Andy has been actively involved in CAMRA since the early 2000s after being recruited to sit on a National Younger Members Task Group.
Since then he has held roles on the branch committee including Secretary, Membership Secretary, Magazine Editor, Chair and now Social Secretary.
Andy has also been involved with the Steel City Beer & Cider Festival almost every year since becoming active in the branch.
Dronfield CAMRA members have again voted for the Hill Top Sports & Social Club as the winner of their Club of the Year competition, which will be entered as our area’s entry into the Derbyshire competition.
Hill Top SSC is a thriving and well supported club with a varied programme of events and entertainment for all the family as well as pool tables, TVs, quiet corners and a decent bar.
The bar always has real ale available, up to 3 handpumps with a mixture of well known beer brands and local favourites such as Bradfield Farmers Blonde and Dronfield Pale Ale.
The club hosts it’s annual beer festival over the first weekend in May which sees a load of additional handpumps added to the bar offering an interesting expanded beer range with the club’s normal programme of entertainment running alongside the beer festival including live music on the Friday night, family disco on the Saturday evening and a quiz and bingo on the Sunday.
Dronfield CAMRA will be holding a social on the Friday night of the beer festival (1st May) and will be taking that opportunity to present the Club of the Year award. All are welcome to join us!
The club is located on the Hill Top estate on Longacre avenue. Buses stop a few minutes walk away with route 43 on Hollins Spring Avenue or route 43A on Highfields Road or the club has it’s own car park at the rear.
CAMRA members in the Dronfield & District sub branch have voted the Travellers Rest at Apperknowle as the winner of their Pub of the Year competition, with the Coach & Horses in Dronfield coming a very close second.
The Travellers is a traditional pub at the edge of the village in a rural and scenic location with outdoor seating on the grass over the road looking out over the valley which is quite pleasant in the summer. Inside the pub has lots of cosy corners and in winter a hot, roaring fire.
On the bar a warm welcome awaits from Sara and her team with a changing range of real ales on handpump with some additional guest beers and ciders listed on the blackboard available on a cellar run basis. There is always something on the bar to interest all and always served in top condition!
The Travellers also takes part in the annual Three Valleys beer festival when the car park gets closed off to make way for a beer tent, music stage and food vendors. This years festival is Saturday 6th June.
The Travs is pretty traditional country local and does not serve meals, however if you are hungry the pork pies and cheese platters never disappoint, they are top quality, filling and great value for money. Check out the blackboard listing the current choice of cheeses!
Live music also features at the Travellers on a regular basis including a jazz night on Mondays.
If you fancy paying the Travellers Rest a visit the pub has a car park and during the daytime there is also an hourly bus service from Dronfield Civic Centre and railway station via Coal Aston – routes 14/15.
The pubs website is http://www.travellersrestapperknowle.co.uk/ and they can also be found on Twitter @Travsrest.
Exposed Magazine presented their Sheffield awards on the 12th March and a number of real ale outlets won awards.
‘Best Traditional Pub’ went to the Fat Cat, ‘Best New Bar’ went to the Beer House Micropub, ‘Best New Restaurant’ went to Anchorage.
Best local Brewery was awarded to Kelham Island Brewery.
As we climb out of the winter months and the new year hangover, the Castle has sprung back to life! As well as the three real ales, a real cider is now available, live music features every alternate Saturday and there is a monthly themed food night – March 13th was ‘a taste of India’ and for £12 you got a poppadum with pickles and dips, a platter of onion bhaji, meat samosa, pakora, gobi and salad then the main course, one of a choice of three currys with rice.
Regulars of the Monday night acoustic session at the Coach and Horses in Dronfield are holding a charity sleepover from 8pm on Sunday 3rd May to raise money for Roundabout, a charity that supports and helps homeless teenagers.
Entry will be £10 with free breakfast included in the entrance price and all proceedings going to the charity.
The bar staff at the Coach have applied for an extended bar license, meaning that their fantastic selection of drinks will be available all night, but guests are welcome to bring their own beverages if they want to.
A midnight feast and a raffle have also been planned, with contributions needed for both to go ahead. If all of that isn’t enough to convince you, the organisers have contacted the Guinness Book of World Records to enquire about the possibility of breaking the record for the longest acoustic music session.
The session will begin on the Sunday evening and carry on until late on Monday night when the normal acoustic night would finish. So join us for an hour, a few hours or all night long for some great beer, great music, great company and great fundraising.
