Sheffield Brewery Co teams up with Forgemasters

Sheffield Forgemasters has swapped castings for casks in a partnership venture with The Sheffield Brewery Company. The iconic 200-year-old engineering heavyweight has teamed up with the brewery to deliver a tailor-made Forgemasters beer launched on 31 October at the historic brewery building in Neepsend. It will be made widely available from 31 October in traditional casks via independent pubs across the city and through a limited bottle-run with bottles only available for purchase directly from The Sheffield Brewery Company. Numerous local luminaries gathered to sample the brew and gave it the thumbs up. Forgemasters beer has been created by the company’s chief executive, Dr Graham Honeyman, who recognised Sheffield’s growing status as the real-ale capital of the UK and saw an opportunity to team up with local brewery boffins to engineer the perfect pint. Dr Honeyman said “Sometimes it is good to step back and take on a new challenge. And with some of the county’s finest breweries right here on our doorstep it seemed like the ideal project, to engineer the perfect pale ale and to market it through the region’s best pubs.” “Sheffield has a status of quality across the world for its engineering achievements and this is simply an extension of the philosophy which underpins that ethos, to take something and make it to the best of your ability.” “Crucially, I wanted the beer to become a household name in the region. I’d like people to walk into the pub, see the Forgemasters beer label on the bar and order it, confident that it will be of the best quality.” “We chose to work with a small, artisan brewery that could deliver the beer to our specific requirements, which involved a significant amount of research and development to get the correct balance of qualities – as do all of our projects! Even the bottles for the beer have been hand selected because nothing about this beer is run-of-the-mill.” Peter Rawlinson, director of The Sheffield Brewery Company, said: “We were delighted to be selected and the venture between the brewery and Sheffield Forgemasters is a great initiative and celebrates all that is good about the city. Tim Stillman, the brewer, said: “We have delivered a bespoke beer for Forgemasters, to their specification, which uses Lager malt and Maris Otter pale malt to give a very pale, straw colour, with Saaz hops used at the beginning of the brewing process and American Cascade hops at the end to give a really nice citrus twist to the drink. This has created a beer which we think has broad appeal.” The beer has been tested in the market under a pseudonym and sold very well. Coupled with its real Forgemasters name, it could well become a staple drink for people who appreciate the company’s iconic name and want a beer that they’ll go back for time and time again.