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.
Woodthorpe Hall is one of only two artisan cider makers we are aware of in our area, based at the end of a country lane in Holmesfield, near Dronfield.
The Hall is the home of Dick Shepley and his family, he is the man behind the Owd Barker strong Farmhouse Cider, the cider is made from the apple juices produced at his annual apple pressing day where friends, family, business contacts and a few CAMRA members all turn up and volunteer for the day in his garden!
Many of the apples used are windfall from trees in the area, however this stock sometimes supplemented with apples bought in from Orchards in South West England. Owd Barker is certainly not a single variety cider – all the different apples are chucked in together!
The process on the day involves carting apples from trailers and sacks on the driveway in wheelbarrows to the pressing area where they are washed by hand before being pulped and mashed using a series of Heath Robinson esque motorised machinery with the results shovelled into buckets ready to be pressed.
The mashed apples are squashed into juice on the old fashioned apple press, with the juice poured into plastic water bottles (of the office mineral water cooler style) to be transported to the fermentation tanks.
It isn’t all work of course, there is a lunch break that involves repairing to a pub in the village for food and an afternoon tea break happens with coffee and home made cakes then after the days pressing is complete a few social drinks are enjoyed with a few tubs of last years cider laid on for workers!
A small group of Sheffield & Dronfield CAMRA members will be going to Woodthorpe Hall to help with the apple pressing on Saturday 3rd October, email beermatters@sheffieldcamra.org.uk if you fancy joining us.
The Mount Pleasant is almost 200 years old, having been built in 1828. The Beer House Act was passed in 1830, but it was not until 1840 that the then owner, A Reuben Rogers, paid 2 Guineas for a licence, having been caught selling ale illegally. Since then there has been a further eight licencees, the present incumbent being Stuart Burrows, who took over in 1993.
The pub is an excellent old fashioned one, with a friendly atmosphere and very efficient bar staff. You can enjoy good conversation without the distraction of music.
Six handpumps are in use and apart from the Tetley Bitter and Gold, the remaining ones are a variety of guest beers. These usually include Blonde Witch and one from the Welbeck Abbey Brewery. Adnams Ghost Ship has also been a recent regular.
There is a quiz on Thursdays which Stuart writes himself and to quote one customer ‘never was there a landlord who knew so much useless information!’ The darts team compete in the Woodseats league and there is also an active fishing club. Stuart also runs a Whisky club where members meet to taste rare whiskies from around the world.
He describes the Mount Pleasant as a public house unspoilt by progress and has written a history of the pub, complete with pictures, which is well worth reading. It will also be included in the 2016 National Good Beer Guide.
Opening hours are 5pm-12pm Mondays to Wednesdays, 5pm-1am Thursdays and Fridays, 3pm-1am Saturdays and 12 noon to 12:30am on Sundays. Bus 20A passes the front door of the pub and bus 20 stops nearby. (Note the 20A is replaced by a new route 18 from 1st November).
Join us on Tuesday 13th October from 8pm for the award presentation evening where all can expect a warm welcome and a cracking pint!
Carole Ware
The Kelham Island Tavern in Sheffield has been named ‘Yorkshire Pub of the Year 2015’ and will now go forward into the next round of the National Pub of the Year 2015 competition. The Kelham Island Tavern is situated in Russell Street in Sheffield, and has now won the prestigious title for a record seven times, having previously won it in 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, and 2014. It is owned and run by Trevor Wraith and his team, and is featured in the new CAMRA Good Beer Guide 2016: “Former National CAMRA Pub of the Year, this small gem was rescued from dereliction in 2002. Twelve handpumps dispense an impressive range of beers, always including a mild, a stout and a porter. In the warmer months you can relax in the pub’s multi award-winning beer garden.” The Runner-up in the competition was the Sun Inn in Pickering. This was the first time that the pub had been nominated for a Yorkshire Pub of the Year competition. Situated in Westgate, it has been run by Rob & Sharon as a free house since April 2010. The pub offers up to six real ales — mainly sourced from small Yorkshire breweries — and two real ciders.
CAMRA’s Yorkshire Regional Director, Kevin Keaveny, said “The standard of the competition was extremely high again this year, but as last year, the judges felt that the Kelham Island Tavern just ‘ticked a few more boxes’ than the other nominations. The owner and the staff of the pub have set a very high standard for the last two years, and for most of the previous nine years”.
Kevin Keaveny will present framed certificates to the licensees of the two pubs mentioned above at some time in the near future, when special presentation events have been arranged.
