I’d love to have added the Traveller’s Rest in Oughtibridge to my “ALL THE PUBS IN SHEFFIELD ON FOOT” series, but part of the journey was the tram ride from Primrose View to the end of the line, so I’d be cheating, and I could NEVER lie to my readers.
Still, it’s a worthwhile hike out of town to a classic keg Sam Smiths boozer in one of Sheffield’s dormitory villages.
Only two things wrong with Sam Smiths pubs, of course. Firstly, you can’t use your phone, so you’ll have to see Michael Slaughters of the heritage interior here.
And as is increasingly the case, the cask has gone. But the stout is wonderful.
The cheery front bar is full at 3.30pm with folk who I realise with dismay are all the same age as me, so I get the gorgeous back lounge to myself, which is both a bit disappointing but a bit of a relief.
What do you do when you can’t use your phone, there’s no=one to talk to and there’s no copies of the Morning Star to read ?
Well, just decide what your second beer is going to be, I guess.
I decide to try the alcohol-free Brown Ale.
The view out back, probably to Rotherham, is rather glorious.
Somehow I doubt this is a Sam Smiths that’s being denied a GBG place for want of an OBB pump, and I doubt cask will improve it. Which leaves the Brown Bear as my best bet for OBB. And I’m saving THAT up for a special occasion.
retiredmartin 
Nobody teases their readership like you.
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Odd that a brewer like Sam Smiths that produces such poor cask/keg can produce so good bottled beers. I like the Brown Bear too. I remember a spontaneous piss up there one rainy afternoon 18 years ago.
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I’d disagree that Sam’s make poor keg. Their cask OBB is a bit variable, but the lagers seem highly regarded !
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The cask and keg aren’t poor at all. OBB in cask form is a very good, distinctive beer and, as Martin suggests, I’d say the lagers are better than their mainstream equivalents, especially the Pure Brewed. The main problems are the limited availability of cask and some of Humphrey Smith’s ludicrous restrictions. And they have some superb Proper Pubs.
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Well they’d be superb pubs if we were allowed to treat them as pubs.
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Cask is dead. Sams Is proving craft keg to be the future. Just a pity Humph chose to gentrify his price structure, Sams had a better class of clientele when they had a cheap as chips offer.
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That pub looks a bit gloomy for a Sam Smiths. Most of them are like an undertakers parlour from 1955
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…meant to say a bit bright for a SS
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If there were nowt else for cask then Sam Smith’s OBB would make a perfectly decent drink, and if there were no other pubs, then the Brown Bear would be fine too, but you’re spoilt in Sheffield for both, Martin.
Incidentally, I see that dear old Beer In The Evening’s “random pub of the day” has sprung back to life, and “recently added” has half-a-dozen new entires for the first time in years.
I wonder what is afoot?
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Martin hadn’t told us about his new job.
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If they’re going to have a “no phones” policy then they ought to have some newspapers or magazines about. In many ways that’s what the phone has replaced: sometimes to casually flip through as a means of passing the time.
This proved eye opening reading, both the blogpost and the comments. I was imagining Samuel Smith’s beers were glorious on cask, but it seems some at least have not had that experience. And what you wrote about “increasingly the case” made me think you weren’t exactly surprised to find a Sam Smith’s pub with no cask on offer. It would seem there’s as much need for the GBG now as there ever was, with more and more pubs simply giving up on cask.
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More that Humphrey is increasingly due to be forcefully retiredby the rest of the family.
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Richard Coldwell told us that four years ago but it hasn’t happened yet.
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Sam Smiths cask is a genuine mystery to me, as someone who thinks that the only thing that ruins beer is slow turnover and dirty pipes or a warm cellar.
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