... with Real Ales - as well as our own award-winning Castle Rock beers, we champion cask ales from the smaller corners of the industry: micro and regional breweries, which thankfully continue to thrive all over Britain.

We don't think anybody else sells as wide a variety of real ales in a year as we do. Furthermore, we offer an unconditional guarantee of quality, enshrined in the Castle Rock Real Ale Charter. Each year we hold our own Beer-of-the-Year competition, when customers vote for their favourites and certificates are awarded.

... and with real Continental Imports - genuine foreign draught beer, a real alternative to the usual British-made keg lagers and stout. Castle Rock pubs specialise in Czech and German pils lagers; wheat beers from Belgium and Germany; Belgian strong ales and fruit beers; and lager beers from elsewhere in Europe and occasionally from even further afield.
In addition, most Castle Rock pubs stock an imaginative range of imported bottled beers from around the world.

Thanks mainly to a long and fruitful relationship with an independent Nottingham merchant, you'll find a refreshing choice of top quality wines in Castle Rock pubs - wines that don't feature on the shelves of national supermarket and off-licence chains.

Big Wines' Roger Halfpenny has searched Europe and the New World to put together a list that's as distinctive and beautifully balanced as the wines it's comprised of, and as easy on the pocket as the palate.

Although it's not appropriate for the full list to be available in every pub, our busier and more cosmopolitan outlets stock the lot, with several available by the glass. And in some places we've installed the Verre de Vin storage system, which allows all wines - including the sparklers - to be served by the glass and kept in tip-top condition.

Most of our tenants source their own wine supplies, but they too strive to ensure that what they offer reflects the company's 'quality with value' philosophy.

So don't forget to check out the selection of spirits when you visit our pubs. You should find some interesting Scotch malt whiskies and Irish and American whiskeys - and in some cases the choice is quite spectacular, if not as remarkable as the bewildering array at our sister-pub, The Victoria Hotel, in Beeston, Nottingham, where the list runs into hundreds.

Many pubs also feature flavoured Polish vodkas - that's the genuine and traditional article, not the sweet and trendy concoctions found in all the 'cool' bars on the 'high street' circuit! (And please remember, most of our spirits are served measured out of bottles - not ready-mixed in bottles, with flavourings and sweeteners, so they taste like pop.)

In managed pubs, top branded spirits are available as value doubles, as part of the One-Over-The-Eight promotion.

The pub industry tradition that insults soft-drink customers with little bottles that work out at around £5 a pint is one you won't find in Castle Rock managed pubs. This is one area where we do have a corporate policy: fixed prices on soft drinks, which we believe are the lowest in the on-trade. A pint of orange juice or cola costs much less than the price of a pint of beer.

Our reputation as a responsible retailer includes making a serious effort to cater for the requirements of the non-drinker and the designated driver. Which means an extensive choice of products, including in many pubs a selection of standard and exotic juices by the half and pint. And every December, all soft drinks are on the One-Over-The-Eight promotion.

We've gone soft - so you can too!

In addition, some outlets offer a hot beverage service to rival the best the 'high street' chains can manage - except in price, of course!

If you're looking for consistent corporate mediocrity - with dishes that you'd pick out to look exactly like the identity-parade-photos on a HUGE laminated menu - then the food from Castle Rock kitchens is probably not for you!

The style of food varies from pub to pub and, to be frank, a couple of our locations haven't proved suitable for the development of an extensive food business - proving instead their worth as genuine 'boozers' (and what's wrong with that?).

We do have some great menus, developed in-house with imagination, creativity and flair.
All our catering managers, chefs and cooks seek to offer the quality and value of real food - the only corporate image we want to portray - using local suppliers and natural and traceable ingredients as much as possible.

In the last couple of years we've established a new food 'tradition' with our annual Chilli Festival, which involves a 'cook-off' competition with 'heats' around the Castle Rock estate, followed by a grand final to round off a week of latin-flavoured fun, food and music in the pub that hosts the festival itself.