Annual Beer Census
Annual Beer Census – Sat 3rd September 2016
As many of you will be aware, Sheffield CAMRA organises an annual city-wide survey to collect information on which beers are available in the city on a particular day. We have been doing this for a few years now, and we are pleased to say that despite various claims from other cities such as Norwich, Derby and Nottingham, the information on the number of beers on sale usually shows that Sheffield can rightly claim to be Beer Capital of the UK.
This claim was given further weight after the findings of the recent Beer Report, commissioned by Sheffield University and written by well-known beer writer Pete Brown.
It is now time to undertake the census again, and we are looking to enlist more volunteers to help collect the information. There are several daytime crawls, starting in various suburbs and working into the centre, followed by a number of city centre crawls in the evening. Each crawl will be led by a designated leader who will have the survey forms and a planned route through the various pubs.
Daytime crawls will start at 12 noon, and eventually arrive at the Red Deer on Pitt street by early evening to hand in the completed forms. Evening crawls then start from the Red Deer moving out through the center and regrouping in the Kelham Island area. The crawls are a sociable way to try different pubs and pubs from your usuals, as well as helping to further the beer scene in Sheffield. Mot of the routes will involve public transport t some point, but your route leader will have details and can advise on costs etc.
If you would like to join on one of the crawls simply be at the start point for midday and look out for someone carrying survey forms, and a copy of Beer Matters. If you can’t make the start, simply email us at social@sheffieldcamra.org.uk and we will pass on the mobile number of the appropriate leader so you can arrange directly with them where you can meet up.
If you are unable to join on a crawl , but would still like to help with collecting information, we will have an interactive survey section on the Sheffield CAMRA website where you will be able to enter details on the day. It will be updated in real time so you will be able to see which pubs still need surveying. We will need the name of the pub, and then for each cask ale on sale that day we need the name of the beer; the brewery; % strength; and price of a pint. There will be a Notes section where you can add if the pub serves real cider and keg beer.
It would be great to see a few more faces on the crawls, and even better if we can prove yet again that Sheffield is unrivalled in it’s range and quality of beer on sale.
Route A – Dore, Totley, Millhouses, Broadfield – Leader, Andy Cullen. Meet at Devonshire Arms, Dore (bus 81 or M17).
Route B – Norton Lees, Woodseats, Heeley, London Rd – Leader, Matt Nedved. Meet at Cross Scythes, Derbyshire Lane (bus 18)
Route C – Banner Cross, Hunters Bar, Ecclesall Rd – Leader, Patrick Johnson, Meet at Banner Cross Hotel, Ecclesall Rd Sth (bus 88)
Route D – Deepcar, Wadsley, Hillsborough and Bradfield – Leader TBA. Meeting point Royal Oak (bus SL1 or 57)
Route E – Chapeltown, Burncross, Meadowhall, Attercliffe – Leader TBA, Meeting Point TBA
Route F – Walkley, Commonside, Crookes, Broomhill – Leader Paul Crofts. Meeting at Walkley Cottage (bus 95).
Route G – Lodge Moor, Crosspool, Ranmoor – Leader John Beardshaw. Meet at Three Merry Lads (bus 51).
Routes H, I, J – City Centre afternoon – Leaders John Bratley + others. Meet at Sheffield Tap
Routes K, L, M – City Centre evening – Leaders TBA, Meet at Red Deer 7pm
Paul Crofts
97–117 Norfolk Street (including the Brown Bear) was grade II listed in 1972. It was built late 1700’s to 1875, predating most of the buildings in the surrounding area (which include the Town Hall). There has been a pub on the site for over 200 years. It was probably named after the bear baiting pit which was in the botanical gardens. The pit closed in the 1870s when a curious child got too near and was killed by the two resident bears.
In the 1920’s, the Brown Bear had a game called ” bumble puppy, ” a version of the centuries old game of ‘Trou Madame,’ which is still played in Belgium and France. Played on a raised board, balls were rolled down a sloping top towards nine numbered arches.
The Brown Bear was bought by Sheffield Corporation in the 1930’s. The pub survived the Sheffield blitz and planners in the 50s and 60s. In 1981, when the lease was up for renewal, a stipulation was included that the character of the pub could not be altered. The winning bidder was John Smiths who had been lease holders since 1955. The pub was in the first CAMRA Good Beer Guide (1974). However, it was erroneously named, the ‘Brown Bull.’
