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.
Hop Hideout began its journey on Abbeydale Road as a small craft beer shop with keg taps and a tasting room. When Kommune food hall opened with an attached independent retail area, the opportunity arose to relocate to a City Centre location. Hop Hideout left Kommune a few months ago, and there are now no shops there. Since then, some pop-up events in collaboration with local brewery taprooms have taken place.
Jules has now launched the third iteration of Hop Hideout at the newly regenerated Leah’s Yard on Cambridge Street in Sheffield City Centre. Leah’s Yard is home to a cluster of small independent businesses, including a Pete McKee gallery, designer clothing shops, ceramics, and various food and drink retailers.
The format for Hop Hideout is similar to before, with a cosy shop unit featuring fridges full of craft beer, cider, and natural wine, along with taps for draught beer and cider. There are also tables inside and outside if you want to sit and enjoy your drink on the premises. Moving from Kommune to their own space means Hop Hideout can now do much more on the special events side of things, so you can expect tutored tasting sessions hosted by brewers, winemakers, and cider producers.
Hop Hideout’s new opening was part of the launch of the entire Leah’s Yard development during the August bank holiday weekend, which attracted a lot of interest. The shop continues to see many new faces popping in, as well as a lot of old regulars who have followed them to the new location. The spot is ideal, in a busy part of the City Centre near City Hall, and it is looking fantastic following recent regeneration work. Leah’s Yard has the Cambridge Street Collective as a neighbour, along with many new shop units along the same street.
Once Jules has had a chance to catch her breath after getting the shop open, training the staff, serving the many customers, sorting out rewards for crowdfunding contributors, and getting everything organised and tidy, we will be having a chat with her for a future issue of Beer Matters, by which time some of the special events will have been announced!
Jo Doyle, previously of the Sheaf View and Anglers Rest, is now assistant manager at Old Nag’s Headin Edale. Here there is a range of five cask ales including Abbeydale Moonshine and a house badged beer – Nag’s 1577 (also known as Theakston Old Peculiar!) along with three rotating guests. Real cider is added to the bar for the summer months. They are now offering CAMRA members a 10% discount on pints of cask ale. Looking further ahead there will be celebrations locally next April to mark the 60th anniversary of the Pennine National Trail, which is accessed close to the pub and the Nag’s is planning to host a beer festival with beer from breweries along the route.
Old Queen’s Head in Sheffield City Centre is now serving food. The menu features typical pub grub dishes, burgers and sandwiches.
Dove & Rainbow in Sheffield City Centre is hosting a Dovestock music festival 22-24 November.
Changes to opening hours at Happy’s Bar in Neepsend – it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays then Wednesday and Thursday its 5pm to 1am, Friday and Saturday midday to 4am, Sunday midday to 1am. Food served until 10pm Wednesday to Sunday.
Sportsman Innon Harvey Clough Road, Norton Lees, is under new management. They are promising free pool all day Monday, quiz night and bingo, Chatty Crafters Wednesday Gossip, open mic nights, Murder Mystery Club and weekend entertainment. Opening hours are 1-11pm on weekdays, midday to midnight on Saturdays and midday to 10:30pm on Sundays.
The people behind Two Thirds Beer Co. bar on Abbeydale Road are involved with opening a new City Centre venue in the ground floor of one of the new office blocks on the junction of Carver Street and Wellington Street.
The Castle Inn at Bradway has closed down at very short notice. The pub, which was focused on dining, saw its sister venture, Bakers Chippy in Bradway, continue to trade. The Castle Inn was leased from Stonegate pub company, who are expected to offer the lease to a new tenant. This closure leaves Bradway without any pubs, as Old Mother Redcap, owned by Samuel Smiths Brewery, remains closed but is currently advertising for a live-in management couple. The nearest alternatives for real ale are Shepley Spitfire or Tunnel Tap in Totley.
