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.

Abbeydale Brewery

Posted on by Andy Cullen

We really are hurtling through 2019 at an alarming rate! Luckily we have plenty of delicious beers coming out this month to help you ease into summer.

Our Reaper series has been lying low for a while, but now it’s back! This time we’re releasing a Grapefruit Wheat Beer (4.8%) with the zesty fruitiness of Citra and Centennial hops backed up by the addition of plenty of real grapefruit.

Also joining our Brewers Emporium range we have two new Unbeliever sours, both fruity little numbers… one with Mango & Lychee (4.6%), and the other a Raspberry & Vanilla Berliner (3.8%). Try saying that fast after you’ve quaffed a couple! Finally a Citra & Sabro hopped Serenity Session IPA (3.8%), which promises tropical notes of coconut and pineapple.

Our cask only pale ale specials are looking good too, with Cascade hopped Belfry (4.5% and always a favourite!), Wilderness (3.7%) brewed with Pacific Jade & Enigma and Resolution (4.2%) all making appearances throughout June.  So keep your eyes peeled for them hitting bars around town soon!

Cheers!

Laura

New micropub opens in Bakewell

Posted on by Andy Cullen
The Joiners Arms micropub opened in Bakewell on Friday 2nd May and features 6 cask ales on handpumps plus a further selection of craft beers on keg taps. A loyalty card is available to buy that offers discounts on pints of beer. Breweries featured on the handpump on the opening day included Buxton, North Riding, Abbeydale, Torrside, Hawkshead and Thornbridge. The pub is located on North Church Street by the roundabout, conveniently close to the bus stop where the 218 to Sheffield departs from!

Railway Hotel, Bramall Lane

Posted on by Andy Cullen
As the football season comes to a close, Railway Hotel becomes the out and out craft and real ale pub that so many CAMRA members past, present (and hopefully future) have come to enjoy.  While our focus remains on tapping a fantastic mix of reliable local brews, we are also looking into sourcing some of the more sought after and exciting specials and collabs from the pinnacle of the craft scene.  Something to satisfy top to bottom tastes.
To that note, we have an upcoming tasting evening featuring beer procured from three regional Belgian breweries: 3 Fonteinen, Oud Beersel and Hanssens Artisanaal.  The various gueuze and kriek beers will be paired with topical breads, cheeses, jams and mustards.  This is sure to be an incredible evening, and tickets are extremely limited; details of which can be found on our Facebook Page. Search: Railway Hotel Bramall Lane.
If you’re still looking for a reason to drop by the pub, then let it be our cosy beer garden that owner, Andy, built by hand last summer.  As the weather continues to improve, the beer garden continues to be our favourite spot for a cold beer.
Our Tuesday night themed quizzes continue to grow, we expect that to continue right through the Summer.  As ever, keep your eyes peeled to the events section of our Facebook page for when your Mastermind subject of choice comes up.
All of us at Railway Hotel wish all of you readers a wonderful summer, and long may the Sheffield ale scene boom. Prost.
Dayve Traynor (Assistant Manager, Railway Hotel )

Birdhouse Tea Bar & Kitchen

Posted on by Andy Cullen
OK, I admit a tea room is not somewhere you would expect to be reading about in Beer Matters magazine. However Birdhouse is a local Sheffield tea company with a fairly modern outlook. Their tea bar, on Sidney Street in Sheffield City Centre opens all day with an extensive range of teas and blends, brunch and cakes whilst in the evening the mood changes and table service is offered with a menu of high quality tapas style small plates. Their new evening chef  is turning out dishes with a whole variety of inspirations including Pork Bao Buns served with anchovies and Thai salad,  Lentil curry on kale, Goats cheese arancini, Asparagus with poached egg, hollandaise & truffle oil, Crispy tofu with teriyaki and avocado, cured salmon gravalax with cured beetroot. Meat eaters, vegans and those on a gluten free diet are all catered for well! Meanwhile to drink there is more than just tea, a range of craft beer is available in cans for diners to accompany their meal, including their own collaboration with Abbeydale Brewery – Birdhouse, a beer brewed with green tea, jasmine and hibiscus. Also available from Abbeydale is Heathen Pale Ale, which is now gluten free. At the time of writing assistant Manager Elli was planning on updating the beer selection and it is fantastic to see effort being made to serve good beer that compliments the food.

