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.
Heart of the City2 is the large mixed-use development which is currently taking place in Sheffield City Centre. The scheme aims to provide quality office space, 4/5* hotels, flats, shops, food outlets and more (https://www.heartofcity2.com/). Included in this development is the Sportsman on Cambridge Street, S1 4HP.
This pub is located in the area designated, ‘H1,’ a space in which some old buildings are to be retained. The Sportsman dates back to the mid C19th. and is close to the site of the recently demolished Athol Hotel. In the 1975 CAMRA National Good Beer Guide, it was described as, ‘one of the few pleasant and comfortable city-centre pubs selling real ale.’ Electric-pumped Tetley Bitter was the single choice.
From 2014, the pub was run by Kelham Island Brewery, as the Tap and Tankard. It closed early in 2018 when surrounded by scaffolding as Heart of the City2 began to gather place. It is now ripe for a planned re-opening. To the rear is the Grade II* listed, ‘Leah’s Yard,’ one of the few remaining examples of the courtyard workshops characteristic of Sheffield. The Leah family after whom the yard is named carried out drop-stamping for the silverware trade.
Ideally, we would like to see the Sportsman return to its old name as a traditional outlet. Such a departure would complement both its surroundings and other nearby food outlets. If anyone is aware of future plans for the pub, we would appreciate the detail.
Dave Pickersgill – pubheritage@sheffield.camra.org.uk
The Old Queens Head in Pond Hill is said to be haunted and CAMRA members were in good spirits when they turned up for a special evening. Patrick Johnson from the Campaign for Real Ale presented Pub of the Month award to managers Zuzana and Michal who were delighted with the award.
The Campaign for Real Ale also support real Cider and Kev and Steph were delighted when their pub, the New Barrack Tavern on Penistone Road was awarded Yorkshire Cider Pub of the Year. CAMRA regional cider co-ordinator Christine Jane made the award.
CAMRA members and staff at the Ball Inn, Crookes, celebrated more than Christmas as the pub was awarded Pub of the Month by The Campaign for Real Ale. The pub has fourteen hand pumps and serves a fine selection of real ales. Chairman of CAMRA, Glyn Mansell on the left presented the award to Kham, the duty manager.
January is one of the most difficult times of year in the pub business with reduced customer levels, mainly due to people being a bit skint after Christmas with all the extra spending on gifts and everything else involved with the celebrations.
It is being made even worse for the pubs and breweries that supply them now by various campaigns to encourage people to turn their back on the pubs they love, stop drinking and give the money to charity instead!
We say instead of dry January, get the new year off to a good start with “Tryanuary” whilst still supporting the pubs, specialist beer shops and breweries that supply them.
Why not make an effort to try new beers or beer styles during January? Be that a mild, traditional bitter, Blonde, IPA, Stout, Porter, Barley Wine, Saison, Sour or one of many others, there is plenty to choose from.
Wanting to be sensible after Christmas and new year excesses? You could still socialise at the pub and enjoy a session strength beer or a low/no alcohol alternative – or even look out for those pubs and bars with an interesting choice of soft drinks.
Another way of enjoying Tryanuary might be to visit pubs you haven’t been to before, there are lots of good ones in our area!
As we ‘cheers’ our pint glasses to the new year, we have three cracking specials to chase away those January blues.
Ernest George is a well balanced 4.2% ruby ale. Blended using traditional roasted malts we have created a deep ruby ale with distinctively bitter-sweet chocolate notes. British Bramling Cross hops provide a subtly blackcurrant note in the background. Ernest George, this beer’s namesake, was a well-known country house architect who worked on the Welbeck Abbey between 1900 and 1901. He was responsible for remodelling the interior of the Oxford Wing after it was decimated by fire.
Our second offering for January is Henrietta Grande, a pale ale at 4.0%. A more intense version of our most popular core range beer, Henrietta Grande is a clean-tasting, delicate golden ale, brewed with German Hallertau Brewers Gold. Named after two famous Henriettas in the Welbeck family linage; Henrietta Cavendish-Holles, and Henrietta Scott, this light golden ale has notes of honeysuckle and fresh hay.
Finally, we have Tink’s Pixie Dust Pale. You may have heard of our head brewer James, but we like to call him Tink – short for Tinkerbell the beer fairy! He works tirelessly to produce our 15,000 pints of hand-crafted real ale each week with a great deal of skill, care and we think a little help from Pixie dust.
Tink’s Pixie Dust Pale is a 3.8% fruity session ale brewed from a magical blend of hops from three continents.
Louise
A few years ago the Ball Inn, Crookes was refurbished and this included installing a new kitchen in the old stables at the back of the cobbled court yard. Part of the pub is a sports bar with TV screens with a large dining area at the rear but some of the original wooden panelling can still be seen and photos of bygone Crookes are on most walls. There is stylish decking and surround at the front of the pub and at the back is a beer garden with heated smoking area.