The eighteen nominations for this year’s prestigious title were visited by individual members of a judging panel. Each nomination was scored against strict criteria that included an emphasis on the Quality of Real Ale and Community Focus. Also considered were Atmosphere, Style/Decor, Service and Welcome, Value for Money, and Sympathy with CAMRA’s Aims.
The other pubs that were nominated were: Brown Cow in Keighley, Old No.7 in Barnsley, Flower Pot in Mirfield, Crown Inn in Manfield, Jacobs Beer House in Bradford, Dr Phil’s Real Ale House in Middlesbrough, Grove Inn in Huddersfield, Three Pigeons in Halifax, Harrogate Tap in Harrogate, Chequers Micropub in Beverley, Kirkstall Bridge Inn in Kirkstall, Beehive in Harthill, Junction in Castleford, Maltings in York, Corner Pin in Doncaster, White Hart Inn in Hawes.
Alan Canvess
The Queens Ground at Hillsborough has introduced real ale and real cider following the installation of three handpumps on the bar. The range is not finalised yet as they are establishing what sells well, however expect the more popular local beers such as Bradfield Farmers Blonde to feature.
The Blue Stoops on Dronfield High Street is in the process of being sold by Enterprise Inns to Forum Café Bars Group. Work to repair the building ready for winter is due to start soon with a full refurbishment planned in the new year before opening in the Spring. It will follow a similar format to venues such as the Broadfield on Abbeydale Road, the British Oak in Mosborough and the York in Broomhill – smart yet relaxed atmosphere, bar area with quality drinks including cask ales, craft beers and classic cocktails and a restaurant area with a simple menu of good chef prepared food.
The Manor House Hotel, also on Dronfield High Street, have given their bar a refurbishment with a new rustic feel. Abbeydale Moonshine continues to be available on handpump.
The Red House on Solly Street in Central Sheffield is due to reopen on 22nd September following a refurbishment. The new management is Craig and Marie Harris, who have previously had stints running the Castle Inn at Bradway and Peak Hotel in Castleton. The bar will feature five real ales from local breweries and premium lagers in the form of Estrella and Budvar. Craft keg is on the way too. Deli style food will be served in the daytime in the form of sandwiches and bar tapas. Coffee will also be available.
It will be the end of November when the extension at the Rising Sun at Nethergreen will be finished and the managers, Ryan and Nicole have covered the temporary wall with beer mats. Along with the ones on display in the other room which has been refurbished, Ryan believes that there is over a thousand. If you want to come and count them, there is a choice of thirteen hand pulled beers to choose from while you take on this task.
The Punchbowl at Crookes is now part of the Reet Ales Pub family alongside the Rutland Arms, Closed Shop, Three Tuns and Blue Bee Brewery. It reopens on 19th September following refurbishment and as well as a pub bar with real ale from Blue Bee plus guests it will be home to ‘Reet Pizza’, serving quality freshly prepared pizzas and great beer to wash it down!
Ashley Sheppard is the new manager at the University Arms who advises the pub offers an excellent range of local breweries on offer – permanently featuring ‘Acorn’, ‘Welbeck’, ‘Kelham Island’ and ‘Thornbridge’ supported by 4 other guests ales from local and national brewers at all times. The pub also offer home cooked food Monday – Saturday, boasts a proper beer garden, conservatory and function rooms, all coming together to make a great venue for both families and ale enthusiasts – and of course students!
Due to a technical issue, the Dronfield entries are missing from the 2016 Good Beer Guide. The pubs missing are the Travellers Rest in Apperknowle, Coach & Horses in Dronfield and Rutland Arms in Holmesfield. Details of these pubs can be found at www.whatpub.com.
The Ladybower Inn has reportedly been sold to Batemans Brewery.
Peddlers Night Market takes place on Arundel Street again this month on 2nd and 3rd October with stalls featuring all sorts of street food, entertainment, stalls and craft beer.
Dronfield & District CAMRA sub branch have presented their Pub of the Season award to the Coach & Horses in Dronfield. Dronfield Chairman Rob Barwell wasn’t available, so Sheffield & District Chairman Andy Cullen did the honours, presenting the certificate to manager James Broad and team, who also thanked the kitchen staff and customers for helping make the pub what it was.
Horse and Jockey, Unstone. – Landlord John continues to maintain sales of Timothy Taylor’s Boltmaker. At the time of writing (4th September), the price was £2.20 per pint. This will eventually increase to £2.60.Traveller’s Rest, Apperknowle – On 22nd August the Traveller’s hosted Gold Wedding celebrations for Ruth and Roger Hepworth of CAMRA’s Dronfield Branch. A magnificent afternoon buffet was followed by Pie and Peas in the evening. Music was provided by pub regulars The Hippersippi Jazz Band and choice ales were on tap.
