Author: Andy Cullen

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.

Punchbowl / Springvale

Posted on by Andy Cullen
Tracey and Heather are moving on “to pastures new”.    We are moving down the hill to the Springvale on Commonside.   However, we feel we are on the “up and up”  and are hoping to continue what we started at the Punchbowl by creating a real community Pub,   It doesn’t matter what your age, young or old, there will be something for everyone at our venue. We will continue serving our appetising food and hosting live bands, jam sessions and Monday night quizzes. We will have a good selection of cask ales available immediately and after Christmas, with the help of a SIBA listing, we will be able increase the selection on offer.

Wisewood Inn

Posted on by Andy Cullen
Following a brief closure the Wisewood Inn reopened with a bang. Christy Beardshaw moved from the award winning pub The Blake, Walkley to the Wisewood Inn, Loxley Road. On the opening night there was a bonfire party with an outstanding fireworks display and BBQ. The bar serves two areas of the lounge and the pool room with dart board. There is also a separate function room with it’s own bar. Acorn Blonde is the house beer at £2.50 a pint and up to three rotating guest ales from the various micro breweries around the country . There is bingo on Sunday night and a quiz on Thursday night. A new menu will be created to bring a range of home cooked food. To the rear of the pub is a car park and beer garden. Please join Christy and his team in their new adventure to bring the Wisewood Inn to what is was of old, a warming country pub that caters for families, walkers and cyclists plus the taste of real ale. Getting there by bus: routes 84 and S6A stop outside the pub during the day, route 31 in the evening. John Beardshaw P1020934P1020939

Brampton Brewery

Posted on by Andy Cullen
siba silver Well we’ve only gone and done it again. The annual SIBA Midlands Region beer competition was again held at the excellent Nottingham beer festival on 9th October 2014.  335 cask ales were split into 8 categories, with an additional 130 bottled beers in 5 categories, blind-tasted by 148 judges over 3 rounds. Lots of numbers (you will be tested, don’t worry!) but the main facts are that Brampton Stout in bottle won a Silver Medal in the Milds & Stouts category, Winter Bock in cask won a Bronze Medal in the Premium Strong Ales category, and Speciale in cask won a Silver Medal in the Strong Bitters category.  That’s a total of 17 SIBA awards of one colour or another, over 7 consecutive years, at both Regional and National level. brampton spirit With the days drawing in and winter approaching faster than a bullet-train, we can’t think of many better tipples to warm you through than the new Spirit of Brampton Mild.  The wort of our multi award-winning Brampton Mild is 5 times distilled, producing a beautifully rich and warming 42% single malt spirit. Available now from the Beer Cellar right next door to the brewery.

Blue Bee

Posted on by Andy Cullen
As the festive season approaches we have been busy conjuring up this year’s Christmas special: Blitzen Stout 5.0%. Blitzen is a chocolate and ginger flavoured stout using chocolate malt and cocoa to give a rich bitter chocolate taste along with root ginger added to both the copper and fermenter to leave a spicy ginger kick sure to warm the senses on a cold winter’s night. On top of this we have not forgotten the hops this Christmas and have a few treats lined up. Firstly, on bars as Beer Matters hits the press is Chelan Blonde 3.9% showcasing a new variety of American hop Chelan with floral and citrus characteristics leading to a bitter finish. We were really pleased to pick up the 3rd place award in the strong bitters category at Sheffield beer festival for Nycto Black IPA. It was our first attempt at a Black IPA and we were really pleased with the results however there is always room for improvement. So Blue Bee Black IPA mark II: Into the Abyss 6.0% has a slightly different malt base and even more Columbus, Simcoe and Moteuka hops and who knows a few Citra hops in each cask. Blue Bee hopes everyone has a great Christmas and New Year, and remember, beer is for life not just for Christmas.

Dronfield community interest brewery company proposal

Posted on by Andy Cullen
By the time Beer Matters hits the streets, the initial meeting to gauge interest and ideas will have taken place at the Three Tuns in Dronfield. They are looking for a number of local people to invest in the scheme, which will see a small brewery set up in the town available for use by shareholders (kind of a hub for cuckoo brewers), perhaps to supply local freehouses at reasonable prices with a proportion of the profits ploughed into initiatives in the local community such as cleaning up the river, sponsoring youth football teams etc. More on this next issue!

Good Beer Guide 2016

Posted on by Andy Cullen
We are now starting the process to choose which pubs in our area will go in the next edition of the national Good Beer Guide. There are lots of good pubs in Sheffield & District and Dronfield & District, but not enough room in the book to feature them all, so we have to select the best of the best! A voting paper will be available at the December branch meetings in both Sheffield and Dronfield for their respective areas with the results to be established at the January branch meetings (the deadline for returning Sheffield voting papers is 31st December, the Dronfield vote will take place at the January branch meeting). Once the candidates have been voted for, there will be survey work to check those pubs are still maintaining the standards and to gather information for the guide entry, we will also take into account beer quality reports received via the CAMRA National Beer Scoring System. (This is where members rate the beer they drink in pubs and register the score via whatpub.com). For more information on voting please see sheffield.camra.org.uk or www.dronfieldcamra.org.uk depending where you live.

Champion Beer of Britain nominations

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supreme gold 2014 Remember, the Champion Beer of Britain (CBOB) nomination period is open now and over 1,000 CAMRA members nationwide have already submitted beers from their region. As last year, all CAMRA members can nominate their choices via the national CBOB voting website and take part in choosing the Champion Beer of Britain. The beers judged in the national finals go through a very rigorous process to be selected, including a series of regional competitions in nine areas to find the best regional beer in each of the eleven beer style categories. In each region, the beers selected for the local competitions are determined by member nominations and Tasting Panel input. How to Vote Any CAMRA member can login into the CBOB website www.cbobvoting.org.uk using their member login details. If you have forgotten these details you can reset your password by clicking here. Alternatively, you can contact the Membership Services team by emailing membership@camra.org.uk or call 01727 798 8440. Having logged in you will be able to access information about the nomination schedule. If your Branch straddles more than one of the CBOB areas you will be able to vote, if you choose, in each area. The CBOB nomination process is broken down initially into a Regional competition. The website allows you to: •             Nominate up to five beers in each of the eleven categories to be put forward for the CBOB competition. •             If you only want to vote for a few beers that is permitted. •             You do not have to nominate all the beers in one go. You can alter your selections anytime up until the 30th November. •             Not all beers are eligible for CBOB, mainstream beer styles like Bitters, Best Bitters, and Strong Bitters & Golden Ales have to be available for at least 7 months of the year. Other beer styles have to be available for a lesser period depending on the rarity of the beer style. The CBOB voting system gives every CAMRA member the opportunity to have a say in who wins and becomes CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Britain. Last year we had a large number of members voting and it was the 2nd most supported CAMRA activity after the Good Beer Guide pub selection process. This year I hope we can further build on that success. So get online and get involved now! This year the nomination period runs until Saturday, 30th November 2014

Peak Ales

Posted on by Andy Cullen
Peak Ales new brewery at Ashford in the Water is now open with the regular beers now being brewed there. The old barn brewery on the Chatsworth Estate will be kept going to brew seasonal specials and there is an intention to add a visitor centre here. The new brewery had an opening ceremony where the brewery was blessed and invited guests enjoyed beer and hot pork sandwiches!