While attending the Bear’s beer and cheese event during Sheffield Beer Week, owner Matt pointed out an overly large pump clip on the wall, saying ‘you know what that means’. I did – but I wasn’t sure how he intended to serve it. The Bear has no cask lines.
Founded in 2021 by Matt Beety, the Bear is a cosy bottle shop at the top of Abbeydale Road, specialising primarily in craft beer. It boasts a wall of fridges and a bar with six keg lines. The Bear holds regular meet the brewer events, and the clip Matt pointed out was for Weekend Project’s appearance in mid-March.
This was the Bear’s first foray into cask (though its sister bar, the Old Shoe, has two lines), and the first issue to overcome was the complete absence of any serving mechanism for cask beer.
Matt brought in local company SR Beer Co to help set up a temporary handpull at the end of the bar, and relied on a bucket and some ice to keep the nine-gallon cask cool.
The event was attended by Will from Weekend Project, along with sausage dog Oliver and seven of their beers – and, of course, about 25 drinkers. First up, and star of the show, was Planet Caravan on the new pump, ably poured by Sooty (with some help from his friend Jonny).
It was an evening full of tales from breweries both foreign and domestic – and quite a lot of beer.
The Bear has a steady stream of meet the brewer events advertised on its social media platforms, which tend to sell out quickly – and perhaps we can hope that future editions might feature some cask offerings too.
Dan Rowe
