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.

Steel City Brewing (and friends)

Posted on by Andy Cullen
A long time ago in a galaxy far… No, wait, we’ve done that bit. Erm. Skip a bit, brother… wait, wrong film. I’ll come in again. It is a dark time for the lunatic brewing alliance as the Stout Wars rage on. Although the six stouts have been destroyed, Imperial stout troops have driven the lunatic forces from their hidden base and pursued them across the galaxy. The alliance has established a new secret base on the ice planet of Sheffield. So secret that if we told you we’d have to kill you. Sorry, drifting off again… Anyway, the secret is out, it’s at the fantastic Rutland Arms, who put on a great night for the first trilogy, and will of course be on May the Fourth (be with you. Let’s hope there’s no Revenge of the Fifth. OK I’ll stop now)
The lunatic alliance of Steel City, Emperor’s and Lost Industry brings forth a new trilogy of imperial stouts, bigger and imperialier than ever. Except they got their space franchises mixed up and made a Douglas Adams-esque trilogy of four, or maybe five… the new episodes are:
Stout Wars 
Episode VII The Brett Awakens 16.0% – bretted wine barrel aged raisin imperial stout (cask) 
Episode VIII The Last Berry 16.0% – bretted bourbon barrel aged imperial blackberry & blackcurrant stout (cask) 
Episode IX Rise of Stout Drinker 12.0% – sherry barrel-aged imperial damson stout (cask) 
Solo 7.4% Bordeaux barrel aged bretted soured cherry stout (keg) 
 
Other Steel City beers available on the night:
 
Burn the Kirsch Skjold 5.7% – cherrywood-smoked pale rauchbier (cask) 
Black Cascade 6.66% – single hop black IPA brewed with Kate from the Rutland (keg) 
Corvus Corone 7.2% – dry-hop sour brut IPA brewed with the Crow owners and manager (keg) 
Danse macabre cherry 6.0% – flemishish oude bruin with cherries (keg)
 
There will be bottles of the ultra-rare Eisbock Planet of Hoth being opened for tasting, small measures as it weighs in at 27.2%! It’s a freeze concentrated sherry barrel aged imperial stout.
 
Just in case all that beer in liquid form isn’t enough, the pub’s talented chefs will be incorporating the beers into food for the occasion, and the brewers will be bringing Beer Jelly. Yes, that’s exactly what it sounds like, beer in jelly form, specifically Medusa Sour IPA.
Dave Unpronounceable

