Andy Cullen – Page 67 – CAMRA Sheffield & District

CAMRA’s Yorkshire Pub of the Year award

Posted on 14 Sep 201618 Sep 2016 by Andy Cullen

The George & Dragon, Hudswell, North Yorkshire, has been named CAMRA’S ‘Yorkshire Pub of the Year 2016’. The pub is located 3 miles west of Richmond, on the border of the beautiful Yorkshire Dales. It is owned by Hudswell Community Pub Limited, which was formed in 2010 to buy, refurbish, and re-open the only pub in the village. It has achieved this and gone on to develop the pub as a hub for a wide range of activities and services. Stuart Miller has been running the pub since 28th July 2014. He is supported by an excellent team including his father Keith and his brother Sam, who are both outstanding chefs. It is described in the new CAMRA Good Beer Guide 2017 as: “At the heart of the village, this homely multi-roomed country inn has a large beer terrace offering fantastic panoramic views over the Swale Valley.” Copper Dragon Best Bitter and Rudgate Ruby Mild, are the beers that are available on a regular basis. Three regularly changing guest beers, sourced mainly from within the Yorkshire region, are also always available. To celebrate the pub’s first appearance in the Good Beer Guide since it reopened, a regional launch of the Good Geer Guide 2017 will be held in the pub tomorrow (15th). CAMRA National Director and George & Dragon shareholder Ken Davie will be available for interviews in the pub from 1pm onwards. The Runner-up in the competition was The Sportsman in Huddersfield, which is run by John Fletcher. The pub is owned by Beerhouses; a small Dewsbury based pub group that owns five pubs. It is described in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide 2017 as: “This 1930s pub has won a CAMRA English Heritage Conservation Pub design award. Eight handpumps include one serving a Mallinson’s beer.” CAMRA’s Yorkshire Regional Director, Kevin Keaveny, said “The results of this year’s competition highlight the success that can be achieved by an enthusiastic community company and a small wellmanaged pub group.” The licensee of the George & Dragon will be presented with a framed certificate at 2.00 pm on Saturday 19th November by Kevin Keaveny, CAMRA’s Regional Director. The licensee of The Sportsman will be presented with a framed certificate at 2.00 pm on Saturday 12th November by Peter Goddard, CAMRA’s Deputy Regional Director. The eighteen nominations for this year’s prestigious title were visited by individual members of a judging panel over a four month period. Each nomination was scored against strict criteria that included an emphasis on the Quality and Choice of Real Ale, Style/Decor, and Service and Value. THE FINALISTS Barnsley – Crown, Elsecar Bradford – Hop, Saltaire Cleveland – Downe Arms, Castleton Darlington – Crown Inn, Manfield Doncaster – Doncaster Brewery Tap, Doncaster Halifax & Calderdale – Firehouse, Sowerby Bridge Harrogate – 10 Devonshire Place, Harrogate Heavy Woollen – New Inn, Roberttown Huddersfield – Sportsman, Huddersfield Hull & East Yorkshire – Butcher’s Dog, Driffield Keighley & Craven – Talbot Arms, Settle Leeds – Kirkstall Bridge Inn, Kirkstall North West Yorkshire – George & Dragon, Hudswell Rotherham – Beehive, Harthill Scarborough – Sun Inn, Pickering Sheffield – Kelham Island Tavern, Sheffield Wakefield – Robin Hood, Altofts York – Rook & Gaskill, York

SIBA North East Winners

Posted on 14 Sep 2016 by Andy Cullen

The SIBA (Society of Independent Brewers) judged their North East regional beer competition at the York CAMRA beer festival in September, with the winners going forward to the national final held at BeerX in Sheffield next March. Three breweries from our area came away with bronze awards in various categories with Sheffield Brewery Company’s Sheffield Porter, Geeves Brewery’s Captain Gingerbread and Acorn’s Darkness Mild being the award winning beers. Talking of BeerX, this event which consists of a national conference, trade show and public beer festival is back at Ice Sheffield from 17th to 19th March and will have a new conference attached called ‘Beer Now’ which is all about marketing, tourism and communication in the beer industry. Hopefully Sheffield will benefit from some beer tourism with lots of people visiting for BeerX, Beer Now and Sheffield Beer Week and enjoying our great beer scene.

