Dave has been a CAMRA member since the 1970s and has worked at almost 40 Sheffield CAMRA festivals, plus a fair number of others. He is Brewery Liaison Officer (BLO) for Abbeydale, Blue Bee, Bradfield and Loxley. He was also the Chair of the Local Organising Committee for the 2023 national CAMRA Members’ Weekend, AGM & Conference.
A member of the National Pub Heritage Group, he leads on planning and pub heritage issues. He also edited the Sheffield's Real Heritage Pubs book, for which downloads vastly exceeded expectations. The hard copy was available in October 2018 and again in 2021. On both occasions, it was a sell-out. The 5th edition (2023) is available as both a hard copy and a free download.
Our chosen charity for SCBF49 is Sheffield Children’s Hospital Charity. The charity works together with the hospital, to ensure that children and young people can receive the very best care, in the best possible environment.
The money raised through donations buys life-saving equipment, funds vital research and treatment for thousands of children from across the world and helps us create a comfortable, engaging environments for our patients at Sheffield Children’s Hospital.
Please support this vital local charity: all donations, including glass deposits and unused beer tokens, are gratefully received. Our past charities have included Burton Street Foundation, Roundabout and Yorkshire Air Ambulance. Last year we raised £2700 for Weston Park Cancer Charity. It would be great if we could raise a similar figure this year.
The 49thSheffield Steel City Beer and Cider Festival (SCBF49) will be opened by local legend, Jon McClure, lead singer of the Sheffield-based band, Reverend & The Makers. Their 2007 debut album, “The State of Things”, helped them gain success in Britain and spawned the UK top 10 single “Heavyweight Champion of the World”.
The band are currently celebrating their 20th year, with a new line-up and a series of festival gigs. Their latest single, ‘Haircut,‘ features vocals from actor Vicky McClure (Line of Duty, This Is England, Broadchurch). After a recent appearance on BBC’s The One Show, it went to number one on the iTunes download chart. The track is taken from the band’s eighth album, “Is This How Happiness Feels?“
Last year the festival was opened by South Yorkshire firefighter Brontë Jones, runner-up in the BBC’s 2024 Gladiators series. 2023 saw local BBC Radio Sheffield presenter, Paulette Edwards, do the honours.
The festival will take place at Kelham Island Industrial Museum, 15-18 October.
The third booklet in our pub heritage walk series is now available. This concentrates on Neepsend, the ‘new Kelham Island.’ Included are copious images, a map, detail on the various pubs featured and lots of information on the area and its history, including a timeline.
The formal launch will be at the forthcoming Sheffield Steel City Beer Festival (15-18 October 2025). The first booklet which was produced for the 2023 CAMRA Members’ Weekend, AGM and Conference is sold out and there are relatively few copies left of the second booklet: Little Chicago. The pub heritage walk series will continue with Kelham Island in 2026 and Riverside in 2027.
In common with the preceding two booklets, it is: 32 pages, A5, full colour throughout, £2.99 rrp and had a print-run of 1000 copies. It is currently available from several local stockists, including: Abbeydale Brewery, Beer Central, Biblioteka, Bradfield Brewery, The Crow, Draughtsman (Doncaster Railway Station), Famous Sheffield Shop, Forest, Gardeners Rest, Hop Hideout, Kelham Island Books and Records, Millennium Galleries, Pangolin, Rhyme and Reason and St.Mars of the Desert.
you will explore Sheffield’s Little Chicago Quarter before your fast-track entry to our Beer Festival. Led by local author, John Stocks and editor of ‘Sheffield’s Real Heritage pubs,’ Dave Pickersgill, you will explore the beer, social and Industrial heritage of the area. The walk will explore streets that feature in John’s book ‘Sheffield 1925: Gang Wars and Wembley Glory,’ and also explore the beer, social and Industrial heritage of the area.
The comfortable walk, with one minor ascent, is just over a mile. It will last for approximately 90 minutes before concluding at Kelham Island Museum for a post-walk drink and discussion.
A tutored beer tasting (five beers) and discussion led by the three brewers (Kieran Chadwick, Sam Jubb and Bruce Woodcock) from one of the largest breweries in Sheffield. The second oldest Sheffield brewery, Bradfield were established in 2005 on a farm situated in the Peak District countryside. The beers to be sampled are:
Farmers Blonde (cask, 4.0%), the best seller. This beer was created 20 years ago and has been the best seller since. This award winning, very pale brilliant blonde beer has citrus and summer fruit aromas making it an extremely refreshing ale.
