Dronfield Cider Pub of the Year 2014

The Three Tuns public house in Dronfield has been awarded the title of Dronfield CAMRA Cider Pub of the Year 2014 as voted by members of the local real ale campaigning group in recognition of the pub’s efforts in promoting the sale of ‘traditional cider’ in the Dronfield area. Sarah West (left) and David McLaren (centre) are pictured being presented with their award at the presentation on Tuesday 21st October by the Chairman of Dronfield CAMRA, Rob Barwell (right). The tub of cider pictured was ‘Owd Barker’ and is produced locally by Dick Shepley of Woodthorpe Hall in Holmesfield, Derbyshire – one of over a dozen different traditional ciders which are always available. The Three Tuns has recently produced it’s own cider at the Woodthorpe Hall cider press called ‘Owd Podger’, using apples supplied by regular patrons of this popular local pub. 3 tuns cpoty dronx

Hop Hideout celebrates first birthday

Sheffield based specialist beer shop, Hop Hideout, is celebrating its first anniversary after opening its doors in November last year. Located within the Vintedge arcade, at 444 Abbeydale Road, Hop Hideout stocks beers from Saltaire, Bradfield, Buxton, Great Heck, Thornbridge and Summer Wine as well as other local breweries. A loyal following of beer enthusiasts keep owners, Julia Gray and Will Linford, on their toes as they ensure more intriguing and harder to find brews such as Eight Degrees (Ireland), North Coast Brewing (America) and Oud Beersel (Holland) are also regularly available. Julia Gray, joint owner of Hop Hideout, said: “We’ve had a fantastic first year. We’ve especially enjoyed hosting events including tutored tastings, art exhibitions and ‘Meet the Brewer’ evenings – it’s really important for us to engage with our customers and inspire them to try something new. “We’ve already got some plans in the pipeline for next year when we hope to run further beer and food matching events,” continued Julia. Hop Hideout is open 12 to 5pm on Wednesday and Thursday, 10am to 6pm on Friday and Saturday and 11-4pm on Sunday. Look out for birthday celebration event details on Hop Hideout’s website – 15th and 16th November.

Woodthorpe Hall Cider Run

woodthorpehall2014f woodthorpehall2014e woodthorpehall2014d woodthorpehall2014c woodthorpehall2014b woodthorpehall2014aOn Saturday 11th October a number of Sheffield CAMRA members along with some regulars from the Three Tuns in Dronfield joined Dick Shepley and team at Woodthorpe Hall for the annual Cider Run and apple pressing. The Cider Run is a local CAMRA tradition started by Chesterfield branch, possibly as a parody of the wine world’s Beaujolais Nouveau race, where we hand deliver a tub of Owd Barker Cider to the local village and enjoy lunch in a local pub (this year the Rutland Arms) before returning to Woodthorpe Hall to help with the apple pressing to make next years supply of cider. Once the days work was done the team was able to relax, socialise, enjoy tea, coffee, cider and home made cakes all around the bonfire. Which is in a shopping trolley. You can enjoy what is left of last years production at the Steel City Beer & Cider Festival from 29th October to 1st November.

Sheffield Brewery

Following the brew day at Blue Bee, a  number of Steel City Beer Festival organising committee members visited Sheffield Brewery to brew another beer to promote the upcoming ruby anniversary festival – the pump clip carries the festival logo and the beer is called Ruby Ruby Ruby. Look out for it in local pubs and at the festival itself, which runs from 29th October to 1st November.  

Intrepid Brewing Company

Intrepid is a new brewery that has set up in Brough (between Hope and Bradwell) and supplies beer to the Anglers Rest at Bamford, which is community owned, along with the free trade. The beers have also been noted at the Yorkshire Bridge. The brewery has three regular staff, brewer Ben McIntyre who previously worked in I.T. and was involved in getting the Anglers Rest up and running, Beck McIntyre who looks after sales and marketing and Paul Towers who delivers the beer. A range of three regular beers are currently brewed – Explorer – a 4% Blonde beer, St Bernard – a malty, brown ale and a Porter.

