Emmanuales

After a couple of months brewing and becoming accustomed to our new home down at The Sheffield Brewery Company, March and April were good months for Emmanuales. We delivered our first cask beer, Ryejoice, made with Nelson Sauvin and Simcoe hops to The Harlequin for a joint Meet the Brewer event with Exit 33 as part of Sheffield Beer Week; we appeared on BBC Radio Sheffield to talk about our beers and plans for the future; and three of our beers – Jonah and the Pale (5.0% Transatlantic Pale Ale), Ryejoice (5.4% Pale Rye) and As the Deer Pants For Porter (5.0% Smoked Porter) – finally hit bottle shops in and around Sheffield. Emmanuales Even with the increased capacity to produce our beers, demand for Emmanuales is growing all the time. Our feet are barely touching the ground with early starts brewing and late night bottling sessions, all the while currently holding down a day job. Over the course of this year, you can expect to see more events, as well as new beers. Later this year, we’ll be launching Hymns & Beer; two events – one in Sheffield and one in Oxford – with Emmanuales on tap and bearded hipster singer/songwriter Tom Read performing modern folk arrangement of timeless hymns. Also, we’re currently brewing Ex Nihilo, a Russian Imperial Stout, an American amber ale (yet to be named; suggestions on a postcard!) and conditioning something very special… Inspired by a salted caramel flapjack called Salty Jack, produced and sold by Gertie’s Cafe in Walkley, Salt of the Earth (4.8% Salted Caramel Peanut Ale) is made with oats, peanuts, and a collection of caramel malts. Not only is this beer a celebration of a divine tray-bake, but raises up a glass to the good people of Walkley, who really are the salt of the earth. Salt of the Earth, Oh Hoppy Day (6.1% IPA), Ex Nihilo and our American Amber Ale will be available in June. For more details, visit www.emmanuales.co.uk.

The Three Tuns is now an ACV! Sheffield CAMRA ACV applications – update

On 13th April, the Three Tuns became the first Sheffield pub, nominated by Sheffield & District CAMRA, to become an Asset of Community Value (ACV). Congratulations to all concerned for this notable achievement. Three Tuns [216482] We note that the official SCC response considers that the Three Tuns ‘ offers such events to encompass a large area that could conceivably encompass all of Sheffield itself. … the Property and its stated uses attract the local working community who consider the Property as their local meeting place as well as users from further afield.’ We believe that these statements are significant as it indicates that Sheffield City Council has moved away from seeing ACV status as something which only concerns the geographically-local residential community. The ‘community’ for a pub can extend for many miles – prime examples are pubs located at railway stations. For example; the Sheffield Tap ‘community’ encompasses many who live geographically distant. Sheffield CAMRA have submitted 15 applications to Sheffield CC – ten were submitted in late July 2015, nine (rejection) decisions were received just before Christmas 2015, almost 5 months since the original Applications. The 2011 Localism Act states that Council have 8 weeks to determine ACV applications. In our opinion the all our applications to SCC clearly reached the statutory test outlined by the Government and showed how the pubs furthered the social wellbeing and social interests of the community. This was confirmed by our colleagues at CAMRA HQ who compared our documentation to successful applications in other parts of the country. It was also confirmed by conversations at the recent CAMRA Members Weekend in Liverpool. At the time of writing we have had no decision for the Castle Inn (Bradway). The delay is over eight months. We believe that this delay is a record – no other council has had an application for so long and not made a decision. We have made a formal complaint to the SCC Monitoring Officer who has responded: ‘I have asked for a review to understand the cause of the delays. Changes will be made shortly to ensure the Council is meeting the statutory timescales.’ Sheffield CAMRA will be making further ACV applications to SCC in the near future. Dave Pickersgill Pub Heritage Officer, Sheffield and District CAMRA

Sheffield Brewers Co-Operative @ Sheffield Food Festival

The Sheffield Food Festival returns 28th – 30th May, and along with it Sheffield Brewer’s Co-operative Beer Tent. This year is set to be better than ever, plus we have a shiny new logo! We will be working closely with The Sheffield Royal Society for the Blind (SRSB), raising awareness and funds. SRSB “provide opportunity, support, friendship and services to blind and partially sighted people in Sheffield, helping them to achieve whatever they wish to do and whatever they aspire to be.” A very worthy cause, we’re sure you’ll agree. Come down over the weekend, show your support, say hello, and taste the Brewers Co-operatives multi-collaboration beer “6 Hop IPA” forged at Neepsend Brew Co. 10p of every pint sold will go directly to the charity. – srsb.org.uk. So what else is new… Well, we will be hosting a Meet the Brewer and Food Pairing event on the Saturday from 5pm. The Women’s Institute (WI) will be in attendance selling some homemade beery cakes and treats. And lastly to appease the fizzy beer drinkers we will have keg beer on offer from Abbeydale, and they will be revealing their brand new keg beer name and artwork! Stay tuned for further information from Kelham + Neepsend + Sheffield + Abbeydale + Exit 33 + Blue Bee Breweries or follow us on Twitter: @SheffBreweries or Facebook: Sheffield Brewer’s Co-operative For more information about Sheffield Food Festival check out the event on their Facebook page!