Farmers Jack O Lantern (cask, 4.5%). The October seasonal ale. An amber coloured, lightly hopped ale.
Farmers Brown Cow (cask, 4.2%). One of the core range, that’s been around since Bradfield’s first year of brewing.
Farmers Milk Stout (cask). This beer has not been brewed before. A Milk Stout has been in the pipeline for a while and Bradfield thought this was the ideal year to bring it to the table.
and finally, Belted Galloway Stout (bottled, 8.4%). A decadent Stout brewed with a variety of speciality malts then barrel aged for 8 months in Scottish Whiskey barrels. It delivers rich cocoa and sweet dark fruit aromas and flavours up front, leading into warm whisky, sherry and oak notes with a silky smooth finish. England Country winner (Flavoured beer, wood aged) at the 2025 World Beer Awards.
Delivered by Dave & John, this short pub heritage talk will concentrate on the Little Chicago area of Sheffield, taking you back from the 19th century and up to the current day. Along the way, mention will be made of the 1884 ‘Sheffield Drinks Map,’ the establishment of a coaching inn and the Sheffield pub with the most CAMRA awards.
The tendency to foam and the stability of the head of a beer is often seen as an indicator of successful fermentation. A very detailed research paper on the stability of such foam has recently been published by the American Institute of Physics in their Journal, ‘Physics of Fluids.’ The authors compared the stability of the head produced by six beers: four Belgian: Bosteels Tripel Karmeliet (8.4%), Westmalle Triple (9.5%), Westmalle Dubble (7%) and Westmalle Extra (4.8%) and two Swiss Lagers: Chopfab (4.7%) and Feldschlösschen (4.8%).
The conclusion is that Triple fermented beers have the most stable foams, while the froth rim created by single fermentation beers, including lagers, are more likely to collapse.
Like any other foam, a beer-head is made of small air bubbles, separated by thin films of liquid. Under the pull of gravity and the pressure exerted by surrounding bubbles, over time, the bubbles burst and the foam collapses. The rate at which this occurs depends on the form of a barley-derived protein: Liquid Transfer Protein 1 (LTP1).
In single fermentation beers, LPT1 proteins have a globular form and arrange themselves densely as small, spherical particles on the surface of the bubbles. “It’s not a very stable foam,” said Prof Jan Vermant, a chemical engineer at ETH Zurich, who led the study.
During the second fermentation, the proteins become slightly unravelled and form a net-like structure that acts as a stretchy elastic skin on the surface of bubbles. This makes the liquid more viscous and the bubbles more stable.
During the third fermentation, the LPT1 proteins become broken down into fragments. These protein fragments stabilise foams in many everyday applications such as detergents. Some of the triple fermented beers had foams that were stable for 15 minutes.
As Vermont says: “We now know the mechanism exactly and are able to help the brewery improve the foam of their beers.”
Abstract:
A recent academic study indicates that Triple fermented beers have the most stable foams, while the froth rim created by single fermentation beers, including lagers, are more likely to collapse.
Fifty years ago, in the summer of 1974, a new publication, ‘Parish Pump’ joined the printed material which jostled for space in our local pubs and clubs. This was the first edition of the new Sheffield and District CAMRA magazine: a few sides of A4 stapled together – very different from to-days professionally produced 32-page, full colour ‘Beer Matters.’
The intervening fifty years tell a tale of major changes in the Sheffield beer/pub scene, of large breweries closing, and, later, small breweries taking their place … of Sheffield becoming the cask beer capital of the world. Over fifty years, almost 600 editions of our free magazine have included month-by-month reporting of these many changes.
Parish Pump No.2 (6 September 1975) mentions that; ‘at least 25 of the 61 pubs in central Sheffield sell real ale although one’s choice is limited to our local Big Three.’ At that time, Sheffield had four large and long-established breweries; Stones Cannon Brewery (established: 1865), Wards Sheaf (1896), Whitbread Exchange (1851) and the often-forgotten Hope Brewery on Claywheels Lane (1939).
Fifty years later, none of these remain. However, the city now has 17 breweries. The oldest is Abbeydale, now an Employee Owned Trust, who celebrate their 30th anniversary next year. In 1975, when Abbeydale commenced, no-one would have predicted that, fifty years later, the 2025 Sheffield Beer Census would count almost 400 cask beers available on a single day: mostly on handpump.
