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Apart from two visits to the Sheffield Tap (see below) I also thoroughly enjoyed my trip to the Hillsborough Hotel, handily placed on the tram route. The highlight there was the Hillsborough Pale, which in my view was one of the best pints of the year so far. Slightly reminiscent of Marble Pint, but a bit more rounded and less harshly bitter, it was hard to move on from. Sadly, Brooklyn Bridge was disappointingly bland on this sampling. The pub itself is a cracker too and with Hillsborough Pale at £2.20 a pint, it was certainly value for money. Good food and fantastic service from the matronly barmaids who knew their stuff, rounded it all off nicely.

I was a bit disappointed with the Wellington though. None of the beers were sparkled and the Little Ale Cart beers I tried seemed just a touch off the boil - in fact one had to be changed. Things didn't look up either with Steel City's Černý Bez - Dva, which seemed to have missing the thing they are most famous for - hops. The lack of a sparkler did little for it either. None of the beers were by any means bad, but all lacked that little bit extra that you come to expect from these two breweries.

Still that spoiled nothing, as even the best don't hit it off all of the time.

Sheffield's tram network is excellent and unlike Manchester's which is mostly a light railway, a proper tram system.


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