Steel City Beer & Cider Festival celebrates its golden jubilee
Yes, the Steel City festival reaches its milestone 50th event this October, and we’ve lined up a few extra things to help celebrate. Here’s a rundown of everything you can expect when visiting Sheffield’s original and best beer festival.
200+ cask beers, 30+ ciders & perries, 80+ keg beers
Spread across four bar areas, we have a fantastic range of beer, cider and perries to offer. As well as the numerous one-off special beers, we have managed to get a few beers in wooden casks, and have also brought in some beers which were at the very first festival. St Mars of The Desert will be serving two beers from their very popular German Stichfass keg on Wednesday evening, and we’ll have some special ciders courtesy of The Old Shoe.
Guest Breweries
Our separate room featuring guest breweries proved a big hit last year, so we’ve added another bar this year. Ticking Clock Brewery from Shireoaks, Black Lodge Brewery from Liverpool and Trig Brewery from York will be bringing their own bars where you can try their beers and talk to their people. An exciting addition for 2026 is the Women On Tap bar, which will be celebrating women in brewing by featuring 7 different beers all brewed by women at nearby breweries. Some of the brewsters will be on hand to talk about their beer as well as their experiences in the brewing industry.
Commemorative glasses
Of course you’ll need something to drink out of, and we have a fantastic new design on the two festival glasses. Here’s a preview to help you decide which to choose when you arrive.
NEW – Champion Homebrew of Sheffield competition.
For the first time, we are having a homebrew competition, and with the 4 finalists already chosen we can tell you that the standard is very high. The finalist’s beers are being scaled up and produced commercially by four local brewers – Little Critters, Little Mesters; Blue Bee and Duality. On the Wednesday night, we’ll be judging those four to see which is crowned “Champion Homebrew of Sheffield”. This will be presented as the same time as our regular “Champion Beer Of Sheffield” award.
Talks and tasting events
We’ve a variety of events to keep you entertained and informed. Well-known beer writer Pete Brown will be hosting his beer & music pairing session; Kelham Island Brewery will be talking about the history of the brewery and how it connects with Sheffield’s recent brewing past; Our ever-popular Heritage walk takes you through the history of the locality; Abbeydale Brewery will be hosting a guided tasting through a number of their beers; and Women On Tap founder Rachel Auty will be talking about the role of women in the beer industry.
Due to popular demand, we’ve increased the number of runs of the mighty River Don Steam Engine, giving visitors even more chance to experience it in action.
An interesting part of the Museum which is usually closed to festival-goers is the Hawley Tool collection, and we’re pleased to announce that this will be open on Thursday and Friday afternoon with Museum staff on hand to discuss the exhibits.
Music
We’ve brought back five of our favourites from previous year’s festivals so visitors on Thursday Friday and Saturday will have some top-quality music to keep them entertained. Highway Child, Soul Battalion, Loxley Silver Band and The 88’s will be playing in the Upper Hall, and Kelham Rapper will be popping up all over the venue with their riotous sword dancing.
Food stalls, CAMRA shop and Tombola stalls
You’ll be spoiled for choice when it comes to eating at the festival. Eight different stalls will be on site offering a variety of sweet and savoury treats including several vegetarian options. Our Tombola stall will be making it’s usual appearance giving visitors the chance to win some Finest Quality Merchandise and the CAMRA shop has a vast array of historical items recently gifted to us from members who have sadly passed away in the last year. A highlight of the shop though, will no doubt be our limited edition Henderson’s Relish bottles.
Charity
Our charity for this year is Support Dogs, who provide dogs to people for a variety of support needs. They will be bringing a few of their dogs to meet visitors on Thursday and Friday afternoon and will also have staff collecting for the charity at other times who will be happy to talk about the charity and the work it does.
Volunteers
And finally, a massive thank you to all our volunteers who help to organise and run the festival. It literally couldn’t happen without their hard work and enthusiasm. If you fancy joining our happy band, simply visit sheffield.camra.org.uk/scbf/ and scroll down to the volunteer section.
