Derby Pub Explorations

Blog Post Ingredients:
Two pints of Bass, two pictures of dogs, one heritage pub, one micro, some amateur night-time photographs and lots of grumpy Derby fans bemoaning losing to 'that lot up the A52'.

Derby was the first stop on our northbound trip.  Hopping off the train we made a beeline straight to the Smithfield, ready for a pint of Bass.
The pub was looking pretty superb...

The Smithfield (Meadow Road, Derby, DE1 2BH - web)
Previously the Cattle Market Hotel, the finely curved Smithfield is situated between the river and the Trent/Barton bus garage.
It's the kind of pub I could comfortably settle in for the rest of the day, although that would be a waste of all the hard work I put into my home-made pub map and dodgy directions.

Most customers had settled on the tables in the main room in front of the bar, with more seating in a back room or in a section to the side under the Allsopps mirror and darts board.

The pub had an impressive beer range, but it had to be the Bass, didn't it?
With a little bit of extra time I did broaden my horizons and popped back to the bar for a tasty half of Howard Town 'Shining Clough' a 5.3% strong ale.

The Smithfield has picked up a handful of Derby CAMRA Pub of the Year awards in the past few years and it's not hard to see why with quality ales in comfortable surroundings.

We reached check-in time for our Riverside Premier Inn, dropped off our bags, took a picture of the cathedral (sightseeing ✔ done), then went in search of the cities oldest pub...

The Dolphin, dating back to 1503

Ye Olde Dolphin Inne (5a Queen Street, Derby, DE1 3DL - web)
Time to get out the Ye Olde Pub check list and see if this ticks all the boxes...
☑ Timber framed
☑ Quirky spelling of the name
☑ Frequented by someone famously historic - Highwayman Dick Turpin, apparently
☑ Haunted - bodies robbed from graves for local physicians were stored in the basement and may account for a ghostly girl in the cellar and a grey lady who haunts the restaurant

Cask ales available were Bass, Abbott and Pedigree for the traditionalists, alongside pale ales from Blue Monkey and Nottingham Brewery.

Ring bell for service

It's a cracker, with three rooms accessed from the corridor.  
We settled in the wonderful snug with its wood panelling, bench seating around the wall, fireplace and windowsill full of paperbacks and Derby Drinker magazines. 

We were entertained by a friendly and animated Caribbean gent who may have been a speaker at Parliament Square, a poet, a philosopher, a comedian...perhaps all of them.
I'm afraid I didn't quite get the gist of all the stories and information he imparted, but I smiled whenever I felt I should and high-fived him an alarming number of times.

Hatch service

Leaving the Dolphin, we tackled the longest walk of the day, up Mansfield Road and alongside Chester Green.  Most of the Derby micros involve a little more trekking into the suburbs, so just the one on the itinerary today.

Dodgy night-time pub photography, no.1

Little Chester Ale House (4a Chester Green Road, DE1 3SF)
This is a micropub in the traditional vein: no music, TV or other distractions, just a bunch of folk sat in the front room bemoaning the sorry state of Wayne Rooney's Derby County.
The only available table when we arrived was in a nook beyond the bar, removed from the action, which was probably part of the reason I didn't really warm to the Ale House.

Three of the four beers available came from the local Hartshornes Brewery, located just a little further up the road.
I opted for the 'Apocalypse' 6.2% English IPA - the strongest one - well I would, wouldn't I.

The pub dog paced the floor looking thoroughly fed up, before being quickly disturbed from an ill-chosen sleeping spot in front of the doors to the WC's...

Whilst I got some funny looks getting caught out trying to take a picture of the mild smut outside the gents...

Time to move on to a proper pub, up a dark street...

Dodgy night-time pub photography, no.2

Furnace Inn (Duke Street, Derby, DE1 3BX)
This was somewhere I was happy to revisit - a super, no-nonsense pub, which used to the home of the excellent Shiny Brewery before they moved to bigger premises.  It's pleasantly busy, as we timed it just right to grab the last table surrounded by a wide range of punters.

No street poets high-fiving me here, but I did make a friend at the next table...

The beer choice in the Furnace was superb, offering good local ales and some crafty kegs.  
Finishing up my milk stout, we let Google guide us through the side streets to the Five Lamps...

