The Vat & Fiddle, Nottingham

The tap for the CAMRA award-winning Castle Rock (the beer is brewed next door and there’s an extension room in the pub that allows a partial view into the brewery), housed in a 1930’s brick building (which divides opinion; I quite like it), with very attractive interior doors. There’s been some sympathetic extension and modernisation inside such as the purple and white colour scheme but it retains the feel of a no-nonsense ale house with basic furnishings and a tiled floor. There are seven to eight Castle Rock beers available (the prices of which increase by abv) alongside a couple of guests plus a couple ciders/perry for the fruities and Belgian/German bottles for the upmarket. Condition of the beer on my visit was top-notch and the prices were wallet-pleasingly cheap though I found the staff somewhat dappy. Good to see bar billiards and a dart board ready to use. Has won plenty of awards and these are proudly displayed on the walls around the pub. Impressive cobs are available to soak up the beer. The back room hosts an unusual picture show of closed and derelict Nottingham pubs. The pub is less than five minutes’ walk from the mainline rail station which makes it an ideal place to start or end a pub crawl of the city. And well-worth missing a train for too.

Not a particularly inviting exterior (IMHO), being a 1930’s brick rebuild of a Victorian local with accompanying art deco features of the period. But fortunately inside it’s a real proper pub and recommended as a definite first or last visit when travelling from the nearby Nottingham rail station. Already well described by previous reviewers, a friendly comfortable traditional boozer with excellent Castle Rock Ales and the Black Gold and Harvest Pale were excellent pints, the latter fully worthy of its 2010 Champion Beer of Britain status.

Certainly THE place to sample Castle Rock ales,I am not aware of anywhere else with such a full range and in such cracking form.Good to see a bar billiards table in the right hand section,and real pub furniture throughout .A proper brewery tap,not to be missed.