Author: Dominic Nelson

Fuggle Bunny Brew House

Posted on by Dominic Nelson
A Fuggle Bunny hat-trick! It is with great pleasure I can announce that our Chapter 8 – Jammy Dodger won SILVER in the Best Bitter category at the Rotherham Real Ale Festival at Magna. But wait… drum roll… Chapter 4 – 24 Carrot IPA won GOLD in the Golden Ale category at the same festival. Now if that wasn’t enough excitement for one morning, I then received a phone call from North Notts CAMRA to say that our Fuggle’s Chapter One real ale pub in Worksop was voted the branch’s Winter Pub of the Season award, so big thank you to all who have voted. Therefore, after four years of trading, our award-winning brewery continues to go from strength to strength, creating excellent award winning ales, expanding and selling regionally and nationally. Then after dipping our toe into the pub scene, our little ale bar in Worksop has far exceeded anything we could have imagined with the icing on the cake after just six months of trading by winning the award. So despite the horrendous weather causing all kinds of chaos, it has been an excellent and rewarding time for all at Team Fuggle. Don’t forget that this year Fuggle Bunny Brew House will be playing host to the 3 Valleys Beer Festival on 2 June, so come and join us for fun, fuggle, food and much more. Wendy Steeple

Bradfield Brewery

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After a cold start to 2018, we’re pleased to see that spring is in the air and down on the farm we are excited for the imminent arrival of baby lambs over the next few weeks! Back to beer matters and there’s a treat for the St Patrick’s Day supporters this month with the return of Farmers Irish Dexter – a deep red ale with sweet malty flavours, a taste bud tickler at 4.8% ABV. It’s back to the trees for our next seasonal ale – one for the fruity beer fans! Farmers Plum Bitter is returning from 19 March, a 4.4% smooth bitter with plum fruit tones. Jackie

Pub of the Month March 2018

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This month’s Pub of the Month winner, as voted for by our members, is a pub well-known around the Sheffield real ale scene. The Rutland Arms on Brown Street is a city-centre haven for beer drinkers, with seven cask ales on offer (including regulars from local brewery Blue Bee), plus up to two real ciders, seven craft keg lines and a range of lagers. To top it all off, there’s also a legendary food menu. The Rutland is a small, traditional pub with the tiled exterior and windows (most of them) saved from its days as a multi-room Gilmour’s pub. There is also a comfortable, heated beer garden out the back. Despite the classic characteristics, the atmosphere is helped by a changing exhibition of art on the walls and a jukebox with a list of banned songs to be ignored at your peril! There’s a fairly young, fun and friendly team behind the bar, and a great team in the kitchen too. Food is served until 9pm every day except Sunday, when the kitchen closes at 6pm. The pub hosts regular events, such as tap takeovers and Christmas parties, and has a very active social media presence to keep its punters up-to-date on the latest goings-on. We’ll be presenting the Pub of the Month winner’s certificate to the Rutland team on the evening of Tuesday 13 March. Everyone is welcome to join us on the night; we’ll be arriving from around 8ish for a presentation at about 9pm.

Emmanuales

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Beer is our passion.  We love to express ourselves creatively through all kinds of weird and wonderful beers, in a variety of styles.  For example, this month we’ll be releasing As The Deer Pants For Cherry Porter, a chocolate and black cherry porter. However, as I spend more time in the beer industry, I’m starting to realise that as fun as it is throwing pancakes, marshmallows, squid ink, or even sacrificial lambs into the mash tun and kettle, most of the beer drinking public want consistent, familiar products, and most publicans and retailers want products that sell. They say that anyone can brew a beer, but a master brewer can take the raw ingredients that are ever changing with the seasons, and can consistently produce quality time and again.  We also want to take our beers further afield.  Given we’re a small outfit, our beers have hit Leeds, Manchester, Norwich and as far south as London. So, with the limited capacity we have, our primary focus this year will be dialing into our core range and seasonals to deliver beers that will endure.  Yes, we have some fun beers lined up – such as our World Cup Helles Lager, Jesus Saves (Ronaldo Scores!) – and we certainly don’t want to throw the Baby Jesus out with the bathwater.  But we’re going to build on the success we have and spread the Good News one beer at a time, to more people, to new places; to brew good and to do good! Keep an eye out for the newest addition to our core range, a reimagined Beer Thou My Vision: still 3.8%, but reworked as a West Coast Session IPA*, heavily dry hopped with Mosaic, Citra and Simcoe.  In addition, we’ll be releasing more Oh Hoppy Day 6.1% – our flagship IPA – and bottling our Easter special, Nothing But The Blood Orange 7.0% orange IPA. Check out www.emmanuales.co.uk for further details. * That’s West Coast of America, not West Coast Blackpool! Nick Law