The Noah’s Ark, Crookes celebrated St Patricks Day in the traditional way including an Irish menu of bacon and cabbage, Irish stew and colcannon. Tony and Maddie McEvoy have been at the pub for about 18 months now and will be adding this food to their normal menu.
Celebrations for St George’s Day are planned for the 23rd April. There will be entertainment throughout the day with Brighton Beach revisited theme in the evening including samples of traditional English food. On a normal week, Monday evening is pool league and Tuesday reserved as open mic night. Poker is mainly Thursday but can be played at any time.
The weekend starts with karaoke and sing along on Saturday and the first Sunday of the month is “Pay Day Disco” in the afternoon. This is a traditional community pub, it has retained the dartboard and on the walls surrounding the central bar are photos of old Sheffield. On the bar are Jennings Cumberland Ale, Sharps Doom Bar, a rotating guest beer and a cider at times.”
The venue most recently known as Delaney’s music bar, at the junction of London Road and Cemetery Road near Moorfoot, is to reopen in early April under it’s old name of the Beer Engine under the new ownership of Tom Harrington. Tom has some good experience of Sheffield pubs under his belt, most recently working for Thornbridge Brewery’s pub operation and previously working in good pubs such as the Sheaf View and was involved with the Hillsborough Hotel in the days of it being run by the Edale Brewery Collective! The focus at the Beer Engine is good beer, the cellar has been refurbished and the bar will feature a couple of regular house beers including a traditional bitter plus a range of ever changing guests, the intention is to feature breweries that are less common in Sheffield’s pubs to keep the range interesting. in total there will be 6 handpumps for cask ales. There will also be a handpump for real cider and the keg beer range will mostly be supplied by Wells-Young who is providing some of the dispense equipment (the pub is otherwise free of tie) – although there will also be guests from ‘craft’ brewers. The pub has a small kitchen and there will be bar food available, this will generally be snacks that complement the beer including choices that will appeal to the after work crowd although there are also plans to offer Sunday dinners and on Sheffield United match days Pie & Pea lunches will be available. The outdoor area has been opened up thanks to the various student flat developments being constructed nearby and this will be developed into a large, pleasant area to drink outside on a warm day with appropriate lighting, plants, trees etc. There is also plenty of room to put special events on in the summer. In the longer term, once the pub itself is up and running successfully, there are plans to open a 5 barrel brewery in the unit next door that was previously a fast food takeaway, this will feature large windows so drinkers in the beer garden can see in, the intention is to bring back modern versions of old traditional beers done to a high standard.
Roundabout fundraiser
Last month, The Harlequin teamed up with local homeless charity Roundabout who provide support for hundreds of young people. The team at the Harlequin hosted a charity quiz night with an excellent raffle, which raised much-needed funds for the charity. Thwaites brewery and local company Worn By Clothing donated prizes and the Harlequin sponsored a cask of ale. The top prize was a brewing experience day at Exit 33 Brewing. The winner will be helping to brew a special Roundabout beer with a donation from every pint going to the charity.
Desperately Seeking Susan
The Harlequin got into the groove to celebrate the 30th anniversary of 80s hit movie Desperately Seeking Susan.
The film was screened in the function room in March. It was a great night of a night of real ale and some 80s nostalgia. Guests also sported 80s fancy dress.
The Miners Arms at Hundall has had more handpumps installed with 5 real ales now available. The regular beer on the bar is Abbeydale Moonshine with the other 4 beers regularly changing – on the day the extra pumps went live breweries represented included Shiny, Fuggle Bunny, Oldershaws and Lincoln Green.
The Dronfield Arms, under the management of Edd Entwhistle, has made an effort to feature a more interesting beer range and a 7th handpump is due to be installed. There are also plans to install a brewery in the downstairs area previously used as a restaurant.
The Beer Stop at Dronfield has reviewed trading figures over their first few months and settled on opening hours, keeping in mind there is only one person running it who has no staff as yet! The Beer Stop is basically a bottled beer shop with an excellent range that is regularly updated, however they also do a couple of handpulled cask ales and you can drink inside or takeaway. The new hours are Tuesday 4pm – 7pm; Wednesday & Thursday 12 – 8pm; Friday & Saturday 12 – 9pm. Sunday opening may be introduced in the summer. The Beer Stop is on Facebook and Twitter, follow on there for latest news!
