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.

The rise of the virtual beer festival

Posted on by Andy Cullen

As we approach a year of Covid safety restrictions with a ban on major events and hospitality, including pubs, either closed or restricted in operation we have seen event organisers including CAMRA adapt to offer curated beer events to enjoy at home.

Established events that have already taken place virtually includes CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festival (which normally takes place in London in the summer and Birmingham in the winter) and the Funkfest, a celebration of sour and mixed fermentation beers hosted by Abbeydale Brewery.

Both these events involved a choice of themed beer boxes delivered to you at home along with access to online content such as live tutored tastings, meet the brewers, discussions and brewery tours.

A further development of the format has been pioneered by the organisers of Manchester Beer & Cider Festival – normally run by local CAMRA branches in the Manchester Central event venue, but this year replaced by a #PubsMatter festival in conjunction with a number of pubs and bars in the area that are known for great beer & cider. Each pub are selling beer or cider boxes for home delivery and each are hosting a festival session online in a style that suits what their venue is known for. For example the Marble Arch bring you brewers hosting a live tasting session and discussion, Wigan Central are hosting a quiz and the Smithfield are presenting a live DJ set.

The CAMRA Members Weekend, AGM & Conference which was to be held at Sheffield City Hall this year also receives the “from home” treatment with all the conference business to take place online and a box of beers from Sheffield brewers available to order to enjoy in the “virtual members bar”. Details are due to be announced soon.

For details of CAMRA’s online beer tasting events visit the website.

Naturally we do look forward to the time we can once again attend actual beer festivals and fingers crossed we can go ahead with Sheffield’s 46th annual Steel City Beer & Cider Festival this October!

News of the Brews

Posted on by Andy Cullen

Kelham Island Brewery are having a January sale on their online shop with discounts on all their packs of cans.

Thornbridge Brewery also have an online sale with 10% off everything, use the discount code NEWYEAR10.

New beer releases from Abbeydale Brewery mid January include the latest edition of their Salvation series of flavoured stouts (this one involving Sea Salt and Caramel) along with the return of Huckster Cryo, a juicy 6% New England IPA with a plethora of hops including the Ekuanot Cryo variety. Also making a temporary comeback is one of the more traditional seasonals, “Dr Morton’s Duck Baffler”, a sessionable 4.5% ABV classic pale ale brewed with Citra Hops which impart a zesty and refreshing flavour to the beer. All three are available in cans to order direct from the brewery online.

The newest brew at Neepsend Brew Co is Hiero, a 4.6% American pale hopped with Summit, Centennial and Eureka. The majority of this beer will be available in can (available to order online for home delivery) although a limited quantity will be put in cask for outlets still able to sell it.

Little Critters Brewing have a launched an online shop on their website selling their beer in cans along with brewery merchandise for home delivery. Free delivery is available for orders over £65.

Pubs offering takeaway and delivery

Posted on by Andy Cullen

Under the new 2021 lockdown rules, whilst pubs can sell take away food & drink they are only able to include alcoholic drinks on home deliveries.

Here is a list of pubs, bars, breweries and specialist shops based in our area that we are aware of doing takeaway and home delivery. Please use the links via whatpub.com to the individual trader’s website or social media for more information on how to order, delivery hours etc.

Note off licences and brewery shops are able to open as normal and a special mention goes to the Archer Road Beer Stop who offer hand pulled cask beer to take home. 

 

Pubs and independent beer shops offering home delivery of alcoholic drinks and/or meals:

Other pubs open for collection of takeaway food and non-alcoholic drink:

Additionally, a number of local breweries are offering home delivery, we have those listed here.

If you are aware of a venue that is doing take home orders or delivery that isn’t on the list, please post a comment below and we’ll add them to the list where appropriate. Likewise if you spot any on the list that shouldn’t be please let us know!

National lockdown from 5 January

Posted on by Andy Cullen

The government have announced a new national lockdown with an instruction to stay at home except for various permitted reasons such as shopping, work and excercise, which should be done locally to where you live.

Food and drink retail is classed as essential and you can continue to buy beer from supermarkets and off licences.

Pubs, bars and restaurants can continue to serve takeaway food and non-alcoholic drinks, however it appears from the new guidelines they can only include alcohol in home deliveries.

You can read the guidelines on the government website.

Pubs setting up a home delivery service that urgently need a website and app to take orders on may wish to consider brew2you.co.uk, the low cost platform set up by CAMRA and SIBA.

More on this subject soon… please continue to support pubs, local breweries and independent specialist beer shops where you can and also more importantly stay safe!

Breweries in our area offering home delivery of cans, bottles and minikegs

Pubs offering takeaway and/or delivery

Members’ Weekend, AGM & Conference

Posted on by Andy Cullen

We’d been really looking forward to hosting CAMRA’s national members weekend here in Sheffield in 2021, which is also CAMRA’s 50th birthday, this would have seen over a thousand beer tourists come to enjoy Sheffield’s beer scene as well as participate in debates to help direct CAMRA’s campaigning policy.

Sadly with the ongoing uncertainty with Coronavirus, the event at Sheffield City Hall is now cancelled with the AGM and Conference now to take place online instead. Members can register to participate online at camra.org.uk.

