Author: Andy Cullen

After 8 great years as head brewer, Iain Kenny has moved on. Under Iain the brewery has grown and our high standards have been maintained, everyone at Kelham wishes Iain all the best. Succeeding Iain is brewing legend and all round great chap, Nigel ‘Hops’ Turnbull. For his opener Nigel is taking us all back to the sixties summer of love with Hippy Chick 8% Imperial Indian Pale Ale. Hopped to the max with all the most aromatic American hops available. These beautiful resinous hop cones give a massively pungent aroma of lemon zest, blackberry, grapefruit and tropical fruits. Just to increase the aroma further we have added a further addition of pelletised hops before the beer starts to ferment to give a fresh citrus zing. Making a welcome return for March we have one of Iain’s special ‘Specials’. Zombies of the Stratosphere 4.8%. A blazing extraterrestrial golden ale with a sweet caramalt flavour and a remarkable orchestra of noble resinous lime and pine aromas from two types of Styrian Golding hop varieties. The final adventure of the rocket man saga concludes with a zesty flourish of sublime fulfilment and satisfaction. In the Kelham Shop we are getting down our limited run of Anniversary Ale 6.5%. It was run of only 5000 numbered bottles and when it’s gone it’s gone.

Firstly, as you may have already heard, after over 8 years of loyal service and hard work, Rob & Julie are set to retire from The Rising Sun. We would like to place on record our thanks and appreciation for all their hard work and dedication to make the pub and SunFest what they are today.  By the time you read this, we should have concluded the interview process and be ready to welcome the new landlord(s), expect an announcement in next months edition.  Although a formal leaving date has yet to be set, if you would like to say farewell and maybe raise a (Welsh) glass in their name, we advise you to do so by the end of March! In terms of beer this month, we have a cornucopia of lovely stuff! First up is the latest in our British Hops Albion series, called Chaucer featuring the lovely Bramling Cross (often labelled as Bramling X).  This will be a 4.1% golden ale with plenty of Bramling Cross shovelled in to the brew, and also a subtle dry hopping with the same hops. Expect a nice level of bitterness with a spicy blackcurrant flavour. The return of an old favourite in Genesis is second out the brewhouse this month, coming in at 3.9% this pale session beer has plenty of New Zealand hops giving a herb and floral aroma coupled with distinctive lychee flavours leading to a crisp bitter finish. In preparation for Easter we have Dr Morton’s Rabbit Punch, golden in colour with a good biscuit malt base with some nice European hops for a balanced bitter finish. To complete the Easter celebrations, we bring back our Chocolate Stout which has sumptuous dark chocolate, raisin and cherry flavours with a long rich cocoa finish, just in case you can’t get enough chocolate over the next few weeks! We are also planning to launch a series of beers this year called our Signature range, which will feature recipes concocted by our lovely staff, with beers they are so proud of they are happy for them to carry their signature! We may try and sneak one out this month, but whose will it be? You will just have to wait and see!

March sees the start of a few exiting months ahead for the brewery. Our flagship beer, Barnsley Bitter is representing the North East region in the SIBA national finals to held at BeerX. This event will once again be held at Sheffield Ice 18th-21st March and pitches our Barnsley Bitter with the other regional winners throughout the UK. Also one to look out for in the finals is Barnsley’s Geeves Brewery with their Clear Cut there must be something good in the water around these parts! Expansion plans are motoring ahead with 2 new 25 barrel conditioning tanks and a cold-room extension ordered and also another major expansion planned for July, details to follow in the near future. We welcome 2 new members of staff to Acorn towers, Yvonne Underwood joins us in an administration role and Ian Darvill who is a very accomplished home brewer joins the production team. Our seasonal beer for March is the aptly named Madness a 4.5% pale ale brewed with sack loads of hops!

We’re well into 2015 now and the year is already taking shape. Our first few specials have been a hit, especially Seven Sisters at 4.2% ABV which had a lovely sweet lemon barley flavour. For February we have one new special, one repeat appearance from last year and of course, one old favourite. Savoy Hill, the main service entrance for the Welbeck Abbey, was named so because it once resembled the stunning entrance to the grand Savoy Hotel in London. Now it’s unfortunately lost many of the original glasswork and tiling but the name remains. This beer should be no less spectacular than the entrance, being filled with the mouth-wateringly fresh aromas of pear, orange and passion fruit. This is a 4.2% beer however, making it a pleasantly light indulgence. Cathedral Beeches is repeated special from last year. Coming in at 3.7% this traditional bitter is full of heady herbal aromas from British Phoenix hops, making it surprisingly delicious and certainly more interesting than many of its counterparts. The name stems from an area of woodland with towering Beech trees in which young lovers at Welbeck used to come and carve their names. Kaiser makes an appearance in February as our next Favourite at Welbeck. Our 4.1% Lager style pale ale is brewed using lager ingredients but in the British way to get the most from these traditional ingredients. If you miss it this month then don’t panic, it’ll be back again in May. Aside from the exciting news that we are brewing three specials per month now, we have finally finished the building project and are open for brewery tours again! The tours are booked as private events so if you would like to organise a visit or even a party at the brewery and we would be happy to help. We’ll be taking part in Sheffield Science Week 2015 as we did in 2014. There will be around 30 places available for members of the public to come to Welbeck for a brewery tour, practical brewing experiments, and a Q&A session with brewers and academics. This will be on Thursday 19^th and places for this event and others can be booked here: http://www.scienceweeksy.org.uk/events/offline Finally, we are very pleased to have been shortlisted as Company of the Year in the North Notts Business Awards 2015! The final is to be held on Thursday 2^nd April, so please keep your fingers crossed for us and we’ll let you know how we do.