Andy has been actively involved in CAMRA since the early 2000s after being recruited to sit on a National Younger Members Task Group.
Since then he has held roles on the branch committee including Secretary, Membership Secretary, Magazine Editor, Chair and now Social Secretary.
Andy has also been involved with the Steel City Beer & Cider Festival almost every year since becoming active in the branch.
Our big news for February is that we should, fingers crossed, be having two big and shiny new tanks installed! This will increase our production and packaging capabilities and hopefully give us even more flexibility in terms of the beers we’re able to make, but it does mean that our plan for releases this month is just a little up in the air at the time of writing. So please do forgive us if there’s something here that ends up being not quite as correct as we’d like!
We’re also incredibly excited to be part of Winter GBBF this year, and will have a bar there for the duration of the festival (12th-15th February at Magna), as well as getting involved with the Learning & Discovery Bar on the Saturday – so please pop along and join us for a beer if you’re there!
Talking of beer, here’s a flavour of what we’ve got coming up. Sheffield Rocks (4.1%) and Sheffield Stout (4.5%) are both returning favourites paying homage to the beer heritage of our fantastic city and starting to get us ready for Sheffield Beer Week. And we’ve teamed up with our very own pub, The Rising Sun, to create Drop By Your Local – a classic 4.2% pale ale hopped with Willamette, Citra and Centennial. Designed to be enjoyed in good company and celebrate all our wonderful local pubs.
Dr Morton’s Safety Beer (4.1%) featuring the Aussie combo of Galaxy & Vic Secret hops is always a crowd-pleaser of a pale ale, with a tropical melange of passionfruit, mango and pineapple on the palate. And also taking inspiration from Down Under, we have Fremantle (5.0%) on the way, hopped with Enigma, Cascade and Chinook. Quaffable and thirst-quenching with a crisp, refreshing bitterness.
Bradfield Breweryhave launched a new website which includes an online shop with a nationwide courier option available as well as local deliveries made by brewery staff.
New from Chantry Brewery on cask is National Hopster Service, a 4.5% ABV pale ale. Looking ahead we can expect their usual Christmas beers with a limited run available in can as well as cask. Meanwhile at the brewery the attached live music venue & tap has a busy programme of gigs, this is a short walk from Parkgate tram terminus.
Brampton Brewery in Chesterfield have released the dates for their 2025 brewery tour events. These take place once a month on a Friday evening and need to be booked in advance.
Fuggle Bunny Brew House have a bonus tap session at the brewery on Saturday 30 November. The bar will be open 2-9pm with live music at 5pm. Also available will be pie & peas.
New from Neepsend Brewery is Cherokee, a 5% ABV American red ale.
Recent brews at Triple Point Brewing include Luxe (chocolate and vanilla porter, 7.6% ABV), Luxe salted caramel edition (as Luxe but with the added ingredients, as you might guess!), Broadway (Mosaic IPA, 6.2% ABV) and Morello (tart cherry ale, 5.2% ABV).
Little Mesters Brewingare gearing up for Christmas putting beer in cans, which are available to buy from their bar on Woodseats as well as shops such as Mitchells Wine (which is located next door to the brewery at Meadowhead!) A new beer (or rather a reworked old beer) is Juicy Content 2.0 which has now become a NEIPA, promising juicy and fruity flavours! They have also been canning their Original Pale and Original Bitter.
Also gearing up for Christmas is Little Critters Brewing Company who have brewed three Christmas specials – a blonde, a clementine pale and a gingerbread porter.
Likewise, as you’d expect, Emmanuales are canning beers for Christmas. With it being colder, darker winter months Nick has gone for a couple of heavy hitters – England’s Green and Pleasant Land is a 6.1% British hopped juicy IPA while Ale Mary is a 10% ABV spiced barley wine.
A local brewery that has remained off the radar for us is Contour Brewing, a nano-brewery based in Grindleford. Their Grindleford Pale Ale (4.5% ABV) made an appearance on the keg taps at the Tunnel Tap micropub in Totley back in October.
Blue Bee Brewery have a few ongoing series of pale hoppy beers that use the same basic recipe but with different hop varieties, spotted recently on the bar at the Kelham Island Tavern was their Nectaron Simcoe Pale (5% ABV).
The beer range from Dead Parrot on the bar at Perch has most recently included Jet (stout), Vitriol (bitter) and Arid (blonde) among others.
