An award-winning brewery behind Notts pubs including Sir John Borlase Warren, in Canning Circus, and the Robin Hood & Little John, in Arnold, is about to take on its sixth venture. Hucknall-based Lincoln Green Brewing Company will be putting its stamp on the Mill & Brook, just over the Derbyshire border in Long Eaton.
The pub, previously called the Harrington Arms, was given a new name and a £270,000 makeover in 2017. When the tenant pulled out two years later it was temporarily managed by Amanda Jones, the licensee at two other Long Eaton pubs, the Sportsman and the Wilsthorpe Tavern.
The Mill & Brook, in Derby Road, will close on Monday January 16 for one week for new handpumps to be reinstated at the bar while draught pumps will be moved to be back bar. There will be a refresh inside and "the signature pieces people have come to know and love from a Lincoln Green pub" will be added. The pub, which is owned by Star Pubs & Bars, will reopen on Monday January 23.
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Anthony Hughes, founder of Lincoln Green, said "We have five pubs, of which two are with Star Pubs & Bars - the Station Hotel in Hucknall and the Railway in Belper - so we already had that that relationship. They made us aware of the Mill & Brook. We went probably almost a year ago and for one reason and another it took an awfully long time for us to get our ducks in a row and finally get to a point where we could negotiate a deal with Star, which we managed to conclude at the back end of last year.
"We can't quite put our finger on it but it's got a lovely feel to it. We make sure cask ale is front and centre as the hero product on the bar and we will have some craft beers in as well that are brewed by ourselves and after that we major on a wide range of gins and whiskies so it's a classic format for us that works particularly well.
"We think its going to work especially well within Long Eaton because there are so few pubs serving cask ales so it really does feel to me like there's a pretty good opportunity and it's got such a lot of housing around in the local area we're pretty confident there's quite a lot of customers we hope will come and support us."
Bar staff will be serving the brewery's core range: Marion, a 3.8% gluten-free pale ale, Hood best bitter 4.2%, flagship Archer, a 4% American pale ale and Tuck, a 4.7% porter that has twice been a finalist in the Champion Beer of Britain Awards. A rotating range of specials and occasional beers will also be on sale."
Around 30 gins and 25 whiskies will be on sale but Fosters and John Smith's will be off. "We're about making sure prices are competitive," said Mr Hughes, adding that Lincoln Brewery's loyalty scheme - which already boasts 25,000 members - will be running, so customers can accumulated points and get money off drinks.
Food will be in the offing - despite the pub having "possibly the world's smallest kitchen." Mr Hughes said: "That's not a problem for us. At the Brickyard we have been developing a hot food menu that launched just before Christmas and has been hugely successful. Basically we're doing all of that hot food from behind the bar so we can do a very similar offer at the Mill & Brook, like chicken wings, pizzas and mozzarella sticks, hot beer snacks.
"We have learnt over the years you really do have to persevere. Food just doesn't take off in an instant, you have to work hard at it. You have to listen to what your customers are asking for and making sure you're meeting customers' needs. What we've done at the Brickyard seems to have hit the ground running surprisingly quickly. A lot of what we've learnt at the Brickyard we'll be applying to the Mill & Brook."
One of the Mill & Brook regulars, who didn't want to be named, said: "I've been coming in here for 21 years. There's not a lot of places that do good cask ales so you will get the customers coming in but also you've got to accommodate the customers that don't want cask ales. You've got to put your premium lagers on too.
"They've got a good formula because they've done this before. Is it going to work in this area? You don't know until it happens. I hope they do well, I really do."
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