Real Ale Classroom, Leicester

Having enjoyed a visit to the original Leicester Real Ale Classroom in 2019, I was looking forward to trying the new city centre branch. The Rutland Street classroom is bigger than the original one but follows the same concept, being furnished with old school desks and seats. It occupies a corner location on a fairly quiet side street and the outdoor pavement seating seemed to be very popular in the pre-monsoon Leicester sunshine. We were the first to arrive after the doors had been opened at midday. Perhaps many are confused by the conflicting times online. WhatPub said they didn't open until 1pm on a Saturday and their Facebook page said they opened at 2pm. Luckily I trusted their website and Google and found them opening at midday. The city centre location is a plus point for this Classroom, as the original one is much more difficult to get to if you live locally. However, the one slight disappointment was the availability of just 2 cask ales on a Saturday. I seem to recall that the original place had around 4. The 2 cask ales available were Two By Two HBC 586 Talus & Phipps NBC Steam Roller. I tried both, enjoying the former, but not the latter. Boxed ciders were Saxby's Traditional & Plum Cider & Bottle Kicking Cider Company Rambler. Craft beers were Polly's Wishful Thinking, Two By Two House Pale, Attic Orders, Wiper & True Tomorrow, Pentrich Laziest Worldwide, Pomona Island Tannhauser Gate, Yonder Freak Shake, Black Iris Chocozuma's Revenge & Anspach and Hobday London Black. Drinks are served from a cold room, which you can see from the bar. It does look like there is plenty of space for more casks. So, hopefully they will increase the number of cask ales as custom grows. This is a decent addition to the city centre drinking scene.

I attended the Real Ale Classroom and this is what I learned. The pub features a series of connected rooms, all with wooden floorboards, the walls in painted brick or tiles. Seating was principally stools of various sorts, though with plastic chairs on the street. At the bar, I found a friendly server, who was able to offer 2 real ales, dispensed direct from the cask in a cool room, with several more waiting to go. There's also 10 crafty taps on the wall behind the bar, so perhaps a slight rename might be in order (craft keg college perhaps?). An unobtrusive indie-rock soundtrack helped the atmosphere along on a quiet afternoon. I enjoyed it enough to get beers in both cask and keg form, and would have no problem returning.

Facebook page of Real Ale Classroom - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of Real Ale Classroom - www.facebook.com