The Brewery of St Mars of the Desert have released a new beer – Red Planet. It is brewed with a blend of caramel and Munich malts along with Citra and Simcoe hops. This 5.4% ABV ale is suitable for the autumn and in terms of style sits somewhere between a red IPA and an American brown ale. It launched at their tap room mid November and is also available in cans.
Loxley Brewery’s third associated venue has now opened on Sharrow Vale Road. This time it is a modern microbar rather than a traditional pub but has 3 of their cask ales on the bar plus craft beer from guest breweries on the keg taps. The name of the bar is quite simple and descriptive of the new opening – No3-Sharrow!
ThePeacock Inn at Stannington, which is leased from Thwaites brewery, has won the brewery’s warm hospitality award.
Craft & Berryon Ecclesall Road recently celebrated their 5th anniversary with a festival of sours!
The Three Tuns in Sheffield City Centre reopened under new management after a few days of closure for a handover. It is pretty much business as usual with a quiz & bingo on Wednesdays at 6pm then karaoke & disco Friday and Saturday nights 8pm to 1am plus the occasional live entertainment. The real ale selection continues to be from the Heineken list such as Dark Star Hophead, Robinsons Unicorn and Titanic Plum Porter.
TheCastle Inn at Bradway is expected to reopen by early December under new management, we understand the new lease has been taken by the same people that run the Millhouses. The expectation is it will continue to serve food but feel more pub like with locals dropping in the tap room for a pint in the evening and in the daytime those enjoying the local woodland walks popping in for a coffee or maybe something stronger!
The Norton at Meadowhead has been closed for a refurbishment and is expected to reopen by December. It will continue to operate under the “Sizzling Pub Co” brand.
The Harlequin on Nursery Street, near Kelham Island, has now introduced food. There are two menus – the lunch menu is served 12-3pm with a range of hot and cold sandwiches along with a soup of the day whilst the evening menu is served 5-8:30pm with a range of main meals including fish & chips, burger, sausage & mash, three bean chilli and curry served with rice and flatbread. During both food service times they also serve chip butties with a choice of sauces/sides! Food is served every day except Sunday.
The Dove & Rainbowin Sheffield City Centre normally see a whole bunch of metalheads pop in during the last weekend in November when the HRH Viking music festival takes place at the O2 Academy, just a few minutes away. Unfortunately with that venue closed until all the dodgy concrete is replaced, the festival isn’t happening, but the Dove is putting their own event on Friday 29 November regardless with their DJ playing viking metal and the bar serving beer, rum, mead and all the rest – bring your own drinking horn!
Hop Hideout , now located at Leah’s Yard in Sheffield City Centre,celebrated their 11th birthday over the week of 13-17 November. On the beer front a 7.8% ABV West Coast DIPA hit the taps, this was brewed as a collaboration between Round Corner Brewing and community focused group Women in Beer. Following up on that theme the second South Yorkshire Beer Girls Social was hosted on the Sunday. Alongside that another Thornbridge beer in a wooden pin was on the bar, this time filled with Rattlesnake, a 6.5% West Coast IPA. The beer from the wood programme at Hop Hideout is planned to continue until the end of 2024 and is expected to happen at roughly fortnightly intervals (as the pin will need to be cleaned and refilled at the brewery in-between each outing!).
Planning has started on Sheffield Beer Week 2025, an initiative launched and coordinated by Jules from Hop Hideout. The dates are 10-16 March, if you run a pub, bar, restaurant, brewery or suchlike and would like to take part by putting on an event please contact Jules via sheffieldbeerweek@gmail.com.
Winter has arrived at the Washingtonin Sheffield City Centre with mulled Old Rosie Cider and Mulled Buckfast available alongside the cask ales!
The Eyre Arms in Calver has now been renamed to the Calver Arms Sports Bar & Pub Kitchen. They’ve launched a new menu in collaboration with the kitchen team from the Barrel Inn at Bretton. The bar menu includes snacks in a basket, pot pies, stone baked pizzas and burgers. On Sundays they offer a carvery, served in “Ronnie’s”, the newly refurbished function room.
The community owned Anglers Rest pub, cafe and post office in Bamford have declared they are struggling with rising costs and other factors and are appealing for help to save the pub a second time (since they bought the pub being offloaded by a big pub company in 2013). They are looking for help in three ways – new shareholders to join the board running the enterprise, volunteers to help out with a few things and donations via their crowdfunding scheme. You can contact them by email – bamfordcommunitysociety@outlook.com or visit their Facebook page.
