The Hop Pole, Nottingham

The hop pole is located a five minute walk out of Beeston town centre along the tram tracts. Upon entering through the door at the side of the pub there are two rooms separated by walls with a central bar that serves either sides. We went right into the bar area while the larger bar/lou8nge to the left had a lot more chairs and tables and a live band on. The pub was all hard wood which I sometimes find a little uncomfortable but the comfy bench seating was nice and it was very warm and cosy on a cold winter’s night. There was a good selection of real ales between the two bar but conveniently they display every beer available on both bars (more than one clip per pump, to show their full range) a practice that I think more pubs should do to stop people missing out on potential beers because they didn’t check the other bar. The beers available on my visit were the always available Harvest pale (re badged hop pole harvest and said to be one of the best kept harvest pales in notts), Castle rock’s Elsie Mo, bath Ales Bansey, Petrich Death valley and Charnwood Vixen. I opted for a Vixen at £3.35 which is probably slightly more than the average for Nottingham but this is Beeston and prices do tend to be a bit more round here but the beer was in great nick and a very enjoyable pint, they do look after their beers here. Overall I nice experience and with the Chequers across the road a good place to start or finish a crawl around Beeston, I will be returning here.

An excellent real ale pub on a busy high street, with a decent sized car park and a smoking area at the rear. Two bars: the front public bar was lively and friendly, livened up by locals playing darts (for fun rather than seriously) and offering sound advice about other Nottingham pubs, while a piano and gaming machine quietly sat there doing nothing. The rear bar was full of families, while the jukebox subtly masked the sound of children. Appears to be very much a CAMRA haunt, but not in a cliquey way, and they host live music acts from time to time. Four ales on draft – I had Voodoo Mild, which was absolutely perfect. A very good place to spend a few hours, and highly recommended for a crawl.