Bradfield Brewery

Posted on 14 Sep 201614 Sep 2016 by Andy Cullen

Brews News – this year’s seasonal line up from Bradfield Brewery sees the return of Jack O’ Lantern Ale. A spooktacular brew with no unwelcome surprises, this traditional dark amber coloured ale offers a 4.5% abv and a sharp dry aftertaste. November seeks to remember the fallen with a sensitive creation, 10pence from every pint sold of Farmers Poppy Ale is donated to the Royal British Legion. This light coloured fruity ale is one to remember for the 11^th November. And dare we speak of the festive season??………the Holidays are surely coming and with them, so will Farmers Belgian Blue. For those that simply cannot wait until November for a taste of the finest, Belgian Blue will be putting in a guest appearance at this year’s Sheffield Beer Festival – 19-22^nd October at Kelham Island Museum. Charity News – St Luke’s Tractor Rally 2016, supported by Bradfield Brewery, raised a moderate £6209.82 for St Lukes Cancer Charity. The Rally saw over 70 tractors make their way through Stannington, Storrs, Dungworth, Bradfield, Broomhead, over the hills and finishing at the Brewery Tap, The Nags Head at Loxley where a charity auction was held, fuelled up with a pint of Farmers Red Diesel. Sticking with the auction theme, Bradfield Brewery are holding their annual Harvest Auction at the Brewery Tap, the Nags Head on Saturday 1^st October. Kicking off at 7:30pm with performances from Bolsterstone Male Voice Choir, the event promises to be an evening full of auction comedy and bargains! The Farmers Ales will be flowing in accordance!

Acorn Brewery

Posted on 13 Sep 201613 Sep 2016 by Andy Cullen

Teenage Kicks The team down at Wombwell have just celebrated their 13^th birthday. It was 4th July 2003 when Dave Hughes and Steve Bunting brewed their first gyle of the multi award winning Barnsley Bitter. The boys have recently passed their 2500th gyle of all brews. The brewery is starting life as a teenager on a real high with around £40,000 of new investment, which proves the point that it’s costs a fortune to keep a teenager happy! They’re about to increase their storage capacity with the introduction of a new mezzanine level, as well as improving and increasing the office space for the hard working sales staff. Barnsley Bitter and Barnsley Gold have been picked out by a national pub company so that the traditional chestnut bitter and the premium golden ale will be seen in pubs the length and breadth of the land for the next few months. On the bottle front, a pallet of Yorkshire Pride was recently delivered to Southampton to board the P&O cruise ship Britannia. Clearly the lucky passengers will be looking to celebrate Yorkshire Day in style in some far flung part of the planet. The Old No7 in Barnsley is preparing for it’s Summer Beer festival starting on Thursday 28^th July and going through to Sunday 31st. No doubt a great time will be had by all (again) with beers featuring from across the country. All the Acorn seasonals will feature including: Hopthathlon (4.5%) A golden coloured beer with a hop kick on an Olympic scale. The latest single hopped IPA uses English Flyer (5%) hops producing a rich golden IPA with caramel, liquorice & toffee notes. Finally Summer Pale (4.1%) is out again and being enjoyed in bars and pubs across the region, it’s a shame the same can’t be said about the British Summer Sunshine.

Abbeydale Brewery

Posted on 12 Sep 201612 Sep 2016 by Andy Cullen

SO MANY exciting new brews to share with you this month! First up, our friends at Opus Independents are hosting the Autumn Season of the Festival of Debate. And so following on from Spring’s Why Not Give A Toss?, we’ve got Why Not Give More Of A Toss? coming out, a 4% session pale ale brewed with Motueka, Cascade and Pacific Jade hops for a well-rounded, eminently quaffable brew with floral and spicy notes. Plus, an OUTRAGEOUSLY pink pump clip, so definitely no missing that one on the bar!

Doctor Morton’s been busy cooking up Mandarin Claw of Death (4.1%), featuring Mandarina Bavaria and Amarillo hops for a veritable burst of citrussy flavour – “not suitable for ducks”! We’ll also have a stout out towards the middle of the month, name and details as yet TBC but it promises to be a luscious and full bodied autumnal treat.