It is a Greene King pub with 14 hand pumps and offers the normal range of Greene King beers and the guest beers are usually from Sheffield breweries and offers CAMRA members a discount.
Open from 10am for breakfasts, tea, coffee and cakes and serves meals throughout the day until 10pm weekdays and 9pm weekends. There are a range of children’s and senior menus and Sunday lunches are popular with specials available all week.
Live music features on the last Friday of the month.
Pub of the Month award will be presented to the manager, Simon Howard and his team on 10th December. The pub is on the 52/52A bus route so come along and join us.
JOHN BEARDSHAW
Kelham Island will be kicking off the new year brewing a couple of monthly specials
Gauntlet is a triple hopped refreshing ale, using only hops grown in the UK. Brewed with the addition of blood orange zest and fresh grapefruit. Which gives this beer an intense delicious tropical experience.
Crimson Chaos is a full bodied American Red Ale will blast your taste buds with American hop flavours with a subtle pine aroma, and leaves an after taste of slight toffee and caramel.
Pulling together to support pubs and clubs
Pubs face a huge tax burden, including VAT, excise duties, business rates,
corporation tax and other pub-specific costs. In total £12.7bn in taxes are paid
across the beer and pubs sector per year. Tax makes up around one third of the
cost of a pint sold in a pub.
Pubs pay 2.8% of the total amount paid in business rates, but account for only
0.5% of total business turnover. Various relief schemes have been brought in,
but these have been time limited and haven’t affected licensees coping with the
largest rates increases.
The next Government needs to undertake a full review of business rates in
England to fix the unfair overpayment by the pub sector permanently.
In 2016 the Government introduced a Pubs Code and Adjudicator in England
and Wales to govern the relationship between large pub companies and their
licensees. This followed many years of CAMRA’s campaigning against the shortterm business practices of large pub companies which led to underinvestment
in pubs, pub closures and high prices.
The Code is currently under review, and it needs substantial changes to the
legislation underpinning it to make it finally deliver for tenants. This includes
fixing loopholes that allow pub companies to game the Code and making sure
that tenants have access to the same levels of information as their pub
companies.
The new Government needs to seize the opportunity of the review to make
changes to the Pubs Code Regulations to fix the problems with the existing
Code.
Pulling together to support beer and cider
Three consecutive cuts in beer duty from 2013-2015, followed by a freeze in
2016, gave the sector a huge boost. Despite a further freeze in 2018, beer duty
in the UK remains much higher than other nearby brewing nations, meaning
that brewers are unable to properly invest in their businesses.
Should the UK leave the EU, this will present an opportunity for the UK
Government to re-balance the tax differential between the on-trade and the
off-trade and demonstrate support for the vast majority of consumers who
drink responsibly and in social environments.
A lower rate of duty for draught beer sold in pubs could be introduced to
recognise the social benefits of alcohol being consumed in regulated, social
environments.
This year the Government introduced a new duty band for cider between 6.9%
abv and 7.5% abv in strength. This measure was brought in to target cheap, low
cost ‘white’ ciders that are nothing like the natural, high quality and price point
product that real cider producers make.
The existing duty band should not be widened, and the rate of duty should not
be raised above any other across the board duty increases.
On Saturday 9th.November, 39 of the many volunteers at SCBF45 had a day out. This year we went to Harrogate.
An initial hour long stop at the recently opened Roosters Brewery and Taproom was followed by a few hours in Harrogate. Roosters were founded in 1993 and quickly developed a reputation for brewing ground-breaking, hop-forward pale ales that showcased (then) new hops from the USA. Earlier this year, they relocated to Hornbeam Park in Harrogate. Their taproom is open Wednesday – Sunday and is well-worth a visit.
We then moved into Harrogate and small groups visited many of the venues on our pre-prepared list – plus a few extras. For example, the ‘Disappearing Chin’ micropub. A good day was had by all – personal highlights include Cold Bath Brewery Tap, the Harrogate Tap and Major Toms. Key beers included Silent Assassin (Roosters), Harbour Little Rock IPA (Little Ale House) and Nightjar Zolo (Major Toms Social).
The organisers of the recent 45th Steel City Beer & Cider Festival would like to thank the following for donating items to the festival tombola and to sell for the Burton Street Foundation Charity:-
The Fat Cat, Kelham Island Tavern, Gardeners Rest, Shakespeares, Kelham Island Brewery, Abbeydale Brewery, Triple Point Brewery, The Brew Foundation, Brian Moore, Paul & Julie Brearley, Sarah Mills, Dave Pickersgill, Paul Crofts, Alan Gibbons, Nigel & Emlyn Tasker, Terry Palmer, David Little and everyone who donated anonymously. Apologies if we have missed anyone.