From edition 33, September 1978, the format became A5 and the name changed to ‘Beer Matters.’ As stated at the time: ‘This month your local newsletter has a new name and format. The former is an attempt to get rid of the ecclesiastical connotations of the old name “Parish Pump”: the latter is in order to make the publication more convenient to handle and easier to read. We hope that you agree that an improvement has been made in both these respects.’
Over the years quality has improved: from four typed and stapled A4 sheets to a stapled A5 booklet to glossy publications and today’s excellent full-colour publication. The 1980s booklets required a ‘Beer Matters stapling social’ to put together the four A4 sheets (16 pages) in the correct order. I recall attending these monthly meetings in the Sheaf View (Bramall Lane). Here, lots of paper was delivered from the printer and large staplers were put to good effect. Since then, the branch has aimed to produce eleven issues annually: monthly with a winter double issue. Issue 500 was in September 2019. There has also been the occasional hiatus: for example, Covid saw a gap from April 2020 until our return in September 2021.
Local CAMRA meetings were the original information conduit to the editor. Today, in addition to the various meetings, internet resources are extensively utilised. Over the years, ‘Beer Matters’ has included innumerable stories. For example:
11: 1976: includes the news that ‘a beer exhibition venue has been found’ : this was the second Sheffield Beer Festival – next year will see the 50th.
190: November 1991: ’21 Not Out,’ CAMRA was 21 years old
281: August 1999: ‘Wards laid to Rest,’ the closure of Wards Brewery
399: July 2010: the first colour cover
500: September 2019: includes several retrospective contributions
520: February 2023: Tom and Barbara retire after over 37 years at Fagan’s
Beer Matters has had hundreds of contributors and many editors. Their roll of honour is listed. In addition to these editors, thanks also need to be given to Robin Lunnon for linking the magazine to our website and bringing design forward into the digital era.
Thanks to all who have contributed over the last fifty years: let’s all drink to the next fifty!
Editors of the Sheffield & District CAMRA magazine:
Led by Dave Pickersgill, this short walking tour will explore Neepsend, an area which is currently ‘on the up’ (it’s next door to Kelham Island, the 35th ‘Coolest Place on the planet.’). We will encompass both aspects of industrial, and social, heritage and of the ‘Beer Capital’ status owned by the City of Sheffield. Highlights include the ex-Samuel Osborn Works (now Church – Temple of Fun), Naomi’s Corner, Ball Bridge, the JC Albyn complex and William Stones Cannon Brewery. There will be one en route stop and a finish in the Beer Garden in the co-operatively owned Gardeners Rest.
The walk will be published in September 2025 as the third in a growing series of ‘Sheffield Pub Heritage’ 32-page, A5 booklets. The first (University Arms to Fagan’s, 2003) is sold out. The second (‘Little Chicago’) was published in 2024.
A guided walk with a difference – Led by local author, John Stocks and editor of ‘Sheffield’s Real Heritage pubs,’ Dave Pickersgill, you will explore Sheffield’s Little Chicago Quarter. The walk will explore streets that feature in John’s book ‘Sheffield 1925: Gang Wars and Wembley Glory,’ and also explore the beer, social and Industrial heritage of the area. The comfortable walk, with one minor ascent, is just over a mile. It will last for approximately 90 minutes before concluding at the Kelham Island Tavern for a post-walk drink and discussion.
Three limited-edition sets of 13 mint beer mats promoting the 49th Sheffield Steel City Beer Festival (SCBF49) are to be auctioned on eBay. On one side of each mat is the SCBF49 logo, with the reverse carrying the sponsor. The first set went live on 15th August: two other sets will follow at monthly intervals: search eBay using SCBF49.
There are 75,000 SCBF49 beer mats available. Over the next few months, these will be distributed over Sheffield, the surrounding area and wider afield. However, a full set is very unlikely to be seen in one place at any one time.
The sponsors are:
Breweries: Abbeydale, Ashover, Blue Bee, Bradfield, Chantry, Ossett, Peak, Tapped, Thornbridge and Triple Point
Non-breweries: Abel Magnets, MKM Builders Merchant and Reyt Good Kitchens
Profits from the eBay sales will go to the official SCBF49 charity, Sheffield Children’s Hospital. The money raised will contribute to life-saving equipment, research and treatment for thousands of children and also help to create a comfortable, engaging environment for patients.
The festival will be held at Kelham Island Industrial Museum from 15-18 October.
Again we have a programme of talks, tours and tastings available as an optional extra for your Steel City Beer & Cider Festival experience. Please book your place in advance online then simply pay for your festival entry on the gate as normal.
