Category: Real Ale Group

 The Real Ale Group is thriving and now has 40 members, we meet once a month and visit different areas, hostelries and events, always using public transport for our journeys, either Tram, bus or train.

Our outings for the past year are as follows:-

August 2025, we visited the Sneinton/Hockley area of Nottingham, travelling by tram and visited The Bath Inn, The Vine (not a good pint), The King William (Billy) and The 6 Barrels.

September 2025, We were in the Nottingham City area and visited The Barrel Drop, a micro bar, The Dragon, which has a Scalextrix race track, The Bell, (the actual oldest pub in Nottingham, originally the Angel) ending up at The Malt Cross.

October, Mark Thornley organised a visit to a micro bar in Annesley called The Squires Musters, which had a selection of 3 real ales and the landlady put on a selection of cheeses and snacks for us, which was greatly appreciated.

November, Greg Umney organised a trip to Mansfield by train, starting at The Station, The White Hart (a Samuel Smiths pub that has no TV’s Music and allows no mobile phone use or any swearing or raised voices – unfortunately stopped serving real ale), The Garrison (a micro bar themed on the TV show ‘Peaky Blinders’, which also had entertainment on that night)

December we stopped in Hucknall, going to The Baker & Beer, The Hideout, Byrons Rest and Pilgrims Oak.

January 2026 saw us in the Canning Circus area of Nottingham, visiting The Organ Grinder, The Falcon, Sir John Borlase Warren and The Hand in Hart.

February we attended the CAMRA Real Ale and Cider Festival at the John Godber centre, where we had over 80 different beers to sample (but not all of them!)

March we did what is known as ‘The Tram Trail’ using the tram to, between and back The Lion in New Basford, The Fox & Castle in Old Basford, The Bulls Well in Bulwell and finally, Byron’s Rest in Hucknall.

April saw us down the Trent Bridge area, visiting The TBI, Tent Navigation, Embankment and lastly the Vat & Fiddle.

May we were back to the Nottingham Castle area, going to the Roundhouse, Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, Salutation and finally The Malt Cross, which surprising had a Drag Bingo night, a surprise for all of us.

June and July we had A Beer B Q evening. In June we were at Mark and Lynda’s and in July at Gary and Tina’s, both parties brew excellent real ale and provided us all with exceptional barbecued food, burgers, hot dogs, kebabs, pulled pork, jacket potatoes, roasties, salads and a multitude of desserts, both were a fantastic evening, with 30 of us indulging, many thanks to both couples. See photos.

Melvyn Francis

Just a short resume of our outings this year:-

January, we went to the Canning Circus area in Nottingham and visited four public houses there – The Organ Grinder, The Falcon, Sir John Borlase Warren and the Hand & Heart.

February, we attended the CAMRA Beer Festival at the John Godber Centre and sampled a great variety of real ales.

March, we did what is known as the Tram Trail, catching the tram to New Basford for The Lion, Then back to Basford for The Fox & Crown, on to Bulwell for The Bulls Well, then home to Hucknall for the Pilgrim Oak.

April we took the tram to Beeston and visited The Malt Shovel, the Commercial Inn, The Crown Inn & the White Lion, then back to Hucknall by tram.

May, we stayed in Hucknall, starting at Wetherspoon’s Pilgrim Oak, then the Baker & Beer and Byron’s Rest.

June and July, we had two excellent “Beer B Q’s” in two of our members gardens with food and home made beer, both of wonderful quality.

The photos above and below show us in the Byron’s Rest and at one of our Beer B Q’s.

Our Real Ale outing on Thursday 14 March, stopped local in Hucknall and indeed only visited one hostelry. This being our very own Wetherspoon’s ‘Pilgrims Oak’.

The reason was that Wetherspoon’s during mid-March were having their own Beer Festival, providing a selection of 30 different beers from 25 new breweries alongside their normal offering.

As the real ales are normally well kept, selling for half the cost of beers in Nottingham and allowing those of us in CAMRA to use our 50p a pint vouchers, it seemed too good an opportunity to resist.

A total of twenty men and women gathered, hijacked an area, pushed a few tables together and settled down to sample some different ales. A very congenial evening developed and was enjoyed by all.

Our April jolly will be using the tram, starting at New Basford and working our way back to Hucknall, by Old Basford, Bulwell and home to Hucknall.

Our February outing on Thursday 8^th took nine of us to the Hucknall Beer Festival, organised by CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale held at the John Godber Centre.

We met at 7pm at the venue and were pleased that we had chosen Thursday this year as last year on a Friday it was packed solid, with barely standing room. This year we were fortunate to get a table.

With over 70 beers on offer we were spoilt for choice. At a beer festival you purchase tokens, obtain a festival glass, then sample the various ales in third pint measures, This allows you to sample a wider range of beers.

The festival closed at 10pm and we all made our way home. An excellent night, with some outstanding real ales on tap.

Our January outing, on Thursday 25^th , took 13 of us once more to Nottingham, this time to the area around Nottingham Castle.

We met as usual to catch the 6.30pm tram, quite entertaining when one member (who will remain nameless) got separated from his pass and the tram, quickly sorted by Christine, getting off at the first stop and returning to Hucknall to reunite David J with his pass.

Getting off the tram at the Old Market Square, we walked up to The Roundhouse, which used to be part of the maternity wing of the General Hospital. It was surprisingly busy for a Thursday evening, we then went across the road to The Crafty Crow. Both these public houses have been closed for most of 2023, but thankfully are now both under new management.

We then made our way to Ye Olde Salutation Inn, known as the ‘Sal’ allegedly open since 1240 AD before finishing at The Barrel Drop in Hurts Yard, a micro pub owned by the Magpie Brewery.

An excellent night, with some outstanding real ales on tap, tram back to Hucknall and home.