Emmanuales

Did you know that there are 57 breweries in Sheffield and the surrounding area alone? According to recent statistics, the United Kingdom has in excess of 1700 breweries, producing anything from traditional bitters to white wine oak barrel aged cucumber saisons. When I started Emmanuales, I used to sit on my back doorstep brewing my 25L length batches, dreaming of the dizzy heights of what it must be like to be one of those commercial brewers. You can probably imagine what a nightmare it must have been, then, to be dumping my first industrial sized, 981L batch of Jonah and the Pale due to a technical issue: heart wrenching! This came the day after discovering our The Gospel According To… series failed to carbonate in bottles for reasons that still remain a mystery, and won’t be seeing the light of day any time soon. Hardly the stuff dreams are made of for an aspiring craft brewer. However, true to style, the story ends with resurrection and life. Having brewed it all over again, we have just launched our first round of cask and keg beer, with bottles to follow imminently. Two of our flagship beers, Jonah and the Pale (5.0% Transatlantic Pale Ale) and Ryejoice (5.4% Red Rye) are now available on tap for the first time. This has been a huge achievement two years on from launching Emmanuales. In addition, along with a revised version of Glory, Glory Aleluia (5.1% American Amber Ale) with a new hop schedule including Ekuanot, Citra, Mosaic, Columbus and Azacca, we will also be releasing Beer Thou My Vision, a session Pale Ale, just in time for running the bar at The Big Church Day Out music festivals in Stafford and Bath. It’s been a long, hard road. It’s involved sacrifice, being covered in yeast, moving two tonnes of malt in one day by hand, doing endless research and reading on microbiology, a lot of cleaning, late night design work, and drinking plenty of beer. But it has been worth every moment.