Dog & Partridge on Trippet Lane in Sheffield City Centre has launched an exciting new Irish food menu. Highlights include “Boxty,” a potato pancake topped with sausage and mushrooms in a stout and Henderson’s gravy, and the increasingly popular “Spice Bag,” inspired by Dublin’s Chinese takeaways, featuring chicken wings, chips, stir-fried veg, and curry sauce. The pub’s events calendar is growing too, with the ever-popular Tuesday quiz night, live music sessions every Sunday, a Thursday games night offering board games and retro video games, and a fun event where people bring their dogs to the Dog for a bit of fuss!
Drone Valley Brewery‘s latest release is one of their classics making a comeback – Station Porter, a 5.7% ABV porter. A new range of seasonal specials is being launched, known as Pick & Mix, although this is about the hops rather than being themed on bags of sweets! The first in the series features Brewers Gold and Amarillo hops and is a sessionable 4% ABV. The brewery is also planning for the run up to Christmas, expect a spiced amber ale and an 8.4% ABV imperial Russian stout to make an appearance.
Collyfobble Brewery‘s next seasonal brew is a yet unnamed hoppy red ale.
Bradfield Brewery’s annual release of Belgian Blue in cask is planned for 4 November.
Eyam Brewery launched a new beer at their recent open day – “Bring Out Your Dead”, a 4.4% ABV Cappuccino Stout, brewed with beer from Ground Effect Coffee roasters located next door to the brewery!
Chantry Brewery have some of their bottled beers available at the new ARC cinema on the Forge Island development, located across the river from Rotherham Central station.
Fuggle Bunny Brew Houseare hosting an Oktoberfest event as an extra tap session at the brewery on Saturday 28 September, 2-9pm, featuring live music (at 4:30pm), Northern Burgers and special beers.
Sheffield and District CAMRA are again using eBay to invite bids for three full sets of beermats which advertise the forthcoming beer festival. All proceeds will be donated to the festival charity, Weston Park Cancer Care (WPCC).
The full set for 2024 consists of nine mats, sponsored by Abbeydale Brewery, Abel Magnets, Blue Bee Brewery, Bradfield Brewery, Chantry Brewery, Heist Brewery, MKM Builders Merchants, Peak Brewery and Triple Point Brewery.
Now I’m not personally that into sportsball of any flavour, however being Sheffield born and bred the local culture declares that it is mandatory to be the supporter of a local football team so I follow the family loyalty to Sheffield United. So obviously, one Saturday afternoon at the beginning of the new football season, I found myself persuaded to go and see Rotherham United play Bristol Rovers at the New York Stadium…
The reason for the trip to Rotherham was my friend Kevin wanting to embark on a new project of seeing matches at football grounds of interest he hadn’t been to before, combined with a few pubs before and after the game. He’s just moved to Rotherham hence being first on the list.
I caught the Tram Train from Sheffield’s Castle Square tram stop through to Rotherham Central station then walked up the hill to the Bluecoats Wetherspoons to meet him. On the way I noticed a venue that was declaring itself an officially designated away fans venue with families welcome, yet it appeared to be a lap dancing club. I’m not sure if perhaps Bristol Rovers fans have a reputation? Either way, the ‘Spoons was busy with fans of both the home and away teams all getting on well together, the Welbeck Abbey beer proving popular and on good form, whilst in contrast a Fuggle Bunny beer was served in poor condition and disappointed.
We also stopped off at the Cutlers Arms, a heritage pub fairly close to the ground, which as you’d expect was busy. This is one of two Chantry brewery pubs located close together and the handpumps were going like the clappers. This pub was making a special effort to promote a family atmosphere before the match with hot dogs and sweets available for the kids.
The match itself was enjoyable enough even if it wasn’t the best football you’ll see, ending with a goal less 0-0 score. There was no beer of interest in the stadium, where the choice beverage was Bovril to wash the Pukka pies down!
After the football we headed to Chantry’s other nearby pub, the New York Tavern for a couple of pints and a chat. The range of Chantry cask Beers included regulars such as Full Moon, Steelos, New York Pale and Iron & Steel Bitter plus a couple of specials and their stout.