Abbeydale Brewery

I hope you are all planning on coming down to support the Sheffield Brewers Co-operative festival on May bank holiday weekend. Come down and say hello to us all! Onto our beery news. Firstly a few adjustments to make from last months submission.  Our yeast was a bit hungry, so our very special Double Brimstone is now at 8.1%, not at 7.8% as previously stated, and the Festival of Debate beer, Why Not Give A Toss? came out as 4.4% rather than 4.0%.  The Double Brimstone should be all in the trade by now, and if you were one of the lucky 150 people to get your hands on a bottle then brilliant! We are incredibly pleased with how it has turned out and a fitting tribute to Brimstone. Abbeydale Empress Another beer that should be hitting the bars by now, but didn’t make it into last months issue is Empress. A refreshing golden ale infused with whole lychees, a perfect summer tipple. This tropical fruit surprise is balanced with hints of lime and coconut, and finished with a cascade dry hop. New beers to shout about this month are the next in our Signature series, with our office manager, Laura’s recipe Lady Ra Ra a 4.5% vanilla and raspberry muffin beer. This is going to be both naughty and nice, with sumptuous fruity flavours with a smooth creamy finish. After all it is muffin season all year round! Abbeydale Alchemy We have the return of Alchemy, a well loved classic from the back catalogue. A full-flavoured pale and hoppy beer. Lots of fruit, especially citrus and some spiciness from the Amarillo hops. A refreshing bitter finish for ideal early summer drinking. Abbeydale Last Rites Those with good memories will remember reading a eulogy regarding Last Rites when production ceased in late 2010.  As part of the birthday series we have resurrected it and it is in fermenter as I write. The very sessionable 11% ale is tasting amazing already. This will be very scarce and in high demand I’m sure!

April Pub of the month presentation

The evening of Tuesday 12th April saw a number of regulars and CAMRA members fill the Beer House Micropub on Ecclesall Road to see former branch Chairman and Beer Matters editor present the April Pub of the Month award certificate and enjoy some of the quality beers on the bar. Beer House POTM 12Apr16 Complimentary pork scratchings and cheese sandwiches were provided on all the tables but the real attention grabber was the celebration size pork & black pudding pie which had a formal cutting and serving after the presentation took place! 2016-04-12 19.56.54 2016-04-12 21.34.17

Blue Bee Brewery

As ever we continue to brew new beers. This month sees Born in the USA 6.0% appearing on bars around Sheffield and beyond. This IPA brings together our favourite three hops at the moment: Mosaic, Citra and Equinox all from American and when combined give big tropical and citrus fruit flavours along with pine like notes.  This not the only IPA we have out this month we have Equinox IPA 5.0% too. We love this relatively new hop variety and thought we should try it in one of our single hopped IPAs, on its own Equinox gives tropical fruit and pine like flavours leading to a bitter finish.  Also Geek is back and as for the time been we have run out of Star Wars films we have gone with Wrath of Geek 4.3% (some Star Trek reference I’m told) as ever this hoppy American pale ale is packed with delicious Mosaic hops. In other news Ginger Beer 4.5% is also back this month and promises to be as fiery as ever, so be warned this is not a beer for those of you who don’t like ginger! As well as this we are on the eleventh incarnation of American 5 Hop 4.3% this time this pale ale combines: Equinox, ADHA 484, Chinook, Columbus and Willamette. May sees quite a few beery events featuring our beers including over the May Day bank holiday Sheffield Students Union Beer Festival, Barnsley Camra Beer Festival and the British Oak Beer Festival at Mosborough.  And over Spring Bank you can find our beers at the Closed Shop Beer Festival at Commonside and at the Brewers Collective Tent at Sheffield Food Festival. So there is no excuse not to try one of our beers.

Little Critters Brewery

Little Critters is based on an industrial estate near Wadsley Bridge and run by the same people as the Doctors Orders Pub near the University of Sheffield and the Fox & Duck in Broomhill, with the Doctors Orders being the place to try all their ‘beta’ brews and offer your feedback. Beers so far include Malty Python English IPA, Sleepy Badger Breakfast Stout, Flaxen Hare Blonde Ale, What Ales Ya Wheat Pale and Night Porter. The regular beers are brewed by their head brewer with some more interesting specials brewed by the guys from the Doctors Orders,

