The blue logo can be seen for hundreds of yards. The windows that look out onto Hockley’s student-filled streets, opposite a tea room, cinema and acclaimed bistro, are plastered with huge crest shaped decals, archetypal generation Nike branding for a Starbuck’s influenced post-modern brand experience.

B R E W D O G

Reminiscent of the type of industrial themed sandwich shop found in downtown Prague or New York’s Soho, but with added chutzpah and a munificence for self-promotion, Brewdog Nottingham is a play centre for beer enthusiasts and anyone wanting something a little less serious from their atypical late night bar.

Like a sixth-form common room with a twist of intoxication and a desire to scare even the hardiest of wallets (the Japanese beer does not come cheap!) the formiddable brick building – once a factory but now housing flats and a restaurant as well as the bar – has been given an extra lease of life with BrewDog’s assertive style.

Wood and metal cover the industrially scarred walls which fleetingly appear in the entrance as a brutalist reminder of the history of this space. Unfussy wooden tables and benches circuit the room, gunmetal casks (branding BrewDog of course) are foot stools.

Borrowing from a hybrid of Ikea/Habitat urban chic and a dash of the school gymnasium (no really, try the recycled seat covers) this is a bar with equal amounts of character and faux-sawdust pretension.

Not that anyone meeting here gives two hoots about that because it’s a more than suitable environment for drinking beer and breaking bread. The high ceilings are filled with debate, discussion and de-briefing from the working week, perhaps even a frantic Friday night out, all sat sipping Punk IPAs and picking at mixed olives.

BrewDog Blitz 2.8%

BrewDog Nottingham

No CAMRAs allowed

The beer menu

Brash as the BrewDog brand can be, Saturday afternoon in BrewDog Nottingham is relaxed. There’s cheekiness rather than petulance in their chalkboard real ale bashing (we sit beneath notices that read “Open mic night”…”don’t be shy”… “no CAMRAs”).

And of the beer? Well it’s uncompromising. Hops dominate, BrewDog and their favourite breweries steal the show and if you want to dive into the bottled beer fridge and share a meat platter, expect little change from an Adam Smith.

The acid test, would I go back? I guess the post-brand experience must have done the trick… despite the stupid Robin Hood PR stunt.

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I was hoping to get to the Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem to do a piece on its unique atmosphere and selection of beers. Time and circumstances didn’t allow however. They did allow my wife and I to visit the The Joseph Else though, a Wetherspoons pub in Nottingham’s Old Market Square.

The original review was going to focus on the pub as well as the ale but, with this being a Wetherspoon’s there’s not much point. The pub was, well, it was a city-centre Wetherspoons. The spilt-beer-encrusted carpet had seen better days, and the air was awash with the banter of the pre-football crowd (though as Notts County were at home that day, it wasn’t very large.)

The Nottingham Beer Festival was on that weekend and, never ones to pass up an opportunity, Wetherspoons were having their own ‘beer festival.’ We chose a pint and a half (mine was the pint – honest) of Game Keeper bitter (from Milestone – a local brewery based in Newark) and retired to the first floor, which at least afforded us the luxury of sitting down.

The bitter had a nice foamy head, which survived the walk upstairs and the search for seating, and a clear, mid-brown colour. At first taste it was very pleasant; slightly hoppy without being too much so, with a sweet hint of honey. It’s decently strong at 5.2% but didn’t taste overly sugary and was a smooth and easy drink, without once ever feeling cloying or sticky as some bitters can. I’d have quite happily have had more but, again, time and circumstances didn’t allow.

Definitely one to look at for if you see it around.

The Joseph Else is named for the 19th century sculptor who created one of Nottingham’s iconic landmarks, the lions that adorn the Town Hall. Many a relationship has been forged in some way by those lions, the meting place of choice for generations of Nottinghamshire lovers.

On the lead up to Christmas me and a few or my more intellectually challenged University mates decided to go for a day out in Nottingham to see if we still had the stamina to managed an ‘all-dayer’.  Obviously I knew that the ales were going to merge at some point after lunch and that the details would be difficult to get down. I therefore armed myself with a Cancer Research pen and 2010 Diary and met at the 10am rendezvous, The Bank pub, for beer and breakfast.

Bass in The Bank

The Bank is what I would dub a Weatherspoons rip-off. The breakfast menu was almost identical to Weatherspoons and the range of beers available was similar. I was therefore able to order a pint of Bass to go with my Americano and Large Breakfast. I couldn’t  remember whether I’d ever actually  had Bass before but I knew that it used to be very popular with my Dad’s friends out of  a can. The lightness suited accompanying a large meal and my initial impression was of an relatively sweet toffee flavour but this was tempered by the development of a more peppery body. The existence of these flavours was I think testament to how well the ale was kept and I have since been disappointed when having the same pint at The Wobbly Wheel near Banbury where none of these subtly complex flavours appeared from ‘the same’ pint.

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