With a walk up into the town centre we called in the High House which tends to have a lively atmosphere with football on TV in the afternoon and a DJ on at night but no real ale or craft beer available, as expected. We then headed on to the Three Cranes on the High Street, located in a historic building and has the feel of a micropub on the ground floor but has a large games room upstairs. This used to have a couple of real ales on handpump and the odd craft beer on tap alongside the more mainstream industrial beers, however they’ve now been swept away and the handpumps redundant, in favour of Beavertown, I assume the Heineken sales rep must have been and made them a good offer! The drink of choice here was a black cherry flavour cider from Seacider.
A fast food and non-booze stop was made at McDonalds before continuing to the Bridge Inn, located by the river and Central station. Downstairs this is a rock pub and owned by Old Mill brewery with a couple of their ales on the bar including Stirian Wolf. Upstairs is the Hive live music venue and they had an evening programme of several bands with free entry, we ventured up there in time to catch the end of the first to perform. The headline band was called the Death Wheelers and reassuringly there was a rather impressive collection of motorbikes parked outside the pub! Also outside we ran into former Rotherham beer festival stalwart and Wath Tap regular Glyn, on his way home from work!
To finish the evening we returned to the Cutlers, which hosts live music on a Saturday night across two stages. There was a Bon Jovi tribute band playing a ticketed gig on a big stage set up in a marquee behind the pub followed by “Rock of Ages” on a smaller stage inside the pub afterwards. By the time we got there Bon Jovi Forever were about three quarters of the way through their set and we were able to nip in to see them and we can confirm they were good!
First bus X3 (Doncaster to Sheffield) picks up across the road from the Cutlers so the 22:45 bus took me back to Sheffield Interchange and a final beer was enjoyed in town before ordering a taxi home!
The options for good beer in Rotherham town centre are sadly limited these days but aside from Wetherspoons the flag is still being flown for both real ale and live music by Chantry and Old Mill breweries and an enjoyable day was had!
1 September sees changes to some Sheffield bus routes following the public consultation last month previously featured in this column. There have been some tweaks following the consultation such as the 6 continuing to serve Greystones and the Walkley buses retaining the traditional 95 number. Some further changes are coming up in October which will be the Chesterfield based buses and at the time of writing this was still at consultation, the only proposals affecting Sheffield is a change to the X17 route near Meadowhall and a renumbering of the 43a to 42.
The biggest changes are in North and East Sheffield, all the details can be found at travelsouthyorkshire.com.
The summer rail replacement works on Supertram conclude on 1 September, however there will be some weekend engineering works in September and October, check their website for details.
So, what are the headlines in terms of going to the pub? Well, the Greystones pub becomes easier to get to with bus 82 (Stannington to Millhouses) changing its route to run via Greystones and this bus has an evening service! The buses serving the Harlequin near Kelham Island are changing, with the 95/95a replaced by the 75/75a (Jordanthorpe to Chapeltown/Fox Hill) – the 7/8 and 83 continue to serve the area with a revised timetable. Those travelling in an evening wanting to get to/from Worrall, Oughtibridge, Deepcar and Stocksbridge will be pleased to see an evening service introduced to route 57a. Travel to the Wisewood Inn on a Sunday becomes possible on the new timetables too with the 52a extended up beyond Hillsborough to Loxley 7 days a week although evening service remains limited to the rural bus 61/62.
There are still frustrations with the bus network and the mayor’s priorities with a lack of funding available for evening and Sunday tendered services, for example Bradway doesn’t have any buses in an evening whilst Nether Edge gets a bus once every 2 hours!
Following its residency for the last few years at Burton on Trent, 2025 sees the winter edition of CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) move to its new home for the next four years – Yorkshire – with the venue being the Magna Centre on the edge of Rotherham.
The festival takes place from 12 to 15 February 2025.
Magna is a former steel works that has been converted into a science museum and events space and is big enough for the festival to grow and have a number of features added to it that visitors to the summer GBBF are used to such as the Learn & Discover bar, Bieres Sans Frontier bar and a dedicated Champion Winter beer of Britain bar – as well as a number of cask ale bars, real cider & perry and live music. The bars will be spread across a main hall hosting the music stage and a number of smaller rooms which you can explore, the venue’s cafes will also be open serving hot food.
The bigger capacity also means there should be no problems turning up and paying on the door if you make a last minute decision to go, however advance tickets will still be sold online with a separate admissions desk offering advance ticket holders quicker entry.
