One of the highpoints of the Pub Ticker’s Year today. The “pub” with opening hours set specifically to thwart your visit.
Compared to the Well in Woodhouse, the Rock & Roll Brew House I did last week is a doddle. They’re both open a grand total of ten hours a week*, with the Well settling on;
- Thursday 14.30 – 19.30
- Friday 14.30 – 19.30
So no opening on weekends, and no chance for a ticker from, say, York to get here after work, even now big brother Mansfield has a railway station as well.
But Simon isn’t due here ’till 2037 anyway (Nottinghamshire starts with an “N“), so here’s what you’re missing Simon.
A small brewery with occasional bar in an industrial estate in a Midlands mining town, that’s what. As Pubmeister notes today (here), it’s the variety of the Beer Guide that appeals.
I tipped up at 14.32. There was already one chap with a pint. How do they do that ?
I expect you want to know what the brewery looks like. It looks like a brewery.
For a bar open two afternoons a week, it had a wide range of beers on, feeling more like a small local than a sampling room at a brewery.
Proper seating, beer mats, an attempt at conversation that fell a bit flat, piped music. Very Mansfield pub in fact. I’m not sure if he called me “M’Duck” or not.
I moan about places which don’t stick to publicised opening hours, but I’d never criticise places like the Well that provide a shop window for a brewery’s beers.
Particularly when their beer is as good as their Incensed, a cool, dry wonder of a pint (NBSS 4) which was worth the effort of the journey.
Superb lacing, too.
But it still looks like it’s in Mansfield to me.
*WhatPub hours vary from Good Beer Guide hours, of course.
retiredmartin 
I can’t help but think that by the time Simon is due to visit this tap room won’t exist. Cynical or realistic?
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Don’t spoil the fun, Dave. I’d worked out that if Simon leaves work at 4pm and catches the 16.06 he’ll arrive in Mansfield Woodhouse at 19.33, 3 minutes after closing 😁
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Are you suggesting that he couldn’t organise a …pint… in a brewery?
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Indeed I am
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Surely the Rock & Roll Tap House is actually open 13 hours a week – according to the GBG 5-9 on Fri and 12-9 on Saturday.
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That would be right, but those hours in GBG have already changed, which is why I couldn’t visit it at 12 before I caught up with you at the Post Office Vaults on our Birmingham trip and had to pop back later. Think I took the new hours off their website. Usual retiredmartin margin of error applies, though 😉
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Checking WhatPub it says 5-9 on Fri and 1-7 on Saturday, which is where the 10 hours came from. Would be just like Simon to tip up at 7.15 on a Sat !
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Yes, I also see that it’s changed its name from that given in the GBG.
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“Keep up at the back”
Oh, sorry, that was Real Ale Classroom 😉
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Surely it’s a ‘Brewery Tap’ and not a ‘Pub’ – a place to sample the product of the brewery that is open for limited hours. I thought I was getting the hang of this pub ticking lark? Obviously not, I’m confused. I have been to many of these mezzanine bars in brewery to sample their wares, but I would not call them a pub. I think there should be a minimum number of opening hours to constitute a pub. Probably on a daily basis, although I can forgive an odd day closed in owner/operator rural establishments. This is a bridge too far for me.
I remain, your casual, but very selective pub goer and snobby beer drinker & c.
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Extrapolating from the trend, I think there will soon be GBG entries that are open half an hour in the early afternoon, but only on the third Tuesday of the month. 😉 This one did look quite nice, though. You could see they did the best they could with the limited amount of space.
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That’s a good observation, Mark. They made the best of limited space. Bit like the pub by the boating lake in Southport does 😁
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That is the only pub,if you can call it one that i have not done in Mansfield Woodhouse,a shame i forgot to take my camera with me when i did them.
How can they keep five real ales good when i closes at 7pm on a Friday and does not open again until 2.30pm on a Thursday.
It either gets very busy and they sell all of the beer,or they use very small barrels,or they chuck a lot away at the end of the Friday session.
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That’s the right question, Alan. It might get very busy later. Beer was tremendous.
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Good grief! This pub ticking lark gets harder by the week. If this ‘pub’ still exists into the 2030’s, with the same hours, I will bring my own bottle of Doom Bar, pour it into my hat, and drink it. And that’s a BRAPA promise. Just tried to get in 2 central London pubs that claim to open before 12 on Sunday, both very shut, so what hope can I have for a place called Mansfield Woodhouse which doesn’t even sound like a real place?
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It’s not a real place. Put Leeds to Mansfield W into Rail Planner and see what you get.
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Wasn’t Mansfield Woodhouse the poor, put upon husband of Barbara?
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Unloved cousin, I think.
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Must have been a cat lover
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Those hours are bloody awful; I pity Si trying to tick this one. Hopefully as they grow the hours will change.
I’ve been to a few small brewpubs over here in Canada with similar starts. One is Gladstone in Courtenay. They are open from 11am-midnight every day. Food is available from a pizzeria right next door. The other is Townsite brewery in Powell River on the mainland, open 11am-9pm daily. I was just there last month (and sadly due to work cutbacks will not be there again till December). You used to be able to drink beer there but it was only four stools by the window and standing room for maybe another four folk. They now have seating for about 40 and do tapas and other munchies if one is so inclined.
Cheers
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I hope the hours reduce, I really do.
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