Stancill Brewery

Posted on by Andy Cullen
Stancill are holding another party in their brewery on Friday 31st May from 7pm. “Summer Breeze” will feature their range of real ales and lager, street food and live music. The brewery is located on Oakham Drive, within the Parkwood Industrial Estate, which is off Rutland Road. The nearest bus is route 7/8 on Neepsend Lane, get off the bus outside the Gardeners Rest / Cutlery Works and walk up the hill past the Forest pub and turn left.

National Cider & Perry Championships

Posted on by Andy Cullen
CAMRA has announced the best Cider and Perry in Britain to be Mayfayre’s Cider (Herefordshire) and Cleeve Orchard’s Perry (Ross-on-Wye). The winners were revealed at the Reading Beer and Cider Festival, home of the National Cider and Perry Championships. Mayfayre’s Cider impressed judges for being well-balanced and more-ish, boasting distinct spicy and woody notes and a dry aftertaste. In contrast, Cleeve Orchard’s Perry won the title for its floral and full-bodied flavour, which had a hint of smoke in the aftertaste. The competition follows more than a year of local tasting panels and regional heats that culminated at the Reading Beer and Cider Festival (2-5 May). Festival-goers have the opportunity to sample the winning drinks along with 150 ciders and perries, 550 beers, foreign beers, wines and mead. Andrea Briers, Chair of CAMRA’s National Cider and Perry Committee said: “Huge congratulations to both Cleeve Orchard and Mayfayre for their exemplary products. As we know, cider and perry flavours can vary significantly from year to year and harvest to harvest, so seeing such distinct quality is incredibly important. “Mayfayre, which is based in Herefordshire, exemplifies the very essence of traditional cider right in the home of England’s cider country. Cleeve Orchard also impressed judges with its West Country Perry. Owner Lewis Scott has worked with CAMRA to campaign for greater support for small producers, and is a great example of how a local producer of the area can gain national recognition with a quality product.”

Inn Brief

Posted on by Andy Cullen
The Bloomery at Broomhill have removed their handpumps and no longer sells real ale, although some craft beers still feature on the keg taps. CAMRA  award winning licensee Karen Lang-Norris is now at the Ranmoor Inn, Fulwood Road. The Ranmoor has a delightful enclosed stable yard for smokers and a glorious patio with seating out the front. There is a general knowledge on Thursday at 9.30pm. Seven beers are usually on the bar, Abbeydale Deception, Bradfield Farmers Ale and Blonde, Taylor Boltmaker and Landlord, Tetley Bitter and an ever changing guest beer. Local pork pies are available. The frequent 120 bus will get you there. The new manager of the Shiny Sheff, Paul, is hoping to bring back life into this Marston’s pub at Lodge Moor. There is a games area with dart board and pool table and the split level lounge has conservatory leading onto the decking with views over the golf course towards Stannington. Thursday is karaoke night with live music on Saturday and a midweek quiz night is planned. There are food offers every night and drinks offers throughout the week. On a recent visit there were Hob Goblin Gold, Jennings Cumberland and Vantage 82. The beer range changes with the wide choice from Marston’s. The 51 bus serves the pub. The Castle Inn at Bradway has been shortlisted for an Ei-Group (formely Enterprise Inns, the national pub owning company the pub is leased from) award for best food offer. It has already won the divisional award and this puts the pub, lead by chefs Jack Baker and Jack Windsor, in the top 9 to be judged in the national final, which is due to be announced at a gala award ceremony in July. As well as good food, the pub offers up to 3 real ales. The Cross Keys at Handsworth has been refurbished and reopened as the Chantry Inn, under the management of Chantry Brewery of Rotherham. The Punchbowl at Crookes has joined the fold of True North Brewery and is to undergo refurbishment before reopening. Meltdown Sheffield, an e-sports gaming bar, opened on the 11th May in the premises on Snig Hill previously known as Under the Boardwalk (and various other incarnations before that, it was once a tap for Samuel Smiths Brewery when the venue upstairs was the Black Swan). Triplepoint Brewery & Bar on Shoreham Street is running an after work social type event every Friday from 6:30pm, usually involving live music and pizza as well of course as a range of beers brewed on site. The Northern Monkey micropub is due to open soon at 8 Middlewood Road, Hillsborough. It is being opened by the same people as the Brass Monkey further up the same road. The usual Saturday tap session at Drone Valley Brewery on Saturday 25th May sees the added interest of the brewery yard being the finish line for a charity duck race on the river Drone. The event runs from midday until 4pm, the location of the start line hadn’t been confirmed at the time of writing. A planning application has been submitted to convert a shop unit into a micropub on Mosborough High Street. The Little Haven Ale House micropub at Parkgate, Rotherham, is celebrating its first birthday on Saturday 1st June from 7pm with a buffet, raffle and prizes as well as the usual attractions such as real ale! This friendly little bar is 5 minutes walk from Parkgate tram terminus.