Wood Street Brewery

After a very busy and successful 2013 things settled down for us during 2014 and with the onset of 2015 approaching we will be revising all our core range and monthly specials. From January 2015 all recipes will have been assessed and tweaked accordingly. We will be producing one Monthly special, four Seasonal specials and perhaps one or two weird and wonderful brews(Watch This Space). We now bottle our full core range of beers and these are available from several outlets in the Sheffield and local areas.They are all bottle conditioned and come in 500ml bottles of which the Yellowood IPA performs particularly well. With the help of our resident Do It All Man we now have a fully functioning mobile bar which can serve up to 10 hand pulls and is available for events and functions. The Hillsborough Hotel above the brewery will be holding several themed nights during October through to 2015 and are also taking bookings for their festive menu throughout December along with their Christmas day lunch, but be quick places are going fast. The Roebuck Tavern in Sheffield’s bustling centre continues to perform extremely well. A Festive menu will be running throughout November and December, details can be found on their website www.theroebucksheffield.co.uk Woodstreet Brewery Ales are available at both venues along with quality guest ales from our brewery friends.

Inn Brief

The White Hart at Bradwell is now under the management of Hawthorne Leisure and landlord James Bacon. The beer range includes Tetley Bitter, Timothy Taylor Landlord, Wells Bombardier Bitter and a guest ale. Terry and Helen Bedford are now running the Sir William in Grindleford The Star in Tideswell is now run by Tim and Amy McVey. The Red Lion in Litton has a new landlady, Julie Tom is leaving the Anvil, Stannington at the end of the month The Shakey in Hillsborough now has real ale The Castle Inn at Bradway has now had work completed to replace the bar’s pipework, something managers Craig and Marie were keen to see done, as a result the temperature the real ale is being served at is more consistent. Although we had no reports of quality issues before, this is of course good news! A regularly changing range of 3 real ales are available and a discount is offered to CAMRA members. Recently featured have been a couple of green hopped beers, one from Abbeydale and one from Ossett. Rotherham CAMRA’s New York beer festival has been postponed due to an U19 football match subsequently being arranged at the stadium the same weekend. The new dates for the festival are 8th to 10th January. Check their website for the latest information. It is reported that the Sportsman on Cambridge Street has closed as a rock pub with the management moving around the corner to the former Yorkshireman pub (more recently known as Lions Lair).

Route 97

This month’s guide to pubs along bus and tram routes is focused on the City to Totley part of bus route 97, operated by First South Yorkshire. In the City Centre this runs from High Street, the Peace Gardens and Moorfoot before heading out onto London Road, Abbeydale Road and Baslow Road, terminating at Gillifield Wood – the county boundary! Arriving back in the city centre Eyre Street and Arundel Gate is served. Additionally TM Travel bus 218 runs from Sheffield Interchange and follows the same route from Moorfoot to Totley before continuing to Matlock. These buses are supplemented by others as far as Broadfield – First buses 75, 76 and 98 along with Stagecoach bus 87. Once in Totley, local bus M17, operated by TM Travel, provides connections to some other local pubs in the Dore, Totley and Bradway area during the daytime. A day ticket for First buses in Sheffield (FirstDay) costs £3.80 or a day ticket on all buses and trams in Sheffield (Citywide) costs £4.50. These tickets are sold by the bus driver.

City Centre

Bankers Draft

Large two floor Wetherspoons with a bar on each floor offering a selection of real ales at reasonable prices along with their usual food offering.

Church House

A nice bar run by Heineken with food available, a range of real ales offered from their portfolio which includes Caledonian Brewery.

Roebuck

Traditional City Centre pub, food available, live music nights held – see advert

Mulberry Tavern

Comfortable, traditional City Centre bar upstairs with real ales and pool table, live music venue downstairs.

London Road

Old Crown Inn

A classic pub with a modern makeover, three real ales are available which generally fall into the ‘local favourite’ category and bar snacks are served. Very busy with Sheffield United fans on match days.

Cremorne

Good beer range can be found in this long thin pub that could have its look described as ‘shabby chic’ where you will find football supporters and musos happily rubbing shoulders. Bar snacks available.

Picture House Social

Located underneath the old Abbeydale Picture House, you descend a staircase from an almost anonymous frontage into a smart lounge which is a modern and fashionable design with a nod to the building’s art deco style. Three real ales are available, additionally interesting bottled beers from both the UK and rest of world are featured with guest bottles listed on the blackboard, these are sourced via Hop Hideout. As well as the lounge containing the bar, there is a diner and games room.

