The Star Inn, Nottingham

Nottingham CAMRA pub of the year 2017 and well deserved. Still a great selection of rotating beers on the bar, now has an extensive food menu and a great outdoor seating area. A definite highlight of a drinking trip to Beeston, complimenting the Victoria, Crown and the new micro bars that the town has to offer.

The Star Inn is a former Shipstones tied house that i have been in loads of times,the Shipstones Bitter and Mild were always on top form here. The Star has had a refit like most of Beeston's seems to have and is now opposite the new Beeston bus and tram interchange. Once inside the pub still has separate rooms,i had a drink in the room to the front right which is a decent size and oblong shaped,all seating in this room is tall tables and chairs which is a bit annoying,there was a nice real fire on the go to the right,it looked like all of the hand pumps were on show in this room,there is a room to the front left which has just low seating in the form of leather chairs and low tables,the room to the rear right looks the most comfortable which is carpeted and has normal tables and chairs,there is a larger room to the rear left which was being used by diners,i can not remember this room being here before. There was a very good choice of real ales on the bar,i had to have a drink of Shipstones Bitter,which was a very nice drink,the other beers noted were Everards Sunchaser,Caledonian Golden XPA,Caledonian Edinburgh Castle,Nottingham Star Bitter,Lincoln Green Marrionand Hartshorns Apocolypse. A very nice pub and handy for me when getting a bus,just a shame about the seating being uncomfortable in the two front rooms. Pub first visited 1980 Recent visit 21/1/2017

I had noticed in advance that this place was owned by Heineken UK (via Shipstone's, Greenall's and Scottish Courage) so my expectations were low. As you enter I noticed a snug styled room on the left then the small room where the bar is on the right. Further on to the left is a large dining area with doors leading to the large garden. This has a covered area with an assortment of tables and chairs, an enclosed kiddies area to the right with swings and an extensive lawn with picnic tables and chairs. I saw no marquee. The bar area started filling as I arrived and there seemed to be lots of people eating so I took my beer to the covered area in the garden. The bar area is small and basic with a wooden floor and tall tables and chairs. The bank of ten hand pumps had one unused and only three I associate with Heineken UK namely Theakston's Best and Caledonian Edingburgh Castle & Golden XPA. The rest were Totally Brewed Four Hop Men Of The Apocalypse, Nottingham Rock Mild & Star Inn house beer, Falstaff Fistful Of Hops, Dancing Duck Donald *uck and Blue Monkey Guerilla. I went for the Donald *uck (£3.00) and forgot about the CAMRA discount. This was slightly hazy but tasted fine. This place seems to cater for all and greatly exceeded my expectations.