Abbeydale Brewery

Well first of all we would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year! We hope that you have all kept to your resolutions, and ours is to carry on brewing more beer for all of you lucky people! 2015 is looking like the year of collaborations over at Abbeydale HQ, early January saw the launch of the Birdhouse Tea Beer. Rebecca at Birdhouse made us a special blend of green tea, jasmine, hibiscus, rose petals and summer fruits, which were combined with some lovely Cascade hops. If you haven’t been to their shop at Nether Edge, we recommend checking it out! This month brings the launch of a collaboration with another brewery, and we are excited to be brewing with Rat Brewery of Huddersfield for the first time.  The recipe is still being formulated, however expect the brew to be a strong Red Rye beer with plenty of hops!!! Mmmm hops! Did we mention we like hops? Keep your eyes and ears open for more collaborations with other exciting people for later on in the year, with the return collaboration with Raw Brewery on the cards soon! Dr Morton has been very busy recently with the return of Duck Baffler and new arrival Stamped Addressed Antelope last month, and there are several other new arrivals this month with Accent Compensation (4.1%), Sane Again (4.3%) and the return of Cask Paint (4.1%).  All of these will appear at some point in February. We are looking forward to SIBA BeerX returning to Sheffield next month, we hope to see a lot of you there for that. Until next time mine’s a pint!

Ranmoor Inn

Nigel and Vanessa Williams left the Ranmoor Inn, Fulwood Road after 14 years and the pub is now being run by Alex and Katharine Pierce. They have both been at pubs in Derbyshire but this is their first one in Sheffield. A January 2015 005 The pub is open plan and has original etched glass windows. There is a heated stable yard at the back which has it’s own bar for private parties. Although there is no menu, snacks are always available, including locally made pork pies. Quiz night is Thursday with free chips served. On the bar is Abbeydale Deception, Bradfield Farmer’s Bitter and Farmer’s Blonde with Woodforde’s Wherry and a rotating guest beer. The 120 bus serves the pub and is frequent service.

Kelham Island Brewery

Two returning classics from the Kelham recipe book this month. Bête Noire 5.5% Hirisk Stout. A firm favourite brewed every February for many a year. Bete Noire or ‘Black Beast’ is a strong “hi-risk” stout brewed with a specially selected trio of roasted grain to give a strong dark chocolate roasted nose, a fiery sweet satisfying palate leads to a full finish. radar_men_from_the_moon_PRINTSIZE Radar Men From the Moon 4% Cosmic Golden Ale. Makes its annual (early) re-entry to bring you an exciting adventure in a pint pot. Brewed with a blend of Australian and American hops to produce a golden ale with an out of this world aroma of fruit & earthy lychee. The Fat Cat are the hosts for CAMRA’s February meeting, which takes place on Tuesday 3rd February at 8pm.

Dove & Rainbow

The Dove and Rainbow, in Sheffield City Centre has launched a new games night on Mondays from 7pm, with 10% off all cask ales. There’ll be pool competitions, pinball tournaments and whatever other varieties of games, both geeky and non-geeky, depending on what customers want to bring down with them. And there’s plenty of live music planned too, including an all-day fund raiser for St Luke’s Hospice on Sunday 8th Feb, which is being run jointly with the Mulberry Tavern. Expect to see bands playing most, if not all Fridays and Saturdays, and some Thursdays too. And alternate Tuesdays ( 3 and 17 Feb) you can come along and have a go yourself at their regular Open Mic / Jam night, where new faces and talents are always welcome.

The Beer Stop @ Dronfield

  In addition to a number of very good pubs, a new craft beer off licence has opened in Dronfield in December. Called The Beer Stop, it is situated at the bottom of Callywhite Lane, behind the post office at Dronfield bottom. Similar to Real Ale Corner in Chesterfield, it has 2 cask ale pumps, and an excellent range of bottled beers. Not only bottled beers from local breweries such as Acorn and Bradfield but also bottled beers from the likes of Kernel, De Molen, Brew By Numbers, Rogue and Wild Beer Co. Prices are very reasonable. The shop, including it’s sampling bar, is open Tuesday to Thursday midday to 8pm and Friday to Saturday midday to 10pm.

Sheffield Brewery Company

There are many good things in life – love, health and happiness. The Sheffield Brewery Company, a local independent brewery, claim to be able to help with at least two of those three! They have launched their Sheffield Brewery Beer Club which offers supporters that join some exclusive benefits. Members get an invite to their exclusive Last Friday of the Month beer club events with a free pint at the first event after joining. Members then get a discount at the brewery’s real ale bar. Beer Club Members also get discounts on prebooked brewery tour events for their whole party, discounts on brewery merchandise and clothing, a say in how the brewery is developed and a monthly newsletter. Sheffield Brewery will also be hosting taste testing panels and advice nights for home brewers, home brewers’ challenges and tasting events. The next Members Club event is on Friday 27th February featuring live music with 4 Piece Zero playing in the Cellar venue at The Sheffield Brewery. This band is brilliant live and covers a repertoire of indie rock and punk hits from the late 70s and 80s. To join the beer club online email sales@sheffieldbrewery.com, the first 50 applicants for 2015 get discounted price of £10 for session membership.

