An application asking for planning permission to turn the old Henderson’s Relish factory on Leavygreave Road into a pub is to be submitted after Sheffield-based company Hadfield Cawkwell Davidson were selected to design the scheme.
Keith Lilley, the Sheffield University Director of estates and facilities management, said he thought the chosen architect’s design ‘really hit the spot’ by incorporating the original house.
Pamela Freeman, managing director of Henderson’s, said: “Having the chance to be part of this project and see the building that was such an important part of our company’s history preserved and brought into public use is fantastic.”
Work on removing lean-to extensions to the building have started.
Our latest brews have included Osiris – a 4.2% New Zealand Pale Ale hopped with Green Bullet and Pacific Jade. It is clean, crisp and zesty with a smooth bitterness and notes of citrus and grapefruit – and a tweaked version of our stout utilising even more varieties of dark malt. Our latest IPA, which was dry hoped with mosaic in the conditioning tank, has started making its way out into the world and showcases the unique characteristics of the mosaic hop nicely with a big and distinctive aroma and flavour.
The collaboration brew with Abbeydale, Kelham Island, Exit 33, Blue Bee and Sheffield breweries for the Sheffield Food Festival went well (though some unnamed brewers retreated to the Fat Cat rather early in the day) and we were delighted to have representatives from the Sheffield Royal Society for the Blind along for the brew. Watching a pink elephant (the charity’s mascot) adding the aroma hops to the brew made for a slightly different Thursday afternoon at the brewery than usual! The beer – a six hop pale ale – will be available at the Sheffield Brewer’s Co-op tent at the Sheffield Food Festival at the Peace Gardens on the 28th-30th May.
Next up in the brewing plan is our Breakfast IPA collaboration with Hopjacker brewery, lots more Blonde to keep the thirsty drinkers of the Sheaf View and Blake Hotel happy and a red rye IPA when we can squeeze it in.
Follow us on twitter and Instagram @NeepsendBrewCo or find us on Facebook to keep up to date on our latest brews and news.
Gavin Martin, Neepsend Brew Co
In April the brewery was officially launched by Natascha Engel MP who exchanged calling ‘order’ as deputy speaker to taking orders behind the bar. Well over 100 members and guests enjoyed the band, Blind Badger and the buffet from Chariots kitchen, Dronfield. To finish the night in true style, one of the members fell into the river-it was very cold by the squeal that was heard…!
Beer production is now in full swing at this, member owned and volunteer run, brewery on the banks of the river Drone at Unstone.
The stock range includes the popular
Dronny Bottom Bitter (3.7%) and
Gosforth Gold (4.0%) both of which are getting repeat orders, to the stronger
Fanshawe Blonde (4.8%), the ‘fabulous’
Stubley Stout (5.2%) and the ‘splendid’ proper,
Drone Valley IPA (5.2%). Recent additions have been the seven malt
Coal Aston Porter (4.5%), a 6.4% strong pale ale and a weissbier beer in recognition of the twinned town of Sindelfingen in Wurttemberg.
Several pubs around the Three Valleys beer festival will have Drone Valley beers on offer. A chance to collect them all!
Both the Three Tuns and the Pioneer club in Dronfield will have specific bars selling a selection, for all tastes.
We continue to welcome new members and investors, many of whom are playing an active role as registered volunteers.
Jez Horton
Chair,
Drone Valley Brewery
Well, it turns out we were one step ahead of head office in deciding to survey our members! The recent survey we sent round to all the Sheffield CAMRA members had slightly different aims in that we weren’t looking at a complete review of what CAMRA is about, more trying to find out member’s opinions of our branch and how we get them more involved.
We had 145 responses, which is just under 10% of branch membership. Not as high as we would have liked but realistic for this sort of survey. However still enough for us to draw some interesting conclusions.
The initial questions showed that 30% had been to a CAMRA meeting, and 43% had been on a group social, which are higher figures than currently attend. 85% have been to the Steel City Festival at some point, 58 % always read Beer Matters and 94% will renew their membership when it’s due. All signs that the interest is there for the Sheffield Beer Scene.
The challenge now for the new committee is to look at what changes we need to implement to make the most of this interest.
