February Pub of the Month presentation
Author: Dan Rowe
Sheffield Beer Week
I was recently invited by George Bushell from the Shakespeare to join him and his colleague Charlie Slack at Loxley Brewery for a brewday. As part of Sheffield Beer Week, the Shakespeare is currently working with several Sheffield breweries and local businesses to produce a range of collaboration beers which will be available during Beer Week – watch the Shakespeare’s socials for details, but at time of writing these were planned to include:
- Loxley – Bitter
- Abbeydale – El Dorado Deception
- Little Critters with Nam Song (Vietnamese restaurant in Broomhill) – Vietnamese coffee stout
- Little Mesters/Emmanuales – NZ Rye Pale
- Duality Brew Co with Freak St (Nepalese cafe in Walkley) – Juicy IPA
- Triple Point – Miso Caramel Mild (and some special pins)
Not all are yet brewed and some may change! A launch is planned for Monday 9 March.
Loxley Brewery was started in 2018 by David Woodhead in a disused garage beneath the Wisewood Inn in Loxley. David, a friend of Wisewood’s owner Stephen Wesley, home brewed before taking on the new role and now mostly supplies beer to Wisewood, Raven (Walkley) and No3 (Sharrow) as well as producing bottle-conditioned real ale on premises. With his assistant Christian, David brews about 3 times a fortnight on the 5BBL custom-built kit.
George, Charlie and I all arrived when the mash was already on, and got to have a good chat with David and Christian about the brewery, and David’s brewing history and prior life in the steel industry. We did a lot of standing around with further talk during the sparge phase – in advance of the day the major elements I knew of for the brewing process were the amounts of waiting involved, with intermittent bursts of cleaning – all of which proved true.
We took turns to ceremoniously shovel bins of spent grain from the tun, which all goes to a good home as animal feed. We also weighed up the hops for the boil, probably our only other contribution for the day! I found it to be a very interesting day and having only had a basic understanding of the steps involved, it was a good learning experience for all the hard work that goes into every pint we sit down with.
At this point the Wisewood Inn had opened for the day and we celebrated what should be an excellent bitter with a pint and a chip butty!
A huge thanks to everyone at Loxley, the Wisewood Inn and the Shakespeare – keep an eye on their social media for upcoming events and where to drink the beer when it’s out.
Pub of the Year 2026 (District)
The Red Lion Inn is a Grade II–listed public house located on the village green in Litton, Derbyshire. The building was converted from three miners’ cottages into a pub in 1787, and over 200 years later in 2024 it was taken over by Tomas and Kristina.
The property was added to the National Heritage List for England on 12 July 1967 in recognition of its architectural and historic interest.
The interior has a traditional layout, with small rooms, exposed stone walls, wood panelling, and open fireplaces. They also have two guest rooms which can be booked for overnight accommodation.
The kitchen offers a menu of traditional British dishes and operates daily, with a break in service during mid-afternoon Monday to Thursday.
Cask ales from Derbyshire and South Yorkshire breweries are regularly available – on a recent social we enjoyed beers from Acorn and Eyam.
The Red Lion hosts quiz nights on the first Monday of the month, and other community activities which are advertised on their website and social media. From time to time bigger events are held such as their Oktoberfest celebration last September.
Join us for the award presentation at 3pm on Saturday 18 April. We have a Peak District social on that day which will be calling there, alternatively you can get there on bus 65 (Sheffield-Buxton) or bus 173 (Castleton-Bakewell).
Pub of the Month February 2026
The Raven Inn on Palm Street, Walkley, opened in November 2019, an unexpectedly challenging period for any business – let alone a new pub. Formerly the Palm Tree, the Raven underwent an extensive refurbishment before opening. The mixed contemporary and traditional interior consists of wooden furniture with contrasting walls adorned with antlered light fixtures.
The Raven Inn is Loxley Brewery’s second pub, following the Wisewood Inn in Loxley and preceding Sharrow Vale’s ‘No.3’. It offers five of Loxley’s own real ales and a rotating guest real cider alongside nine keg lines including guest craft keg, Loxley’s own craft offerings, and a lager.
To the rear is a very spacious beer garden which in the warmer months usually hosts a pop-up kitchen on weekend evenings. Throughout the year a variety of pork pies, sausage rolls and scotch eggs are available over the bar every weekend. Each Wednesday there is a pub quiz at 8pm and other one-off events including live music are listed on the pub’s social media feeds.
Join us for a drink at the Raven on 10 February at 8.30pm where they’ll be presented with February’s Pub of the Month award.
Getting there: buses 52a and 95 stop a short walk away on Walkley Road or South Road.
Happy new year to everyone, and thanks for all your nominations and votes over the last 6 months. Nominations are always open on our revamped nomination form, and are ratified at each month’s committee meeting (third Tuesday). Voting then opens until the branch meeting (first Tuesday). If you have feedback on the process or the new form, contact us at potm@sheffield.camra.org.uk.
