Dan moved to Sheffield in 2023, and started attending CAMRA meetings after accidentally sitting next to several branch members at Indie Beer Feast. He took on the role of Pub of the Month coordinator in 2025 and revamped the process to make an award each month.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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, 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.
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.
This August I revisited Bangkok after several years, catching up with friends and visiting old favourites – and some new venues.
Brewing and alcohol laws in Thailand are complex and have changed (for the better) a fair amount in recent years. I believe until recent law changes only a brewpub and a mass production license were available. This resulted in illegal brewing, or legally brewing in a neighbouring country with brewers then having to import their beer into Thailand to sell it. Duties and taxes are still high, but there are now more legal routes to brew and distribute in-country. There is also a large import market and lots of craft beer venues, but the duties and taxes keep prices very high. The most expensive beer I saw on this visit was about £14 for 350ml – an imported 8.9% Vault City & Overtone collaboration. The cheapest local craft beer was around £4.50 for a similar measure. Local lager can be found for around £2 (or more, or less – depending on where you are).
My first stop after landing on a Saturday afternoon was Hair of the Dog in Phrom Phong. They were founded in 2015, and have 2 locations just off Sukhumvit. Their first bar was my local when I lived in Phloen Chit in 2017. Their Phrom Phong bar opened a year later and is slightly larger with a gin bar mezzanine floor. They offer 13 taps of craft beer at each location – all recently kitted out with Czech side pour taps. Both bars also offer cocktails and a large beer fridge for drink in and takeaway. Canadians Mike and Pete originally worked in Bangkok’s Mikkeller bar, the first international craft beer bar in the city before opening Hair of the Dog.
I also visited Duke of Beerington, a small bottle shop with 3 taps in Thong Lor, opposite a Japanese isakaya which you can order food from. Since my last visit I was pleased to notice that Japanese breweries appear to export and can far more than they did several years ago, and that those cans are making it out of Japan. Duke often has a full fridge of UK beers from breweries like Verdant and Track, alongside a lot of American beers and more recently the legal Thai brews and Japanese imports.
I had a start to my Tuesday evening which turned out to be controversial with at least one friend – visiting a house bar called Om’s Living Room. It turns out it may not be the most licensed of establishments – though as mentioned, Thailand’s beer rules haven’t always been the easiest to work under. Om serves exclusively Thai beer and, as the bar style and name suggest, is literally the ground floor of a residential building.
I moved on to Finger Heart (named for the finger and thumb heart gesture I believe was popularised by K-Pop) – a small bottle shop offering a mix of local and imported beer, including impressively priced (for Thailand) bottles of 3 Fonteinen.
I then visited a Chit Hole for the first time. Chit started out as Thailand’s most infamous home brewer, often being shut down by the authorities for short periods. His original bar is located on the artificial island of Pak Kret in the Khaopraya river which can only be visited by boat. I didn’t get a chance to make that journey on this trip, however there are now a series of bars named the Chit Hole across the city, often cohabiting with a restaurant or other business. These bars serve exclusively Thai beer, and I enjoyed Chit’s own Hipster IPA (7.2%) and Top Hill (6.5% Porter).
On Wednesday I rejoined my former quiz team at an ‘English’ style pub, the Royal Oak on Sukhumvit Soi 33 – where we won the quiz! Beers in here are the often found local lagers, as well as Guinness and Punk IPA.
On the following Saturday I arranged to meet with old friends to visit a couple of bars in Chinatown, after meeting for lunch and visiting a couple of coffee shops along the way we ended up at Tai Soon, a very nice old building full of exposed brick and concrete, with a high entryway adorned with Chinese lanterns. Fully half the taps were Thai beer so I tried an amazing Yuzu mead (Sanghok brewing, 5%) and Humble Flow (Lollihops brewing, 6.4% IPA) among others.
We then took a short walk up the road to a brand new bar in the rear grounds of an old mansion, Two Palms taproom. About half their taps were Two Palms beer, and they offered flights so I made significant inroads into the menu with 2 flights of various Two Palms, Maalstroom and Sunrise brewing beer – all Thai brewers. We then took a long and traffic jam hindered Grab taxi back to Sukhumvit, and a final beer (ok, several final beers) at Hair of the Dog Phrom Phong.
The Wellington on Shalesmoor is our Pub of the Month for October 2025. Built in 1839 and refitted in 1940, it has a 3 room layout with a beer garden to the rear. In September 2023 it was added to the South Yorkshire Heritage List, and also features as the cover image of the fifth edition of Sheffield’s Heritage Pubs.
The pub serves as a taproom for Neepsend brewery, which can be found regularly occupying several of its six hand pumps. Neepsend Blond is always available, with the rest of the lineup being at least one each of a pale, dark, stronger ale over 5%, and a bitter. The Wellington often has guest ales from breweries such as Bang the Elephant, Pentrich and Shiny. They have a good range of craft keg including four lines from Neepsend and a further four guest taps.
Every Tuesday at 20:30 is a pub quiz, and there are often whisky tastings which require advance booking. The Wellington offers a large selection of whiskies often with a featured whisky of the week.
However, there is a final element of the Wellington’s popularity – the sandwiches. The Wellington doesn’t offer hot food, but it does (while stocks last) offer giant pub-style clingfilm-wrapped sandwiches usually with potted meat, cheese & onion, or dripping – for £1. They’re mentioned in many online reviews, forums and social media posts – and in the nominations and votes for this award!
Join us for the PotM presentation at the Wellington on Wednesday 22 October at 20:30.
Get there by tram (Shalesmoor) or buses 57/57a, 81/82 or 86.
We’ve now awarded a monthly PotM award for 3 consecutive months. If you have any feedback on the process so far feel free to get in touch at potm@sheffield.CAMRA.org.
Nominations for awards are usually open after the first Tuesday in the month (Branch Meeting) and close on the 4th Tuesday in the month (Committee Meeting). You can nominate in person at meetings, via a committee member, or using the website.
Our committee member and magazine distribution volunteer Dan says it is better later than never, but has delivered a copy of Beer Matters to a bar in Istanbul that was featured on the cover of that issue!
Has anyone taken copies of Beer Matters to a bar any further away from Sheffield than Istanbul?