The Gypsy Queen at Beighton is due to close for refurbishment and rebrand in March 2025. It is currently part of Greene King brewery’s Hungry Horse chain and is to be converted into a “Hickory Smokehouse” bar and restaurant.
For 2025 the Winter edition of Great British Beer Festival moves to our area, being held at Magna Science Adventure centre, a former steelworks on the Sheffield/Rotherham border near Meadowhall.
If you’ve been to the long running charity real ale & music festival at Magna, which held its final event in 2024, you’ll recognise the layout but also notice we’ve taken the opportunity to update things a little. If you’ve previously been to GBBF Winter in Burton on Trent, you’ll find we’ve made it somewhat bigger and added new features!
At GBBF Winter you’ll find cask ales from breweries across our region as well as interesting choices from further afield. A number of breweries will also be bringing their own bar, often staffed by brewery representatives who can answer questions about the beer, these bars will feature their beers on both cask and keg. The festival will also have a dedicated bar for good quality craft beers in keykeg along with a world beers bar featuring a list of up to 100 imported beers in cans, bottles and on tap (the international tap list will be on rotation). All the bars will accept card payment, alternatively you can use cash to buy bar tokens from the token sales points around the venue.
The Champion Winter Beer of Britain is judged at GBBF Winter, with the winner going forward to the final of the Champion Beer of Britain competition which is judged at the summer Great British Beer Festival in Birmingham. At GBBF Winter there will be a dedicated bar featuring all the competition entries, this will open for service once the results have been announced on Wednesday evening.
There will also be a Cider & Perry bar with a list curated by CAMRA enthusiasts which will only feature your proper cider & perry made from fresh juice, never concentrate.
On the entertainment front there will be live music on Wednesday and Thursday evening then all day Friday and Saturday whilst throughout the festival volunteers from the local Rotherham CAMRA branch will be hosting traditional table top games and a tombola!
An optional extra you can book for is a tutored tasting events, however these have limited capacity! These include
Champion Winter Beer of Britain tasting led by veteran beer writer & journalist Roger Protz (Wednesday 6:30pm and Thursday 2pm) – £12
Brewed on the Union system beer tasting led by veteran beer writer & journalist Roger Protz and Thornbridge brewers Rob Lovatt and Dominic Driscoll (Thursday 6pm) – £12
Beer & Cheese tasting, led by Annabel Smith (Friday 2pm) – £16
Beer & Music matching, led by writer Pete Brown (Friday 6pm) – £12
There is a trade session on Wednesday for those that work in the pub and beer industry from 4pm (festival opens to the wider public at 5pm) and applications are open online for complimentary tickets for those eligible.
As with all CAMRA festivals GBBF Winter is staffed by volunteers, if you fancy getting involved please fill in the volunteering form on the website.
Opening hours: Wednesday 5pm-11pm; Thursday to Saturday midday to 11pm. Entry is £10 (£8 for CAMRA members) and there are also group and season ticket deals available online. The price includes a souvenir glass to keep. For advance tickets and information visit winter.gbbf.org.uk. If you can’t commit to buying tickets in advance don’t worry, you can simply turn up and pay on the door too!
Getting there: Bus X3, operated by First, runs from Sheffield to Doncaster via Meadowhall and Rotherham and drops off on the main road behind Magna. At Meadowhall Interchange the bus connects with trains and trams, the bus ride from Meadowhall is just 5 minutes. From Rotherham Interchange the bus takes about 10-15 minutes depending on traffic. The venue also has a large car park and is near M1 junction 34.
on Tuesday 12 November a number of local CAMRA members and pub regulars joined our branch Chairman at the Itchy Pig 2 Banner Cross to present their Pub of the Month award winners certificate to manager Richard and his team. An excellent selection of beers were enjoyed too!
Our chair Paul Manning and his wife Bev had a recent short trip to Wales.
We had a weekend stay in a converted chapel at Minnford near Porthmadog calling on the way at the Bleeding Wolf pub near Congleton where we enjoyed a Dizzy Blonde, a pale ale by Robinsons brewery.
After a restful evening we walked into Porthmadog the next morning and enjoyed some lovely sunshine at Spooners Bar on Porthmadog railway station. This Good Beer Guide entry pub was flush with real ale and we enjoyed Moho a 4.3% Welsh pale ale by Mantle brewery, Ceridwen a 3.7% Welsh black ale by Bragdy brewery, Solstice Three Tuns a 3.9% pale by Bishops castle brewery in Shropshire and finally Snowdonia Ale a 3.8% golden pale by the local Purple Moose, brewery.