This time of year is always the hardest for pubs, and 2026 will be no exception – at the time of writing both Turner’s bottle shop and the Closed Shop have already announced their closures. Please consider visiting and nominating venues you may not have been to before, and supporting independent businesses in our branch area.
Portland House
Lance Worthington took over the Portland House on Ecclesall Road from Wellbeck Abbey in 2017. The bar offers two rotating cask options – these have recently included Osset’s ‘Rat’ range, Triple Point and Neepsend. Also on offer are 4 rotating craft keg beers and other beers.
When he took it over Lance put his own stamp on the bar – he turned his design and carpentry skills to the pub’s furniture needs, making the pub’s tables and reupholstering all the seating. Outside he installed a canopy, created windowed screens and attached bench seating to the frontage – all of which all folds up and neatly locks away each night. In late 2025 he went a step further by designing and making what might be Sheffield’s first sofa that transforms into a stage! This is used to host open mic events most Sundays, and other music events which can be found on the bar’s socials.
Lance takes commissions for his furniture and can be contacted through his Instagram account (@lanceworthingtonphotography).
He is also the main organiser of ‘Eccyfest’, the now twice annual event involving a changing cast of Ecclesall Road’s bars. The next of these is 3-5 April 2026 with another planned for the first weekend of October. Details of participating venues can be found on Eccyfest’s Facebook feed as well as the individual bars’ social media pages.
Pub of the Month January 2026
The Beer House Hillsborough (recently renamed from the Beer House S6) is the sister pub of the Beer House on Ecclesall Road and opened in May 2023, joining several other micropubs opening in Hillsborough in recent years.
While the micropub remains under the same ownership, new manager Karl has undertaken a gentle rebrand over the last part of 2025, with new external signage. Their emphasis on serving good beer and being a part of the Hillsborough community has continued, reflected in the nomination and award of Pub of the Month from local members.
In the heart of Hillsborough and positioned handily on the inbound tram stop, the venue was in the early 90s a Famous Army Stores before becoming Mad Harry’s Discount Warehouse. As noted by locals in The Star in 2023, the Beer House was a welcomed new addition to HIllsborough.
The open planned yet cozy bar has six cask lines and five craft keg on rotation. The micropub places importance on both variety and quality, stocking from breweries such as Two by Two (always on one line), Pentrich, Elusive, Black Iris, and North Riding, among many others. They always have an unusual flavoured stout on offer, a best bitter, and a range of pales.
Unusually for a micropub there is a fully utilised basement room, with a centrally located staircase leading down to a games room where you can enjoy pool and darts. They also run a Wednesday night pub quiz, for which booking is recommended.
Atmosphere and community is just as important as the real ale offering in this Hillsborough micropub, and this award is well deserved. Join us on Tuesday 13 January at 8:30pm to celebrate this award and enjoy a few drinks!
Thanks to everyone who has nominated or voted in our Pub of the Month competition since we refreshed the rules and relaunched for August. Since then we have awarded a PotM every month – we’re now finished for the year as there is no award given in December. This lets us (and the pubs!) focus on the busy Christmas period.
Nominations are open for February 2026’s award and voting will open around Christmas – check the website or your inbox closer to the time as the voting will close at our branch meeting on 6 January.
Bottling it 2
In the second part of a series on local bottle shops, I’ve paired two venues that have something quite interesting in common – cask ale, but not as we know it.
Archer Road Beer Stop has been running for 43 years, the last 7 of which have been under the ownership of Richard Hattersley (with additional oversight from 16 year old shop cat Butters). Richard spent many years at the House Skate Park in Neepsend but was a regular at Archer Road under its prior owner Dave. While his initial purchases were mostly lagers and Guinness, Dave suggested trying Acorn’s Gorlovka imperial stout (7%) and Richard was hooked – he still stocks Gorlovka today.
The shop is known locally for having no on-license but providing cask real ale for takeaway. 4 pint containers are available, or bring your own clean container, growler, or even a plastic milk bottle for refilling – as long as it has a lid on it when it leaves, it’s fine! One cask always on and a second in busier periods – Richard expects to have pins of stout or Christmas beers on this second line in the lead up to Christmas.
On the shelves the Beer Stop stocks a range of local bottled and canned ales, and Belgian beers. Bottles include Welbeck, Acorn, Great Newsome and Wold Top (the latter usually being gluten free). There’s also an extensive range of German lagers and craft cans in the fridges.
Jules Gray reopened her bar and bottle shop Hop Hideout in its new location of Leah’s Yard in August 2024, and the business is in its 12th year overall.
Hop Hideout often stocks bottled beer from Bradfield and Thornbridge, with cans from other Sheffield breweries and beyond. The bar also offers 7 craft keg lines, a keg cider and a bag in box cider as well as a range of wines. Jules has also curated her own cellar of aged belgian beers, predominantly lambics – although there are often a variety of vintage years of Orval available, as it’s one of Jules’ favourites.
