The Organ Grinder, Newark

The Organ Grinder was my first port of call during a recent midweek crawl of Newark, and I think it was probably my pub of the day. This is the Blue Monkey Brewery tap so five of the seven hand pumps were drawing their brews with the addition of Hollow Stone Brewing’s IPA and Bateman’s Valiant. I went for a well-kept pint of BG Sips that was served by a very friendly young lady that was working the jump. I noted the presence of a piano, but the only musical distraction was some low background music. This isn’t the biggest place, so I imagine it can get a bit cosy at busy times. A great local that is on my revisit list.

A Blue Monkey pub situated in a not-quite-so-lovely bit of Newark town centre. A small and straightforward L shaped interior, the left side is a pseudo lounge with the main bar area more basic with some bench seating. Blue and mushroom shades as is their usual colour scheme. Board games spotted. Six Blue Monkey beers on, my Infinity was probably towards the end as it was a bit flat, as was the atmosphere, which seemed pretty sombre compared to a number of the other places I did in Newark (it was towards the fag-end of Sunday afternoon I suppose). Like the Blue Monkey pub in Beeston I felt that whilst it ticks the boxes for beer, there’s something that seems to missing…some sort of inner joy…it's fine and you'll want to include it on the crawl itinerary but it's not an intrinsic draw in the same way that the Fox & Crown or Just Beer are.

When i first went in this pub it was called The Horse and Gears,it was a John Smiths tied house with a couple of small room and horrible keg John Smiths bitter on the bar. The pub is now a Blue Monkey tied house so is called the Organ Grinder,i find this getting a bit of a bore with them calling all of their pubs the same name. Once inside there is now a single bare boarded room with the bar on the right side,the seating is wood bench seats and small stools,there is also a small area to the rear left and a small room to the rear right which looked quite depressing. There was a very good choice of real ales on the bar and all from Blue Monkey,i had a drink of BG Sips which was on top form as usual,the other beers were Infinity,99 Red Baboons,Funky Gibbon,Geurille,Ape Ale and Blue Castle. I was quite happy having a drink here,but as with other Blue Monkey pubs i have been in the staff seem a bit off hand. Pub first visited 20/3/1983 Recent visit 2/6/2016

Blue Monkey's third pub is another excellent upgrade of a closed pub called the Horse and Gears. The front room is fairly small with the bar on the right and a laminate floor. There is a piano on one side. Further back there is a snug called the Monkey House. One corner holds a selection of old board games. The bar has seven hand pumps which all had Blue Monkey beers on. I didn't try the Sanctuary or the Marmoset but went for the 99 Red Baboons, BG Sips, Infinity, Guerilla and Ape Ale. The first four were in outstanding condition but sadly the Ape Ale was not so good and was clearly nearing the end of the cask. Maybe there's not much demand here for a beer over 5% abv. The Ape Ale was £3.20 and the others £3.00. I really liked this place and would have given it 10 if it weren't for the Ape Ale problem. I need to return to see if it was just a one off.