Suitably refreshed we boarded our Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway steam train for a 13 mile return journey to Blaenau Ffestiniog. The scenery was very nice especially and surprisingly the slate hillsides. The railway was built to transport the Welsh slate from the hills to the coast. Of course we enjoyed a bottle of the on board Welsh steam ale, a 3.6% pale from Purple Moose brewery.
Arriving back in Porthmadog we visited the town’s other GBG pub entry, the Australia which was Purple Moose brewery’s local tap. Our favourites were Mono citra a 4.6% session IPA being a collaboration brew with Bragdy brewery and Chocolate Moose a 5.6% chocolate and vanilla stout.
We returned home the next day via a short stop at Llandudno for some bracing sea air. We enjoyed a lovely lunch of Welsh cheese rarebit washed down with a pint of Tetleys Dark Mild at the Tynedale hotel on the promenade astonishingly already decorated for its Christmas breaks!
Our January winner, as voted for by local CAMRA members, is the Two & Six Micropub on Snig Hill in Sheffield City Centre. The name and logo of the venue is themed around old fashioned British money, however the inspiration was much simpler – the address of the premises is number 26!
There was a micropub in the same premised previously although it was relatively short lived – The Social was part of a wider social enterprise initiative and only opened limited hours. The Two & Six was opened by Juliet, who was previously employed as the manager of the Social and saw potential of how it could be if she ran it as her own business along with partner Dan.
Before reopening in 2023, the place was redecorated and new furniture was brought in giving it a nice cosy pub feel. There is a second room attached which is used to host events like art exhibitions and is also used by local members of “Sons of the Desert” Laurel & Hardy appreciation society for film screenings!
This micropub attracts a nice mix of people and has a friendly atmosphere and you find some people sat near the bar enjoying chat and maybe a little banter whilst in the window you often find groups playing board games or simply quietly reading a book! There are also some tables outside on the pavement that can be in demand when the weather is a little warmer. A quiz night is hosted every Sunday at 8:45pm.
On the bar there are 4 handpumps serving cask ale with a mix of styles on offer plus one for traditional cider. The keg taps also include one or two interesting craft beers.
We’ll be presenting the award on the evening of Thursday 16 January, join us for a beer or cider there from about 8pm.
Ho ho how is it coming up to the end of the year already?! Tis the season and we have a tasty selection of beers perfect for spending a chilly evening in a cosy pub. First up is Glugg, a 4.2% Belma and Cashmere hopped pale ale from our “mythical creatures” series. This one is inspired by the Yule Lads of Iceland, but Gluggagaegir was a bit too much of a challenge to explain on the pump clip, and that’s before we’ve enjoyed a pint of it! Delicate melon flavours meet a spicy, earthy character.
Winter (4.2%) is coming, an Ekuanot single hopped pale which promises an aromatic fruitiness and flavours of citrus and berries, plus a delicate herbal note in the finish
And rounding off our festive releases is Doctor Morton’s Christmas Hamster (4.1%). Citra and Cascade hops combine with Munich malt for a tasty caramel character alongside notes of lemongrass. Sweet, spicy and smooth with a medium but fresh bitterness.
In keeping with the frosty feel of the season, we’ve got a couple of new beers coming up making use of new and exciting sub-zero, supercritical hop extraction techniques. First up, Cryo Deception (4.8%) – a special limited release of our much-loved New Zealand pale. Nelson Sauvin hops have been added in whole cone, T90 and Cryo form, for a lusciously aromatic and flavourful beer that’s bursting with notes of white grape, elderflower and gooseberry. Light and refreshing with a balanced bitterness in the finish. We’ve also got Polarnaut (4.7%), an experimental pale ale which features the cool combination of Citra and Sabro, in the vibrantly named Hyperboost and Dynaboost form. Expect a soft and refreshingly juicy beer with a blast of hop character giving notes of pith, pine and a hint of tropical coconut.
Heralding the new year, as is our tradition, we’ll have Doctor Morton’s Duck Baffler back (4.1%), a pale ale single hopped with Citra which is always incredibly popular. January also brings us an English hopped Through the Hopback special, featuring Ernest hops. This one will be 3.9% and holding flavours of ripe nectarines and apricots.
