My Local – The Sheaf View

Everyone who drinks on a regular basis has a local watering hole. Quite often it might be the nearest pub to their house geographically, but I have found that real ale lovers will happily travel for a decent pint.

Fortunately I do not have to travel far to my preferred boozer as it is approximately 8 minutes walk from my house. Even more fortunately it is one of the finest real ale pubs in the city; The Sheaf View.

Why is it one of the best pubs in the city? Well… it has 8 hand pumps and 6 of those are guest beers, it has a great whiskey selection, it has real cider, it allows dogs, it serves until 11:30 everyday, it has a wonderful beer garden, it has two sets of toilets, it does not serve Carling or any other low rate lager, it does not do hot food (a kitchen would only take up beer drinking space), it DOES do snacks and pre-made sandwiches, it has a blackboard (sorry chalkboard) that gives you an idea what the guest ales are like (along with the price), the walls are adorned with pub history, it has a quiz, if you are a regular you get a Christmas present (Kelham Island beer box set), you see all kinds of characters in there and it is a generally no nonsense good old fashioned pub. And it is certainly a very good sign when the staff drink in the pub on their days off, as many of them do.

If you are not one for trying new beers (and if that is the case you should take a long hard look at yourself for you are a fool) Easy Rider from Kelham Island is always on as is the specially brewed Sheaf Pale from Wentworth Brewery.

If there is a complaint it is that smoking IS allowed on the decking in the beer garden whereas the sign on the wall proclaims the opposite. Unfortunately for non smokers this rule is often not enforced.

Also, (and I'm nit picking here really) while the range of guest ales is excellent, it is somewhat to the detriment of local breweries who rarely feature. However they have a greater chance if they are new and the quality continues to be consistently good. However they all do enough seasonal ales to merit being featured more often in my opinion.

 

But, these small indiscretions aside, you could do much worse than spend every night you go out in The Sheaf View. If you live within a reasonable distance and you haven’t been yet; go now and save your soul.