Inn Brief

Posted on by Andy Cullen
The Devonshire Cat in Sheffield City Centre is hosting a meet the brewer event with Wilde Child on 25th April. The Saturday of Easter weekend saw the final day of food service by Wing Kings at the Dog & Partridge. Wing Kings’ kitchen residency is moving to the Blind Monkey in Walkley. The Dorothy Pax bar at Victoria Quays is holding their ‘Canal Lines’ music festival on the 20th and 21st July (yes the same weekend as Tramlines – see what they’ve done there?!) with the Honey Bee Blues Club curating a days entertainment. The event starts at midday both days with entertainment currently scheduled from 3:30pm on Saturday and 4pm Sunday. The Rutland Arms is celebrating Star Wars Day (May the 4th be with you – geddit) by hosting the latest Stout Wars Trilogy of beers from Steel City Brewing (and collaborative partners!) The Washington on Fitzwilliam Street in Sheffield City Centre is hosting a music festival on Sunday 5th May with live music inside and (weather permitting) DJs in the beer garden. The event is organised jointly by Violet Gang and Musicians Against Homlessness, doors open at 2pm and entry is free. The Washington normally has a range of 6 real ales on the bar. A new micropub is opening soon in Bakewell in a former newsagent shop located by the area all the buses, including the 218 from Sheffield, stop. The pub is to be called “The Joiners Arms“, a reference to the fact the guy opening the pub also owns a joinery business (as well as owning the Dronfield Arms and a co-owning the Beer House micropub on Ecclesall Road). The planned opening date is 3rd May and the bar will feature 6 cask lines and 6 keg lines. The Harley Hotel on Glossop Road, near the University of Sheffield tram stop, closed suddenly at the beginning of April. This hotel and bar was also home to the Twisted Burger Company, live music and club nights and is leased from a pub company. The statement on their Facebook page, which has now been deleted, talked about them like many others struggling to keep a live music venue financially viable. It apparantly won’t be the end of Twisted Burgers and we are advised to look out for an announcement on that subject, the same management also run the Wick at Both Ends bar on West Street which has recently been refurbished and is home to their Twisted Pizza operation. They are also involved with organising Tramlines festival. Kommune Food Hall on Angel Street (part of the old Co-Op department store building) is now open for business with a range of street food kitchens, coffee counter bakery and bar all with shared communal seating. It is also the new home of the Hop Hideout beer shop. Neither the main ‘Drinks Department’ bar or Hop Hideout are serving cask beer, however both have some decent craft beers available on keg and of course Hop Hideout have an impressive bottle selection! Their first EVER beer festival will be held at the Wisewood Inn from 21st to 23rd June. There will be over twenty cask ales, plus can/bottle bar, cider and craft. Food and live music throughout. Open Fri-Sat noon- 11:00pm, Sun noon-10:00pm. Free admission at all times. Bus 31 from Sheffield City Centre (Angel Street) stops right outside. Sheffield’s annual folk music sessions festival was held over the Easter weekend across a number of participating pubs – the Dog & Partridge, Kelham Island Tavern, Shakespeares, Hillsborough Hotel, Gardeners Rest, Bar Stewards, Ship Inn, 3 Tuns and Church House. A local member has reported the Chapeltown Taphouse has extended their CAMRA members discount to be available all week subject to some terms and conditions whilst offers on a Monday have been opened up to all customers. You can keep up with their latest news by liking their Facebook page as things can change from time to time! The Three Cranes on Queen Street in Sheffield City Centre has two real ales available, at last visit these were from Kelham Island Brewery.  Saturday night are generally party nights with a DJ on, check their Facebook page for event details, whilst on Sundays they are serving roast dinners. The Punchbowl at Crookes has reportedly been sold by Greene King to a local brewery. A licence application has been made for the former off licence unit at 8 Middlewood Road (just up from Hillsborough corner), this could see another micropub join the Brass Monkey and Sports Shack in the area. The Dead Donkey bar opened at 240 Abbeydale Road (the former Mr Pickles shop) on 12th April offering craft beer, wines, spirits, cocktails and grilled cheese sandwiches. Sheffield Beer Week saw the launch of  “Out & About“, a new LGBT+ social group for those that enjoy craft beer, their mission to create a safe space within the Sheffield beer community. Their launch party was at the Devonshire Cat with a second social taking place in April at the Rutland Arms. If  you’d like to join them you can find out a bit more via Facebook.com/outandaboutsheff. Work continues on renovations, refurbishment and fitting out at the Crow Inn on Scotland Street, a craft beer bar and boutique hotel being opened by Chris and Kate from the Rutland Arms. At the time of going to press an opening date hadn’t been announced but the current target is mid to late May. A special collaboration beer has been brewed with Steel City Brewing for the opening of the Crow Inn. It is a 7.2% ABV dry hopped sour Brut IPA called Corvus Corone, which is the scientific name for the Carrion Crow, which according to the RSPB is a species that can be quite fearless yet wary of man. Make of that what you will. The King & Miller at Deepcar (Bradfield Brewery’s second pub after the Nags Head near Loxley) have been recruiting staff for their newly refurbished kitchen and are to introduce food. JD Wetherspoons, you’ve probably noticed, regularly review their locations with new openings as well as closures. The latest round of closures around the country have been announced with the only one in South Yorkshire being the Rhinoceros in Rotherham, where customers will of course have an alternative branch – the Blue Coats – that is bigger and nicer just up the hill! Rotherham CAMRA branch have announced their Pub of the Year winners. Their overall winner was the Wath Tap micropub – a wonderful friendly little community orientated bar with good ale just a couple of minutes from Wath bus station (buses 22a/22c/22x run there regularly from Rotherham Interchange via Parkgate, if you are going from Sheffield there are plenty of buses, trams and trains connecting to Rotherham). They also presented a ‘most improved pub’ award to the Church House Wetherspoons, also in Wath upon Dearne and a Rotherham town centre pub of the Year to the Blue Coats Wetherspoon. The latest from Rotherham branch can be found on their Facebook page. Dronfield & District branch, another of our neighbours, have also presented their awards with the Pub of the year going to the Miners Arms in Hundall, Cider Pub going to the Travellers Rest in Apperknowle and Club of the Year going to the Pioneer Club in Dronfield. Their Winter Pub of the Season was the Cross Daggers in Coal Aston. More details can be found in their ‘Peel Ale’ magazine or online at www.dronfield.camra.org.uk. Sheffield Brewery are supplying beer for a Mayday bank holiday weekend tap takeover at the Chesterfield Alehouse micropub.

