By Andy
“We find ourselves in a really difficult situation financially, a situation that none of us in this business ever thought we'd be in.”
Panic not, Pubquest readers, for the above quote does not refer to ourselves. (Actually, this website's advertising revenue and our upcoming book deal has allowed us to retire comfortably to the South of France – we don't actually visit the pubs anymore, we just imagine visiting them from the deck of our yacht.)
In fact, the quote is taken from a heartfelt video that Sentinel Brewhouse founder Alex Barlow posted on Facebook in June 2017, in a bid to deny some of the rumours swirling around the local papers.
For stunts like this (and for allegedly failing to pay their creditors in full), Sentinel Brewhouse gets a lot of bad press.
Well allow me to be the first to defend the place: I love it.
For starters, a lot of their financial difficulties came about because their first ever batch of bottled beer was stolen. This is hardly Sentinel's fault – the blame lies with the lowlifes who spared no thought for a local entrepreneur. If you're gonna be degenerate thieves, go steal from Tesco instead. (Note: I am not actually advocating stealing from Tesco.)
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| Brewery (foreground) and bar (background) |
Secondly, the Sentinel is fantastic! The building was formerly a carpet warehouse, before being converted into an all-in-one bar and brewery last year. The journey from tank to glass is approximately five yards, giving their beers a freshness nowhere else can match. But they don't just serve their own stuff – they're wise enough to complement their output with the best beers from elsewhere, making each trip to the bar a difficult decision.
On Sheffield United matchdays, they've been known to set-up a deli stall outside, selling high-quality scotch eggs and sausage rolls – far superior to the sludge on offer inside the stadium.
Also keep an eye out for their guided brewery tours, where they ply you with free drinks which far exceed the cost of the ticket (we can personally vouch for this).
And last but not least, the Sentinel was the first pub to recognise our undeniable celebrity status.
Upon completion of their latest lager, the brewery invited influential locals for a free pint, in order to drum up publicity. Top of their list (no doubt) was yours truly: Sheffield Pubquest. Our resulting tweet garnered a monumental 8 retweets and 11 likes, thereby completely justifying their decision to include us. (Sidenote: perhaps giving away free pints to absolute nobodies in the vague hope of publicity is somehow related to their financial difficulties...)
Our free beer was genuinely excellent – the best English lager I've tasted. When it came to round two we paid our way, sampling their American Red (Rob is obsessed with red ales.)
While rating American Red in 175 bespoke categories for his Top 1000 Red Ales of All-Time spreadsheet, Rob made an excellent point: only in Sheffield would a carpet warehouse become a pub – in most cities it's the other way round.
In other words:
“The whole vision behind Sentinel was to create a brewery with a bar and restaurant wrapped around it, there's nowhere else like this. With your support, we've got a positive future – we hope to be seeing you soon.”
Alex Barlow, Sentinel Brewhouse founder (Facebook video, June 2017)
Alex Barlow, Sentinel Brewhouse founder (Facebook video, June 2017)
Pub: Sentinel Brewhouse (178 Shoreham Street, S1 4SQ)
Rating: 9.5/10
Pint: American Red
Currently at @sentinelbrew sampling their new @SUFC_tweets Kop Lager! A top-of-the-league beer! #twitterblades #sufc #sheffieldissuper pic.twitter.com/zNcwUUR2tZ— Sheffield Pubquest (@SheffPubquest) March 28, 2017
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