These can be booked in advance: follow the QR codes to the booking site.
A guided walk with a difference – you will explore Sheffield’s Little Chicago Quarter before your fast-track entry to our Beer Festival. Led by local author, John Stocks and editor of ‘Sheffield’s Real Heritage pubs,’ Dave Pickersgill, you will explore the beer, social and Industrial heritage of the area. The walk will explore streets that feature in John’s book ‘Sheffield 1925: Gang Wars and Wembley Glory,’ and also explore the beer, social and Industrial heritage of the area.
The comfortable walk, with one minor ascent, is just over a mile. It will last for approximately 90 minutes before concluding at Kelham Island Museum for a post-walk drink and discussion.
A tutored beer tasting (five beers) and discussion led by experts from one of the largest breweries in Sheffield. The second oldest Sheffield brewery, Bradfield were established in 2005 on a farm situated in the Peak District countryside.
Delivered by Dave & John, this short pub heritage talk will concentrate on the Little Chicago area of Sheffield, taking you back from the 19th century and up to the current day. Along the way, mention will be made of the 1884 ‘Sheffield Drinks Map,’ the establishment of a coaching inn and the Sheffield pub with the most CAMRA awards.
I recently returned from Belgium after a few days on a trip which involved Beer, Trains & Trams. We stayed in the home of Belgian rail, Mechelan: my visit including several visits to mostly volunteer-run, tram/train rides/museums.
Steam Train Maldegem-Eeklo is a heritage railway based at the former National Rail station of Maldegem. This houses the largest number of operational diesel and steam locomotives in Flanders. All enjoyed the trip on a narrow gauge line in old open wagons pulled by one of their diesel locomotives.
The Dendermonde-Puurs Steam Train heritage standard gauge railway took us on a 45 minute return journey from Puurs (Signal Box) to Baasrode-Noord Station. The track winds through the Scheldeland through the provinces of Antwerp and East Flanders. On board was waiter service: Dilewyns Vicaris Triple 8.5% and, the house train beer, Brouwer Stomerke 6% were sampled.
Rail Rebecq Rognon (RRR or Petit Train Du Bonheur – The Small Train of Happiness) explores the old SNCB Lines 115 and 123 on a 4 km line crossing the Rebecquoise countryside along the Senne and the Vallée des Oiseaux. The diesel loco took us on a return ride on the narrow gauge line between Rebecq and Rognon. Florence Triple 8% was available at the station café.
Our major tram ride was Tram 44 from Montgomery Metro Station (Brussels). This starts underground before emerging onto Avenue de Tervuren. It then rumbles past Stoclet House and the tram museum before plunging into the forest. The journey ends some 20 minutes later at the 19th-century tram station in Tervuren, a Royal suburb of Brussels within the once great ancient Sonian Forest. The Tram Museum (opened 1976) housed in the 1897 tram depot has a vast collection of 130 vehicles including a 1869 horse-drawn tram.
TramSite Schepdaal (Dilbeek) is the only remaining local (or vicinal) tramway depot in Belgium, the line closing in 1970. This depot served the first tramway in Flemish Brabant: Brussels to Ninove (1888). The oldest buildings at Schepdaal date from then. The station café provided local beer, Angerik Dilleke 5.1%.
Belgium June 2025
We also visited Duvel Depot in Breendonk, the tap of the family-controlled Duvel Moortgat brewery (1871), and the Batteliek Microbrewery on the outskirts of Mechelen. The latter is an old red brick church, now a brewery, bar and eatery under the auspices of Het Anker. The tasting flight was chosen: Baobab Triple 8,8%, Ipapotamus 7.7% and Derkal 8.3%. The Het Anchor Brouwerij tap (Mechelen) also provided a flight: Gouden Carolus Hopsinjoor 8.0%, Gouden Carolus Whisky Infused 11.7% and a Batteliek Bieren.
Several other bars were visited – recommended in Mechelen are Beer Central, Hanekeef, Het Maanlicht, Kuub and Moemoe. Het Maanlicht provided one of the most interesting beers of the trip: De Blauwe Kuip Burton 5.2% – an (almost) British bitter served in a half-pint ‘jug.’ Other recommendations include: Cuytegemhoeve Beer Cafe (Puurs-Sint-Amands) and Eetcafe D’Akte (Lennik).
Strangest sight of the trip was undoubtably an open-air tango dancing class in the Veermarkt in Mechelen – only in Belgium … the next trip is planned for September.