Magna is no stranger to hosting beer festivals, 2024 was the final year of the long established Rotherham Real Ale & Music Festival which was a charity fundraiser assisted by the Rotherham CAMRA branch and GBBF Winter will be picking up where they left off.
Magna is on bus route X3, operated by First bus, which runs between Sheffield, Meadowhall, Rotherham and Doncaster. Buses connect with trains and trams at Meadowhall Interchange or you may wish to combine your trip to the festival with pubs in Rotherham or Sheffield.
As with all CAMRA festivals, this is organised and staffed by volunteers and the staffing form will be launched for CAMRA members to sign up to volunteer soon.
Kelham Island Brewery (who currently brew at Thornbridge) are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Pale Rider winning CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Britain competition with a special double dry hopped edition of the beer. This was launched at the Sheffield Tap on 14 August. On their social media they have been sharing thoughts and memories of the occasion from a few high profile folk including Garrett Oliver, the brewmaster at Brooklyn, who was on the judging panel at the Great British Beer Festival that year!
Eyam Brewery are hosting the third and final of their open days of this year on Saturday 14 September. The brewery is in Great Hucklow, bus 65 (Sheffield-Buxton) will get you there.
Neepsend Brewery recently celebrated their 1,000th brew with a 10% imperial stout called Titan.
A new beer from Bradfield Brewery for August/September is Farmers Harvest Gold, a 4.2% golden ale brewed with Nelson Sauvin and Archer hops, giving a note of stone fruit in the flavour and a sharp but juicy finish. Coming up in October are two regular seasonal ales, Farmers Jack O’ Lantern (for Halloween) and Farmers Poppy Ale (for Remembrance Sunday with a donation from sales of 10p per pint going to the Royal British Legion).
Fuggle Bunny Brew House continue to host food traders at their Friday Fuggle tap sessions into September. 6 Sep its the Tacho Trailer, 13 Sep Lush ‘n Loaded and 20 Sep Poblano Mexican. Food is available 4-8pm. The brewery is just off the Halfway-Killamarsh road and walkable from Halfway tram and bus terminus.
Triple Point Brewery have released iteration number 11 of their DYAD series. The hop pairing this time is Cryo Pop and Centennial and is sweet, fruity and hazy. Its also gluten free and suitable for vegans. In other news, the tap room will again this year be hosting an Oktoberfest event, on 27 and 28 September.
One of the more recent additions to the range from Tapped Brew Co, which was launched in time for Tramlines festival, was Station Yard, a 4.2% ABV golden ale.
The Red Deer reopened under new management following a refurbishment on 25 July.
The Black Bull in Ecclesfield reopened following a refurbishment.
The Fat Cat is now serving food again with the new menu launching 13 August, just ahead of the pub’s birthday celebration on 17 August which featured live music and DJ sets in the beer garden.
The remaining programme of summer gigs in the garden at the Banner Cross have been cancelled following complaints from neighbours.
Shakespeares Ale & Cider House have been keeping a status board updated counting how many cask ales they’ve served since becoming a free house 13 years ago in 2011. Through most of this time one of the regular house beers has been Abbeydale Deception and to celebrate hitting the landmark of 10,000 different cask ales served a special dry hopped edition of Deception is being brewed for the pub!
There has been a change of management at the Walkley Cottage Inn with the last day of the established people being 17 August.
The Nottingham House in Broomhill has been closed for refurbishment.
The Miners Arms in Eyam is hosting a beer festival and hog roast on Sunday 25 August.
The Gardeners Rest at Neepsend is holding a Facer’s Flintshire tap takeover on the weekend of 30-31 August then a charity music marathon on Wednesday 18 September, with a continuous musical session running from Noon to Midnight.
The evening of Saturday 3 August saw CAMRA members visit a very busy New Barrack Tavern which as well as their regulars drinking there was hosting a birthday celebration. We were there to present our Cider Pub of the Year award which is voted for by members and was handed over by our social secretary & press officer Kevin Thompson. As our winner it went forward to be judged in the Yorkshire competition where it came second place in the region, Christine presented the runners up certificate and gave a short speech!
