The Barrel Drop, Nottingham

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