A list of suggested social events showed an interest in games nights, heritage talks and pub crawls, and events are already being planned in response.
The most interesting section of the survey, and the most difficult to summarise, was the six open-ended questions at the end. Members took the opportunity to expand on their thoughts about branch meetings – what they liked/didn’t like, what would make them attend, suggestions for improvement etc.
The full report summary will be on our website shortly, but the basic message was that members want the committee to be more open about it’s activities, be more welcoming to new members and to make meetings more appealing, particularly to women and younger members. The new committee, which includes three women and at least one actual young person is keen to take all these comments on board and make Sheffield CAMRA a much more sociable organisation.
Elsewhere in this month’s
Beer Matters you’ll find information on the new committee members, including photos (sorry!), as the first part of this process. Rest assured this is only the start of what we have planned.
Finally, for all the people who did respond there was a raffle for 12 bottles of beer donated by Hop Hideout. The winner was (drum roll…) Simon Wood, seen here collecting what looks like a fabulous selection of beer.
Congratulations to Simon, and thanks again to Jules and Will at Hop Hideout for providing the prize.
The Harlequin on Nursery Street used to be known as the Manchester, named after the nearby railway line. It became the Harlequin (with a nod towards a different Harlequin pub demolished to make way for the ring road) after being relaunched as a real ale free house and has since been taken over by the current landlady Liz Aspden and Exit 33 Brewing owner Pete Roberts.
The bar features a range of around 10 real ales with the house beers provided by Exit 33, the pub also showcases all the latest Exit 33 brews as well as quality guest ales, generally from Yorkshire and the North East but sometimes beyond and the guest range is constantly changing.
The Harlequin is also considered the best pub in Sheffield for cider lovers with a range of up to 14 different ciders which get their own section of bar, look for the cider board with the current choice including descriptions. This is our branch Cider Pub of the Year.
There is also a range of craft keg and bottled beers including an international selection. The range of spirits is extensive and quality and the pub is particularly known for its range of gins with tasting events organised from time to time.
Whatever your choice of tipple, the staff are knowledgeable, the quality is always there and the prices reasonable.
A popular quiz is hosted on Wednesdays, a varied programme of events take place on Thursday nights and music features on Friday and Saturdays with rock bands normally dominating the Saturday slot.
Food is served lunchtimes and evenings every day with a menu of freshly prepared meals, snacks and sandwiches. The £3 sandwich meal deal (includes crisps and soft drink) offered on Monday and Tuesday lunchtimes is popular with nearby office workers and the Sunday roasts are popular with all! There is also an upstairs function room available to hire with catering for private events.
The Harlequin is a short walk from the City Centre or Kelham Island, it also has a bus stop right outside the pub served by routes 3, 7 and 8.
A survey of the membership nationally has been launched to find out what members think the campaign’s future direction should be.
Some argue that the Campaign for Real Ale has been won – there is plenty of choice of beer out there now and an ever growing number of breweries producing it. Some also argue that CAMRA should be embracing all good beer not just real ale – the ‘craft keg’ wasn’t about in the 1970s when CAMRA began – back then keg was all about cutting back quality in favour of profit and efficiency and the tradition of quality, fresh, cask conditioned beer was in danger of being lost.
If the campaign is won then the question is what do we focus on – at the moment the big issues are pub closures, the way some pub owning companies operate and taxation on beer and cider – should CAMRA change it’s name to reflect the new issues and focus?
On the other hand should CAMRA simply be happy to be a successful consumer campaign with a record membership taking on whatever issues happen to be relevant?
The survey, which closed at the end of April is simply the beginning of the revitalisation project which is designed to reinvigorate the organisation and re-enthuse the membership to get involved volunteering, the project is a three year one with the first report following the survey to be at next years national AGM & Members Weekend in Bournemouth.
Following the branch AGM in early April there are some changes to people and roles on the committee.
The new committee for 2016/17 is led by a new Chair – Kate Major – who joined us as secretary last year.
Other committee members include Tony Kennick, Paul Croft, Mark Boardley, Andy Cullen, Sarah Mills, Louise Singleton, Dave Pickersgill, Alan Gibbons and Richard Short.
More next month once individual roles have been appointed.
