Rutland Arms, Sheffield

This is a small wedge shaped pub consisting of a tiny carpeted single room with a prominent jukebox. It was rather dark and busy on my Thursday evening visit but I managed to get a seat. There are eight hand pumps but it was far too dark and busy to note all the beers. I did notice Blue Bee American 5 Hop & Born In the USA plus Crouch Vale Amarillo. I went for the Born In The USA (£3.65) which was excellent. I thought this was a great little pub and my favourite of the three "normal" ones visited in Sheffield.

This pub is a short walk from the station and is worth a detour from the city centre. A slightly garish exterior gives the place a unique feel. Inside is described below though there are a few paintings dotted around that were possibly done by an alcoholic child or a blind monkey, but that's 'modern art' for you. That said there are 7 handpumps dispensing Hillfoot Best Bitter, Rest Pale, Chinhook Pal - all from Busy Bee, Mallisons CM, a stout from someone and a beer from Stansil. A nice pub.

This rather grand looking pub, with it’s eye-catching ‘Duncan Gilmore & Co Limited’ branding, is actually a fairly compact affair which manages to retain a traditional feel whilst still seemingly appealing to the hip student types who made up the majority of the Saturday evening custom on my recent visit. You enter through a lovely stained glass porch into a room with the bar to the left and a carpeted seating area on the right hand side. The glasswork throughout the room is a highlight, with the aforementioned porch standing out alongside frosted front windows and some more stained glass panes on the rear wall. The servery is tucked away efficiently in the rear left corner and is lined with various boards listing food and drink options and the usual pump clip collection associated with pubs that offer a good choice of ales. Tiled fireplaces can be found at either end of the room, both adding a degree of charm to their respective areas and no doubt much welcome warmth in colder months. A few banquette booths separated by smart partitioning screens can be found along the front wall, with standard seating options elsewhere. An interesting collection of beer bottles and cans run along a high shelf, which is worth a quick browse. Elsewhere, decoration includes plenty of nice old pictures of pubs from yesteryear. This place has a pretty good reputation for good beer and the ale range on this visit was very encouraging, comprising Blue Bee Bee’s Knees Reet Pale and Bitter, Lincoln Green Five Gold Rings, Marstons Pedigree New World Pale, Brass Castle Burnout and Bob’s Brewing Goblin. Keg options were fairly eclectic and included beers from the likes of Freedom, Magic Rock and Brew by Numbers although I was put off from risking the keg range when I found out that a pint of Stone Smoked Porter cost £10! I instead sampled the Reet Pale, which was in great shape and a good beer to round off an excellent day’s pub crawling. I’d never previously visited this pub due to its relative isolation from the majority of the city’s great pubs, but in hindsight it’s actually only a short walk from the city centre and less than five minutes walk from the train station, so I’m sure I will be adding this pub to future crawls around Sheffield.

There were seven ales on offer on our Thursday eve visit. The pub was moderatly busy and had a relaxed and laidback sort of atmosphere to it. Music from the jukebox was playing on a low to medium volume. They also serve food. On the ale front, I went for the Brass Castle Cliffhanger and Welbeck Abbey Red Feather.