Old No 7, Barnsley

This town centre pub, opened by the local Acorn Brewery in 2011, has quickly established itself as Barnsley's top real ale outlet and was recently crowned CAMRA's Yorkshire Pub of the Year for 2013. You enter into a porch area with stairs directly opposite which lead down to a lower floor bar which I didn't get around to exploring on this visit, but which seems to host frequent live music. A door to the right takes you into the main, ground floor bar - a long, narrow room with the bar situated towards the rear, along the left hand wall. Some large, arched windows on the front wall, partly frosted with the pub's name picked out, create a fairly bright seating space in the lower front half of the room. There are some comfy seating options down on this level and the décor includes a nice large picture of the pub. A few steps lead up to the bare boarded bar area with a dark wood servery beneath a stained glass, Yorkshire rose motif canopy. A drinking ledge with high stools runs along the wall opposite the bar and some standard tables and chairs have been squeezed into a compact space before the bar counter starts. There are plenty of blackboards around the room detailing all sorts of things from the beer range to the names of all the bar staff. The rest of the décor is mostly enamel beer adverts and other such bits of breweriana. The bar back is dominated by a large 'Old No 7' mirror, but you can also check out old newspaper clippings singing the pub's praises and view the many CAMRA awards they've already scooped. You can also purchase various Acorn Brewery T-shirts and hooded tops, should the mood take you. Music was playing in the background, but this was drowned out by the noise generated by a bustling pre-match Saturday afternoon crowd. Acorn beers rightly dominated the bar, with Conqueror, Barnsley Bitter, Blonde and 1887 Red available on handpull alongside guests of Growler Old Growler and Augustinian, Bristol Beer Factory Southville Hop and Lilley's Pig Swill Cider. Other ciders were listed on a board, but I couldn't see where they were being dispensed from. The keg range looked pretty good and included Moor Radiance and Brooklyn Sorachi Ace as well as numerous other 'craft' beers and a few well known foreign options. My pint of Conqueror was in good shape, if not quite to my liking. I thought this was a pretty decent pub with a good mix of customers and some interesting beers to work through. It sets the benchmark for good beer in Barnsley and has apparently forced other pubs around town to up their game in order to compete, which can only be a good thing. If you only do one pub when in Barnsley, you shouldn't have to think too long about which one you pick.

Acorn's first pub in a lovely old building close to the town hall. Plain Victorian style décor to the long thin room, the counter runs most of the length of the room down one side with suitably “pubby” furnishings down the other. Nine shiney Acorn handled handpumps serve the excellent Acorn beers plus some guests. There is also a good collection of bottled beers and there seems to be some sort of tie up with Brewdog judging by the bottles and advertising. Downstairs is a cosy cellar bar with another three pulls. Certainly a don't miss pub when in Barnsley.

Acorn Brewery have acquired their first pub with the purchase of the Old No.7. Due to open in mid-August, it plans to feature nine cask ales alongside continental lagers. Sounds very promising indeed.