While the shop doesn’t have hand pull, Jules owns a wooden pin which was restored by master cooper Jonathan Manby at Jensen’s Cooperage in Thirsk, North Yorkshire. It’s refilled by various breweries (often by Abbeydale or Thornbridge) and is poured with gravity. The pin tends to rapidly empty when available, so keep an eye on socials to not miss it!
Hop Hideout is often host to tap takeovers, launches, readings and other non-beer events, and Jules runs the annual Sheffield Beer Week (which often creeps into more than a week!). The city-wide event celebrated its 11th year in 2025 with Indie Beer Feast and numerous events across a large number of venues.
St Mars of the Desert
“St Cask of the Desert”
One of our local brewers, St Mars of the Desert – often referred to as SMOD – recently brewed their first cask beer in a collaboration at Thornbridge brewing. It was on hand pull at the marquee at Steel City 49 where it was the first cask beer to sell out, on the first day of the festival.
Martha & Dann spent a day brewing with Alice at Thornbridge in September, resulting in Quill – a 5.5% ESB. It’s their first fully casked beer, although they also own several German Stichfass which they use throughout the year. They brought two of these to Steel City, both containing ‘ungespundetes’ (a German practice of fermenting in an un-bunged barrel) versions of Fledermaus, their 5.4% vollbier lager. They offer single-stichfass batches at their taproom fairly regularly during the year and always advertise these on their social media.
At the end of October SMOD had a single cask of Quill, offering hand pulled cask ale at their taproom for the first time – and hopefully not the last! Several of our members enjoyed more than one glass of Quill to help encourage this sort of thing.
In early November SMOD also released Bébé Sauvage, a 9.5% bottle refermented foeder beer with plums and dates.
Kevin Thompson
Kevin Thompson, our branch Social/Press Secretary, colleague, and friend, died on 25 August aged 64.
In his earlier life Kevin worked in retail management, including in the music sector, and organised events and press releases – skills he brought to bear on behalf of our branch in more recent years.
Kevin joined CAMRA in 2010 and after attending an AGM decided to get more involved in the branch, volunteering to take on more than one role. As press secretary he has been quoted several times in the Star, usually on Pub of the Month related news. This helped raise our profile and that of the pubs we cover – the committee are very grateful for his work.
He was also very active as our social secretary, spending many days scouting pubs on trips both in and out of town to practice routes for social meets he planned. These provided excellent opportunities for branch members to socialise outside of meetings and to explore some of the less well travelled parts of our branch and beyond. Kevin was always happy to lend his hand to chairing meetings, writing trip reports for Beer Matters, and standing in for award presentations.
At Steel City 49 a rare cask of Neepsend Brew Co’s Alcis was dedicated to Kevin, and his friends also arranged various fitting tributes across Sheffield focusing on his other joint loves of Sheffield Wednesday, and live music.
A tribute to Kevin was held on 6 November at Wadsley Bridge Working Men’s Club where many of Kevin’s friends met to celebrate his life, share stories and look at photos.
He will be missed.
Pub of the Month November 2025
Our pub of the month for November 2025 is the Dog & Partridge in central Sheffield. With full disclosure in mind, the pub has long been a friend to the local branch with owners Sarah and Conor Smith offering the snug as a meeting room for our committee, and the pub receiving deliveries of Beer Matters for us each month. It’s great to see them recognised by our membership with an award.
The pub itself dates back to 1796 – one of the oldest still operating in Sheffield, and is on the CAMRA Local Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors. It has a fairly traditional layout, most notably featuring a relatively unaltered snug (the venue for committee meetings) featuring an old fireplace with a more modern hearth, a serving hatch, and original bell pushes for table service – now only ornamental. There are three other larger rooms with a central bar. The exterior still has raised lettering for ‘Gilmours Windsor Ales & Stouts’ above the entryway.
On the bar are 4 cask lines, usually including at least one Abbeydale beer, with a choice of a bitter, a stout and 2 paler options. There is also a central column of 4 craft keg lines, and a further 8 keg lines for lagers, ciders, and the ‘Holy Trinity’ of Irish Stouts; Guinness, Murphy’s, and Beamish (as of writing this is claimed to be the only pub in S Yorks offering Beamish). These offerings earn them a spot on Sheffield’s legendary ‘Irish Triangle’.
The pub offers a range of events including a quiz night every Tuesday at 7pm followed by ‘Irish Bingo’ at around 8.30. There are music sessions every Monday, Wednesday, Sunday and two Thursdays a month, a Bi-Monthly “Dogfest” music Festival (next is on November 29th), as well as live gigs every other Saturday night. For advance information on any of these check the pub’s socials and website.
They also offer an Irish pub food menu including a ‘spice bag’ inspired by Ireland’s chinese takeaway menus, chicken fillet rolls, as well as specials.
Join us on Tuesday 11 November at around 8pm after the quiz finishes (or join in and see how you do!) for the presentation of their award.