The Milestone at Crystal Peaks is under the new management of Karlos Seery, who previously ran the Boundary in South Normanton. This Marstons pub has been refurbished, serves good value food and a range of real ales. There is also regular live music with bands on a Saturday night and a jam night on Wednesdays. The pub is located alongside Crystal Peaks bus station and just a few minutes walk from the tram stop.
The Ball Inn at Crookes is to close for 10 days in May for a refurbishment.
The Riverside on Mowbray Street, which is now owned by True North Brewery, closed briefly for a refurbishment. This also saw the end of the Twisted Burger franchise there with a new food offering in its place. At the time of writing it was a temporary reduced menu of pies and snacks with the proper menu about to be launched – see their new website for the latest – www.riversidesheffield.co.uk.
For those missing Twisted Burger at the Riverside you can still get you fix up at the Harley, where a new menu has recently been launched.
The Three Valleys Festival takes place on Saturday 4th June with 17 venues all holding mini beer festivals and a free bus service from Dronfield railway station calling at all the venues every 15-30 minutes. You can hop on and off to try the different beers, food and entertainment offered by each venue. The buses operate from midday until 9pm.
Here is the latest news on the plans of each venue.
Barlow Brewery, Barlow
Live music, Brewery bar, Sausage sandwiches and burgers by Moss Valley Fine Meats
Dronfield Arms, Dronfield
4 bars will be in operation on festival day with a total of 25 real ales and 7 craft keg beers: pub bar: 7 cask ales and 3 craft keg beers; Decking bar: 6 cask ales; Gravity bar: 12; cask ales; Caravan bar: 4 craft keg beers. There will also be food, live music throughout the afternoon, a disco in the evening and an auction.
Horse & Jockey, Unstone
Live music throughout the afternoon and evening, food and beer.
Manor House Hotel, Dronfield
MUSIC from the superb Sam Wain Piano: Rock n roll, boogie-woogie & Jazz. Starting at 4pm & playing all day til 8.30! (with a few breaks!). BEER: in association with Abbeydale Brewery, a real ale marquee serving ONLY cask ale. Our 8 selections will be posted in due course. Our main bar inside is open as per normal. FOOD: Once again the ‘I ❤ Ostrich’ guys will be serving their quality street food… Special hotel room rates available for festival goers, however book early as they tend to fill up quickly!
Miners Arms, Hundall
As Dronfield CAMRA Pub of the Year 2016 & Cider Pub of the Year 2015 you can expect an amazing range of beers & real ciders at the Miners! Our inside bar will be taken over by the legendary Pictish Brewery, Rochdale. Outside you will find at least 20 real ciders, Perry & fruit ciders – plus 15-20 (tbc) Gravity real ales from breweries such as: Titanic, Arbor, Saltaire, Drone Valley, Siren to name a few! Food will once again be provided by Delilicious, Dronfield with their fabulous Gourmet burger menu! Music in the garden from The Score, Russ & Andy & Junkyard Dog will really get you in festival mode!
The Talbot
There will be a Fish n Chip van on the day, provided by Dodsons, who won the 2015 National Fish n Chip Awards. We will be showcasing ales from Peak Ales with a mobile hand pump bar this year. Live music: 2pm – Rattled. They play 50s 60s 70s and the odd modern day song – The Who, Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Eagles, Johny Cash, Fleetwood Mac, Amy Winehouse plus more. Live music: Evening – G-Men.
Yew Tree, Coal Aston
All the daytime action will be outside in the car park with live music: Rooster will be playing Rock/pop/Blues 2 till 3.30, Nutty Boys 4 Till 6, Rooster then going to do last set 6 till 7. Burger van and outside cask ale bar until 7pm. Pub bar inside open as usual in the evening.
Sentinel’s brewhouse bar opened on 11th April at 178 Shoreham Street and has been opening each evening at 5pm since to serve a range of cask and keg Sentinel beers from the initial cuckoo brewed range.
The brew kit was scheduled to be delivered on Friday 22nd April and installed over the following week.
Once the full set up is complete, the venue will open all day serving food (starting with breakfasts and coffee from 8am) and beer, including guest ales, with some of the beer brewed on the premises poured direct from the conditioning tank. There will also be space to hire for private events.
More at
sentinelbrewing.co.
