The George Hotel, Hull

A really good Craft Union pub with three hand pumps, White Rat and Landlord the beers on offer this Saturday afternoon. My half of White Rat was the best beer of the day so far (NBSS 4). And this the busiest pub of the day too, with the front room and its wood panelling difficult to fully appreciate amid the crowd. Must come back at a quieter time. There's an upstairs bar open at weekends, with more screens for live sports.

Seeing that this place was staying open until midnight on our Saturday evening visit, we saved it almost until last. I was glad we paid a visit, as this was one of my favourite Hull pubs on this visit. There is a single fairly large room with seating around the outside. Staff were really friendly and I was impressed with how professional they were. The 5 real ales were Ossett White Rat, Timothy Taylor Landlord, Little Critters Nutty Ambassador, Thwaite's Wainwright & Purity Ubu. My Nutty Ambassador was a gorgeous beer, whilst the 2 White Rats we ordered were swiftly replaced without any prompting by us, as the barrel was ending. The barman changed the barrel and delivered two fresh beers. Despite this being a lively area for nightlife, the George had quite a relaxed drinking environment with a more mature clientele. Match of the Day was showing on a small TV.

In the quaintly named Land of Green Ginger, it's done out in “Old” after a recent refurb. There are 7 pulls and national kegs, the old consists of distressed leather bench seating, Victorian cast iron base tables and lots of brown, beams and wood panelling, so a pleasant place to drink well kept beers if you’re of that bent, the down to earth old boys in there seemed to be. A GBG2019 pub.

A rather nice traditional place past the ruckus of the rough pub (Burlington) further up the road and situated in the heart of the old town. The attractive black and white exterior gives way to a staple-shaped interior (partly Georgian, so I’m told) with 4/5th length dark wood panelling and a large and impressive semi-circular banquette opposite the bar. The mottled and leaded windows look superb as does the glassware flyover above the bar and the two large brewery mirrors I spotted. Dart board spotted. Apparently has the smallest pub window in Britain but I’m not sure why that’s such a feat, maybe I’ll open a micropub and put a smaller one in. Seven ales on over seven pumps; Theakston Old Peculiar, Timothy Taylor Boltmaker, Wye Valley HPA, Castle Rock Harvest Pale, Abbeydale Moonshine (very good nick) and YBH Reet (good). Had a 5 minute chat with the friendly barmaid which did help liven up what was a fairly flat atmosphere on an early Sunday evening. Hull CAMRA 2017 POTY winner and I can see why they rate it. 8.5