About ten years ago, the premises were taken over by Samuel Smith. There was an extensive facelift soon after: a rare example of a typical 18th.Century Sheffield house being restored to how it used to look.
Dave Pickersgill 
And so, I decided to call it a day and pursue my other passion – making beer – which I felt, unlike music, was more likely earn me more of a crust than the pittance of royalties from music streaming service such as Spotify and Apple Music.
You’ll probably appreciate the irony then, that over the last ten years I’ve had little exposure to my music over the airwaves, and yet, seemingly within ten minutes of word getting out about Emmanuales, a researcher from Songs of Praise phones me to discuss putting ‘the Christian brewer with the Jesus beer’ on BBC One.
Emmanuales, which is now brewed at and as part of The Sheffield Brewery Company, will feature on BBC’s Songs of Praise program in August (transmission date TBC).
In other, less glamorous news, we have new beer hitting the shops.
A revised Jonah and the Pale makes its return this month, now brewed with more hops, yet still as smooth. In addition, we’re releasing a Rhubarb Saison (4.2%) – yet to be named, at the time of writing – to quench that thirst on a hot summer’s day, and our biggest beer yet. Four Horsemen of the Hopocalypse is a 10% Quadruple hopped with Chinook, Saaz, and Ahtanhum.
Keep a look out in August for more Oh Hoppy Day, Nothing But The Blood – a Blood Orange IPA (see what we did there!), and our Black IPA, Midnight Mass, making its first 2016 return.
For more details visit 
Over the next five years I produced three batches in all, including the winning beers. Batch 1, which we brewed and matured at the Hall, was packaged into 500ml bottles and labelled as ‘Sour Brown’. This beer was really well received and went down brilliantly. No-one else in the UK had really produced a successful American-style Sour Brown and it was a real leap forward. But personally, I felt there was scope for improvement, as by the time we had bottled it, I had learnt a huge amount about the process. Each time I learnt something new and changed something, I wrote it down, whether it be the EBU, the storage temperature, the timing and pitching rates of the bacteria and wild yeasts, how often we topped up the barrels, how much fruit, what type of fruit, how much residual extract to leave, the humidity of the room…the list of details that affect the final product is endless. Records for making barrel aged beers are so important as you don’t really get to know what the effect was of a subtle change until up to a year later, so we were fastidious about this.
I think what was really key though was the blending. Prior to packaging, we did numerous blends to get it right. There were some barrels which were really funky and I think on their own, they would have been picked out as having faults and only desirable by the real sour connoisseur. However, blended back, they really gave the overall beer an edge; they were like the magic dust sprinkled over the blend! We also blended back some barrels from the second batch which were a bit less sour, which reigned in the final blend and improved drinkability. It would be wrong to think I achieved this all by reading books and trial and error. I also had a lot of communication with Vinnie Cilurzo from Russian River, who really helped me out with so many of the questions I had. I think anyone who has had the pleasure of his company, or even just tasted his sour beer range, can vouch for the fact he is an inspiration.
Back to the World Beer Cup. After three days of judging, I decided to move on to check out Sierra Nevada’s new brewing facility, which was simply out of this world in every respect. To get back from Asheville, it was two flights back to NYC and I didn’t really want to travel back for the awards ceremony in Philly. Although I was hopeful we had maybe won an award, I didn’t really hold out too much hope owing to the sheer volume and quality of competition. I think there were entries from 1907 breweries from 55 countries this year and in the barrel aged sour beer category there were something like 120 entries. So to actually get the call from my old mate Caolan, while sat in the airport waiting to return to England, that we had won gold and silver in one of the toughest categories, just blew me away! I did have an inkling it was a good beer and sent a few bottles to friends a month before, who were all pretty damn good brewers, but had heard nothing back, so I was assuming that they were being polite by not saying anything! I also had a visiting Lambic blender comment when tasting one of the barrels that he thought the beer had gone too acetic. Although he didn’t brew a Flanders style, it still sowed a seed of doubt in my mind.
It’s pretty common as a craft brewer gets bigger and more successful that a certain crowd can criticise you for being no longer being craft or that your beers weren’t what they were. So you must forgive me for having a little chuckle to myself, knowing we cleaned up in the probably the hottest beer category for hipsters! We sold out of the first small bottling run of both beers with most going overseas, but we have bottled more of the same batches now so you can get your hands on it very soon.
Rob Lovatt, Head Brewer