With all the festivities of the season coming up, we’ve got two spooky brews to be out ready for Halloween – the return of Evil (4.6%) and a brand new collaboration with BrewDog Sheffield. Brewed for their annual CollabFest, Iced Tea Dead People is a 4.6% iced tea beer using peach-infused Sencha tea from Birdhouse Tea Co. and a plethora of fresh peaches, to be available in both cask and keg.

Finally, for something a bit cheerier to combat all this talk of Halloween naughtiness, the next in our Beer Heads series will be out right at the end of the month. Our new pal Frolicker will be a 3.8% Sorachi Ace session IPA, promising tantalising flavours of lemon and coconut.

Champs Sports Bar – Ecclesall Road

Posted on 11 Sep 2016 by Andy Cullen

The team at Champs Sports Bar in Sheffield is celebrating after being shortlisted as a national finalist in the Great British Pub Awards for the Second year running. Licensee Danny Grayson has been recognised as one of only five finalists in the Best Student Bar and Best Sports Bar categories and will go on to compete in the national awards which take place in London in October. Champs on Ecclesall Road opened in August 2012 following a joint £500,000 investment with Punch Taverns, which transformed the former Pomona into a cool and contemporary sports bar, With 31 large TV screens showing high profile sports all day every day, from Premiership football matches to horse racing and superbikes, Champs is a sports lover’s dream. The modern and welcoming interior, complete with a wide range of sporting memorabilia including a full-size motorbike (which proves very popular with our Student customers) gives it a real edge over other venues. Licensee Danny Grayson said: “I could see the potential with Champs and its History on Ecclesall road dating back to 1996, Champs Sports Bar taps into our fascination with sports and thanks to a creative approach and a focus on standards, we’ve created a winning concept. But, Champs is much more than that; it’s at the heart of our Student community, sponsoring Student football teams and creating a space where Students can come together and enjoy the match or just relax.” The sports interior is complemented with a strong food and drink offer, based on good quality and value for money. With a striking American grill theme, the menu includes favourites from American Ribs to Build A Burger and the Kamikaze Wing Challenge. All of the bar’s the food is from local suppliers and cooked fresh on the premises. Commenting on the recognition, Danny Grayson said: “The team have worked extremely hard to create this successful venue. It’s not just about the sports; it’s about the staff, all of whom are highly motivated and passionate about customer care and it’s about the customers – a winning combination in anyone’s book! Let’s hope we bring home the trophy.” Danny Grayson.

Which are your personal champion beers?

Posted on 11 Sep 201611 Sep 2016 by Andy Cullen

The 2018 Champion Beer of Britain competition has now begun (yes the process takes over a year!) and this is an opportunity for all local CAMRA members to have their input into which beers from our region are nominated to be entered into the competition. Once entered into the competition the beers are judged in local, regional and national knockout blind tasting events held at various beer festivals until the finalists are judged at the Great British Beer Festival in August. So, its time to vote for the beers brewed in our region that you think are the best. Those memorable beers where the taste, aroma and more all come together to deliver enjoyment every time, perfection and pleasure in a glass! You are asked to pick your top 5 regularly brewed beers in each of the following style: Mild, Bitter, Best Bitter, Strong Bitter, Golden Ales, Speciality beers, Old Ales & Strong Milds, Porters, Stouts, Barley Wines & Strong Old Ales and Real Ale in a Bottle. Sheffield & District CAMRA members are invite to vote in two regions – Yorkshire & North East and East Midlands – due to the geography of our branch area. Vote by logging in to www.cbobvoting.org.uk with your membership number and CAMRA website password (if you haven’t yet got a password, log in to www.camra.org.uk with your postcode as your default password and change your password). The last time a beer from our branch area won Champion Beer of Britain was in 2004 when Kelham Island Pale Rider was the winner. The deadline for voting is 1st November.