Dodgy night-time pub photography, no.3

Five Lamps (25 Duffield Street, Derby, DE1 3BH - web)
There was a sturdy run of recognisable beer names on the pump clips along the bar, but I'm sure they were hiding the Bass from me when we entered. Or maybe I'd just got my heart set on the Titanic Plum Porter, which was gorgeous as ever.  Is there such a thing as a bad pint of plum porter?

We were well fed with some tasty food in the Five Lamps, fueling us for the walk back into the heart of the city. Next up, an iconic real ale and music pub, the Flowerpot.
 
The Flowerpot (23-25 King Street, Derby, DE1 3DZ - web)
You can entertain yourself with the gig list here, looking at the inventiveness of cover bands when it comes to conjuring up their names: Moretallica, Fred Zeppelin, Small Fakers and Kings Ov Leon, to name but a few.

The Flowerpot offers up live music, with folks settling down in the rear room when we visited as a hairy chap with a guitar and accordion sound-checked, sounding pretty good.

Pedigree or Oakham 'Bishop's Farewell' were the well-known ales on the bar, alongside five casks from lesser seen micro's and a crafty tap to keep Mrs PropUptheBar happy. 
I opted for the porter - a Ridgeside 'Larboard & Starboard' from Leeds - another beer in fine condition with the quality being top notch all evening.

And that was it - time to call it a night.

Except we veered into the Silk Mill Ale & Cider House (19 Full Street, Derby, DE1 3AF - web) as we passed by... One more for good measure.
This was quieting down after the days sport on the big screens had finished, with several groups of merry-makers heading off in taxis to livelier venues.  Which left us, relaxed and taking our time over a great pint of Froth Blowers 'Cloudburst Porter'.

The Silk Mill and it's mural - earlier in the day

So, a successful first night of our trip.
Although with 18 Derby beer guide entries this was a flying visit to somewhere that I really should find my way to more often.

We departed on the 11am Sunday morning train to Sheffield - where I'd heard they've got a fair few pubs as well.

The Blackhorse Beer Mile

In which we tackle the relatively new beer route in east London, taking us on a trek through industrial estates to a half dozen brewery bars.

Despite a few visits to the railway arch that contained Kernel when it was very new, I never did do the Bermondsey beer mile.  In a blink of an eye it was suddenly hip and trendy and stupidly busy.  So having recently read about the Blackhorse Beer Mile I figured I'd make a Saturday trip to the capital and do this one early.

WARNING: Contains more pictures of shiny brewing equipment than anyone really needs to see.

Brewery taps on industrial estates, with big closed shutters in the winter, tend not to make for the best pictures

Hopping off the Victoria Line at Blackhorse Road station, we walked just over 5 minutes up the road before turning left into the industrial estate and encountering our first big shutter and tap room sign.

Truman's Social Club (1 Priestley Way, London E17 6AL - web)
Wow!
It didn't look much from outside - in fact we feared it was closed - but inside it's something else.
The sheer scale of this place is spectacular - the UK's biggest beer hall, I believe.
There's pool and table tennis, a kitchen space dishing out burgers, big Truman's murals on the wall, islands of greenery and various different seating areas.
A second adjoining hall has a stage and big screen offering cinema evenings.

There were 11 beers and 1 cider available at the bar, several being their own creations whilst 
guest offerings came from the likes of Hammerton and Mammoth.
I felt I should stick with the Truman's whilst in their club, so started with a very quaffable 4% 'Social Porter', before returning to the bar for a Marzen.

And I found Chelsea on a very big TV for Mrs PropUptheBar.  Not that she was especially grateful for that, having anticipated a drubbing at the hands of Man City.

🕜 Leaving at the end of the first half (we can see you sneaking out!) we walked the couple of minutes round the corner to Brewery No.2: Signature Brew...

Signature Brew (Unit 15, Uplands Business Park, London E17 5QJ - web)
It seems there are a couple of bars here, as well as the seating alongside the brewing kit, but early doors only the grey square box Yard Bar was in operation.
We won't mention the fact that we looked like complete numpties unable to find the way in,  walking past the door twice before the staff came and pointed us in the right direction.

Signature Brew are London's rock n roll brewery, putting on gigs, naming their beers 'Backstage IPA' and such like, and inviting musicians to come and brew beers with them.
As well as having another couple of venues across London, they opened their site here in 2019, making them one of the first breweries on Blackhorse Road.

