The Pen Nook, Sheffield

A friendly and welcoming estate pub, with a Cask Marque certificate and a solitary hand pump, but no real ale at the time of my visit. I queried this, and the licensee gave me a thorough description of not only the CM process but how many gallons of beer he'd had to throw away when trade dipped at the end of the summer. He normally has Bradfield Farmers Blonde, and is hoping to get their Belgian Blue when it becomes available in the lead up to Christmas, but he had to stop stocking it for the time being. (He mentioned that he has to price match with the King & Miller at the bottom of the hill, but they are selling their own beers at £3 a pint no matter the strength, which puts a lot of pressure on his bottom line.) The Stones Bitter on keg was not too cold or fizzy, and probably has more flavour than Bradfield Farmers Bland, though I might get kicked out of Camra for saying so.