The Hop Merchant, Nottingham

small city centre bar, TV screens and seems a bit of a pack em in sports bar.

I'd passed this corner pub earlier in the day with barely a glance, but on my way to the station with a bit of time to spare due to a cancellation, I took a more careful look and decided to give it a go. It's quite small, with a bar in the far corner. This could easily have been a fairly gloomy space, but in fact I was impressed by how bright, airy and welcoming this pub was. There are four hand pumps on the bar (see photo) and I went for the St Austell Tribute, which was in very good condition. Date of visit: 22nd June 2022

Old corner pub, the interior has been royally messed with about over the years, a shame but bits remain of former glories. Wood and tiled counter in a rear corner with five pulls and a variety of nationals and craft/sub-craft beers. Shipstons, Tribute and Draught Bass form the cask offering. The windows proclaim it’s a Bass House. Draught Bass may have a renewed following but here it’s a bit tired as well as being a sweet, brown liquid with a slightly sulphury smell and taste, better than a number of previous reincarnations but not quite the real thing. Daft and clever industrial and reimagined pub furnishings, all tall seating at separate tables, clutches of Edison bulbs of course provide dim illumination. Three big screens to enjoy in various corners. There’s also space upstairs, done out in semi-tarts boudoir style plus toilets with basins made of cut down kegs for change. A small place so anti plague procedures work well here. I was also asked by the on the ball staff if I had a CAMRA card, I said yes but he didn’t check it.

The ex Turf Tavern which has been closed for quite a while has reopened as The Hop Merchant. This was a former Shipstones tied house that me and the wife went in most weeks. Once inside the room is still as small as it was,a small square shaped room with two large posts in the middle and the bar faces from the corner entrance,the floor is now bare boarded and all seating is tall tables and chairs and tall bench seating to the front left,there are two TVs either side of the room which were showing the Peterborough v Bury game. There were three real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Lincoln Green Sherwood which went down well,the other beers were John Smiths Cask and St Austell Tribute. There is a small oblong shaped room upstairs which is carpeted and has bench seating and normal tables and chairs,though i would not like to sit up there out of the way. I did not see this as a craft pub,just the Tuft Tavern reopened under a different name. My only gripe with this pub is the lack of any lower seating on the ground floor level. Turf Tavern first visited 1980 Hop Merchant visited 8/10/2016

After nearly half a million quid refurbishing the old Turf tavern has been completly re designed and is now a "craft beer" pub but this is not without criticism. positioning itself as a craft beer/real ale pub is in my opinion pulling the wool over peoples eyes as it is actually a pub co (not sure what but imagine something along the Punch taverns type) and so sources all of its "craft" beer from one big portfolio, and not a free of tie setup. What this does is diminish the value of locally sourced craft beer because they only sell macro brews disguised as craft beer with such as offerings from Marstons (Revisionist) Veddet, Caladonian and Belhaven, THIS IS NOT CRAFT BEER, STOP DIMINISHING THE NAME. nothing from local producers which is really bad practice in my opinion. Ale wise there are only three taps (in a craft beer/real ale specialist pub) with one from the most popular beer in Nottingham that is found in every pub (Harvest Pale) along side Tribute (£3.40) and Ghost ship, the HP and tribute have been on the bar my last three visits so rotation is not exactly fierce either. My Ghost Ship was in a good condition but expensive at £3.50 but i was given a pretty short measure that had to be rectified. Bar staff are all very new and inexperienced, not their fault as they obviously have not been adequately trained but still an annoyance, they had no clue what i meant when I asked by beer to be served with a sparkler. So many things are wrong with this place which is a great shame as they have have spent so much money doing it up although in a modern style that i find a bid uncomfortable with hard floors and lots of exposed metal but one cant argue that effort has been put inn. If they improve their ale rotation and try and incorporate more local true craft beers to their portfolio I believe this would increase peoples perception immensely.