I dearly wanted the Tap to blow me away with a beast of a stout but in the end I soaked up my disappointment with a very enjoyable half of the Titanic Cappuccino stout.
So all in all a great bit of exercise with a few pubs thrown in, and some equally exciting, surprising and marginally disappointing beers along the way. Nice to see a range of real ales available where previously there were few, and at sensible prices.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
On Sunday I left late afternoon for a meander around Broomhill heading for the bright lights of town. Here's what happened when I visited some old faces, a new pub, and associated "other" venues en route.
First I had to take a relentlessly long frustrating trip on the dawdle tractor which made me especially thirsty on arrival. Not that I was intending to rush. I had no timetable (much like the 52 bus). I had a tardy Sunday pace about me. I had nothing much of a plan and ultimately no agenda. So no change there then. I do however intensely dislike spending twice as long as is necessary doing something that could be done in half the time. Clearly I needed exercise and refreshment.
I started my wander at the Fox and Duck. I haven't been in for about 18 years and noticed it was much erm, smaller? It was also much less busy than it used to be, when me and various mates tried getting in most New Year's Eves in the nineties, often carrying pints from elsewhere, sometimes underage or inebriated, often both, once carrying the words to all of Auld Lang Syne, and usually with almost no money.
On the bar now there were three real ales including Moonshine, Hobgoblin and Adnams Broadside. I went with the Adnams, a half of which was £1.50, and the pleasant malty smoothness reminded me of almost every beer that I drank in the era of my more frequent visits here. The pub was actually quite relaxing, and, mercifully, devoid of the smell of chips. I like chips, but the stagnant chip fat whiff of nearby student pub the Nottingham House haunts my memories even now, like Rivelin Cafe in the 1980's. I was glad I was spared that olfactory memory, but unsure how much that owed to the Fox no longer being owned by the students union....
On round the corner next to the distinctly un - bright lights of The Place. My first visit, I knew it was a new (ahem) build pub aimed at students so adjusted my expectations accordingly. Inside, with the surround sound echo of huge TV screens on every side of the room, I spotted a decent if similar beer range was offered, but with the addition of Jaipur at £1.50 a half. Even the slightly ominous threat of cellar cool, which usually indicates a cellar based in the arctic, did not ruin a very palatable and well kept Thornbridge ale. Still missing most of its better ingredients, but now seemingly getting slightly more likeable on cask (or am I just no longer able to remember how good it used to taste?)
Off down Nile Street and past the Rutland Hotel, which I considered might have a bar but couldn't be bothered finding out if it sold real ale, I made a snap decision to visit the old art block of King Teds school, now The Francis Newton on Clarkehouse Road. I'd last been when it was Aunt Sally's and only because my mate got a Spirit Group (shudder) discount. No real ale was available then, alas, but theres now a Locale sign on the wall and its run by Wetherspoons.
Inside its still pretty foody but there are 4 real ales and 1 cider with every pump utilised. Are you listening, other Spoons? Not a turned round pump clip to be seen!
I had two halves here, one of the Adnams Fisherman, AKA Old, and one of the very enjoyable Exmoor Gold. Exmoor Gold was one of the first beers I tried at Archer Road Beer Stop in 1994, and has always carried a sort of connoisseurs reputation for me. It was possibly different to how I remember but none the worse for it. The other beers were Wood Street Larch Bitter and Exmoor Fox; all beers were £2.00 a pint, and, they sold 3rd pint measures.
I sat down in a comfy seat and read the beer festival leaflet with interest. Its fair to say that nothing really appeals about a Spoons festival, possibly an opinion formed on the basis of some of their more grim hostelries, but I have to admit to a sneaking admiration for the range of beers available, and the wealth of collaborations, even if they all seemed to be between overseas brewers I'd never heard of and big UK Nationals. I decided I'd have to stop by a bigger Spoons later to try and find some of the range...
Soon I was crossing the ring road and heading down the dark side streets to Convent Walk, popping out at the Bath Hotel. I had been expecting to be starting my exploring at 12.00 in town and had queried whether the pub would be open at 16.00 as advertised - alas no response from Twitter... Perhaps it seemed like a hopeless cause to confirm the dreaded facts, since when I arrived at nearly 18.00, I was the only customer.
Luckily the wearisome Allgates cere-ale had disappeared, but the Marble bitter was wrong on so many levels, so I went for a pint of the Brock, which was £2.90. It was a pleasant if unremarkable beer, not eliciting the excitement that it used to, and left me feeling a little forlorn at how there was so little on sale in the Bath these days that I wanted to drink. Its a fabulous old pub that I love, but I'm starting to run out of things I can be bothered to drink in there of late. If I encounter another ropey Allgates 3.9% beer or a malty Kipling I might have to withdraw my custom in protest. And then where would I be?!
Well, certainly not in my next venue that's for sure. Having been wooed by the exotica alluded to in the beer festival programme I sought out a Spoons with a large number of handpumps, that being the Bankers Draft, where I'd had a decent Pewsey Vale offering last time out. This time however, there were only 3 real ales available - Abbott, a Milestone Ruby something, and Batemans Combined Harvest, plus 2 "Available soon" pump clips.
Whilst the above moniker is marginally less annoying than simply leaving the pumpclip turned round when the beer's run out, the tawdry range did nothing for me, and not using 7 handpumps, albeit on a Sunday night seems a very poor show.
Off to ever reliable haunt the Rutland Arms next, with rumours of a decent dark beer afoot. I had a pint of the Vigilante Brewing Co Dark and Stormy Stout, plus a half of the rather strong Black Iris Intergalactic IPA (6.0%). The dark and stormy suffered slightly from hype and the flavour smash of the strangely creamy but delightfully balanced IPA, and was a bit listless by the end. But I enjoyed my chat with Paultous the boy barman and my pickled egg with chilli sauce. How my Dad managed to consume half a tub of this oddness with his rambling mates back in the day is beyond me. I only bought it out of curiosity, and to find that the Rutland didn't have an egg fork made the experience much less enjoyable than it could perhaps have been.
I refer only to the experience of the egg, of course, since the Rutland delivered on all fronts as always, although, thinking about it - get some bleedin pork pies in....
My final port of call was the Sheffield Tap. Here I had a half of the Tapped Brew Co NZ and a pint of Gadds Number 7. The Tapped was also nearing retirement which was a shame, and I think someone had sneaked in and stolen the Kiwi hops, but it is still trial brews at present (opening December the sign proclaims).
Sadly the Gadds was possibly more of a let down just because of its surprising lack of flavour. I dearly wanted the Tap to blow me away with a beast of a stout but in the end I soaked up my disappointment with a very enjoyable half of the Titanic Cappuccino stout.
So all in all a great bit of exercise with a few pubs thrown in, and some equally exciting, surprising and marginally disappointing beers along the way. Nice to see a range of real ales available where previously there were few, and at sensible prices.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
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