Author: Dominic Nelson

Exit 33 Brewing

Posted on by Dominic Nelson
The Brewers Cooperative had two great days at the Folk Forest Festival in Endcliffe Park in July, serving an average of 185 pints an hour over the two days!  It just shows what an appetite for local ales there is. Following a successful charity quiz night at the Harlequin in support of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, Exit 33 have released a beer donating money from the profits to the charity.  After suffering a sclerotic attack Pete Roberts of Exit 33 decided to help raise much needed funds. Pete said: “Attacks come without warning and can be very debilitating and frightening leaving the sufferer with long term issues. The MS Society does great work and it’s an honour to support this”. Surprise Attack, a 4.8% ABV pale ale, was brewed with the help of raffle prize winners from the Harlequin charity quiz night. Our next charity night will take place on 20 September. Once again, the Harlequin has been nominated for the national cider awards by the Morning Advertiser.  We await the result when we attend the award ceremony on 6 September. Fingers crossed! Pete Roberts

Sheffield Brewery

Posted on by Dominic Nelson
As many of you know, Nick Law – brewer of Emmanuales – joined The Sheffield Brewery Company two years ago to help develop the business, the beers and the brand.  After making the tough decision to put Emmanuales on hold for a season in March this year, Nick has decided to step back from The Sheffield Brewery Company and hand the reigns onto a new brewer, who will steer the ship through the next exciting phase of the company’s life.  Nick will be launching a podcast and website for the beer industry in the coming months called Hop Forward: Getting You Ahead in the Brewing and Beer Business at hopforward.beer. As of September, Marv White will be joining the brewery as Head Brewer, bringing with him several years of experience with Thornbridge as well as a GCB (General Certificate in Brewing) and his skills as a semi-professional musician, all of which will be a huge asset to both the production brewery and the Brewery Tap Room. As they say, the show must go on and – as ever – our Brewery Tap Room events are increasing in popularity, with more people discovering the brewery for the first time or making it a part of their regular jaunt during the Peddler Night Market weekends.  The Brewery Tap Room how has several keg lines and serves a wide range of gins, wines and spirits. Don’t forget to check out our new bottled beers, which include Get Thi’Sen Outdooerz (4.0% American Pale Ale) – available in bottle for the first time – and Sunburn (5.2% Raspberry Wheat Ice Cream Pale Ale), all of which are available from our usual stockists, including Beer Central, The Dram Shop and Beeches of Walkley. Nick Law

2018 Beer Census rescheduled

Posted on by Dominic Nelson
The 2018 Sheffield Beer Census which was due to take place on Saturday 22 September has been rescheduled and will now provisionally take place on Saturday 30 March 2019. The Beer Census is a one-day event where volunteers visit as many pubs in the city as possible and take details of the range of real ales and ciders available. The committee has made the decision to reschedule the event to give more time to recruit route leaders, allowing us to visit the maximum number of pubs possible and yield more meaningful results. Route leaders will volunteer to lead a small group around 10-15 pubs, usually focussing on a particular area of the city. If this is something you think you would like to be involved in, come along to a branch meeting for more information. If you would like to lead a route that we haven’t covered in previous censuses, even better! If you would still like to help out in September, members are encouraged to visit pubs and submit updates to the WhatPub website, including details of opening times, pub features and beer range.

SCBF44 beer mats on eBay

Posted on by Dominic Nelson
Four limited edition sets of 12 mint-condition beer mats advertising the 44th annual Steel City Beer Festival (SCBF44) will be auctioned on eBay. On one side of each mat is the SCBF44 logo, with the reverse printed for the sponsor. The logo side, when arranged, produces a large image of the festival poster (see below). In total there are about 100,000 beermats 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! Thanks to our sponsors:  Abbeydale, Acorn, Blue Bee, Bradfield, Little Critters, Lost Industry, Loxley, O’Hara’s Rum, Sentinel, Sheffield, Wetherspoon (Bankers Draft) and True North. All profits from these eBay sales will go the official SCBF 2018 Charity, Roundabout – Sheffield’s youth homeless charity providing shelter, support and life skills to young people aged 16-24 who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. (http://www.roundabouthomeless.org/) The festival itself will be held at Kelham Island Industrial Museum from 10-13 October 2018. Dave Pickersgill

Pub Heritage talks

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The Millowners Arms, part of the Kelham Island Industrial Museum, will be hosting a free Pub Heritage talk on Sunday 16 September as part of Heritage Open Days. The afternoon talk (14:30 to 16:00) with Dave Pickersgill, Pub Heritage Officer for Sheffield & District CAMRA, will take listeners on a tour of some of the many heritage pubs in the city of Sheffield. Along the way, mention will be made of some of the many influential brewers who have made their mark in the city. The Millowners Arms explains the growth of Sheffield’s brewing industry and the role that pubs played in quenching the thirst of hot and dusty steelworkers. Victorian Sheffield is reported to have had over 1400 licensed premises at its peak. Refreshments will be available at the Millowners before and during the talk. Places can be booked in advance by visiting tinyurl.com/y8hac4dj Dave will also be presenting a similar talk following the October branch meeting at the New Barrack Tavern on Tuesday 2 October.