We have brewed our first KEG LAGER! It’s called PIVO and drinks at 4.8% ABV. Crafted using Polish ‘Lubelski’ and Czech ‘Amethyst’ hops the flavour profile is completely different to that of the more main-stream lager brands. The hops we have chosen impart a subtle balance of earthy, herbal notes whilst providing a hint of citrus and spice to round things off. Available now! We have ovular and circular font badges so they should fit on any font. The kegs are one-way, 30L ‘ecokegs’, the product is ‘bright’ and a pale lager. We’re really excited about this so welcome any criticism you can offer be it good or bad news- we want to hear it!
Our First Bar
Big news! We’re currently planning the opening of our first bar. It is situated on Ecclesall Road in Sheffield and will be called Portland House. We’ve drafted in Tom Purcell (formerly of the University Arms) as General Manager; things are coming along nicely so watch this space for more developments!
August Specials
Tan Gallops4.6% American style IPA. This ale honours Welbeck’s racehorse pedigree and the famous ‘Tan Gallops’ training run. Big and full of American hops this beer promises pine, spice and all things nice! Four different American hops have gone into this ale which will have a good citrus kick and fruit flavour to back up the pine and spice notes.
Strath Royal4.2% English Pale Ale. Another horsey beer! This time celebrating one of Welbeck’s most famous Derby winners. English ‘Bramling Cross’ hops give this EPA a lovely blackcurrant fruit note yet it’s perfectly balanced by herbal tones and a little spice. Dry to the last sip with great bitterness.
Henrietta Grande4.0% Delicate Golden Ale. Henrietta Grande is a punchier version of our bestseller- Henrietta. Think grassy, slightly floral and golden with a hint of orange. Very quaffable!
Brewery Tours
Last but not least we have one more date available for you to come and see how we do things at Welbeck: Monday 14th September. General Manager and Head Brewer Claire Monk takes you on a sensory journey through the world of malt and hops. For just £7.50 per person you get an hour and a half at the brewery plus a free pint to round off the evening. The tour starts at 7:30 and finishes at 9pm. Tickets are available from Welbeck Farm Shop or by contacting us at the brewery. Contact details can be seen below on 01909 512539 or info@welbeckabbeybrewery.co.uk.
The finals of the Champion Beer of Britain competition (CBoB) were judged at the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) in London in August with the results announced on stage at the trade & press session.
The winners were:
Supreme Champions
Gold: Tiny Rebel – Cwtch
Silver: Kelburn – Jaguar
Bronze: Dancing Duck – Dark Drake
Mild
Gold: Williams Brother- Black
Silver: Rudgate – Ruby Mild
Bronze: Great Orme – Welsh Black
Best Bitter
Gold: Tiny Rebel – Cwtch
Silver: Highland – Scapa Special
Joint Bronze: Barngates – Tag Lag / Salopian – Darwin’s Origin
Speciality
Gold: Titantic – Plum Porter
Joint Silver: Kissingate – Black Cherry Mild / Saltaire – Triple Chocoholic
Bronze: Hanlons – Port Stout
Bitter
Gold: Pheasantry – Best Bitter
Silver: Acorn – Barnsley Bitter
Joint Bronze: Purple Moose – Madog’s Ale / Timothy Taylors – Boltmaker
Golden
Gold: Kelburn – Jaguar
Silver: Adnams – Explorer
Bronze: Blue Monkey – Infinity
Strong Bitter
Gold: Dark Star – Revelation
Silver: Salopian – Golden Thread
Bronze: Grain – India Pale Ale
Champion Bottle-Conditioned Beer
Gold: Harveys – Imperial Extra Double Stout
Silver: Fyne Ales – Superior IPA
Bronze: Mordue – India Pale Ale
These awards along with the champion Cider & Perry are presented at the awards lunch on 17th October at the Black Country Living Musuem where following a tour of the museum site a four course dinner will be served with each course expertly matched with an award winning beer. There will also be a guest speaker from the brewing and pub industry. Tickets are £75 each including the tour, food and drink.
