Author: Dominic Nelson

The Nags Head at Loxley is celebrating 10 years of showcasing Bradfield Brewery’s cask range of Farmers Ales. Since opening its doors as the brewery’s tap in 2008, the pub has enjoyed continued success as both a friendly local and a brewery tap. Offering the range of Farmers Cask Ales from just £2.50 a pint and homemade pub grub, the pub has remained a traditional public house venue with a welcoming environment to customers old and new. As we say Happy Birthday to one brewery tap – we look forward to the opening of another. The King & Miller in Deepcar will be reopening soon! Bradfield Brewery are proud to announce their third year as main sponsor of Stocksbridge Rugby Club and are looking forward to cheering on the team at this year’s Bradfield Brewery Cup on Saturday 18^th August. For further details please visit the website: http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/stocksbridgerufc. We are also looking forward to crossing the border over to Derbyshire for August Bank Holiday – joining the line up for this year’s Hope Show event – a great family friendly agricultural show set in the countryside of Hope Valley. For further details please visit the website: http://www.hopeshow.co.uk. Jackie

Steel City have had a busy spring, or at least the bits of it for which Dave was in the country. The dry-hopped sour Medusa (5.0%) went down well, and she has now been joined by her two sisters. Euryale has been aged four months in a white wine barrel with grapes, while Stheno was also aged in the wine barrel but was then bretted. Euryale (5.5%) is doing the rounds now while Stheno (5.5%) will be out later in the year. Also on the sour side, a 6.66% Flemish-style Oude Bruin named Danse Macabre (after the Flemish metal band, but you all knew that) is out now.         June saw the ‘Den of Iniquity’ megacollab take place, featuring 9 breweries and 2 pubs. It was an excellent brewday, apart from the brewing! A stuck mash AND a stuck transfer made for a long day, but fun was still had by all, with beer, a barbeque and some cricket – this was possibly the first time the brew process has been delayed because the brewer was batting and wouldn’t go in to sort the brew until he was out (clean-bowled by Dale from Imperial). The brew is a parti-gyled white stout, the versions being Chocolate & Honeycomb, Rum-Barrel aged Cherry & Vanilla, and a green(!) stout featuring matcha tea. The coalition of chaos was Steel City, Lost Industry, Neepsend, Twisted Angel, James & Kirkman, Mill Valley, Beer Ink, Imperial and Raw plus the Rutland Arms and Shakespeare’s. At long last some bottling has taken place, so look out for the special Stout Wars 3-packs (two different sets) as well as bottles of Demons Are Back, Medusa, Euryale, My Wine In Silence, The Blood The Wine The Roses, HIBUDDHNZNEIPA and Danse Macabre. Dave Unpronounceable

I was recently invited by Mark Simmonite down to his new venture, Dead Parrot Brewery, to have a look around, learn about their plans and try the beer. The brewery is located on Garden Street, not far from Fagan’s, the Three Tuns and Butlers Balti. It is surrounded by construction sites with new blocks of student apartments going up in a complex that was previously home to Sheffield City Council Parking Services. Dead Parrot’s brewing kit is mostly what was installed at Mark’s previous venture, The Brewhouse and Henry’s, which never quite got up and running as Aardvark Brewery. However, there are also some long defunct bits from the cellar of the Frog & Parrot on Division Street (managed by Mark’s brother Nick), which used to be infamous for its very strong malt extract brew Roger & Out. When Greene King bought the pub they closed the brewery on health and safety grounds. The brewery building is a long thin one with two rooms: the main brewing room and a cold room where the cask store and conditioning tanks are located. For the first year or so Dead Parrot will be concentrating on brewing and selling beer. Once that core function is on a solid foundation then phase two is to refurbish their other building in the complex and open a brewery tap room. The idea is that bar will be open every weekend to come and enjoy the beer at source plus about four times a year they will hold special events such as beer festivals with music in the courtyard. The first beer to appear on the bars of Sheffield – including the Green Room and Frog & Parrot, amongst others – was Aurornis Xui, named after a bird-like dinosaur which is obviously long since extinct. It is a 4.6% ABV ale brewed with Citra, Simcoe and Pearle hops bringing plenty of flavor but balanced with a strong malt character that you’d expect in a traditional best bitter, I guess kind of like an American red ale. Also tried at the brewery was Bohemia at a very sessionable 3.7% ABV, described as a Pilsen Blonde brewed with Mosaic and Pearle hops, designed to be easy drinking and refreshing like a lager but with enough flavour and bitterness from the hops to keep an ale drinker happy. Still in the fermenter at the time of my visit was the third beer to be brewed, a stout. Currently they are building up a portfolio of core beers that sell well before then having a little more fun brewing an ongoing series of interesting one-off specials – they are very keen to have a go at brewing a sour at some point! It looks like Dead Parrot will be one to keep an eye on and they have some quite exciting plans. If you spot one of their beers at a pub or festival give it a try and see what you think, you can follow their developments on Instagram and Twitter @DeadParrotBeer. Andy Cullen