MARCH ’26 STOCKTAKE + APRIL PREVIEW

A busier month, not just at home,

where we entertained guests from Chicago on a memorable weekend where the Shakespeare stood out as exemplifying what Sheffield pubs are all about,

but also abroad.

I needed those 3 nights in northern Germany as the relentless journeys up and down the A1 between Sheffield and Waterbeach were playing havoc with my brain (specifically that stretch of the A1 between Stamford and Grantham, though the Wendy’s at the Ram Jam was good today).

I digress. Forty-seven (47) UK pubs, and fifteen in Germany, which I wouldn’t normally count as pubs but places like the Kupferhut were as social as anything in Kelham, and Sion in particular proved that those giant Cologne Braurei can be more than upmarket canteens.

Sixty-two pubs in total, then, I make that nearly one a day, which is why there’s been so many posts this month.

I’d been wanting to visit Schlussel in Dusseldorf for years, but all I can really tell you is the Kobe are cheery and this sausage, mash and red cabbage combo was as good as pub food gets.

In contrast I felt a little cheated on an emotional return to Uerige, confined to an inner room rather than the outside tables.

But that Uerige Alt is still my Beer of the Month.

Quite a lot of emotional revisits, Burton’s Coopers (top) as good as I’ve seen it can have Pub of the Month for the wonderful landlady alone, but the Elms had the best Bass. And it knows it.

Talking of Bass, the latest directory just “dropped” (ugh). Well done Quinno, Ian and co.

I ought to visit some more of those Bass shrines in April you know.

But first, Manchester.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

13 thoughts on “MARCH ’26 STOCKTAKE + APRIL PREVIEW”

  1. Could you kindly give me the names of the couple visiting there from Chicago? I shall attempt to get them to visit a pub where I frequent. I have a handful of choices in mind.
    Plus, I can ask them about you. [Remember, Oscar Wilde quipped, “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is *not* being talked about.”]

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  2. Martin, This site is of course all about what you, not your readers, get up to but I hope you don’t mind me mentioning that March was an important month for me.
    Not only 72 pubs used ( 39 English, 33 Welsh, most though only for one pint ) which was one for each of my years but also ( as a pub is for bed not just beer ) a record FIVE pubs stayed in ( Carmarthen, St Davids, Prestatyn, Barmouth, Richmond upon Thames ).

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    1. There’s nothing I enjoy more than reading about your travels, Paul.

      Glad to see you supporting the Welsh. Will you be at AGM long enough to debate the Welsh issue in St Albans ?

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    3. Yes Martin, I’m only going to St Albans for that motion and all the Harveys beers in the Robin Hood, and to see my brother.
      Yes Paul, all five last month were as good as the Chichester Inn last year. The four Welsh ones midweek were very good value and the Dukes Head was wonderful with its heritage interior in a very quiet Victorian residential street and licensee of over forty years, and Naked Ladies. And there’s a heritage interior in Whitby’s Black Horse where I’m booked for three nights next month.

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      2. I thought the Sussex Best was a permanent beer in the Robin Hood which is shown on the Harveys website as their most northerly free house.
        However, the pub is due a Harveys Tap Takeover during the AGM weekend, not that you would ever have dreamt that I’d go to one of them.

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      4. Well, I never understood Stafford’s Kings Arms having them a few years ago.
        Common sense now prevails with Draught Bass and Robinsons Trooper.

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