Pub of the Month August 2018

Posted on by Dominic Nelson
Our Pub of the Month award for August 2018, voted for as always by Sheffield & District CAMRA members, goes to the Beer Engine on Cemetery Road. The pub may only have opened in March 2015 but this is the second time it has been voted our branch’s Pub of the Month, having previously won the honour in August 2016. The man who created the Beer Engine in its current guise (it was formerly a music bar called Delaney’s, amongst other things) is Tom Harrington, who previously worked at Thornbridge and the Hillsborough Hotel. This was his first pub venture, although he is now also involved with the Old Workshop on Hicks Street too. The Beer Engine is in essence a traditional pub with a focus on serving high-quality real ales in a relaxing environment, but there is a modern twist in the form of ever-changing craft keg beers and an interesting range of spirits. The pub is furnished and decorated simply but is laid out to appeal to all – a main open area around the bar and a couple of smaller, cosier rooms. There’s a nice beer garden out the back which has been extremely popular during the recent hot weather. The bar features six handpumps, one of which dispenses the ever-available Neepsend Blonde. The remaining five feature a changing range of ales from breweries such as Exit 33, Bad Seed and North Riding, and sometimes a real cider. The staff are friendly and knowledgable and are happy to offer tasters and advice. No article about the Beer Engine would be complete without a mention of the pub’s food offerings. Monday to Saturday is pub tapas, with a selection of around 8 dishes on a menu which changes weekly. On a Sunday, the Beer Engine offers home-cooked roast dinners with a choice of meat of the week, vegetarian and vegan options. We will be presenting the award certificate at the Beer Engine on Tuesday 14 August. Join us from 8pm onwards for a presentation at 9pm. For those travelling by public transport, the 3/3a, 4/4a, 20, 43, 44, 75, 76, 86, 97, 98 and 218 all stop nearby. We hope to see you there!

Dom’s Casks of the Month

Posted on by Dominic Nelson
I almost feel bad for saying it but I’m not the greatest fan of this hot weather we’ve been having recently. The fan has become a permanent fixture in our flat and we’ve had the air conditioning on every day at work. One good thing about it, however, is that it’s a great excuse to get out and try some cool, refreshing beers, although I will admit I’ve recently taken to having a glass of water alongside my pint – after all, it’s important to stay hydrated! There have been some great pale ales on around Sheffield over the last few weeks, perfect for the summer weather. Sunfest was a great success as always and had some fantastic beers on offer: Five Towns’ Always Crashing in the Same Car (rhubarb belgian tripel) and Steel City’s MPHIBUDDHNZNEIPA (mango and passionfruit IPA “soup”!) were two highlights for me. However, for this column I’ve stuck with tradition and gone for three hand-pulled beers from around the pubs of Sheffield, rather than festival beers. Here they are in no particular order: What: Nelson Sauvin Pale – Brewsmith (Ramsbottom) Where: Beer House, Ecclesall Road Nelson Sauvin is definitely a love-it-or-hate-it hop, but I have to say that I’m a fan of it. This pale wasn’t single-hopped (Gelana and Cascade also featured) but its presence was certainly notable, with hints of tropical fruits and grapefruit coming through alongside a more astringent vinous flavour. In the glass, this had the appearance of a classic pale ale, with a straw-coloured body and small but fairly creamy white head. On drinking, the light carbonation made it very pleasant and refreshing on a balmy evening. What: Rising Tide – Turning Point (Kirkbymoorside) Where: Cremorne, London Road This wasn’t the first time that I’d tried this sessionable pale ale, but this was the best condition I’ve had it in so far. Poured a slightly hazy light amber colour with a very thin head. The aroma was packed with citrus fruits and on tasting there was a nice level of bitterness balanced out by the biscuit-like flavours from the malt which were more prominent than I had expected. Very nice pint from this North Yorkshire brewery. What: Red Lion – Ashover Brewery (Ashover) Where: Railway Hotel, Bramall Lane This beer from the ever-reliable Ashover Brewery has been around before but this was the first time I’d seen it in a while and I think it’s been improved. This was a very interesting American red ale, with a vivid copper colour in the glass and a nice foamy head. An aroma of toffee and blackberries and floral hops delivered exactly what it promised on drinking, with a nice balance between the sweet caramel of the malt and the bitterness of the hops. Dominic Nelson

Beer mat mania!

