BrewDog Nottingham opens in, er, Nottingham

BrewDog Nottingham is now open, officially, as in you can go and get a beer if it’s past mid-day and before 1am.

They also do pint glasses, I know what some blokes are like.

Last night I spent the evening in the spanking new BrewDog Nottingham on what was an officially unofficially but we’re officially open night, members of Nottingham CAMRA were there too, now according to some PR and some other ‘ranty’ articles I have read this should have resulted in scenes resembling wrestlemania 1988, yet nobody was oiled up, no fight broke out, nobody got dragon punched and no scenes that would make the Jeremy Kyle highlight reel erupted, it’s almost as if those people had willingly walked in and bought a beer, funny that eh?

"Hey is that an old school gym floor on the wall?"

I make no excuses for my love of other cities like Sheffield, where 10+ beer pubs are aplenty offering greater diversity and choice, an area in which I think Nottingham still can improve; so regardless of whether you welcome BrewDog Nottingham with open arms, or a double flip of the bird, it’s undeniable that they offer a range of beers that were previously unavailable, and that’s the important bit isn’t it, beer.

The guest draft board offering beers from around the world.

Oh god the beer, In Nottinghams sea of Castle Rock and Blue Monkey (both great brewers who do Nottingham proud) BrewDog Nottingham offers a genuine entirely different choice, now you’re not stupid, you can see from the pictures it’s not cheap, but until Tesco start offering imported beers on tap like Hitachino Nest, Stone, or Flying Dog, you either buy it or you don’t, and with promised themed brewery nights coupled with the ability to go up to 16 different beers on tap at once it’s worth checking out merely for the gems they import, and I do mean gems, on sampling Hitachino Nest – Japanese classic ale (7.5%) and Stone – Oaked arrogant bastard (7.2%) I instantly fell in love, which made me wonder why BrewDog need all the silly PR when they already offer something that people can’t get readily elsewhere.

BrewDog draft beers, and a squirrely bottle of 'the end of history'

What about the BrewDog beers? well, I didn’t try all 9 on at the time (sorry) but the 3-4  I had where absolutely great, Punk IPA was very tasty, poles apart from my previous experience with it ‘on keg’ and special praise goes to Protoype 17.6, a mix of trashy blonde and raspberries, proof that cocking about can lead to great things!

Nottingham has just got another drinking choice and it’s a great one and not at all much abrew about woofing, to quote BrewDogs irritating twitter feed, ‘pow‘ pow indeed sir, pow indeed.

 

BrewDog Nottingham is located on 20 Broad Street, next to the Broadway cinema, remember they have an old school gym floor on the walls, yes, really.

Newarks Beermuda Triangle

In the absence of the Newark Beer festival 3 pubs came together to create their own, Just Beer, The Prince Rupert and The Castle forming a 3 pronged attack; and beer festival or not, I was extremely impressed by them all.

The Castle

First up was the castle, simply because I had spotted it from the car. ‘Simple food and traditional ales’ summed this place up well, mostly because it did simple food and traditional ale.

I saw no men biting dogs.

The Castle is deceptively large stretching far back and having numerous spots to sit or stand, even on a busy Saturday night we found a booth quite easily. Beer wise a strong 6 adorn the bar at all times giving you plenty to choose from, the bar staff where skilled and more than happy to get beer from the cellar (there was a festival on at the time)

This 'normal' strong line-up of 6 at the time was complimented by 3 further festival beers direct from the cellar.

The castle offers a good range of seating and small booth areas (not pictured) this was on a busy Saturday night.

Would I recommend The Castle? absolutely, it has tremendous character and atmosphere and already I was thinking about return visits to Newark…

The Prince Rupert

 This wasn’t the first time I’d been to the Prince Rupert, I went on new years eve and elected to drive, so despite having an excellent selection on the bar at the time I could have a mere two halves! I said to myself the selection surely couldn’t get any better this time, I was wrong.

The Prince Rupert looks fantastic from the outside.

 The normal bar line-up as you can see below was strong to say the least, I got a picture of the festival beers on sale but unfortunately due to it being Saturday night they had been absolutely torn through! A shame as Maypole – Indian Vanilla Ale was on sale, a beer that intrigued us all, alas this had sold out promptly on the Friday night.

As well as the inside, Magic Rock, Blue Monkey and Thornbridge on sale at the time, along with the excellent house bitter 'ruperts war dog'

Regardless of festival disappointment the Prince Rupert is an excellent venue at all times, with an array of drinking areas coupled with a large outdoor smoking area all bases are covered. The house beer ‘Ruperts war dog’ is worth seeking out alone, nevermind the strong line-up that regularly adorns it.

http://www.theprincerupert.co.uk

Just Beer

I saved the best till last, to say I was impressed with Just Beer is a huge understatement, we actually visited here before we went to the Prince Rupert but it was literally wall to wall, we opened the door ONTO somebody, which was never a good sign! Thankfully we came back later…

Just Beer, I just love how simple the exterior is, no messing.

There’s something about a pub where the staff walk round with amusing hats, the whole place just oozes simple real ale geekery, its brutal simplicity made it exceptionally easy to work out why this had won Newark CAMRA pub of the year, and that’s not to say the above two pubs didn’t deserve it, it’s just that Just Beer is literally the next level, an ale drinkers paradise.

As you can see from the picture, they strive to get different beers from around the country

Just beer is a long thin pub which reminds me of many places in Amsterdam (pubs!)

 The beer selection (regardless of the festival on at the time!) was fantastic, I support CAMRA’s LocAle scheme but more often than not those I go out drinking with want to try something outside of ‘the norm’ so it was refreshing to see such an unusual and eclectic mix of beers from all over the country supported by staff willing to advise and clearly knew what they were on about.

I'm no pork pie fan, but from those that chose to partake, I'm told it was excellent

Newark then is a bit of a gem, and given the proximity of these 3 pubs ‘beermuda triangle’ festival or not I will be back soon, door to door of each is merely 2 minutes of walking and quite frankly these 3 pubs alone form a convenient trio that yet again leaves Nottingham city centre trailing behind.

http://www.justbeermicropub.biz