Bradfield Brewery still have some stock of their limited edition barrel aged beers in bottles. There are a choice of two – Highland Pale Ale (8.1% ABV) and Belted Galloway Stout (8.4% ABV). Meanwhile on cask the brewery is gearing up for the annual launch of Belgian Blue, the fruit flavoured Christmas beer!
Some interesting beers from local brewers recently at our Steel City Beer & Cider festival held at Kelham Island Museum. Blue Bee had an oak aged edition of their Park Hill Porter along with a Superdelic Nelson Pale Ale where the hop pairing gave a distinctive grapefruit and resinous flavour despite being a sessionable 3.4% ABV. Dead Parrot supplied “Twilight”, a barrel aged Belgian style Dubbel brewed for the Belgian Beer festival held at their Perch bar. Drone Valley brewery sent a special edition of their Station Porter which had the addition of roast Robusta coffee beans. Duality, a new brewery based in Todwick, had two beers at the festival – “Imposter Syndrome” a New England IPA and “The Usual” a simple 5% ABV Mosaic hopped pale ale. Emmanuales had two beers at the festival – Noah’s Dark Belgian Ale and Solomon’s Gold. A new beer from Fuggle Bunny Brew House was Mystic Makrut, a pale ale with bursts of Papeda and aromas from Asia. From Intrepid was Mitis Dark Mild (Hazelnut edition) and Solskin Hop & Grut Ale. Little Critters had a Head Banger hazy session IPA and Loxley supplied quite a varied range including Halliday best bitter and Palores hazy dry hopped pale ale. Neepsend was another brewery with a varied range including Hedylogos, a decadent double chocolate stout and Cherokee American Red Ale. Of interest from Triple Point was Zephyr, A whirlpool-hopped pale ale that is light, fruity, and full of character.
Stancill have brewed their annual bonfire night beer – Treason – A spiced Yorkshire parkin porter with a toasty, roasty flavour. Added ginger gives a spark of warmth.
Sheffield & District CAMRA branch celebrates its 50th birthday this year – the Golden anniversary – and one of the few long running Sheffield beers still available is Stones Bitter, which for a while had a strap line of “Sheffield Gold”. To mark the occasion True North Brewery provided a special dry hopped edition for the Steel City Beer & Cider Festival (the 48th due to having two years off for Covid). The beer was brewed using Challenger hops and double dry hopped with Goldings, giving floral, spicy, earthy, lemon, and thyme overtones, with a salty, moreish, and zesty finish.
Craftworks in Mosborough has had a refurbishment of the bar itself with a new, branded bar top and new handpumps!
Dorothy Pax has new opening hours for autumn. The bar is closed on Mondays, Tuesday to Thursday it’s open 4-9pm, Friday and Saturday midday to late and Sunday 12-9pm. These hours may vary when gigs are on.
The Yellow Broom micropub in Bramley, Rotherham (bus X2 from Sheffield), recently marked their 300th different beer on the bar which was Azvex Boltzmann Brain, a 6.5% ABV dry hopped IPA featuring the Idaho 7, Mosaic and Motueka hop varieties.
Hop Hideout in Sheffield City Centre hold their first ticketed tasting event at the new location of Leah’s Yard and it is in conjunction with Thornbridge brewery on Friday 25 October on the theme of beer from the wood.
The Old Shoe is hosting a Sunday Session beer and cheese tasting event on 17 November in partnership with the Weekend Project and Homage 2 Fromage, set to a vinyl soundtrack! Tickets cost £40 and available on their website.
Lost & Found on Ecclesall Road is reportedly being sold by Marstons via auction.
Work is now taking place to refurbish and reopen the Norfolk Arms in Grenoside.
The Grennel Mower at Lowedges has closed and has a to let board up. It is owned by Admiral Taverns.
The Cross Scythes in Totley is now being leased out by Stonegate pub company to a new management who also run the Bank House in Hathersage and the Dore Grill restaurant.
The Boston Arms in Woodseats have expanded their repertoire with the introduction of a cocktail menu!
Bradfield charity tractor run takes place on Sunday 15 December with Oughtibridge brass band also involved, the Blue Ball Inn at Worrall is offering the opportunity to watch from the pub with a beer from 4:30pm.
The current owners of the Barrel Inn at Bretton – Phil and Diane Cone are close to their 30th anniversary there, having run the pub since 1996.