Inn Brief

The Harlequin on Nursery Street will be hosting a gin tasting event in February and with over 35 different varieties always on sale the event is sure to be gintastic!  For details please phone the pub on 0114 275 8195 or check http://theharlequinpub.wordpress.com. Also don’t forget that for you real cider lovers there’s always at least 12 ciders stocked all year round. The Miners Arms on Warren Lane, Chapeltown, has recently been bought by a consortium of local residents and is now a free house. Caroline and Julian who had a long association with the pub have returned as landlords. Currently there are 2 real ales on hand pull and food should reappear by the end of February. blue bee bad boi Reet Ale Pubs will be celebrating 2 years of running the Closed Shop on Commonside on the 11th of February with bit of a party.  Expect a build a butty buffet, cake, a Christie’s quiz special, Blue Bee special beer and much fun and games, alongside the usual selection of great ales and atmosphere. Bus 95 stops close to the pub on a regular basis! A couple of new quiz nights recently started in our area – Tuesday nights at the Dronfield Arms and Wednesday night at the Beer House on Ecclesall Road. Legends Sports Bar at Hillsborough has had a bit of a makeover and an improved beer range introduced along with a change of name – it is now the Hillsborough Tap & Kitchen. Sheffield Heeley MP Meg Munn recently visited the New Inn on Hemsworth Road following a £110,000 refurbishment scheme overseen by licensees Clive and Andrea Fletcher and owners Punch Taverns. The work saw major changes take place both inside and outside, including a new seating plan, a new bar and a new beer garden. The Friendship on Manchester Road in Stocksbridge reopened on 19th.December with ‘real ales at reasonable prices,’ ‘log burning fire’ and an aim to ‘return the pub to its Edwardian glory.’ Currently available are two Bradfield beers at £2.20/pint. Buses 57 and SL stop nearby. The Albion on London Road, which for a time recently was known as the Bell Jar, has reopened as a simple, traditional free house pub with a range of cask beers, mostly so far from Abbeydale Brewery. Anchorage, the smart American inspired bar and restaurant on West One Plaza, have expanded their range of craft beers to include a couple of quality cask beers, one of which is usually sourced locally from Skys Edge Brewery. There are some new tenants running the Castle Inn in Bolsterstone –  Tracy and John Raynor have moved there from the King and Miller at Deepcar. Meanwhile at another Castle Inn that closed and reopened – the one at Bradway – Craig and Marie continue to run a great local pub on behalf of Tandem Leisure on a use it or lose it basis. Three real ales are always available, all sourced from Yorkshire and the East Midlands and food is available at meal times too (generally 12-2pm and 5-8pm but not on Mondays). The Anglers Rest in Bamford is holding a beer festival on Sunday 22nd February featuring a range of 10 beers, half of which will be from the local Intrepid Brewing Co. The Sheffield Tap celebrated the 2nd birthday of the Tapped Brewing Company with a week of special events in the bar at the end of January. The Rawson Spring in Hillsborough has been named by the Sheffield Star newspaper as their ‘best bar of the year’. The Rawson Spring is a Wetherspoons pub with their usual offering of reasonable priced real ales and all day food menu, it has also recently benefited from an upgraded outdoor drinking area. The building is a former swimming baths, located at the tram stop.

Exit 33 Brewing

Although you may not recognise our name, we actually commenced brewing in Sheffield back in 2008.  Up until early 2014 we were called The Brew Company, but a shift in direction saw us move to a new location and we rebranded as Sky’s Edge Brewing. Unfortunately we recently ran into a trademark problem and so we’ve had a second rebirth as Exit 33 Brewing. (We are located a few miles from the M1 and spend a lot of time going through Exit 33 with our beer so it seemed a fitting name). The same great distinctive flavourful beers remain; as does the contemporary eye catching branding and we are still associated with The Harlequin pub on Nursery Street. By the time you read this, a new website should be up and running at www.exit33.beer

Good Beer Guide 2016 – the work begins

Yes, we know it’s still only 2014 but work has now begun on this book, due to be published September 2015! Those members volunteering as Brewery Liaison Officers are now working with their breweries to update the information in the brewery section of the book, however as usual we would like to give all our members the opportunity to influence which pubs and bars are chosen to be listed. We have many more good real ale outlets in our area than there is space in the book, so we have to choose the best of the best – where we can guarantee a visitor to our area will be able to enjoy a good, well-kept pint. The voting paper can be downloaded below. On the voting paper is the list of potential Good Beer Guide entry pubs around our area, shortlisted at a recent branch meeting. However if you think we’ve missed an amazing real ale pub off the list do feel free to manually add it! Please choose the 30 Sheffield pubs and 6 Derbyshire pubs that you consider to be the best then either post the paper to the address shown or email it to chairman@sheffieldcamra.org.uk. Once the voting results are in (voting deadline is 31st December) the pubs will be subject to survey to ensure they are still of the right standard and to research information for the guide entry, we also take into account beer ratings submitted via www.whatpub.com. DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT: GBG2016vote

Spire Brewery reborn

You will remember back in September we reported that the owner of Spire Brewery, Dave McLaren – who retired from brewing with a bad back and wound up the original brewing business – sold the equipment, Spire name and beer range to Gareth Jones, a Chesterfield CAMRA member. Since then he has been busy doing a lot of cleaning, finding suitable premises to move to and jumping the hoops necessary to obtain a brewing licence for the new company, Spire Brewing Co.

spirebrewingco

Gareth has now started brewing, with Whiter Shade of Pale brewed on Tuesday and Chesterfield Best brewed yesterday.  Sgt. Pepper Stout is soon to follow. The new branding continues with new Pump clips and the website is still work in progress but there should soon be a Home page appearing with information. The plan to update to a 15 barrel plant in the new year is still in place. The search for a Brewer has ended with the new person taking position in the new year. You can follow the latest news from the new Spire Brewery Company on Twitter @spirebrewingCo