Inn Brief

Posted on 11 Sep 201621 Sep 2016 by Andy Cullen

The Original Bierkeller on West Street have installed two handpumps on the smaller of the two bars in the venue with beer from Stancill available. The Graduate and the Globe have both benefited from a refurbishment, real ale continues to be available at both. The former Varsity bar on West Street, which had been closed for a while, has now reopened in the new guise of ‘Bar and Beyond‘ offering craft beer, cocktails and street food in the early evening before morphing into a nightclub with djs entertaining until the early hours. Anchorage in West One Plaza (off West Street) is no more – following a refurbishment it is now the Hope & Anchor. The Old Crown on London Road is now under the management of Reet Ale Pubs, who also run the Rutland Arms, Three Tuns, Closed Shop and Reet Pizza at the Punchbowl as well as own Blue Bee Brewery. Following a soft opening, a launch party is due to take place on 28th September. As well as real ale and cider, the Old Crown has a pool table, simple food offering and regular live music. Another Reet Ale pub, the Punchbowl at Crookes, has had a minor refurbishment to improve the seating and add a fireplace to make it feel more pub like. The Shiny Sheff near Lodge Moor has been bought by Marstons Brewery and is to undergo a refurbishment. The Place at Broomhill is to be refurbished and renamed ‘Bloomery‘, apparantly a steel making reference. The Porter Brook on Ecclesall Road has undergone something of a makeover. The Stocks and Greyhound in Ecclesfield and Carbrook Hall in Carbrook have all recently introduced real ale to the bar. The Alehouse on Fraser Road in Millhouses is under new ownership and all are welcome. The pub offers a range of reasonably priced real ales, home cooked food also features at tea time. The Harley Hotel is offering discounts on real ale to tram ticket holders as part of Stagecoach Supertram’s Tramendous deals scheme. A couple of bits of people news – from the Three Tuns and Shakespeare’s – Kate Major and Chris Bamford have both left their managers roles in the respective pubs, we wish them all the best for their new projects. There are stirrings again at the Boardwalk… watch this space for further news! A correspondent who is a regular at the Forest on Rutland Road emailed following last month’s PUBlic transport feature which listed all the real ale outlets along the section of tram route and 7/8 bus route in that part of the Upper Don Valley and asked we point out that the Forest is so much more than just the Toolmakers brewery tap – there is also open mic’ night’s, quiz’s, live entertainment, Sunday lunches, a choice of guest beers and a soon to be opened new sun terrace. JD Wetherspoons are running one of their regular real ale festivals from 12th to 23rd October. Sheffield pubs include the Bankers Draft at Castle Square, Benjamin Huntsman and Waterworks by the City Hall, Francis Newton by the Hallamshire Hospital, Rawson Spring at Hillsborough tram stop, Sheaf Island on Ecclesall Road, Woodseats Palace at Woodseats and the Steel Foundry at Meadowhall. True North Brewery are due to open the Blue Stoops in Dronfield this October – check their website – bluestoops.co.uk – for the latest news. Expect real ale, craft beer, gin and food. Buses 43/43a will get you there from Sheffield. The Chequers at Coal Aston has reopened as a Greene King Hungry Horse pub. The Inn at Troway is due to reopen early October. Planning permission has been granted to build a house on the rear car park of the George & Dragon in Holmesfield. Meanwhile over the road the Angel continues to provide Gluten Free beer and food options. The Peacock at Barlow is due to reopen in its new guise at the end of September and there are plans to add a microbrewery in an outbuilding, hopefully later this year. Further down the road at Whittington Moor in Chesterfield, the former Rose & Crown opposite the football stadium has reopened following a major refurbishment as ‘Spireites free house‘ with a range of 6 real ales – Hopjacker beers plus guests. It is under the same ownership as the Dronfield Arms. Buses 43, 44, 50, 50a and X17 from Sheffield all stop pretty much outside the pub. The Old Hall Hotel at Hope now has live music in the bar most Friday evenings, once the restaurant has finished service at 9pm.