Brewery Bits

Posted on by Andy Cullen
Triple Point Brewhouse & Bar on Shoreham Street (the premises that used to be Sentinel Brewery) have racked their first full brew of “Debut IPA” following a couple of test brews to gain feedback. They have also supplied a beer to the bar at the Crucible Theatre that tied in with the “Standing at the Sky’s Edge” show being performed there, the beer is “Sky’s Edge Gold”. Thornbridge Brewery in Bakewell have commenced the 2019 dates for their brewery tap room socials. As before every month there is a Wednesday and Saturday where the bar in the visitors centre is open alongside the brewery shop, offering a range of their current beers along with a street food trader and the ability to book brewery tours. The next couple of Saturday events (open 12-8pm) are 27th April and 25th May with the Wednesday events (5-9pm) on the 24th April and 29th May. Northern Monk brewery of Leeds has brewed a Henderson’s Relish beer! It’s first appearance on tap was a keg in Brewdog on 10th April with cask appearing in the Rutland Arms and others whilst in cans it appeared in various outlets including Hop Hidout, Beer Central and Archer Road Beer Stop. The beer is a Bloody Mary Porter, which seems like a fairly traditional porter on initial taste but with a Bloody Mary style after taste and a bit of gentle spice burn that builds up on the throat! At the time of writing, On the Edge Brewery have announced the first three of the nine beers brewed for their 9 Pin event at Regather Works on 27th April. These are White Magnum, a 3.8% pale ale brewed with Magnum hops. The second is White Feathers, also 3.8%, a wheat beer brewed with traditional Czech hops and a wheat beer yeast. The third beer is Summit Gold, a hoppy session ale at 3.9% ABV. Drone Valley Brewery are now opening up for a tap session in the brewery every Saturday from 11am to 5pm. You can grab a pint to drink on site or buy bottles to take home. The brewery is in Unstone, just south of Dronfield, buses 43 and 44 from Sheffield stop at the end of the drive. On Saturday 1st June this tap session will be expanded to form part of the fringe festival alongside the CAMRA beer festival in Dronfield with a full beer range, music, food and gin! Neepsend Brewery are now back in the routine of opening their brewery bar once a month for drinkers to come in and try their latest beers at source. This event coincides with Peddlers Market on the Saturday of the first weekend of the month. Loxley Brewery will be supplying some of their beers to the ‘Eats, Beats and Treats’ tent located at the top of Fargate at Sheffield Food festival this year, which runs from 24th to 27th May. This may or may not include one of their most recent beers, Wisewood Eight, a very pale and refreshing 3.8% ABV session beer brewed with Motueka and Amarillo hops. Heist Brew Co in Clowne has released a collab brew with Alphabet Brewing. It is a white stout in a black forest gateaux style with the flavour delivering mountains of chocolate with cherry and a thick mouthfeel. Vadum Brewery, a cuckoo working out of Hill Top brewery in Conisborough have started supplying their beers to pubs in Sheffield and have been spotted in the Fat Cat amongst others. Their range is mainly very traditional, for example the Centurion Best Bitter – a 4% malty brew – however they have already broken those shackles with a West Coast IPA! Magic Rock of Huddersfield is now an internationally owned brewery having been bought by Lion, an Australian headquartered company that has also bought a number of other craft brewers around the world including Fourpure and Little Creatures as well as a number of mainstream brands. Magic Rock will see the new owners invest in expansion of the brewery which is currently struggling to meet demand. News of the new owners hasn’t proved popular amongst some fans of independent craft brewers however and a number of pubs and bars including the Rutland Arms and Bar Stewards in Sheffield have decided to replace their regular Magic Rock line with a different brewer, in the case of the Rutland the keg High Wire is being replaced by beers from the Kernel on a rotating basis. Mr Humphrey Smith of Samuel Smiths Brewery has issued one of his now famous memos to his pub managers and now use of electronic devices such as mobile phones and tablets are banned from his pubs in order to preserve the pub as a place for personal social interaction. If a customer needs to take a phone call they will be asked to do that outside with the smokers. This ban joins the strict rule of no swearing at Sam Smiths pubs, which includes the Brown Bear in Sheffield City Centre. The Old Mother Redcap at Bradway, another of their pubs, remains closed, seemingly due to difficulties recruiting a management couple to run it.