Abbeydale’s award winning specialist beer shop Hop Hideout launched their Tasting Room in August, enabling customers to sit in the intimate space and enjoy the wide range of bottled beers and ciders on offer from across the globe. The Tasting Room will be open from noon to close, Tuesday to Sunday and in addition to the varied bottled selection, customers can enjoy a selection of two draught beers via the dedicated tap facility. Hop Hideout stocks over 400 beers, with a larger dedicated range covering the UK, in addition to countries like America, Holland, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy and Spain. Key to Hop Hideout’s success has been to search out and find interesting beers and offer a rotating range including a dedicated cider and perry offering. The two draught keg lines have featured beers from Yorkshire favourites Magic Rock to hard to find breweries like Kent’s Alphastate and experimental Swede’s Omnipollo. The ciders and perries are all sourced to showcase the rich variety produced across the UK, with over twenty-five different varieties. Oliver’s from Hereford, Somerset’s Sheppy’s, Welsh producers Ty Gwyn and Thistly Cross in Scotland all nestle in the fridges.
Jules Gray, one half of Hop Hideout, shared, “The intimate space and ever-changing beer selection makes this a great space to visit, discover and enjoy a beer. We’re starting to plan events in too. We have the fantastic young London brewery Brew By Numbers hosting a tasting in September, Yorkshire’s Brass Castle in October and an exciting evening as part of Sheffield’s Off The Shelf festival with one of the UK’s top beer writer’s – Pete Brown”.
The new edition of the national CAMRA Good Beer Guide book is due to be published this month and is the perfect buy – or Christmas gift for – the person that travels around the UK and wants to know where is recommended for good beer. It features the best pubs in each area, as selected by local CAMRA branches.
Additionally, unique to the Good Beer Guide, it also features a section listing all the current breweries in Britain producing real ale with details of their regular beers.
Copies can be ordered through the CAMRA online shop (follow link from www.camra.org.uk) as well as the usual book outlets. Additionally we will have a limited stock to sell at our October branch meetings with a members discount.
Our annual city wide survey that takes the pulse of Sheffield’s beer scene, recording how many different beers you can find on one day and possibly proving that Sheffield is the real ale capital of Britain. This is an annual survey we have been doing for a few years now, which started following an argument between someone from Derby and someone from Sheffield about which City was the true beer capital! A number of other Cities including Nottingham, Norwich and York now also conduct such a census.
We have a number of different pub crawls going on at the same time, each with a designated leader who will have survey forms and take you to the various pubs on their route.
The daytime crawls generally start at midday and finish at the Red Deer to hand paperwork in, the evening crawls start at the Red Deer at 7pm and we regroup at the end of the night at the Kelham Island Tavern.
As well as gathering useful campaigning data for us, it is also a great day out trying different beers and visiting pubs you might not normally get chance to visit.
All the daytime crawls except the City Centre ones involve using buses, trains or trams between pubs so we reccomend buying an all day travel ticket – If you are doing the Chapeltown route this also involves train travel so the ticket is a Travelmaster at £7.60, the others are bus and possibly tram so the ticket to get is a Citywide at £4.50. Both tickets are valid on all bus operators and sold by bus drivers and tram conductors.
If you would like to join one of the crawls, just go to the meeting point shown below and find the appointed leader. If you cannot make any of the official crawl but still want to take part, you can take note of the beer range in any Sheffield pub you are in that day and email the details to us. Please include the details of the pub, Brewery/Beer/ABV and the price per pint. Also it would be useful to note if the pub serves real cider or craft keg too.
ROUTE A – Dore, Totley, Millhouses, Broadfield
Meet at the Devonshire Arms in Dore at midday. (Buses 70 or M17)
ROUTE B – Norton Lees, Woodseats, Heeley, Highfield.
Meet at the Cross Scythes on Derbyshire Lane at midday. (Bus 19 or 20A)
ROUTE C – Banner Cross, Hunters Bar, Ecclesall Road
Meet at the Banner Cross at midday. (Buses 65,70,81,82,83,85,88 or 272)
ROUTE D – Deepcar, Hillsborough, Bradfield
Meet at the Royal Oak in Deepcar at midday. (Bus 57 or SL)
ROUTE E – Chapeltown, Burncross, Meadowhall, Attercliffe
Meet at the Wagon & Horses (Wetherspoon) next to Chapeltown station at 11am (Train or buses 29,75,79A,87 or 265)
ROUTE F – Walkley, Crookes, Commonside
Meet at the Walkley Cottage at midday (bus 95)
ROUTE G – Lodge Moor, Nether Green, Ranmoor
Meet at the Three Merry Lads in Lodge Moor at midday (bus 51)
ROUTES H, I and J – Sheffield City Centre
Meet at the Sheffield Tap at 11am, depending on how many are present the routes will be split up as considered appropriate as there are so many City Centre outlets now!
ROUTES K, L and M – West Bar, Kelham Island, Shalesmoor, Neepsend, Hillsborough
Meet at the Red Deer on Pitt Street, Sheffield City Centre, at 7pm and the routes around the Upper Don Valley will be split amongst those present as deemed appropriate. All three routes will meet back up at the end of the evening in the Kelham Island Tavern.
