The Closed Shop, Crookesmoor, Sheffield

A former Tetleys house where the regular real ales are now Black Sheep Bitter and Timothy Taylor Landlord, but there are also six other hand pumps and some ciders in boxed polypins. On my recent Saturday night visit all but two of the guest pump clips had been turned around, and on requesting the Thorne Dunston's Ships it was quite clearly gone off and accordingly poured down the sink by the barmaid; we had Kelham Island Easy Rider instead. Surprisingly, when I returned a while later for a second round, the same barmaid was pouring more of the Dunston's Ships for another customer, while the other barmaid was replacing a further customer's rejected pints of the same with Landlord. It seems extraordinary to be pouring rejected beers down the sink on the one hand, while with the other pouring more of the same off beer in the hope that the next customer will be too shy to complain! My guess is that a large range of beers is put on for the weekend and sold until it runs off, which is a reasonable policy if the midweek trade does not support more than two real ales, but they need to straighten out their policy on "off" beers. The pub was busy with a mixed crowd, comprising students, ex-students and people of an older generation. The seating is mixed too, on different levels and in oddly shaped rooms, and the pub has an overall slightly chaotic yet welcoming feel to it, though the juke box was making some strange random sounds which I guess were not the intentions of the recording artists.