Broadfield

Part of the Forum Group and nicely refurbished with a vague railway and alehouse mixed theme, when you enter there is a central bar with a dining area to the left and drinking area to the right. An extensive beer range is featured with something interesting always available and on the food side of things the pub is famous for its pies.

Millhouses

Recently refurbished and offering a selection of real ales and good food.

Robin Hood

Part of the Ember Inns chain with their usual homely interior design and food menu, the bar features 10 handpumps generally with a variety of 5 beers on at any one time, the other pumps being prepared for the beers coming up next.

Wagon & Horses

Part of the Flaming Grill chain, this place is mostly about the dining with burgers, steaks etc, however it does have a proper pub section. Beers are mostly well known national brands.

Jack’s Bar

Located under the Beauchief Hotel, this is a comfortable cellar bar, however if the weather is nice there is also a pleasant beer garden. The beer is from Thornbridge.

Cross Scythes

A gastropub with hotel rooms in the adjoining building and an artificial beer garden at the rear. Although much of the pub is a dining area where good food is served and staff look the part, those just popping in for a drink are still made most welcome. A choice of three real ales are available, including a changing guest beer. Walk from the main road down Hillfoot Road to reach the following two pubs:

Crown Inn

proper country pub with a selection of well known beers and home cooked food. Cricket Inn – a long established pub located next to the Cricket green (the pub’s beer garden is on the same field!). This is part of the Brewkitchen chain of gastro-pubs which is a partnership between Thornbridge Brewery and Richard Smith’s restaurants. Via bus M17 – board on Baslow Road, next stop down from Cross Scythes:

Dore

Devonshire Arms

Offers a range of around 6 real ales with a mixture of local brews and well known national brands. Large multi room pub with lounge, pool table room and an adjoining wine bar/bistro.

Hare & Hounds

Looks like a row of terraced cottages from the outside, the pub is long and thin with two rooms, one a comfortable room catering for diners enjoying the value for money menu, the other a more basic tap room for drinkers. Real Ales are normally Tetleys Bitter, Abbeydale Moonshine and a guest.

Totley Rise

Shepley Spitfire

Recently refurbished Greene King estate pub with a pleasant drinkers lounge, pool table area and separate dining area. Beer garden at rear.

Bradway

Old Mother Redcap

A fairly modern pub in a farmhouse style building next to Bradway bus terminus, inside the bar area is L-shaped and offers mainly fixed seating. The pub is owned by Samuel Smiths Brewery and offers all their own products at reasonable prices. Food served at most meal times.

Castle Inn

At the end of a row of terraced cottages above the railway cutting, this pub has three cosy rooms – tap room, lounge and restaurant along with a beer garden at rear. The three real ales change regularly and are mainly from breweries in Yorkshire and the East Midlands. Lunchtime meals are served daily except Monday, evening meals Tuesday to Saturday.

Three Tuns, Sheffield City Centre

Still under the Stephens’ Empire (ahem, Reet Ale Pubs) umbrella, the Three Tuns has recently seen the promotion of Kate Major to Imperial Overlord, following in the footsteps of Emperor Andy himself. Under this new regime the first Major change will be our new Sunday opening times. From November 2nd we will be open from 12-6pm for delicious, homemade Sunday roasts. With the well-known and well-loved cider pig sandwiches, halloumi burgers, bangers and mash, and changing specials board growing ever more popular, we decided it was time to venture into the Kelham Island Sunday lunch trade. Our food times during the rest of the week are remaining the same, Monday-Friday 11.30-9pm, Saturday 12-9pm. Another change is our new cider hand-pump, serving cellar cooled real cider on the bar to compliment our 6 rotating real ales. Blue Bee obviously show their beery faces a lot on our bar, with their regulars and specials making frequent appearances, but we are also excited to be able to showcase beers from other exceptional nearby breweries, such as Great Heck, Red Willow, Acorn, and many more. Finally, thank you to all who made it down to our Pub of the Month party in September, we all had a thoroughly good night, although the Friday lunch shift afterwards was fairly painful. 3tuns POTM 33tuns POTM4 However, we are not satisfied, we need more parties!!! Our first birthday is being celebrated on Thursday 6th November, right here at the Three Tuns, and you’re all invited. Starting at 7pm, there will be beer, food, and even more sherbet than at PotM.