This year is the 41st beer festival Sheffield & District Campaign for Real Ale has run under the Steel City banner although only the second year at Kelham Island Industrial Musuem – the change of venue last year proved a very popular move. This year will be a very similar event to last year, not wanting to spoil what everyone loved, but there will be some tweaks to improve it based on feedback from both staff and customers.
If you don’t know where the museum is, you need to be on Alma Street in the Kelham Island District about where the Fat Cat pub , Kelham Island Brewery, Craft & Dough pizza restaurant and Urban Quarter burger restaurant is located. This is a short walk from bus stops on Nursery Street (Harlequin pub – buses 47/48/53/87), bus stops on Gibralter Street (Shakespeare’s pub – buses 57/79/79A/81/82/84/85) and the tram stop at Shalesmoor (Blue/Yellow routes). There is a long driveway from here to the museum between the river and the apartment blocks.
When you arrive at the admission gate you need to pay your admission fee, obtaining your wrist band (if you are a CAMRA member claiming discount entry please have your membership card ready to show) and also pay the glass deposit. We will have a choice of pint or half pint glasses (both will also have a third pint line if you want to drink in smaller taster size measures). The glasses are branded with this years festival logo along with the sponsors logo. You can return the glass when you leave the festival to get your deposit back or keep the glass as a souvenir of your visit!
Once in you need to buy beer tokens to spend at the bars. There are a number of stalls selling them around the festival. Our bar staff as a result do not handle cash which speeds up service and improves security for us. The merchandise, games and food stalls all take cash however.
We will have around 150 different real ales available to try this year. Once again the main beer list has been put together by our branch Chairman Andy Cullen featuring a showcase of beers brewed in or near Sheffield along with some interesting, new and rare beers from further afield and of course some old favourites. Andy is being assisted in sourcing some of the beers by our friends at Blue Bee, Dave from Steel City Brewing and Tom at the Beer Engine. Tom will be organising a pallet load of beers from London breweries which will be split between the pub and the festival.
Meanwhile our Cider bar managers Sarah & Hazel have been busy sourcing a selection of cider and perry – expect a range of around 20-30 to choose from, brought from across the UK although we will still as ever have the locally produced Woodthorpe Hall cider too.
There are a number of different areas in the festival:
UPPER HALL
Access via the door on the right when you arrive on site then over the footbridge, here you will find a long beer bar and the main cider bar, the traders serving cold food and the live music stage. Expect a great atmosphere when there is a band on!
The Upper Hall is also home to the merchandise stand and Tombola.
VICTORIAN COURTYARD
An atmospheric outdoor area, this links all the other areas and is also home to the street food stalls serving hot food.
You will also find the smoking area and toilet facilities alongside the courtyard.
MILLOWNERS ARMS
Fronting on to the corner of the Victorian Courtyard, this is a recreation of a traditional local pub with seating and bar where our staff will assume the role of the pub landlord and serve from a variety of beers on handpump. This area of the festival will always offer a comfortable, quiet and relaxing atmosphere. The Millowners Arms is also home to displays of items from local brewery history.
MARQUEE
A large beer bar and a cider bar is in the marquee along with plenty of seating. The marquee is also home to the traditional pub games and the CAMRA membership stand.
ENGINE ROOM
This is a new area added to the festival this year, home to the steam powered River Don Beam Engine, one of the working exhibits the museum is famed for. We are hoping this will be fired up for a demonstration on Friday afternoon, the rest of the time this room will provide additional indoor space for drinkers, which I’m sure will be much appreciated if we aren’t as lucky with the weather as last year!
We have brewed our first KEG LAGER! It’s called PIVO and drinks at 4.8% ABV. Crafted using Polish ‘Lubelski’ and Czech ‘Amethyst’ hops the flavour profile is completely different to that of the more main-stream lager brands. The hops we have chosen impart a subtle balance of earthy, herbal notes whilst providing a hint of citrus and spice to round things off. Available now! We have ovular and circular font badges so they should fit on any font. The kegs are one-way, 30L ‘ecokegs’, the product is ‘bright’ and a pale lager. We’re really excited about this so welcome any criticism you can offer be it good or bad news- we want to hear it!
Additionally, unique to the Good Beer Guide, it also features a section listing all the current breweries in Britain producing real ale with details of their regular beers.
Copies can be ordered through the CAMRA online shop (follow link from www.camra.org.uk) as well as the usual book outlets. Additionally we will have a limited stock to sell at our October branch meetings with a members discount.