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beer reviews pubs

Mid-morning crowds at the bar

It was 11:45 in the morning at the Sheffield Tap and we couldn’t get served.

Two harassed bar staff — one of whom was a woman with a moustache (Movember) — were trying to deal with a four-deep crowd of football fans and beer geeks at the bar. One bloke wanted to taste a few things. The bar staff were patient about it but the punters behind him weren’t. A couple of low-key rows broke out: “Don’t let that bloke push in front of you! You were there first!”; “No I wasn’t, you nobhead. Shut up!”

Eventually, squeezed into a corner with our Thornbridge Pivni (“Possibly the best breakfast beer in the world” — Reluctant Scooper), we wondered whether, when this pub first opened a couple of years ago, anyone ever expected it to be this busy at any time, let alone before midday.

The market for craft beer bars isn’t saturated yet. If there’d been another one a few doors down, we reckon that would have been full, too.

Tasting notes (all Thornbridge): Pivni (3.7%3.2%) was delicious — how we falsely remember Summer Lightning tasting; Black Harry (3.9%) was one of those milds that’s coy about it, pleasant enough, but lacking oomph; Sequoia (4.5%) was our favourite, light-bodied and exotic-tasting — what Ewoks would drink; and Versa (5%) was a Schneider-alike with big banana aromas and lots of toffee flavour.

8 replies on “Mid-morning crowds at the bar”

Ah-hah! Bad handwriting let us down, followed by bad research online…. Thanks for the correction.

I’m very luck to have the Sheffield tap on my route home from work. Magnificent place.

There is another pub just a few yards away past the Showroom Cinema and Sheffield Hallam Student Union called the Rutland Arms that fits the defenition of “craft beer” pub quite well, and a few others in the Town Centre such as the Devonshire Cat. Sheffield is very well served indeed for that sort of thing and I do wonder sometimes if we are saturated when it comes to real ale.

As to whether anyone expected it to be as busy as it is, it’s in a brilliant location for passing trade and when I first went in shortly after it opened it was heaving. It’s usually busy and rightly so

T_i_B — got a soft spot for the Devonshire Cat, even though its decor is a bit soulless. Always had great beer and been made to feel very welcome there.

Dave — not our most helpful tasting note but there’s only so many times you can describe something as piney, earthy, blah blah blah blah…

Pivni abv research not helped by the fact there was a beer of that name to launch Pinvi bar in York, though that was a Thornbridge rebadge .

I’ve always wanted to brew a beer that a redundant Imperial Stormtrooper would drown his sorrows with.

And I will use the descriptor “blah blah blah” at the earliest possible opportunity.

Blah blah blah is more helpful than “malty with balancing hoppiness” (thanks beer label writers).

Imagine Stormtroopers would drink something fairly bland in the social club on the Death Star. Worthington Creamflow?

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