Andy Morton
The festival is always one of the highlights of my year, but what you may not realise is that planning for the event begins way back in January. I have volunteered on the organising committee for the past two years and amongst other things oversee the press and trade session, press contact and social media promotion. Even being involved, it still blows my mind that such a fantastic event is solely organised, set up and staffed by volunteers.
While the organising side of the event can be a little stressful (especially in the immediate run up to the event) I think people would be surprised how easy it is to get involved and how rewarding it is. In fact, this year I have managed to complete my role while backpacking around Europe – if you have access to email and a little imagination anything is possible!
Opening night is my most stressful time as it’s when all the year’s planning comes together for press, trade and tasting sessions. Come Thursday the fun begins, and I get to take a step back from my formal role and become a manager, moving around the festival in a variety of roles. Most likely you’ll find me on the token desk, though I’ve also been known to pull a few pints. However, my favourite job is glass washing as Brian, John and the team down there are fab and have the best playlists!
2020 is going to be a big one for me as I am planning on relocating out of the city, though I am hoping to remain on the organising committee and carry on all the great work that goes into the festival from afar. If you want to get involved in the organising side of the festival, we are always looking for passionate people to help out and volunteer – see you in January to kick off Steel City 46!
The Campaign for Real Ale also support real Cider and Kev and Steph were delighted when their pub, the New Barrack Tavern on Penistone Road was awarded Yorkshire Cider Pub of the Year. CAMRA regional cider co-ordinator Christine Jane made the award.
CAMRA members and staff at the Ball Inn, Crookes, celebrated more than Christmas as the pub was awarded Pub of the Month by The Campaign for Real Ale. The pub has fourteen hand pumps and serves a fine selection of real ales. Chairman of CAMRA, Glyn Mansell on the left presented the award to Kham, the duty manager. 
Kelham Island will be kicking off the new year brewing a couple of monthly specials
Pulling together to support pubs and clubs
Pubs face a huge tax burden, including VAT, excise duties, business rates,
corporation tax and other pub-specific costs. In total £12.7bn in taxes are paid
across the beer and pubs sector per year. Tax makes up around one third of the
cost of a pint sold in a pub.
Pubs pay 2.8% of the total amount paid in business rates, but account for only
0.5% of total business turnover. Various relief schemes have been brought in,
but these have been time limited and haven’t affected licensees coping with the
largest rates increases.
The next Government needs to undertake a full review of business rates in
England to fix the unfair overpayment by the pub sector permanently.
In 2016 the Government introduced a Pubs Code and Adjudicator in England
and Wales to govern the relationship between large pub companies and their
licensees. This followed many years of CAMRA’s campaigning against the shortterm business practices of large pub companies which led to underinvestment
in pubs, pub closures and high prices.
The Code is currently under review, and it needs substantial changes to the
legislation underpinning it to make it finally deliver for tenants. This includes
fixing loopholes that allow pub companies to game the Code and making sure
that tenants have access to the same levels of information as their pub
companies.
The new Government needs to seize the opportunity of the review to make
changes to the Pubs Code Regulations to fix the problems with the existing
Code.
Pulling together to support beer and cider
Three consecutive cuts in beer duty from 2013-2015, followed by a freeze in
2016, gave the sector a huge boost. Despite a further freeze in 2018, beer duty
in the UK remains much higher than other nearby brewing nations, meaning
that brewers are unable to properly invest in their businesses.
Should the UK leave the EU, this will present an opportunity for the UK
Government to re-balance the tax differential between the on-trade and the
off-trade and demonstrate support for the vast majority of consumers who
drink responsibly and in social environments.
A lower rate of duty for draught beer sold in pubs could be introduced to
recognise the social benefits of alcohol being consumed in regulated, social
environments.
This year the Government introduced a new duty band for cider between 6.9%
abv and 7.5% abv in strength. This measure was brought in to target cheap, low
cost ‘white’ ciders that are nothing like the natural, high quality and price point
product that real cider producers make.
The existing duty band should not be widened, and the rate of duty should not
be raised above any other across the board duty increases. 
An initial hour long stop at the recently opened Roosters Brewery and Taproom was followed by a few hours in Harrogate. Roosters were founded in 1993 and quickly developed a reputation for brewing ground-breaking, hop-forward pale ales that showcased (then) new hops from the USA. Earlier this year, they relocated to Hornbeam Park in Harrogate. Their taproom is open Wednesday – Sunday and is well-worth a visit.
We then moved into Harrogate and small groups visited many of the venues on our pre-prepared list – plus a few extras. For example, the ‘Disappearing Chin’ micropub. A good day was had by all – personal highlights include Cold Bath Brewery Tap, the Harrogate Tap and Major Toms. Key beers included Silent Assassin (Roosters), Harbour Little Rock IPA (Little Ale House) and Nightjar Zolo (Major Toms Social).
