The bar features regular cask beers from Derby’s Brunswick Brewery and the Peak District’s own Peak Ales alongside up to two guest beers, which often include Sheffield breweries such as Bradfield and Kelham Island.
At the time of going to print, the date of the presentation is yet to be arranged although owing to the pub’s rural location it is likely we will arrange a minibus for one Saturday in January, weather permitting. Keep an eye out on our website and social media channels for more information.
Dominic Nelson Pub of the Month January 2018
We are delighted to announce that our first Pub of the Month award for 2018 goes to one of the more remote pubs in our branch area, the Eyre Arms in Hassop. In reaching the required 10 votes, it has become the first of our Derbyshire pubs to win the award since the Angler’s Rest in Bamford did so back in April 2015.
This 300-year-old ale house has hardly changed over the centuries, and still features the impressive arms of the Eyre family above an open fireplace. It is a true country pub, with a cosy interior, immaculate beer garden and high-quality, home-cooked food – not forgetting the real ale on offer.
The bar features regular cask beers from Derby’s Brunswick Brewery and the Peak District’s own Peak Ales alongside up to two guest beers, which often include Sheffield breweries such as Bradfield and Kelham Island.
At the time of going to print, the date of the presentation is yet to be arranged although owing to the pub’s rural location it is likely we will arrange a minibus for one Saturday in January, weather permitting. Keep an eye out on our website and social media channels for more information.
Dominic Nelson
The bar features regular cask beers from Derby’s Brunswick Brewery and the Peak District’s own Peak Ales alongside up to two guest beers, which often include Sheffield breweries such as Bradfield and Kelham Island.
At the time of going to print, the date of the presentation is yet to be arranged although owing to the pub’s rural location it is likely we will arrange a minibus for one Saturday in January, weather permitting. Keep an eye out on our website and social media channels for more information.
Dominic Nelson 
Leading the funked-up festival carols is our good friend Tom Read. Tom is an international singer-songwriter and producer, based in Oxford, who has written and collaborated with many Western and Asian artists, as well as performing and releasing his own music.
Wood-fired pizzas will be served from 4pm onwards with The Al Fresco Pizza Company, a mobile wood-fired pizzeria that create fresh, authentic, Neapolitan pizzas in their converted Land Rover Defender, using the highest quality ingredients. Families are welcome, with activities for small ones between 4-6pm, and festivities (for the grown ups) lasts until midnight.
In other Christmassy news, we have a shiny new website. Visit 
Keep your eyes peeled for our limited edition Raspberry Baltic Porter, infused with cinnamon. God Rest Ye Berry Gentlemen (4.3%) is crisp, sharp and dark, and available in small quantities from both the brewery and local bottle shops.
Finally, from all of us at Emmanuales and The Sheffield Brewery Company, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Hoppy New Year!
Nick Law 
Next up we’d like to introduce a new series, with artwork created by Adam Cooper, who has designed a film inspired collection for us. Space Opera (4.3%) is being released just in time to coincide with a certain space themed epic franchise hitting the big screen! The pump clip will feature (in what we believe to be a first for beer!) a QR code which will lead you on to a little animated surprise once scanned, so be sure to give it a go!
The merriment of the season is undoubtedly upon us, and so we have a couple of tasty festive beers to get you in the holiday spirit – Advent (4.6%) features Mount Hood and Liberty hops for spicy and herbal notes with a floral finish, and Doctor Morton’s Santa’s Helper (4.1%) – we hear the big guy prefers this to sherry so get on his nice list with this quaffable pale brew.
Resolution (4.2%) will take us nicely through into 2018 with an orange peel aroma, citrus and bubblegum notes and a peachy finish. January will also witness the return of Doctor Morton’s ever popular Duck Baffler (4.1%), a pale beer with shedloads of magnificent Citra hops, for a wonderfully fresh and fragrant aroma, citrusy on the palate with a refreshing bitter finish. And finally we will have Bootlegger (4.4%) ready to take you on a swashbuckling adventure with flavours of grapefruit and citrus, balanced by a fresh piney character.
We’re so excited to see what 2018 brings… we have a feeling it’s gonna be a good ‘un!
Cheers!
Laura 
With up to 10 real ales and ciders, generally a mixture of the brewery’s own offerings plus guest beers from around Yorkshire, there’s plenty of choice for drinkers. CAMRA members enjoy a discount of 20p per pint on all cask ales. The pub also offers a wide selection of craft keg beers and an extensive range of bottled continental brews and there’s plenty of food available, with modern takes on pub classics alongside a few more exotic choices.
You can join us for the award presentation at the Head of Steam on Tuesday 12 December, arriving from around 8pm for a presentation about an hour later. With the Arundel Gate bus interchange just around the corner, there are plenty of options for public transport, and it is also the last social before Christmas so we are hoping for a good turnout. See you there!
Dominic Nelson 
As always, the festival was completely organised and staffed by volunteers, who very kindly gave up their time to ensure that the festival went as smoothly as possible. As a thank-you, a day trip to York was arranged for the volunteers; photos from this will appear in the next issue of Beer Matters.
The volunteers’ work began on the Monday of festival week, with two days of frantically constructing stillages, bars and stalls and then positioning, venting and tapping all of the beers and ciders. This year, we had 227 cask ales, 46 ciders and perries, 36 key keg beers and 22 different cans and bottles.
Wednesday evening, the opening night of the festival, was a real who’s who of the Sheffield beer scene, as representatives from many of our local breweries and pubs paid us a visit. The evening also saw the judging panels select their beers of the festival; the overall gold award was bestowed on Weird Beard’s Curse of the Ryeclops (7.5% rye IPA), with silver and bronze going to Blue Bee’s Ginger Beer (4.5% pale ale with added ginger) and North Riding Brew Pub’s Doomguy (6.2% chocolate orange porter) respectively. Seven local brewers won awards in the categories, including Sheffield Brewery’s Crucible Best (3.8%), which took gold in the Bitter category.
The Friday evening session is traditionally fancy-dress night, and this year a number of volunteers got into the spirit of things, working their shifts in an array of Victorian attire.
Drinkers were treated to plenty of entertainment, if not the best of weather, with live music provided by Do$ch, J&M Select, The Beat Merchants, Highway Child, Vegas 6 and the traditional Saturday afternoon performance from the Loxley Silver Band. Visitors could also experience the immense River Don Steam Engine in operation at various times during the festival.
Our chosen charity this year was the Weston Park Cancer Charity, and proceeds from the quiz, collection buckets and donations of unused beer tokens added up to a total of £1,300, which has now been donated and very gratefully received.
We must say thank-you, of course, to all of our sponsors who made the festival possible, especially to our main sponsors; Bradfield Brewery, who again sponsored the pint glasses and the Millowners Arms; SkyBet for sponsoring the half-pint glasses and Neepsend Brewery and Wetherspoons for sponsoring the volunteers’ t-shirts.
We hope that everyone who came to the festival had a great time, and whether you made it or not we hope to see you all next year! 
