In early May, employee-owned, Abbeydale, the oldest brewery in Sheffield, opened Abbeydale Beerworks – their long-awaited tap, a mere 200 paces from the brewery. Using the same space as the ex-Turners Bottle and Tap (Abbeydale Road, S7 1FL), covered outside seating leads you into a cosy space. The bar is on your left, with seating on the right and to the rear. Decor includes brewery-inspired imagery on the walls and a selection of trinkets, many obtained locally or from the brewery.
Beer-wise, there are four cask beers from Abbeydale and six keg selections. Opening night saw the permanent cask, Moonshine, joined by Black Mass, Daily Bread and Through the Hopback Cascade.
On preview evening, the first award presentation at this new venue was made – no doubt, the first of many. The certificate, for a finalist in the Barley Wines & Strong Ales Category in the CAMRA Champion Beer of Britain Award 2026 was for one of the Abbeydale core beers: Black Mass.
This was first brewed almost 30 years ago, on 6th November 1996. The 26th brew from the then new brewery was developed from a beer which the Co-founder of Abbeydale, Pat Morton, had previously brewed: Kelham Island Brewery Bête Noire, a 5.5% stout.
Over time, the recipe for Black Mass has evolved. The first brew was single hopped with Cascade, and had oats and mixed cereals in the grist. The malt bill remains complex, currently featuring crystal malt, both chocolate and pale chocolate malts, black malt, and roasted barley.
Some say Black Mass is a stout, others say it’s a well-hopped dark beer: suffice to say Black Mass was one the first Black IPAs. It has an IBU of over 150. IBU, International Bitterness Units, is a measure of the bitterness of beer based on the amount of bittering compounds from hops, the iso-alpha acids. The scale typically ranges from 0 to 100, with higher values indicating a more bitter taste …. for example, a Pilsner would be 15-30 and a West Coast IPA would be 50-70 …….. with an IBU of over 150, there are a lot of hops in Black Mass ….. Columbus, Cascade, and Green Bullet …. Rich and smooth on the palate, with flavours reminiscent of bitter chocolate, fruitcake and raisins, and aromas of coffee, dark chocolate, and just a hint of burnt toast: it’s classic and familiar yet also unique and boundary defying.
It is also the only beer listed in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide with an abv to 2 decimal places: 6.66%.
Black Mass is one of Abbeydale’s many multi-award winning beers. It also recently won a major Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (SIBA) SIBA award: Gold in the Bottle/Can Speciality IPA category at their flagship BeerX UK event in Liverpool, the Indie Beer Awards 2026 . This is an indication of it’s quality, and yet another acknowledgment of the outstanding beers produced by Team Abbeydale. We wish them well with Abbeydale Beerworks.