Sports Shack opens in Woodseats

Posted on by Andy Cullen
Thursday 11th April saw the third bar in the local Sports Shack chain open in Woodseats, in the former Greggs unit at 706 Chesterfield Road which has been transformed! Sports Shack shares some values with micropubs in that it is small, simple, friendly and value for money; however it also has sports bar features such as six 4K Ultra HD  TV screens, sporting memorabilia and bar snacks. On the bar will be mainstream lagers, keg & cask ale, and a gin selection of over 20 flavours. The previous openings were on Ecclesall Road at Hillsborough Corner and all three venues run drink offers on Sundays and Thursdays.

Barlow Brewery

Posted on by Andy Cullen
Glyn Sanderson founded Barlow Brewery back in January 2010, initially on a rather Heath Robinson esque 2.5 BBL kit, later expanded up to 5BBL. It was located in converted buildings on a working farm in the village of Barlow (the building was previously a cow shed and pig sty!). All the beers brewed at Barlow have received a great reception from drinkers with particular favourites here at Beer Matters being Carnival Ale, 3 Valleys IPA and Anastasia Imperial Russian Stout. Barlow Brewery also hosted a number of beer & music festivals in the farmyard which were enjoyable affairs! When Barlow first started brewing they were the only brewery in S18. Since then Collyfobble has launched in the village with a rather impressive set up whilst over in Unstone the Drone Valley Community Brewery has set up with lower operating costs. Glyn has decided to close and sell Barlow Brewery, partly because he’s had enough of the manual labour and wants to enjoy semi-retirement! Their taphouse pub in Chesterfield will continue to operate as a free house. Meanwhile the new owner of the brewery premises is Ade Cole of Pigeon Fishers who will be locating his gin distillery there and also opening a tap room selling his gin along with craft beer, tea & coffee. Gin production is expected to begin in May with the tap room & shop following in June. Pigeon Fishers ales were being cuckoo brewed at Barlow Brewery and a decision on the future of the beer has yet to be announced.

Bradfield Brewery

Posted on by Andy Cullen

In time for the bank holidays and the flutter of activity on the beer festival scene, Farmers Peach Ale makes a return to the seasonal calendar. Available in cask from the beginning of May, this light rosey ale is a firm favourite with the fruity ale fans.

Speaking of Festivals, we were proud to be named main sponsor for the Ridgeway Beer Festival, taking place on the 18th May – look out for a selection of Farmers Ales at the festival!

We are also excited to have secured a cask ale stand at this year’s Great British Beer Festival – it will be great to showcase some of our ales in that there big city!!

Jackie @ Bradfield Brewery

The Brewery of St Mars of the Desert

Posted on by Andy Cullen
It’s been a mad first few weeks at the brewery of SMOD. We’ve enjoyed meeting so many of you during Sheffield beer week, at the brilliant Indie Beer Feast and in our own taproom. If you haven’t made the trip out to Attercliffe yet, we hope to meet you soon. Right now we have both of our Attercliffe Industrial Hop Series beers available. Both being of the hazy “New England” variety – a DIPA with Rakau and Citra and a Grapefruit Pale with Amarillo and Chinook hops along with the zest of 200 grapefruits added in our coolship. What’s up and coming you ask? Well, hopefully along with warmer weather will be more opening hours in the taproom. Check social media for that as times do change. Google maps also has our correct hours. This week we’re brewing a brown stout that’ll be the first beer resting in our new 1200 litre reconditioned oak foudre. Thank you to parliament for delaying Brexit, allowing this vessel to be delivered to us on time (hopefully this week as well)! Lastly, our new “paasbier” should be coming out very shortly for the Easter season. Look out for this Belgian inspired dual-strain beer at 6.3% called “Springtime on Mars” soon. Whatever your plans, join us for a beer in our friendly taproom sometime this spring and join our burgeoning “smodsquad”! Cheers from Dann & Martha