Annual Beer Census – the results

Posted on by Andy Cullen
On Saturday 30 March, members of the Sheffield & District branch headed all around the city and its surrounds to complete the Annual Beer Census (although we were unable to do one last year). The purpose of the event was to take a snapshot of the range and cost of real ales and real ciders available in Sheffield on a given day. It was a great excuse to visit a large number of pubs including many you do not normally go to, with the added bonus of it being a lovely bright sunny day. Each group set out at midday surveying around 20 pubs before heading to the Red Deer in the city centre. From here, those that could still make it, headed out to other areas and pubs which had not yet been surveyed. We visited slightly fewer pubs than we hope to but still a very respectable number and certainly enough to maintain our claim that Sheffield is the Beer Capital of the UK. 154 pubs were visited on the day, offering between them 709 real ales. This equates to 4.6 real ales per pub (higher than 2017’s figure of 4.3) and a number yet again far higher that Manchester in its last survey. Real Cider was available in 19 of the pubs surveyed, with a choice of 28 different ciders from 17 makers. In total there were 407 unique real ales from 189 different breweries, which is a record for the number of breweries in a survey. The average cost of a pint of real ale was £3.23, an increase of 11p (or 3.6%) from the June 2017 survey. With no increase in beer duty during this period (21 months) this is pretty much in line with inflation. Beers ranged in price from £1.89 to £4.80. The average price of a pint of Real Cider was down 17p from the last survey at £3.63 per pint. Local breweries dominated the pumps with Abbeydale (69), Thornbridge (49) and Bradfield (44) the top three most widely available breweries in Sheffield pubs. Abbeydale’s Moonshine took the top spot, available in 37 (around 1 in 4) of the pubs surveyed. Of the top 11 most popular beers, 5 were from local breweries. A big thanks to everyone who took part and special thanks to Patrick Johnson who single-handedly survey 38 pubs!  
Top 10 Breweries
rank Brewery no of pumps
1 Abbeydale 69
2 Thornbridge 49
3 Bradfield 44
4 Stancill 35
5 Greene King 32
6 Sharp’s 22
7 True North Brew Co 20
8 Acorn 17
9 Neepsend Brew Co. 16
10 Kelham island 13
Blue Bee 13
 
Top 10 Beers
Rank Brewery bname abv nopumps
1 Abbeydale Moonshine 4.3 37
2 Bradfield Farmer’s Blonde 4 29
3 Sharp’s Doom Bar 4 18
4 Greene King Abbot Ale 5 13
5 Greene King IPA 3.6 12
Tetley’s Tetley’s Bitter 3.7 12
7 Abbeydale Deception 4.1 11
8 Thornbridge Jaipur 5.9 10
9 Timothy Taylors Landlord 4.3 9
10 Black Sheep Best Bitter 3.8 8
Stancill Barnsley bitter 3.8 8
Cheapest £1.89 Average £3.23 Dearest £4.80 Strongest 10% : Lagunita’s – Brown Shugga Average 4.4% Weakest 3.2% : Sharp’s – Rising Tide

