Horse and Jockey Wadsley Lane

[The Manager 12]

 

I think with The Park Hotel just down Road -Singers/Bands they have on .you need to tap into that side , but I'm sure ill be popping in for a pint or 2

[FIRETHORN1 58]

Thanks for your reply horsejockeyS. I like your pub. I appreciate what you're trying to do with the place and I'll definitely come in there for a couple of pints next time I visit my mum. The staff were brilliant at letting us try the beers before we ordered them. Some were better than others, but I just didn't actually like any of them that much. I think that this is probably just due to my personal tastes, rather than there being anything intrinsically "wrong" with your beer. I admit that I like to go to a pub where I enjoy the beer, but some of the best beer pubs are miserable holes, so on balance, even if the beer is a bit mediocre, I'd rather go to a pub with a nice atmosphere and a friendly "vibe"... and I think that t'Jockey is on the right track so far,

[DerbyTup 10]

I think there are some really good micro breweries around Sheffield, but Sincil isn't one of them. In fact, I think their ale is poor. Hopefully they'll learn quick now, how to brew good beer, but I'm not convinced.

[Lurgh Mor 10]

I think there are some really good micro breweries around Sheffield, but Sincil isn't one of them. In fact, I think their ale is poor. Hopefully they'll learn quick now, how to brew good beer, but I'm not convinced.

 

Well if you are going to have a dig at least get the name correct.

[AKITA 10]

I called in here on Monday and had the ginger ale, I were very impressed and will be back.

[AKITA 10]

I can't see this lasting long. It's in the wrong area.

 

You could say that about the Naggs head, Bradfield brewery's pub. That's on a lane in the middle of no where, and it's constantly rammed. So this should be able to do well.

[SheffBloke 10]

I can't see this lasting long. It's in the wrong area.

 

What makes you say that?

[Astraeus 10]

What makes you say that?

 

Well, the people of Wadsley and its surrounds surely don't have sufficiently sophisticated palates for pizza and ale?

 

I went last week and was offered my ale in a "tall" glass or "handle". Quaint.

[AKITA 10]

 

I went last week and was offered my ale in a "tall" glass or "handle". Quaint.

 

I went in last night (Tuesday night) and I was offered the same. The place were rammed, no room to sit inside, either stand at the bar or sit on the only spare bench out side. Luckily it were a warm night.

[DerbyTup 10]

Well if you are going to have a dig at least get the name correct.

 

You're right. Apologies for the mistake. I don't know whether this was some predictive text error or whether I'd got Lincoln City FC on my mind when I wrote it - but I sure hadn't got good beer on my mind that's for sure.

 

Look - actually I'm not meaning to "have a dig". I think it's brilliant that Sheffield has all these new microbreweries and I applaud the folks behind them for giving us this choice. I'm not a CAMRA member or anything like that - but for the past 30 years or so I've been on "the real ale trail" as you might wish to think of it.

 

I was brought up on a pint of hand-pulled Stones bitter from the age of about 14. I used to live not far from The Devonshire pub at Middle Handley. (Now some kind of country dining pub). In fact, I tell a lie, I used live about 2 miles away from it - but it was a lovely walk on a summer's evening, up through the woods via "Bole Hill Lane" - with my trusty Border collie. The landlord, "Tom" used to serve me a pint as long as I consumed it quietly in the garden outside, 'neath the spreading chestnut tree. I think that was my first taste of "real ale" and very good it was too. Anyone else on here who remembers "The Dev" back in those days may wish to confirm? But I think it was one of the best pints of Stones anywhere from what everyone I know has said since.

 

Sometime in the early-mid eighties I recall the Fat Cat opening up. It was just about the only real ale pub in Sheffield at that time. (I think the Old Toad opening a while after that - later to be called "The Good Doctor"). This pub opened my eyes to "real ale" as it were. I had a friend who lived near Wentworth and occasionally we'd go in the "Rock" (Rockingham Arms) and the George & Dragon there. The George & Dragon was my favourite. They'd got a beer called "Timothy Taylor's Landlord" - which I thought was superb. Golden beer, almost honeyed in flavour and absolutely delicious. Even though this pub was a good 25 mile from where I lived I would go there regularly because that beer was so exceptional - and you couldn't get it anywhere nearer to home. (Unlike now - where Timothy Taylor's Landlord is a poor shadow of its former self - having been taken over by the big brewers and stuck on the bar of just about every local in the country).

 

Me and my pals used to think nothing of setting off, of an evening, and travelling down into Notts or Lincs or even Leicestershire, to check out some real ales that we'd read about but couldn't get near to home. Most other pals thought we were mad - but we loved the real ale so much that we'd take it in turns to drive - just to go and try something new.

 

So, back to Sincil - or Stancil as that should be!...

 

I've tried it maybe 2 or 3 times to be fair. Once was in a pub mid-way between Consiborough and Doncaster (a cream coloured pub on top of a hill as you go towards Donny - it has a pie factory at the back). I think it was just the Stancil Bitter - it really wasn't good. Me and my pals were on our way to watch the Blades play Donny - they weren't impressed with it either (and they are admittedly not as fussy as me!).

 

I've also had it in the Micro Brew pub on Ecclesall Road - The Beer House I think it's called - not far from Hunter's Bar roundabout. I think they also have a lager by Stancil in there as well? Now, this little pub has one thing going for it above all else - they know how to keep a good pint. I've never had a bad pint in there at all - the temperature and condition of their beers is always excellent whichever one you choose. Even so, I found the Stancil beer in there to be poor tbh.

 

So, I tell you what...I will keep an open mind on it and I will give The Horse & Jockey a try. But - there seems to be enough feedback on here already to suggest that the beer isn't so clever. Take the guy who claims to have tried a half of all of them and not like any of them? If that's true then it's too much of a coincidence to be down to personal taste.

 

10 hand pumps sounds great. I hope I will find a "selection" of different beers and styles? Some blond, some pale, some amber, some dark? And will I also find, even more importantly, a selection of beer strengths? From a quaffing ale at 3.5% through to some full-bodied beauties around 6% or more? Or will they all hover around 4.3% and be very similar?

 

These are things that mark a pub out as being a bit special to me - different styles and strengths of beer. The best example of this amongst new places to open in Sheffield, is the Sentinel BrewHouse on Shoreham Street.

 

I'll go to the Horse & Jockey in Wadsley very soon and let you know what I think - but it will have to go some to beat the Sentinel - and to change my mind about the poor ale that I've experienced from that Brewery so far.

[Lurgh Mor 10]

Oh dear. Still not quite correct. Closer though.

[rudplast 10]

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