Sheffield Beer Week 2018

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Sheffield Beer Week, now in its fourth year, is a city-wide beer festival that aims to increase awareness of all things beery going on in the Steel City. Organised by Jules Gray from Hop Hideout, this week-long celebration of water, malt, yeast and hops sees pubs and breweries alike put on a range of special events, including one-off collaboration brews, meet-the-brewer evenings and tap takeovers. This year’s event runs from 12-18 March, and in previous years was scheduled to coincide with the SIBA BeerX exhibition. Although BeerX has left Sheffield, the Beer Week continues unperturbed and this year will kick off slightly differently with the new Indie Beer Feast festival at Picture House Social on Abbeydale Road on 10 March (see our festival listings for more details). Breweries already confirmed for Sheffield Beer Week 2018 include local favourites such as Abbeydale, Neepsend and Thornbridge alongside national brewers like Beavertown and Marble, plus international representation from Richmond, Virginia’s Hardywood Park Craft Brewery. There are more breweries and events yet to be announced. An additional theme for this year’s Beer Week is the role of women in the beer industry, with a brewsters tap takeover event at the Rutland Arms, collaboration brews with Ashover and Welbeck Abbey breweries, plus work with consumer group the Ladies That Beer and Fem.Ale organiser Erica Horton to host beer tastings. A full list of all that’s taking place can be found on the Sheffield Beer Week official website at sheffieldbeerweek.co.uk/2018-sheffbeerweek-events-full-list.

Young Members’ Trip to Derby

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We have arranged a social trip to Derby on Saturday 14 April for the younger members of the branch. Derby is, of course, a city with a great real ale heritage, so we are going to sample some of the most highly-regarded pubs around the city centre. CAMRA’s Young Members are those aged between 18 and 39. Members from our neighbouring branches in Yorkshire and the East Midlands are very warmly invited to come along too. The more the merrier! There are good public transport links between Sheffield and Derby, with around three direct trains running every hour. We are aiming to arrive at the first pub at around 1:30pm, but don’t worry if you can’t make the start of the trip. Committee members Poppy and Dom will be catching the 12:29 train from Sheffield station if you would like to travel together. You are most welcome to join or leave the tour at any time; the planned itinerary (kindly suggested by James Lymer) is as follows: 13:30: Meet at the Exeter Arms (13 Exeter Pl, Derby DE1 2EU) – you may also want to eat here beforehand or elsewhere such as the Tap next door. 14:00: Tap (1 Derwent St, Derby, DE1 2ED) 15:00: Dog and Moon (16 Sadler Gate, Derby, DE1 3NF) 16:00: Last Post (1 Uttoxeter Old Rd, Derby, DE1 1GA) 17:00: Greyhound (75-76 Friar Gate, Derby, DE1 1FN) Anyone interested can join the Facebook event, where we will also include any updates about changes to timings that might occur during the day. Those not on social media can confirm their place by emailing Dom at beermatters@sheffield.camra.org.uk. Hope to see you there!

Pub of the Month presentations

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Since last month’s Beer Matters came out, we have had the pleasure of presenting two pubs with their Sheffield & District CAMRA Pub of the Month awards.
Patrick Johnson presents Eyre Arms landlord Sam Smith with the January Pub of the Month award (Credit: John Beardshaw)
On Saturday 27 January, a minibus-load of members headed out into the Peak District for the first of the two presentations. After visiting a few other excellent pubs along the way, we arrived at the Old Eyre Arms in Hassop to hand over the January award. This was actually the first time in almost three years that a pub in the Derbyshire part of our branch had been voted Pub of the Month, so the accolade was even more notable. Our social secretary, Patrick Johnson, was on hand to present the certificate to pub owner Sam Smith, who expressed his delight and especially thanked the CAMRA members for their votes.
Branch chairman Mick Saxton hands over the February Pub of the Month award to the Sheaf View’s Josh Hayton (Credit: John Beardshaw)
Two weeks later on 13 February, we visited one of Sheffield’s more well-known real ale pubs for the February award. The Sheaf View was filled with CAMRA members and pub regulars alike for an evening of celebration, where all were kindly treated to complimentary chilli and crusty bread. Beers on offer included the usual selection of regular and seasonal beers from Neepsend Brew Co, plus four guest ales. Branch chairman Mick Saxton presented Josh Hayton and his staff with the certificate, which will join the sizeable collection from the pub’s previous wins. Congratulations once again to both of our winners on their awards. Dominic Nelson

