With numbers reduced by holidays and with our illustrious leader recuperating, the planned Real Ale Group trip to Sneinton was shelved in April and members explored the real ale establishments in Hucknall with the reduced numbers assisting in getting us all seated in the smaller venues. A most enjoyable evening.
On January 26th ,we decided to stay in Hucknall, meeting in our local Wetherspoon’s ‘The Pilgrims Oak’, sampling several of their excellent ales all at the normal Wetherspoon’s modest prices, helped further by using Camra’s discount 50p vouchers, a pint of real ale for only £1.00p to £1,70p.
We ended the night by walking up Watnall Road, to visit ‘Baker and Bear’ for a nightcap, not as good a selection and a fair bit more costly.
On February 10th we again stopped in Hucknall, except on this occasion we visited the John Godber Centre which was hosting CAMRA’s ‘Hucknall Beer and Cider Festival’, purchasing our tickets (2 for a third & 3 for a half a pint) along with the loan of a festival glass or tankard. We were surprised at how busy it was, with very little standing room and all seats occupied.
However, upon seeing the 72 real ales of varying types we set about sampling our choices, as the evening wore on, we were able to get some seating for those of use with aging legs. Remembering to return our glasses at the end to receive our refunds. An excellent night out.
On March 16th we will be visiting the Canning Circus / Derby Road area in Nottingham, a very popular venue. If you would like to join us, please get in touch or turn up at the tram station at 6.30pm
Melvyn
Thursday 22nd December – visit to Squires Musters, Micro Pub, Annesley Woodhouse.
Meeting at Hucknall bus stop on Torkard Way/Titchfield Street, eleven of us caught the Three’s A bus at 6.55pm to Forest Road Annesley, making full use of our bus passes.
We arrived at Squires Musters to find a quite small micro pub, being fairly well attended by the locals and surprisingly a further trio from Hucknall. After some time standing, we eventually found seating and proceeded to enjoy the various ales on offer, all at a very reasonable price of £3.20p a pint. Having been previously forewarned of our visit the landlady kindly provided us with a variety of cheeses and crackers to sample, which was greatly appreciated by all.
We caught the bus back at 9.45pm (thankful that the bus was still running and on time) and just had time for a last pint at our local Wetherspoons before being picked up by our various modes of transport.
An excellent way to end a very active year, and my own personal thanks to all members of The Real Ale Group for their good and entertaining company and some extremely interesting discussions.
See you all in 2023.
Melvyn
Visit to The Pit, Micro Pub, Newstead – Thursday, 24th November, 2022.
Meeting at Hucknall Train Station at 6.30 pm, six of us purchased our tickets from the vending machine to travel to the distant lands of Newstead, one stop and all of a 5-minute journey, all in time to catch the 18.42 train. Just as the last ticket was purchased, and with two minutes to go, the timetable screen announces that our train had been cancelled.
As you can imagine widespread panic sets in until some wise old sage suggests that we go to The Station Hotel for a ‘quicky’ whilst waiting for the next train. This we proceeded to do and sampled one of Lincoln Green’s finest.
Doubling back to the station we caught the 19.42 and had a very (short) successful journey, alighting at Newstead and walking the 5 minutes to The Pit sampling of the three real ales on offer, ranging from 4.3% up to a heady 6.6%, all very nice.
Then someone looked at the EMR website and discovered that the returning 22.27 train was also cancelled. Whilst we had planned to return to Hucknall on the 22.27 train, we decided not to risk any further cancellations and caught the earlier 21.27 which was still running, feeling a little disappointed. Having no other choice, we had no option but to make our way to Wetherspoons on the high street for a last beverage.
Once again, a very enjoyable day, with pleasant company, thanks to all.
Travelling by tram and bus, making full use of our free bus passes, on Wednesday 13th October,ten of the Real Ale Group ventured down to the Trent Cricket Ground to attend CAMRA’s (Campaign for Real Ale) Robin Hood Real Ale and Cider Festival.
There were almost 800 different beers on offer, one of them 28% alcohol content, we had a third of a pint and shared it between most of us, just a sip to say that we had tried it – not particularly pleasant.
However, a very pleasant afternoon/early evening was had by all sampling, in thirds of a pint, the many varied beers on offer. The idea was to try many different beers rather than just drinking lots of it.
Making our way home, some of us stopped off at Wetherspoon’s Pilgrim’s Oak in Hucknall for a very tasty curry. Once again, a very enjoyable day, with pleasant company, thanks to all.