Earlier this year Punch taverns sold the Carbrook Hall and it closed on the Monday 20 February. It did not close because it wasn’t making money. It closed because it wasn’t making enough for Punch Taverns.
The Carbrook Hall was a thriving pub. Not all the time, not everyday, and it wasn’t to all tastes – what pub ever is? It struggled to make itself heard and visited: trapped by the ring road and hemmed in by modern industrial units and remnants of our Victorian steelmaking past.
But it was viable as a business and it catered for any number of pub goers as the application for Asset of Community Value application that I made jointly with Sheffield CAMRA makes clear.
I collected the evidence for this so I know that the Carbrook Hall made a virtue out of it’s location, and it’s community was friendship groups from all over the city who kept coming back, local workers and people interested in local history or status as ‘most haunted pub’.
On weekdays it offered lunches for Santander Bank telephone call and internet banking support workers next door and staff in nearby businesses and workers from local light industry. Users of Hollywood Bowl bowling alley, and from the internationally famous steel wire rope manufacturer Gripple came in, from Forgemasters and from businesses based at Meadowhall Shopping Centre. It was used by shoppers and staff after work or on lunch breaks from Meadowhall retail park, from Aldi, Currys, PC World, The Range, B and M Bargains and Iceland warehouse.
Staff from the MacDonalds restaurant over the road held meetings here. Visitors on courses, attending conferences and on holiday in Sheffield staying at the Premier Inn by Sheffield Arena often came down and praised it as a ‘proper pub’.
The Steel City Riders motorcycle group met at the pub and recently raised funds through a charity bike ride to support Kasabian Newton Smith, aged eight, a little Sheffield boy who lost his fight against cancer in December 2016.
Two Sheffield based ice hockey teams made it their base and staff from Forces Support Limited, a military bereavement charity based on Carbrook Hall Road close by used the pub on a regular basis.
Everyone spoke warmly of how inclusive it was: “a caring place. It looks after its customers, the kind of place where people talk to each other”. Michelle and family worked hard in the last 18 months to keep the place going in the face of pub company indifference and lack of investment.
The future? To our knowledge the new owners, West Street Leisure have no experience of community pubs or listed buildings, have said “all options open’ which tells us nothing except they either don’t know what they want to do or want to keep their plans secret.
Neither are acceptable for the Carbrook. But thanks to the ACV submitted a few days before it closed I may not be talking about it as though it was the past tense. There is a glimmer here. The Carbrook Hall may live again, hopefully in the hands of a brewer – a local brewer? and a community interest group who care for its history and the communities that use it. Lobby the politicians: the local councillors and MPs, gather evidence on use and keep an eye on your local – it could be next.
Brian Holmshaw – Sheaf Valley Heritage 
Stateside Pale makes a return to the brewery’s listing in time for spring. The 5% pale ale is loaded with Chinook, Simcoe and Mosaic hops and is dry hopped in fermentation with Amarillo.
A new Special called Cookie Monster has just been released dubbed a Chocolate Cookie Vanilla Porter. ‘We made this with some ingredients you would find in a cookie including toasted wheat and oats with dark Munich malt to add a sweet balance. Chocolate malt is boosted by the addition of buckets full of organic cocoa nibs which we toasted ourselves in the ovens at the Harlequin pub. Fresh Madagascan vanilla pods are added to the cask to give a real depth of flavour.
Exit 33 are taking over bottling beer for Noodle Inn, Noodle Inn Centro and Satay Yo! Sushi restaurants. Until recently this was done by North Union Brewing. The bottled beer called Gan Bei meaning ‘Bottoms up’ is a 5% pale beer hopped with Cascade. 
1. Arbourthorne Hotel, Arbourthorne
2. Ball Inn, Darnall
3. The Boardwalk, Snig Hill, City Centre
4. The Botanical, Ecclesall Road
5. Burgoyne Arms, Langsett Road
6. Cannon Hotel, 30 Castle Street, City Centre
7. Cuthbert Bank, 164 Langsett Road
8. Fairfield, Neepsend Lane
9. Market Tavern, City Centre
10. Matilda, City Centre
11. Olde Harrow, 80 Broad Street
12. Queens Hotel, Scotland Street
13. Stockroom, Leadmill Road
14. Turf Tavern, Handsworth Road
15. Under the Boardwalk, Snig Hill, City Centre
This is not a complete list – please add others! 
A small group of Sheffield CAMRA members recently visited the Little Critters brewery at Neepsend. Head Brewer, Will Inman, currently brews three times/week on their 10 bbl plant.
As well as selling beer to the free trade, they supply their own two pubs. The widest range is available at the Fox & Duck in Broomhill where the beer is available at very reasonable prices and is popular with both students and older locals, with the top selling beer being Blonde Bear (4.2% ABV) of which the Fox & Duck gets through more than 55 gallons a week! Their other pub is the Doctors Orders, located between the University of Sheffield and Royal Hallamshire Hospital, the food service at this pub is busy with both students and hospital visitors. Note the beers here are renamed to fit the pub theme.
Little Critters also have a reputation for quality and have already won awards, for example their C Monster, a 6.5% Citrus IPA was Silver Champion at Steel City Beer Festival 42 last year.
Contract bottling, on an external site, has been utilised. However, quality control, has meant that the brewery currently hand-bottles small batches.
Little Critters are currently finding that demand is outstripping supply. Hence, despite been open for less than a year, the brewery is currently looking for a new home. They intend to stay in the same area as the water supply suits their beers.
With the popularity of their regular beers, a lot of brewing time is taken up simply keeping up with demand, however as they have just celebrated their 100th brew they did manage to get in a few specials with a Hazlenut Milk Stout recently hitting the bars and a collaboration with Hopjacker coming up ready for Sheffield Beer Week which will be lemon citrus all the way!
Thanks to Will for an interesting, and useful, visit.
Dave Pickersgill & Andrew Cullen