Dom’s Casks of the Month

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After just about making it through Dry January, it’s been good to get back into the swing of things. The real ales on offer around Sheffield seem to have gone all exotic during my month off; since I’ve started drinking again, I’ve had beers with mint, salted caramel, mangoes, pork scratchings, raspberries and more. Some of them have turned out to be surprisingly delicious, while others were not quite to my taste. Nevertheless, it’s good to see so many interesting beers on offer alongside some of the more traditional fare. Anyway, here are my three favourite beers from the past few weeks: What: You Scratch My Back (5.5%) – Abbeydale (Sheffield) Where: Railway Hotel, Bramall Lane Brewed using pork scratchings from Sheffield-based pub snack producers SmoFo, this love-it-or-hate-it stout has certainly divided opinion since its release. Such strong flavours can easily overpower a beer but I was firmly in the love-it camp; the smokiness and saltiness perfectly complimented the rich, roasted stout flavours. The beer was visually pleasing too with its deep black colour and tan-coloured head. What: Betrayal (4.0%) – Wild Weather Ales (Reading) Where: Sheaf View This was the first beer I’d had from Wild Weather but if the quality of this one is anything to go by it certainly won’t be the last. A slightly cloudy-looking American pale ale (I presume it was unfined), the aroma was packed with tropical fruit. Upon drinking, mango and pineapple immediately came to the fore, before making way for more citrus-like Mosaic hop flavours. One I will definitely be looking out for again in future. What: Dry Minted Mojito Sour (5.3%) – Lost Industry/Steel City (Sheffield) Where: Shakespeares Another offering in the long list of collaborations between these two Sheffield microbreweries, this was one of the rare and interesting beers available at Shakespeares’ recent Stupidly Delicious Beers event. A traditional sour beer with fresh mint added at the end, the result was a hugely refreshing drink which, as the name suggests, was very reminiscent of a certain Cuban cocktail. Surprisingly good! Have you tried any interesting beers around Sheffield in the last few weeks? Get in touch with your three favourites (and a few words about each of them) and you could have your selections featured in next month’s Beer Matters. Dominic Nelson

Inn Brief

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The Farfield Inn on Neepsend Lane recently sold at auction for £250,000 – more than two-and-a-half-times its guide price. The buyer is reported to be an individual with experience of pub ownership in Sheffield. The site of the former Botanical pub on Ecclesall Road is currently being refurbished and is set to re-open as a late-bar named the Three Monkeys. The Blind Monkey in Walkley, formerly the Firwood Cottage, has announced that it intends to be open in time for the Easter weekend. The Mason’s Arms in Crookes has closed following the departure of the landlord. The future of the building remains unclear. New landlords have taken over the Three Merry Lads on Redmires Road, Lodge Moor. An offer of £2.95 per pint on all cask ales has been introduced for CAMRA members. The Dog and Partridge on Trippet Lane has a new guest kitchen and is now open 7 days a week. Olu from the Wing Kings will be serving up a selection of chicken wings, waffles, traditional pub food and desserts. The owners of the Iberico Cafe in Crookes have submitted a planning application to convert the business into a micropub. A decision is due by March 23. Prices at the Bradfield Brewery tap at the Nags Head, Stacey Bank, are set to increase from £2 per pint to £2.30 on all cask ales. A new Marston’s pub has opened on Chaucer Road, S5, under the Generous George brand. The Eight Foot Way will serve a selection of five rotating real ales and has an extensive food menu. The Bull’s Head in Ranmoor is currently closed. There are plans to reopen the venue as a gastropub. A planning application has been submitted to the council to build a new microbrewery in a unit in the Old Dairy on Broadfield Road. The Church House on St James Street is opening a fully soundproofed rehearsal and recording space upstairs at the end of February. The pub, which hosts live music every weekend, has also expanded its range of real ales and now features three regular beers from national breweries plus one local guest ale. The Tap & Tankard on Cambridge Street closed its doors for the last time on 3 February. The new Loxley Brewery, based at the Wisewood Inn, has had its brewing vessels delivered and hopes to start production in the near future. The brewery also now has a logo, an Instagram account and a Facebook page.

Hop Hideout, Nether Edge

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Hop Hideout on Abbeydale Road has been named the UK’s Independent Beer Retailer of the Year at the Drinks Retailing Awards 2018, which took place at the Dorchester Hotel in London on 7 February. The specialist beer shop, which opened in November 2013, is run by Jules Gray and Will Linford and is dedicated to showcasing local breweries from Yorkshire and beyond. As well as a selection of more than 450 bottled and canned beers (plus a hand-picked range of quality ciders), the shop contains a small bar with 6 taps, at least one of which always features a CAMRA-approved key keg. You can expect to find local favourites such as Bradfield and Thornbridge alongside rarer and more experimental breweries from further afield. Congratulations to Jules and Will on their award. Dominic Nelson