The Old No7 bar in Barnsley is holding an Easter beer festival from 2nd to 6th April which also coinsides with the Barnsley v Sheffield Utd match for all the Blades and Reds reading this! It will feature 23 casks ales, 10 ciders/perrys and a selection of craft keg and bottles from around the world.
The Eyre Arms at Calver has reopened with beers from the Marstons range.
The Rivelin is due to reopen under new management and is now being run by the same people as the Old Horns in High Bradfield. The 82 Stannington bus goes there.
The Sidings at Brinsworth has had some changes and is now known as the Thirsty Flame. Real Ale now features with Chantry’s Man of Steel being amongst the first casks on the bar.
The Closed Shop at Commonside is holding a beer festival from the 21st to 24th May. You can get there easily via the 95 bus and food is available daily until 9pm.
The main sign on the front of the Tune Inn @ Royal Standard in Sheffield Centre recently got damaged in bad weather and has been taken down to reveal a bit of unknown heritage – the original tiled pub sign!
Beer Central, the excellent bottled beer shop in the Moor Markets, have reported hot demand for Thornbridge’s current big three beers, including Cocoa Wonderland which on cask won the beer of the festival competition at our Steel City Beer Festival last October and Jaipur X, the 10% special edition of Jaipur to celebrate the brewery’s 10th birthday.
Other notable specialist off-licences in Sheffield for beer include the Archer Road Beer Stop, Hop Hideout, Beeches of Walkley, Starmoor-Boss and the Dram Shop.
The Ship Inn at Shalesmoor has closed down following a change in ownership. It is understood that it should reopen as a pub in due course.
First up, I’m sure the Beer Matters team were suitably red-faced when they realised they forgot our submission from last months issue! I’m sure we won’t remind you of it (much!) ;). You may have missed the news that Rob and Julie are to retire very shortly from The Rising Sun. We would once again like to place on record our thanks for all the hard work they have both done over the last eight years to make both the pub and SunFest what they are today.
Due to the print deadline, we aren’t able to announce just yet who is taking over, but keep your eyes peeled for the news!
More news on the pub, following the refurbishment of the side room, work will begin shortly on the planned expansion on the main room and beer garden. This is going to be a very large job, so we apologise for any inconvenience caused and hope to keep disruption to a minimum. We are creating a larger drinking area, putting in new toilets and a proper sized kitchen, as well as developing the beer garden area too. Don’t worry though folks, SunFest will still be going ahead as normal! Talking of SunFest, this year’s dates will be July 9th-12th 2015, get it in the diary NOW!
Onto the beer (finally!), by the time you are reading this, our Easter specials, Dr Morton’s Rabbit Punch4.1% and Chocolate Stout4.5% should be on the bar. The Rabbit punch is a golden ale with a good biscuit malt base and European hops for a balanced bitter finish. Look out for sumptuous dark chocolate, raisin and cherry flavours leading to a long rich cocoa finish in the stout.
Our final Easter/egg themed beer is the return of Exodus4.3%, a well hopped golden beer, with hops from around the globe to give lemon, lime and tropical fruit flavours with subtle malt to balance.
Dr Morton’s Safety Beer4.1% will be available towards the middle of the month and as the name suggests, we’ve played it safe. It’s our bread and butter, 4.1%, pale and hoppy. But to further protect to public, we won’t even allow you to know which hops have gone into it, just in case it blows your mind!
The end of the month will see the release of the latest beer in our Albion series of British hopped beers. Boadiceawill be a 4.0% pale session beer featuring the Boadicea hop. Expect a light floral aroma and a spicy feel on the palate.
Until next time, mine’s a pint!
The pub has a small kitchen and there will be bar food available, this will generally be snacks that complement the beer including choices that will appeal to the after work crowd although there are also plans to offer Sunday dinners and on Sheffield United match days Pie & Pea lunches will be available. The outdoor area has been opened up thanks to the various student flat developments being constructed nearby and this will be developed into a large, pleasant area to drink outside on a warm day with appropriate lighting, plants, trees etc. There is also plenty of room to put special events on in the summer. In the longer term, once the pub itself is up and running successfully, there are plans to open a 5 barrel brewery in the unit next door that was previously a fast food takeaway, this will feature large windows so drinkers in the beer garden can see in, the intention is to bring back modern versions of old traditional beers done to a high standard. 