Abbeydale Brewery

Posted on by Andy Cullen

Arguably the most popular Doctor Morton’s beer of all time, this month witnesses the return of Duck Baffler (4.1%), a Citra hopped pale ale. As with all of the recent releases within the range, it’s coming back with a bit of a new look, but don’t worry, it’s still approved by 9 mallards out of 10.

We’ve got a couple more exciting collaborations coming up, including a Black IPA brewed with our pals at Thornbridge. A much underrated beer style, we reckon, so we’re on a little mission to raise it’s profile! And on a much less local level we have Amor Artis joining us all the way from South Carolina. We’ll be using one brewday to whip up two distinct beers – the first a grisette coming soon, and secondly a barrel fermented spiced saison which will follow later in the year.

And finally, we’re very pleased to be bringing back our beautiful Birdhouse Tea Beer (4.2%) made using our very own bespoke blend including green tea, jasmine and hibiscus. This one always flies out so do keep your eyes peeled!

Laura @ Abbeydale Brewery

Kelham Island Brewery

Posted on by Andy Cullen

A big warm hello Sheffield from Kelham Island Brewery! Sheffield’s original independent brewers. We are excited to launch our new logo and artwork this month. Brand new Kelham, with the same great taste.

We also want to welcome our newest member of the team Joe, who can’t wait to meet you and get to the know the people of this great beer city.

Now onto the good stuff, this month’s new beers. We are launching Steel Rider, a full flavoured dry hopped 5.4% pale ale. Its massive juicy palate will light up your taste buds as if they were struck by the lord of thunder and the mighty Mjolnir.

For those of you who enjoy the dark roasts we have something for you too. Night Shift, a 4.6% Coffee Porter. Hints of Toffee and Chocolate among the blend of dark roasts, with a hit of ground coffee. Perfect for dark nights on the town.

Ed Wickett @ Kelham Island Brewery

Sheffield Brewery Company

Posted on by Andy Cullen
Let’s be clear about vegan beer This spring we have launched our very first vegan beer, New Dawn. Full of fruity hops, New Dawn has a juicy and fresh taste with a hint of citrus. It’s a refreshing burst of flavour, perfect for spring and summertime drinking. As readers will know, traditionally, the quality of a good beer is often judged by its clarity. To achieve a clear beer, ‘finings’ are used towards the end of the brewing process, substances that are commonly made from an animal product, such as gelatine or isinglass. So, in deciding to develop our first vegan friendly beer, we faced a quandary: how can we achieve the same clarity without using the very product that would make it vegan un-friendly? Instead we took a bold decision. We decided to focus all our efforts on creating a vegan beer that tastes magnificent. We accepted that by using a different process, we would create a different product, because change is a good thing! New Dawn is unfined, naturally hazy and totally vegan. When you see a pint of New Dawn poured, don’t be put off by its cloudiness – be intrigued. You can take our word for it, it tastes great and it is available to buy now from our brewery shop in Neepsend, in bottles and kegs. Berlin Black bags gold We were delighted to bag a gold award from SIBA Beer X last month, for our Berlin Black in the Best British Strong Dark Beer category. We’ve been busy brewing up a dark storm of Berlin Black, made with Weyermann smoked malt and topped off with cold brewed coffee from our friends over at Frazers Coffee. It will be available at the end of April in bottles and kegs from our brewery shop, keep an eye out. Sheffield Brewery Co. on tour We took real ale to the masses this month, delivering a beer masterclass and revealing some of the secrets of running a microbrewery. This was part of Meadowhall’s new programme of ‘Sessions’, designed to give an insight into the many different industries and crafts that are prominent in Sheffield. Our Beer Session went well, and we had very happy punters at the end of it who had not only tasted great beer but had learnt about what makes a great beer. We’ll be running more sessions with Meadowhall over the next few months, keep an eye on our Twitter and Facebook pages for details. Claire @ Sheffield Brewery Company