Posted on by Dominic Nelson
Beer mat collectors take note – the Steel City 44 festival beer mats have now been released and should soon start appearing in your local pubs and bars. Like last year, the mats will feature a sponsor’s logo on one side and a section of the official festival poster on the reverse. To get the full poster, you’ll have to find the full set but you’re very unlikely to ever find all of them in the same place so you will have to do some searching! We would like to say thank you to the 12 sponsors who have kindly agreed to sponsor a beer mat:
  • Abbeydale
  • Acorn
  • Blue Bee
  • Bradfield
  • JD Wetherspoon
  • Little Critters
  • Lost Industry
  • Loxley Brewery
  • O’Hara’s Rum
  • Sentinel Brewery
  • Sheffield Brewery
  • True North
The mats are currently being distributed around the city but please note that Wetherspoon’s mats will only be available in their own pubs. There will also be some sets reserved for charity auctions as there have been in previous years. More details about these will become available in the coming weeks.

Inn Brief

Posted on by Dominic Nelson
The Stag’s Head on Psalter Lane recently underwent a bar upgrade and now has eight handpumps installed. These are mostly Thornbridge beers but on our last visit there was also a guest ale from Tiny Rebel. The Bar Stewards on Gibraltar Street is set to celebrate its first birthday on 28 July with a party including street food, music and a range of special beers. The Church House on St James Street is hoping to reopen on 20 August following refurbishment and building repairs. Church – Temple of Fun on Rutland Way is the latest addition to the Kelham Island beer scene. The new venture from Bring Me the Horizon frontman Oli Sykes features a 100% vegan bar, including an unfined cask ale and a range of craft keg and cans. There is also vegan food from Make No Bones and a range of classic video arcade games. A new café bar is heading to Nether Edge, with a grand opening on 28 July. Brewer & Hop (40 Wostenholm Road) will feature craft beers, ales, gins and cocktails and is part of the Dalbury Hotel complex. Hathersage Social Club is hosting a “Praise Be to Beer” supper night on 3 August in collaboration with Abbeydale Brewery. The four-course meal will be served with matched beers and costs £32.50 for food only, or £45 with the tasting flight. The Old Queens Head on Pond Hill has introduced a new weekday lunchtime menu, with all dishes priced at £3.50 between noon and 3pm. Stancill Brewery have submitted a planning application to Sheffield City Council to transform the former HSBC building in Chapeltown into a pub. This could be the second new pub to open in Chapeltown in the near future, along with the proposed new micropub in the former Marie’s Tea Rooms. Residents have put in a number of complaints against Hawthorn Leisure’s application for a late license for the former Edward’s pub on Glossop Road. The bar is currently being transformed into the Swinging Sinatra’s bar and was proposed to open until 2am on weekdays and 3am on weekends. A new bar from the Marston’s-owned Pitcher & Piano chain is set to open on Holly Street in September this year. It is assumed that real ale will be available as it is in most of the existing pubs in the chain in other cities. Hop Hideout on Abbeydale Road is holding a celebration of sour beer over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

July Pub of the Month presentation

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Sheffield & District CAMRA members headed to the Wellington, Shalesmoor, on 10 July for the presentation of the July 2018 Pub of the Month award. Competition from the first of the World Cup semi-finals meant attendance was perhaps a little lower than it might otherwise have been, but there was still a great atmosphere in the pub as branch vice-chairman Patrick Johnson handed over the certificate to manager Niall Byrne, owner James Birkett and all the staff.
Patrick Johnson (left) presents the certificate to pub manager Niall Byrne.
It should come as no surprise that there was a great selection of real ales available on the evening. Four of the seven handpumps showcased beers from Neepsend Brewery, including the fantastic Comosus (4.6%), a very tasty pineapple pale ale. The other three featured guest ales from Atom, Anarchy and Imperial. There were also some great craft keg beers from Steel City and Wylam. The Wellington continued the recent tradition of putting on a buffet for everyone who made it down for the presentation, with a nice selection of sandwiches, cocktail sausages, pork pies and something I had never tried before – cold black pudding! Congratulations once again to everyone at the Wellington on their award! CAMRA members, don’t forget to vote for your next Pub of the Month. Or if your favourite isn’t on the list, you can nominate it on the website or at any branch meeting.