As soon as circumstances allow we will resume normal branch activity with meetings, award presentations, surveys, socials, beer tastings, brewery trips etc and we will also be focused on organising the 2021 Steel City Beer & Cider Festival which will hopefully take place in October at Kelham Island Museum after being unable to put on a 2020 event.

Brewery Brief

Posted on by Andy Cullen

Loxley Brewery will be at John Lewis in Sheffield City Centre from 7 to 13 December manning a stall selling their bottled beers and merchandise, handy for Christmas shoppers!

Grizzly Grain have brewed another batch of their Tilt Hammer Stout, which is now available in bottles.

Crosspool Ale Makers latest beer available in cans is Straight Outta Crosspool, a gluten-free West Coast IPA.

Drone Valley Brewery continue to offer home delivery of their bottled beers along with an increased selection of merchandise, additionally in the run up to Christmas they have opened a shop at their brewery in Unstone.

Little Mesters Brewing are now selling online for click and collect orders, the collection point is their brewery next door to Mitchell’s Wines at Meadowhead. Beers are available in cans or mini-kegs and the range includes a traditional 3.9% bitter, a hazy IPA and a lager. Merchandise including t-shirts is also available to order.

Abbeydale Brewery currently have a variety of 24 different beers available in cans and for those wanting to create a beer advent calendar for December they are offering a variety box containing one of each of the 24 beers to order online with free home delivery (alternatively click and collect is available from the brewery). The selection is diverse ranging from the 3.8% Daily Bread traditional bitter up to the 12.4% Strawberry Tigers and Rooftop Jacuzzis stout!  Some of the beers are also available individually in 9 pint mini casks.

Recent brews from Neepsend include Arion, a 5.4% Hopfenweizen and Bramble, a 4.8% Blackberry Porter.

Learn & Discover with CAMRA

Posted on by Andy Cullen

One of the most recent added CAMRA membership benefits is access to content in the CAMRA Learn & Discover hub, perfect to keep you occupied at home whilst the pubs are shut!

Whilst normally we would like to take CAMRA members on a voyage of discovery in the world of beer and cider at socials and meetings, hopefully this is the next best thing.

The latest addition to the content is a video about pairing beer with food including understanding how to taste beer and appreciate the flavour profiles that work well together.

To access this content, sign in as a member on the national CAMRA website.

Chapeltown gets all La-Di-Da

Posted on by Andy Cullen

La Di Da is a new specialist shop is opening in Chapeltown on 5 December, selling Quality Wines, Rare Malt Whisky, World Spirits, Craft Ales and a selection of Havana and International Cigars.

The man behind the shop is Wayne Griffin, he’s been a manager at Mitchell’s Wines of Meadowhead for 10 years, they have a great local reputation and it is likely Chapeltown will be benefiting from his experience there!

The beer range at La Di Da includes many local breweries plus craft beers from further afield both UK and international along with some of the classic Belgian beers.

La Di Da will also be selling online at sheffieldcigarsandwine.co.uk.

Tiers after lockdown

Posted on by Andy Cullen

Details on what will happen post lockdown, from 2 December, has now been announced by the Government.

We’ll be returning to a 3 tier system but with some changes to the rules.

In tier 1 areas pubs can open with the rule of 6 applying to group sizes both indoors and outdoors. In tier 2 areas as before mixing of households is not permitted indoors but additionally alcohol will only be served with a substantial meal (there are exceptions for theatres, cinemas, concert halls and sports grounds). Pubs that don’t serve food will have to remain closed. In tier 3 areas pubs and restaurants will be takeaway only.

South Yorkshire and Derbyshire has been put into tier 3 – this means pubs cannot open, except for take away sales (scroll down for a link to our list of pubs we have been advised are offering this).

In areas where pubs can open table service will continue to be a requirement as will social distancing, wearing face coverings when not seated, enhanced cleaning regimes, giving contact details for test and trace and the rest of the requirements to be considered Covid-Secure. The existing 10pm curfew is replaced by 10pm last orders with everyone out by 11pm

This isn’t looking great for pubs – outside tier 1 the majority of pubs cannot open, this is disappointing as we continue to believe that a well run pub in line with Covid-secure guidelines is the safest place to socialise and the hospitality sector seems to have been disproportionately hit with damaging restrictions and no evidence presented to justify this.

Traditionally December – Christmas party season – is the busiest time for pubs and for many pubs the money made in December is needed to survive the typically quiet January so if pubs cannot open or are allowed only very restricted trading in the run up to Christmas this could cause a lot of pubs to go out of business and close without increased government support. It looks like for pubs and pub-goers, Christmas is cancelled.

Details of new tier system from 2 December

Save our pubs campaign – email your MP.

Sheffield City Council Covid News – including business support

Local breweries offering home delivery

Pubs and bars open for food and drink takeaway/home delivery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New pub history course

Posted on by Andy Cullen

Brian Holmshaw, a local history tutor, is running his Social History of Sheffield Pubs course for the Workers Education Association again in February. It is a six week course held on Mondays at a cost of £38.40 using images, maps and documents of the period to examine the origins, architecture and ownership of pubs and brewing in Sheffield, the impact of heavy industry on the way people drank and how pubs were used as public
spaces, including the development of the temperance movement.

This time the tuition will be online via Zoom. To book visit the WEA website or for more information about the course’s content you can contact Brian by emailing holmshawbrian@gmail.com.