Pub news Inn Brief

old hall fireplace The Old Hall Hotel at Hope has had a small refurbishment of the lounge bar area, as part of this a long covered up inglenook fireplace has been revealed and brought back into use. The Rose & Crown at Whittington Moor, Chesterfield (opposite the football stadium on bus routes 43/44/50/50a/X17) has been owned for the last year or so by Chris Sinclair, who also owns the Dronfield Arms, since the pub company sold it off. With the departure of the established tenant, the opportunity is being taken to give it a refurbishment and add a range of real ales and craft keg lines, with some of the pumps showcasing the Hopjacker beers brewed at the Dronfield Arms. A manager is being recruited to run the pub, which is planned to close in May for the refurbishment and reopen in August, in time for the new football season. A number of Dronfield pubs have started to reveal their plans for this years Three Valleys Festival, which takes place on Saturday 4th June. The Talbot Arms will be showcasing the range of Peak Ales, they will also have a band on in both the afternoon and evening plus a fish and chip van. The Dronfield Arms will be adding extra outdoor bars and an all afternoon programme of live music. The White Swan will be bringing their upstairs bar into use. The Manor House Hotel will be repeating last years festivities with an Abbeydale Beer tent, Sam Wain entertaining on the keyboard outside all afternoon and food from I love Ostrich. They are also offering discounted hotel room rates for festval goers, which are expected to book up quickly! Unfortunately the Blue Stoops is not expected to be ready to open in time and will no longer be part of the festival. However for those that live in Mosborough, sister True North pub the British Oak plans to open early to serve breakfast for those joining the festival feeder bus there. Other venues for this years festival are Barlow Brewery, Derby Tup (Whittington Moor), Horse & Jockey (Unstone), Miners Arms (Hundall), Royal Oak (Coal Aston), Yew Tree (Coal Aston), Pioneer Club (Dronfield), Three Tuns (Dronfield), Coach & Horses (Dronfield), Green Dragon (Dronfield), Jolly Farmer (Dronfield Woodhouse), Miners Arms (Dronfield Woodhouse) and Hyde Park Inn (Hill Top). Ship Inn Shalesmoor The Ship Inn at Shalesmoor is making some subtle changes to their operation, they no longer serve food – however customers are welcome to bring their own as long as they are buying drinks at the bar! They are also looking to extend the beer range and are holding a mini beer festival for St George’s Day. Planning permission has been applied for building a house on the car park of the George & Dragon in Holmesfield. Meanwhile in Harthill permission has been applied to build housing on the field behind the Beehive pub and to build an extension to the pub itself.

Pubs, beer and culture

When we talk about campaigns to save pubs and promote local breweries, a lot is spoken of their contribution to our cultural life and British traditions but there hasn’t been documented proof you can hand to the council and say ‘here you are’. This is being addressed by the University of Sheffield, who have sponsored some research and writing on the subject of Sheffield’s culture, with well regarded writer Pete Brown commissioned to pick up the beer and pubs strand. At the time of writing, lots of interviews and surveys were being carried out among the people of Sheffield! Often it is forgotten how pubs and beer are intertwined with the various creative arts that Sheffield nurtures at grass roots level with special interest group meetings, music gigs, poetry recitals and more taking place regularly in pub function rooms and local artists displaying their works on pub walls. Many traditional local pubs also host sports and games teams. As an effect of pubs often being at the heart of such culture and local talent creating local pride, it is no surprise that locally brewed beers also feature too! This looks like a potentially interesting and useful piece of work, if you are asked to take part in the research please do and we will look forward to the final publication!

True North launch new brewhouse

To help kick of Sheffield Beer Week on Saturday 12th March, True North – who until now had brewed their beer at Welbeck Abbey or Stancill Brewery – opened up their new Sheffield City Centre brewhouse to visitors. Representatives of True North were available to answer questions about the brewery and a range of beers were available to try including a couple on cask (the Oatmeal Pale went down well) and a couple on keg – their pilsener lager and a premium IPA that was brewed in collaboration with North Union Brewing – as well as a couple of guest craft keg beers. Also present was Jules from Hop Hideout with her Sheffield Beer Week organiser’s hat on! The brewery is on Eldon Street behind the Forum Cafe Bar (which is owned by the same people as the brewery) looking out onto Devonshire Green in an old brick building with bags of character. Shiny brewing vessels line two sides of the rectangular room along with a temporary visitors bar, gin distilling equipment and a coffee roaster. It is intended to roast coffee for their chain of bars and restaurants. The gin distillery is to relocate to the Blue Stoops at Dronfield once the building work is complete there. The fourth side of the room is lined with tables for visitors to sit and drink – they intend to open the brewery and bar up to visitors about once a month for special events. There are a number of classic London Soho neon signs hanging around the brewery as a bit of an in joke, this is explained by a notice taped up by the entrance to the toilets – it is reference to some research that suggested the reaction of many men the first time they walk into a brewery is similar to the first time they walk into a sex shop! The old kid in a sweet shop thing huh?!