The Newshouse, Nottingham

Have to agree with Gill, this is a proper traditional pub and well worth a visit. Thanks to the PG map as I now know where we finished our crawl. Will call again.

A rather 50s looking end terraced Castle Rock pub, with a small patio area at the front. The facade is mostly taken up with blue tiling, with the top section in undressed brick. There are some nice etched glass windows. The interior has a couple of rooms. The bar room is to the left. The room is in cream, with some tiling, with a wood floor. There is a large screen TV, which had footy on at my visit. There was a bar billiard table. The lounge is to the left. It has cream walls with a brown ceiling on which there are playing cards. The walls are adorned with old photograohs, a large Castle Rock mirror and newspaper pages, especially dealing with Forest's exploits. The service was fine and the clientele consisted of two other people. There was no music. Beer; usual tap stuff with Castle Rock Harvest Pale Ale and Preservation on handpull, with Derby Triple Hop, Saltaire Trio Pale, Rudgate Battle Axe and a nice Bateman's Dark MILD. Another quality pub - the review was written a few months back, but i returned the other day. Really worth a visit, a little gem

Despite an unpromising location on the sort of busy road you are unlikely to find yourself strolling along, this is a very nice, traditional two room Castle Rock pub. The right hand side of the pub houses the public bar - a typically stripped down, basic room with bare floorboards and some pretty simple décor. A large screen on the rear wall was showing Sky Sports News to a handful of locals who had arranged themselves along the L-shaped banquette seating. A bar billiards table was tucked away in one corner of the room and I'm fairly sure there was a dartboard as well. I spent most of my time in the lounge bar which had some very nicely upholstered banquette seating with tables and low stools. A huge Castle Rock mirror took up most of the wall space, but the back corner has a number of framed front and back pages from the local newspaper on display, including a few detailing Nottingham Forest's various successes over the years. A few bits of brewerania including an old beer bottle collection completed the look. Background music was playing, but this was disturbed by the noise from the road outside which would certainly put me off sitting in the small patio area at the front of the pub. Only two Castle Rock beers were available on my visit - Harvest Pale and Preservation Ale (£2.70), but these were complimented by a fine guest selection including Brain's Dark, Hook Norton Old Hooky, Robinson's Dark Matters, Burton Bridge XL Bitter and Butcombe Gold. Weston 1st Quality Cider was also on offer and the taps included Vedett Belgian lager. The beers are split between the two bars and although the public bar had a blackboard listing them all, I didn't spot one on the lounge side, so it may pay to check both rooms to make sure you don't miss out on anything. Food wise, there were rolls available at £2.30 each or two slices of Gala Pie for £1.50. I liked this pub and can imagine it would be a great place for a session if there was a decent crowd in. Well worth looking out for and a solid start for my recent Nottingham crawl.

Official pages of the Newshouse at the Castle Rock site - www.castlerockbrewery.co.uk

Rather unpromising location, and from a distince this looks like the sort of edge-of-industrial-estate lager'n'footie pub that casual visitors are probably best advised to avoid. It does indeed have a large screen in one of the two bars showing live sport, but this is obviously a proper beer-drinkers pub with six real ales on handpump - several from Castle Rock (e.g. Preservation at £2.60) and some interesting guests. Also offers several ciders. Best of all, you can get a cheese and onion roll for £2.20 to go with your pint. Excellent.

Official pages of the Newshouse at the Castle Rock site - www.castlerockbrewery.co.uk