Our 42nd annual Steel City Beer & Cider Festival – 19th to 22nd October

Posted on 11 Sep 2016 by Andy Cullen

New Keg Bar for Steel City Beer & Cider Festival This year’s festival will see an important addition to the beer offering. A keg bar is being installed for the first time at the festival to showcase CAMRA-approved cask-conditioned KeyKeg beers. Several local brewers have been producing keg beers that fall within CAMRA’s definition of Real Ale and we are pleased that we now have the means of offering them to our visitors. All the equipment for the bar is being kindly provided by Abbeydale Brewery and will be sited in an additional room made available to us by the Kelham Island Museum. 12 different keg beers will be on sale and we are delighted that we are able to include this popular development within the UK brewing scene in our festival. The whole subject of Keykeg beers has been a controversial one for some time from CAMRA’s point of view, but now that approval has been given for cask-conditioned keg beers, we can showcase some of the excellent beers available, showing a different side to modern brewing. FESTIVAL TIME! By the time you get this copy of Beer Matters the Steel City Beer & Cider Festival will be just a few weeks away. So here’s a last quick rundown of what all you eager visitors can expect. Over 300 Beers & Ciders Why not visit our website to look at the full beer and cider list to see what beery delights are available to try. Several brewers have produced one-off specials for the festival. New KeyKeg bar Don’t faint! This year sees the introduction of a KeyKeg bar offering CAMRA-approved cask-conditioned KeyKeg beers. This will be in our new extra room downstairs. International Bottle Bars You can also try a range of International bottled beers if your tastes run further afield. With a bottle bar in each of the main rooms, you don’t need to leave your friends to get that extra-strong belgian sour you’ve been thinking about. Fancy Dress Friday Volunteer types will already know that Friday night is fancy dress night, but customers are encouraged to come in fancy dress too. There’s no prizes, but a good chance your photo might end up in Beer Matters. This year’s theme is Sci-FI so we’re expecting some interesting costumes. Kelham Island Museum For the third year running the festival is taking place at the atmospheric and hugely popular Kelham Island Museum. The Museum will be running their famous Steam Engine at 6pm and 8pm on Friday. Live Music The upstairs room will be featuring great live bands in the evenings, and the Loxley Silver Brass Band on Saturday Afternoon. Thursday night is soul band The Basement, Friday night is rock’n’roll with Vegas 6, and rockabilly outfit The Slingshots round things off Saturday night. Food Stalls Festival regulars will know that we have a great selection of hot food, and this year is no exception, with several stalls returning once again. If you want more details on the festival, please visit sheffield.camra.org.uk/festival. (For anyone who spotted the subliminal message in the above article, well done! Visit the website, then click on “Get Involved” to claim your prize!) VOLUNTEERS STILL WANTED If you’ve been thinking of volunteering, but haven’t got round to it, the good news is that there’s still time. Just head over to sheffield.camra.org.uk/festival and click on Get Involved to offer your services. Don’t worry if you don’t have any experience of working at a festival, we’ll find something nice and simple to ease you into it. Don’t forget that you’ll get free beer tokens, a free festival t-shirt (although numbers are limited so best be quick), and a volunteers trip out to a Manchester brewery and later in the year. If you’re still not sure about anything you can always email members of the committee directly to ask any questions you might have. And… we’ve said it before but it really is true…the biggest benefit to volunteering is that you’ll have the satisfaction of being part of the team that delivers another successful festival.

Neepsend Brew Co

Posted on 10 Sep 201610 Sep 2016 by Andy Cullen

We’ve been busily brewing new beers over the last month here at Neepsend. First up was Hop Rocket IPA – a bold and seriously hoppy Red Rye IPA brewed with Australian Galaxy and Topaz hops. The beer was the winning entry from a competition held at the Sheaf View and Blake Hotel for customers to submit ideas for a beer and the winning entrants, Victoria and Jay, came and helped out (read: did all the hard work and dug out he mash tun!) on the brew day.

Sharpshoter, another new beer, is a 4.7% NZ Pale hopped with fabulous Nelson Sauvin and Pacific Jade hops. It’s dry, sharp and crisp with distinctive fruity white wine notes from the Nelson Sauvin and has flown out and been very well received.

Undine, a 4.2% Oatmeal pale ale hoped with Sorachi Ace and Calypso is making it’s way out into pubs. Expect smoothness and body from the oats and coconut, lemon and pear notes from the hops. Next up will be a (rare for us) return to a beer we’ve brewed before: Triton, a 4.5% pale ale triple hopped with Citra. Cascade and Chinook and this time round with added dry hops. Following that, look out for something tasty using the Mosaic hops we’ve been saving for a rainy day… Cheers, Gavin