At the beginning of September a number of CAMRA volunteers went out and did various pub crawls across the City to undertake our annual beer census – also known as the Beer Capital Survey – to record the beers out there on the bars on a single day, giving an idea how many different beers there are to choose from, which breweries are most widely stocked, typical price of a pint and more. It is an opportunity to take the pulse of Sheffield’s real ale scene.
A similar survey is undertaken in some other towns and Cities such as Derby, Nottingham, Norwich and York – all of which are known for having good pubs and like to promote themselves as a good beer destination – with Derby often claiming in the press to be the real ale capital of Britain (which our surveys suggest Sheffield should be the rightful owner of that title!).
Here are some of the figures that came out of the survey this year.
Number of different unique beers to choose from – 450
Number of real ale handpumps in operation – 1,200
Most expensive pint – £5.90
Cheapest pint – £1.50
Average price of a pint – £3.04
Brewery league table – how many pumps did we find with each breweries beer
- Abbeydale – 71 pumps
- Bradfield – 70 pumps
- Greene King – 45 pumps
- Thornbridge – 43 pumps
- Kelham Island – 32 pumps
- Sharps – 30 pumps
- Stancill – 25 pumps
- Blue Bee – 22 pumps
- Acorn – 19 pumps
- Black Sheep – 18 pumps
- Thwaites – 17 pumps
- Saltaire – 17 pumps
- Little Critters – 17 pumps
- True North Brew Co – 15 pumps
- Exit 33 – 13 pumps
- Tetley – 13 pumps
- Wychwood – 13 pumps
- Sheffield Brewery Company – 11 pumps
- Wells Young – 9 pumps
- Adnams – 9 pumps
- Milestone – 9 pumps
- Neepsend – 8 pumps
- Welbeck Abbey – 8 pumps
- Great Heck – 7 pumps
- Dark Star – 6 pumps
- Ossett – 6 pumps
- Robinsons – 6 pumps
- Theakstons – 6 pumps
- Timothy Taylors – 6 pumps
- Half Moon – 5 pumps
- Marstons – 5 pumps
- Sentinel – 5 pumps
- Shiny – 5 pumps
- Toolmakers – 5 pumps
- S A Brains – 4 pumps
- Brew Foundation – 4 pumps
- White Rose – 4 pumps
- Wantsum – 4 pumps
- Titanic – 4 pumps
- Springhead – 4 pumps
- Sonnet 43 – 4 pumps
- Roosters – 4 pumps
- Pictish – 4 pumps
- Fuggle Bunny – 4 pumps
- Camerons – 4 pumps
Most commonly encountered beer:
- Bradfield Farmers Blonde – 43 pumps
- Abbeydale Moonshine – 37 pumps
- Sharps Doom Bar – 28 pumps
- Black Sheep Best Bitter – 14 pumps
- Greene King Abbot Ale – 13 pumps
- Kelham Island Easy Rider – 12 pumps
- Thornbridge Jaipur IPA -12 pumps
- Tetley Bitter – 12 pumps
- Greene King IPA – 11 pumps
- Whychwood Hobgoblin – 10 pumps
- Abbeydale Deception – 8 pumps
- Acorn Barnsley Bitter – 8 pumps
- Thornbridge Wild Swan – 7 pumps
- Greene King Ruddles Best Bitter – 7 pumps
- Timothy Taylor Landlord – 6 pumps
- Stancill Barnsley Bitter – 6 pumps
- Kelham Island Pale Rider – 6 pumps
- Kelham Island Best Bitter – 6 pumps
- Abbeydale Not Just Jam – 6 pumps
- Abbeydale Absolution – 5 pumps
- Bradfield Blueberry Ale – 5 pumps
- Bradfield Farmers Pale Ale -5 pumps
- Thornbridge Brother Rabbit – 5 pumps
- Thornbridge Lord Marples – 5 pumps
- Thwaites Lancaster Bomber – 5 pumps
- Wells Young Bombardier Bitter – 5 pumps
