British Oak, Sheffield

Official site of British Oak - www.britishoakalehouse.co.uk

Official site of British Oak - www.britishoakalehouse.co.uk

A pleasant surprise to find, when I was passing by on my bike this week, that this former down at heel local with Carling and John Smiths the very thin drinks offering had been transformed into a real ale venue. The outside has been nicely spruced up, and although I had not seen the interior before, there has clearly been a lot of money spent on giving this 19th century stone built pub an 18th century look, with beams (of various woods and ages) inserted wherever they will fit. This could easily look very tatty, but it seems to have been executed with a degree of taste and even panache, and this attention to detail has also been applied to the selection of beers and the training of the enthusiastic young team behind the bar. There's a bank of six hand pumps on the bar, one of them serving a cider from Scrumpy Wasp, the Nottinghamshire cider press, the others having beers from five different breweries. One was from Bradfield, I had the Fuggle Bunny Cotton Tail (a new one to me - from a brewery based in nearby Halfway, on Sheffield's outskirts) and unfortunately failed to make a note of the other three. My beer was interesting and well kept, making this a very pleasant unscheduled stop on our ride from Sheffield to Gainsborough. I'll be back another time when keeping sober is not so much of an issue.