Hucknall pub officially serves some of the best ciders in Nottinghamshire

The Beer Shack, on Derbyshire Lane, has been named as runner-up in CAMRA’s Branch Cider Pub of the Year for 2022.

The Partizan Tavern in Sneinton took the top spot with the The Beer Shack hot on its heels, while the The Vat & Fiddle in Nottingham was highly commended.

Mark Francis-Parry, landlord at the Beer Shack, said: “It’s a very good feeling to be recognised in this way, it’s reward for all the hard work we’ve put in, trying to please the customers and hopefully get a few more through the door as result.

"We do a lot of traditional ciders and also a lot of the sweet ciders, people do tend to like the fruit ciders, cherries and berries, apple and blackcurrant, that kind of thing, rather than just apple.

"People do like a bit of variety and the cider range we have here has grown in popularity.

"My daughter Michelle and I have owned this pub for the last three years now and it actually won this award in 2014, so we decided that we were determined to keep up with the standard.

"This latest honour suggests we are succeeding in doing that.”

Far from resting on their laurels, the pub is now planning on getting a new range of ciders in to go alongside their established range of ciders and also real ales too, which the pub is equally popular with drinkers for.

Mark continued: “At the moment we run several different ciders aready and by the time we get the new ones in, we’ll be well over the 20 mark.

"Here’s to winning the title back for next year.”

Commenting on the results of this year’s award, Heather Stretton, branch cider & perry officer, posted on the Nottingham CAMRA Facebook page: “Congratulations to all three pubs for being such great places to drink real cider and perry.

"The standard of the entries was very high.

"We are lucky to have so many good cider pubs in our branch area.”