Pub of the Month June 2019

Posted on by Andy Cullen
Congratulations to the Dog & Partridge for becoming a worthy winner of the Sheffield and District CAMRA Pub of The Month. This award is designed to highlight pubs serving good real ale in friendly and comfortable surroundings. The Dog scores on all points, with beer quality always high. To enjoy the celebrations, join us on Tuesday 11th.June from 20:00 (presentation at 21:00). Dating back to 1796, The Dog and Partridge is a cosy multi-room dog-friendly pub in Sheffield city centre. Many activities take place onsite. These include folk events, games nights and a weekly quiz: 6.00 p.m. every Tuesday. Since early 2013, the Dog and Partridge has been led by Landlord, Conor Smith. Conor, and his team, utilise four hand-pumps to provide an ever-changing range of quality beers, mostly from local breweries: a regular Bitter (usually Stancil) and Stout (often Chantry), one pump dedicated to specials from Abbeydale with the fourth pump providing a wide range of guests. Recently these have included Ashover, Bad Seed, Blue Bee, Great Newsome and Magic Rock. They also serve ‘the best Guinness outside Dublin.’ A 10% discount is available for card-carrying CAMRA members. Previously Pub of the Month in March 2014, the Dog and Partridge is on the CAMRA Regional Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors: for pubs that are of ‘some regional importance’ (SRI), meaning that specific features are of sufficient quality for the pub to be considered noteworthy. Although the interior of four rooms has been opened-out and modernised, the original layout is still visible; there is some inter-war tiling on the right-hand side of the corridor into the pub and one nearly intact room. The central snug has been spared from excessive change. Cosy and genuinely historic, this little room retains its old fireplace, original door and fixed seating, with a wide panel above still having bell pushes from the days of table service. The fireplace is also very old but has a modern hearth. Graffiti, of various ages, is carved into the woodwork. 1974 plans proposed that this snug become a male toilet and the servery re-configured. Luckily, these alterations did not materialise. Further alterations in 1989 saw the pub extend into a neighbouring shop, creating the snug to the left of the entrance. The three-storey stone building also has good ‘DOG & PARTRIDGE GILMOURS WINDSOR ALES & STOUTS’ raised lettering on the fascia and an interesting sign above the entrance. The pub opens at 12 noon daily, closing at 11:00 p.m., Monday – Thursday, 11:30 Friday and Saturday and 10:00 p.m. on Sunday. Home-made food is available Tuesday – Saturday, lunchtimes and early evening (12-2 and 5-9).
  • Dave Pickersgill

Pub of the Month May 2019

Posted on by Andy Cullen
The Ale Club on Ecclesall Road is a relative newcomer to the Sheffield beer scene having only opened its doors in November 2017. However, over the last 18 months this micropub and bottle shop has gained a healthy reputation for its varied selection of real ales and craft beers and is a worthy winner of this month’s Pub of the Month award. For those who haven’t visited before, the Ale Club acts as the brewery tap for Sheffield-owned cuckoo brewery The Brew Foundation (the brewing is actually done at Wincle in Cheshire). Brewer James Eardley opened the bar in order to showcase some of the brewery’s offerings such as Little Bitter That (3.8% English bitter), Laughing Water (4.3% hoppy pale), Janet’s Treat (4.8% chocolate cherry porter), Wheat Your Heart Out (6.0% white IPA) and Free Beer (4.4% APA which is both gluten free and vegan!). There are five well-kept real ales on offer, always including at least one from the Brew Foundation range. Guest beers include interesting choices from well-known independent breweries such as Hawkshead and Blackjack, as well smaller local brewers including Lost Industry, Crosspool Ale Makers Society and Holmfirth’s Three Fiends Brewhouse. If you’re in search of craft beer you won’t be disappointed either with eight keg lines and more than 130 bottles and cans, ranging from the more traditional styles to juicy IPAs, big imperial stouts and funky Belgian gueuzes. Some of the UK’s biggest craft names such as Verdant, Cloudwater, Kernel and Northern Monk feature regularly. As well as having a great range of ales and beers, the Ale Club is a really interesting place to sit and enjoy them. Step through the door and you’re transported from the noise and bustle of Ecclesall Road into a world inspired by old-school private members’ clubs where the lighting is low and the walls and bookcases are adorned with knick-knacks and curiosities from around the globe. If the weather’s nice (and you get there early!) there are also a couple of tables out the front for those who prefer to imbibe al fresco. Congratulations to James and all the staff at the Ale Club on their award, which we hope will be the first of many. We will be handing over the certificate on Tuesday 14 May, as usual arriving from around 8pm for a presentation at 9pm. The pub is located at 429 Ecclesall Road, S11 8PG and is well served by local buses (65, 81, 82, 83, 88 and 272). Hope to see you there!