The Barrel Drop, Nottingham

On the face of it this looked more like a craft bar than a micropub but the only real distraction was a loud music track playing. It's a split level room with the bar lower down. It was quiet on my early Wednesday evening visit. Five cask ales are available normally but on my visit one hand pump was unused and one had a cider leaving Colchester AKA Pale & Number One and Great Heck Citra. I went for the Great Heck Citra (£3.50) followed by the keg Magpie Wanderlust Stout (£4.90). Both were in good nick. I thought this was OK but not the best micropub I've been to.

The Barrel Drop is a fairly newly opened micro pub and was a first in the city center of Nottingham. Located down a very small alleyway called Hurts Yard. Which lays sandwiched between Angel Row and upper parliament street. This is quite hidden as there is no signage or advisement on any of the main roads so this place is discovered by tumblers by or people in the know. As you enter the pub is one medium sized room on two different levels the bar is down a few steps on the bottom level with seating to the right with more seating on the upper level. The pub is quite minimalist with no fancy decor just Palin tables and walls with the beer being the main focal point with design taking a bit a of a back seat. Nothing bad just very basic and functional. There are no hand pulls on the bar, all beer is dispensed via gravity from barrels behind the bar. Being a fan of sparklers I’m not the biggest fan of gravity dispensed beer but not the worst thing. Unfortunately on my visit of the twelve barrels behind the bar only five were on which featured Liverpool Organic Brewery’s Shipwreck, a super strong Russian imperial stout, Torside brewery’s “modern bitter (£3.40) and a couple of pale ales I failed to note. I had the Torside bitter which was unfined which I also don’t really like that much either and it was not advertised as so I automatically presumed it to be cloudy before being corrected by the bar girl. It was a bit lifeless and soapy for my liking with my friends pale ale being a little better which at £3.40 was a bit on the pricy side for ale in Nottingham and especially a “Micro Pub”. Overall a bit disappointed by this place, the atmosphere was pretty none existent as there was hardly anyone in on a Monday evening and the poor choice of pricey beers did not do much to lighten my feelings towards it. The Room with a brew a few hundred yards away is a much better example in my opinion. Its not the best Micro pub in the world but if on a busy evening with a better more varied selection of beers this would probably be a lot better. For a micro pub it is not in my list of favorites but it’s still a long shot better than all of the keg only flea pits dotted around the city. It’s worth a visit and could be good if you catch it right but there are better in the wider Nottingham area.

Nice little micro, hidden away from the bustle of Nottingham city center. We called in early doors on a Friday evening and it was very quiet, with a couple of women drinking pints and a small group of blokes, talking football. 3 barrels on offer and I chose a very acceptable pint of best bitter. My wife had a half of challenging dry cider. the bar is clean and tidy with decent toilets and lots of seating. Not very disabled friendly, due to a flight of steps leading down to the main bar from the door. Well worth a visit, just to see what they have on offer.

This micro-pub has been well described below. I had a less impressive experience than PSM, being greeted by a musty offish smell on entering - whether this was down to the building or a customer I really couldn't say, and fortunately it wasn't overpowering, and my attention soon turned to the beer offering. With nine of the available 11 stillage spaces occupied, it was disappointing to see such a preponderance of pale, American-style beers. I know this ratio will meet with approval in other camps, but I would like to see more than one or two English-style beers when there are so many on offer. I went for the Joules Slumbering Monk, which was ok but nothing special. On a return visit (my mates wanted to try a cider or two) I went for Osset Santiago Alejandro for a change, but as anticipated it was not to my taste. I'd be happy to call in again in hope of some different choices, as this is a congenial environment and certainly has the largest number of beers and ciders I have seen in a micro-pub so far.

Hidden away down an easily missed alleyway just off Upper Parliament Street, this is a smart little bar in the micro pub format. The pub has a simple layout, with a raised front space under large windows that let in a surprising amount of light, and a lower bar area further into the room with the short servery in the rear left corner. The front half sees a drinking ledge run under the windows plus several tables with chairs and low stools filling the rest of the space. A ledge alongside the steps down to the rear part of the pub had various magazines and other reading material displayed on it, whilst over to the right the room extends slightly into a cosy space with a couple of small tables under bookshelf wallpaper. Moving down to the rear, the bar has a very simple counter, extended slightly at the right hand end by a large upturned barrel. The bar back is comprised almost entirely of stilage for the various beers either available or still conditioning. To the right, the room once again extends a little way into a compact wallpapered seating area with five more tables, a small shelving unit holding a small collection of beer themed books and a smattering of old black and white photos on the walls. An old, bluesy soundtrack was playing for most of my stay, but one customer mentioned that some of the tunes were a bit melancholy, so the barmaid put on some rollicking Led Zeppelin tunes, which was most enjoyable. There is space for eleven casks to be racked up on the bar back, but around half of these were out of action or not yet ready on my visit. This still left a pretty good choice of Titanic Espresso, Poachers Bog Trotter, Fernandes 10 Degrees, Caythorpe Outlaw and Grafton The Don Jon, plus two bag in a box ciders. I decided to give the Titanic a try and the friendly landlady poured me a fantastic pint that is easily the best beer I've had so far this year. A small but interesting bottled beer range rounded out the options, as I don't recall seeing any keg taps on the bar. I really enjoyed this visit and ended up spending much longer here than anticipated. The place has a friendly, welcoming feel in keeping with the general micro pub principal, and the beer was first class. A great addition to an already excellent city centre drinking scene and well worth including on any crawl around town.

The Barrel Drop is Nottinghams latest pub to open,it was converted from an old restaurant and is situated at the top end of hurts yard a narrow ally which links upper parliament street to angel row. Once inside there is a smallish oblong shaped area to the right,the main bar room is down a few steps with the small serving bar facing,the seating in the upper area is normal tables and chairs,the lower main area has a mix of normal tables and chairs and small stools,the room is bare boarded,this area looked quite nice. There are two pumps on the bar unclipped but there are lots of barrels behind the bar,there were five real ales on during my Saturday afternoon visit,i had a drink of Nutbrook SSSitra which went down very well,the other beers were Ashover Poets Tipple,Great Oakley Abbey Stout,West Berkshire Dr Hextors Healer,Great Orme Red Dragon and Black Iris Bleeding Heart. There was a box of real cider on the bar,background music was playing,the person behind the bar said they do food and liked to get into conversation which is no bad thing. I quite liked this new pub. Pub visited 17/1/2015