A brief account of a real ale trip around Derbyshire and South Yorkshire in August 2014 where I visited 19 pubs and tried 22 different beers over 5 days. But I am not going to bore you with every pub and every beer – just the best!

By train from Devon to Birmingham and then a series of buses using the good old senior pass to Derby. Generally recognised as the real ale capital of England, there are certainly some very good breweries and pubs. The two I’ll mention are both associated with their own brewery. The Brewery Tap is that for Derby Brewery and the beer- according to my notes – is On Tap. Excellent and a lovely pub.

Brewery Tap – Derby

The next day, at lunchtime I visited the Exeter Inn which is one of 2 pubs owned by the Dancing Duck Brewery. Not only was the beer very good but the pork and stilton pie with pickles was one of the best I’ve ever eaten.

Exeter Arms

On to Chesterfield – my home town. Again to a brewery ‘tap’ the Tramway Tavern, (formerly the New Inn) which is close to the new Brampton Brewery, the old one having closed in the 50’s. The pub obviously sells the Brewery beers but also a wide range of ales from other breweries. Quite justifiably it was awarded Chesterfield and District CAMRA Pub of the Year 2014.

The next day I visited Sheffield which again now has a wide range of breweries. One of the best known is Kelham Island, at the Fat Cat pub but also within 100 yards is the Kelham Island Tavern selling a good range of beers – also a CAMRA Pub of the Year. I managed without difficulty to visit both, sampling beers from the Little Ale Cart and Sheffield breweries.

Kelham Island Tavern

On another day I called into the Sheffield Tap – a magnificent conversion of old refreshment rooms on Sheffield Station into a very smart real ale and craft beer bar. The First Class area is a splendid restoration and the ‘‘Tapped Brewery” on site, I recommend their ‘Pegler’ beer but they also have a wide range of Thornbridge Ales and European beers.

Back in Chesterfield the White Swan has had a chequered career – I seem to remember at one stage it was a Chinese Restaurant. However it is now part of the small group of pubs owned by the Raw Brewery and sells their beers as well as other brewery products. The Amarillo was one of the best ones I tried during the trip. I also went another award winning RAW pub – the Arkwright Arms at Duckmanton.

Another pub in Chesterfield which has been serving a wide range of Real Ales for many years is the Derby Tup on Whittington Moor. Always a Castle Rock ale or 2 but here I had Black Sheep ‘Golden Sheep’ if that isn’t a contradiction!

I have saved what I consider the best for last as I made 2 visits and had 4 different beers. This is the Chesterfield Arms, just outside the town centre, Again it has been rescued after closure, this time by Everards Brewery and it is rightly called a ‘Real Ale Emporium’. Always 12 ales from generally local breweries including of course Everards and in fact their Sunchaser was very good, However the best beer of the period, in the best pub was Ashover Brewery Butts Pale.

I didn’t have any bad or poor beer during the whole trip. Generally prices were good – quite a lot were under £3.00. The one or two indifferent ones were in a well known national chain but then the food was cheap and good!