Perusing the 12 beers listed above the bar I failed to notice that the 'Roadie' was available on cask. Instead I plumped for the 'Bell's End' ESB, only to be completely put off this beer when I realised it was brewed in collaboration with The Darkness.

🕝 Half past two, happily full of food from the Feed the Village food truck, we made our way to Brewery No.3, Exale...

 

Exale Brewery Taproom (2 Uplands Ave, London E17 6DH - web)
This is the one brewery of the day that I'd not previously heard of.  They started life out of a shipping container under the moniker Hale Brewery, before relaunching with a new name and this Walthamstowe venue, converted from an old furniture factory in 2020.

Eight beers in total, 7 of our their own plus a Lervig guest.  This was probably the most adventurous beer list of the day, with sours, black IPAs and imperial stouts on offer.

Time to scrap the sensible choices then, and pick the cracking tasty 'Deep Dark' 8.6% stout.

🕒 Just up the road and around a corner from Exale is an additional brewery which isn't yet showing on the Blackhorse Beer Mile website.

Beerblefish Brewing Tap Room (Unit 2A, Uplands Business Park, London, E17 5QJ - web)
Ahhh...cask ale.
I have nothing against keg (this would have been a bad day out if I did) but it was a joy to grab the cask bitter at Beerblefish.  On a chilly day in January the keg had been viciously cold - Mrs PropUptheBar was coveting a microwave to warm her beer in Exale.

On our visit they were serving three beers on cask, poured from the barrel in a small room behind the bar, as well as a couple of keg brews and a fridge full of cans and bottles.

Edmonton best bitter - happy with my cask

The bar and indoor seating were at the back of the room beyond all the brewing paraphernalia. 
Nice space mural on one wall and kudos for having a free pool table and bar games.  Even though I couldn't make use of them because they'd been commandeered by a group of young hipster lads in tight jeans quaffing the pale ale at a rate of knots.
PropUptheBar is sadly neither hip nor young, sat at the back of the room nursing his best bitter.

The couple at the next table were half a glass of beer ahead of us all afternoon and probably completely fed up of seeing us walk in to everywhere they went

🕞 We had a little bit further to walk between venues, the route taking us back onto Blackhorse Road itself and a short way up to Lockwood Way where we'd find Breweries No.5 and 6...

Wild Card Brewery Tap Room (Unit 2, Lockwood Way, London E17 5RB - web)

Wild Card was surprisingly quiet when we visited.  The bar is downstairs beneath the seating, serving up around 10 beers from which I went with the 6.1% 'Capricorn New England IPA'.  Can't go a whole afternoon in crafty breweries and not have an IPA.

The seating inside the brewery is up a flight of stairs on the first floor above the brewing kit.  
Wahey!  Prime opportunity to snap more pictures of shiny brewing kit!

🕟 And finally there's just one more to do.  Our usual pub crawl exercise to walk off the calories is lacking today, with Hackney Brewery's tap being directly across the road from Wild Card...

Nice lettering

High Hill Tap (Unit X, Lockwood Way, London E17 5RB - web)
Hackney Brewery were one of the first of the new wave of London brewers when they started ten years ago in a railway arch.  This new tap room, opening its doors in 2021, is their latest venture and expansion.

Just inside the door is a busy bar room, moodily lit with a low ceiling and windows along one side looking out onto the beer hall.  Perhaps opting to sit out on the benches alongside the brew kit is more characterful, but it was bloomin' cold out there.

Hackney Brewery offered up the biggest beer choice of the day with around 18 beer lines serving a selection of their own beers and guests from various local breweries.
Maybe due to this being the sixth venue of the day, 18 seemed far too many to choose from and I just opted for the first stout I saw.

Hackney Brewery beer hall - chilly

We had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon of brewery tap ticking.

Of course you can do the whole thing in the evening when you'd find DJs, entertainment and general liveliness.  
You could also do the whole thing in your shorts in the summer, when the cold keg beers would be more appealing and all the venues expand into outdoor spaces.
But PropUptheBar likes 12 o'clock starts and doesn't look good in shorts.

Enjoyable as they'd been, six brewery taps was enough for us - we were off to find a proper pub!