A recent addition to the Sheffield brewing scene, the brewery of Saint Mars of the Desert (SMOD) is perhaps unique as we believe it is the only Yorkshire brewery to possess a coolship. Based at 90 Stevenson Road, Attercliffe, SMOD commenced brewing in late 2018. The equipment was mostly supplied by Sheffield-based Moeschle (UK) Ltd.
Coolships (koelschips in Flemish) are vessels which are relatively shallow and have a large surface area: imagine a large, shallow bath. They allow the wort to cool quickly and enable spontaneous fermentation with lactobacilli, which provide sourness. It also becomes the home for Brettanomyces and other wild yeasts, which together add earthy notes. After a few hours, possibly overnight, the wort is moved to a fermentation vessel and, over time, brewer’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) finishes the fermentation. The initial process can only happen during the cooler months of the year as this reduces unwanted moulds.
The coolship at Saint Mars of the Desert
In Belgium, this method is used to produce lambic. The wort is often run into oak tuns, where it may remain for periods of up to three years. Lambics are then blended to produce gueuze (often called “oude gueuze”, which means it is unsweetened). Fruit may also be steeped in lambic. Boon Oude Kriek (6%) is a prime example: drinking Boon Kriek (4%) alongside Delirium Red (8%) recently was like comparing a complex fine wine to alcoholic fruit juice.
Since 2013, Elgood’s Brewery in Cambridgeshire have used a set of two (formerly redundant) open copper cooling trays situated at the top of their tower brewery in order to initiate spontaneous fermentation. This is followed by a long period in stainless steel tanks to produce ‘cambic’: Blonde Lambic Style Sour Ale (6%), Coolship Fruit and Coolship Mango (both 5%). Elgood’s won the ‘best sour beer lambic in Europe’ class at the 2015 World Beer Awards with their Coolship Fruit receiving a gold medal at the 2017 International Brewing Awards.
Oak lambic tuns at Rodenbach in Belgium
Also, in the UK, Burning Sky in Sussex installed a coolship in 2017 while The London Beer Company are building the UK’s first mobile coolship. Samuel Smith brew organic fruit beer at Melbourn Bros’ All Saints Brewery in Stamford, Lincolnshire. Here, a coolship is used to allow the wort to cool rapidly before yeast is added. Across the Atlantic, several breweries use coolships. For example, Allagash (Portland, Maine) produce a Cerise (6.7%).
We look forward to seeing the SMOD coolship in use and sampling ‘Attercliffe Sour’ as it joins Barnsley Brie and Henderson’s Relish as a niche South Yorkshire product.
Dave Pickersgill
Sheffield Beer Week has a number of great local breweries involved in its fifth year such as Neepsend Brew Co, Kelham Island Brewery, Thornbridge and Abbeydale and also national and international breweries including Wander Beyond, Wild Card Brewery, Burning Sky, Moor, Orbit and Mikkeller. Brand new Sheffield brewery, Saint Mars of the Desert, will also be hosting their first Sheffield Beer Week event; adding to the vibrancy of the Sheffield beer scene. Look out for over ten beer collaborations specially brewed for the beer week to be released through the celebrations. There will also be two beer and food diners hosted this year with Thornbridge Brewery and Burning Sky partnering on a closing event and renowned beer and food author Melissa Cole and Abbeydale Brewery working together. Charity partnership for this year sees the beer week supporting The Lord Mayor of Sheffield Magid Magid’s Charity Fund and the British Hop Association.
Sheffield Beer Week’s additional strands for 2019, on top of its core beer and food, community and heritage, sees a continued celebration of women working in the beer industry, building on this to cover diversity and inclusion in beer and events. With a brewsters’ tap takeover collaboration with Norwich based organisers Fem.Ale and award-winning beer shop Hop Hideout on 15 March. As International Women’s Day on 8 March precedes the beer week, it’s a timely celebration. On Monday March 11th new Sheffield based LGBTQ+ beer group Out and About will celebrate its launch with an Abbeydale Brewery beer collaboration at the Devonshire Cat pub.
The People’s Photography Trail will build on the success of last year’s photography exhibition trail across multiple venues with a broader focus on the people in the beer industry and beer lovers – tackling the lack of visual representation of the diverse range of people who work in and drink beer. We think it’s really crucial to promote increased diversity by showing relatable role models, often an encouraging force in itself, as ‘seeing is believing’ is an extremely powerful tool. Sheffield Beer Week will be working closely with photographers Nicci Peet (follow her project on https://www.niccipeet.co.uk/women-in-beer) and Mark Newton (his Beer Yorkshire project) to produce this photography meets beer trail around the city. Two talented local designers, Jim Connolly and Lorelle Skelton, have been commissioned to create pin badges which can be won on completion of the trail. Head here for further information: https://sheffieldbeerweek.co.uk/the-peoples-photography-trail/
Sheffield Beer Week is proud to be a part of the wider ‘Festival of the Outdoors’ initiative from The Outdoor City. With walking, running and cycling events. Including local historian, Sheffield CAMRA’s Pub Heritage Officer and British Guild of Beer Writers’ 2018 awards shortlisted author Dave Pickersgill’s popular Sheffield Pub Heritage Walk , a Mikkeller Running Club 5km and the ‘beertography’ trail encouraging people to walk, run or cycle The People’s Photography Trail route.
Kicking of the week on Friday 8 March, Sheffield’s craft beer festival, Indie Beer Feast launches (and grows to two days in 2019). A celebration of great independent craft beer in the iconic Abbeydale Picture House with brewery bars (20+) and street food. The beer festival champions and supports The Everyone Welcome initiative. Newly added for this year is the ‘Seasonal Celebration’ element which sees a number of breweries at the festival brewing up a special beer with a seasonal ingredient to first pour at the event. British Guild of Beer Writers’ member and Beer Writer of the Year 2017 Adrian Tierney-Jones will be heading up the tasting and judging panel to announce the Indie Beer Feast ‘Beer of the Festival’ picked from this seasonal celebration list. On International Women’s Day March 8th there will be a specially hosted Fem.Ale tasting at the beer festival in conjunction with Hop Hideout and Neptune Brewery.
The printed and online 2019 guide is available now: https://issuu.com/exposed_magazine/docs/sheffbeerweek_0219
Head to http://sheffieldbeerweek.co.uk for all other information.
Jules Gray
Hidden away behind West Street, the Red Deer on Pitt Street is definitely one of the gems of the City Centre real ale scene. Originally dating from 1825, the pub originally comprised three small rooms with a central bar area. This was opened out in the 1980s and the bar repositioned to provide the present format with an L-shaped lounge. The “gallery”, a raised area towards the rear of the pub, was added in 1993 and this leads on to a beer garden. Formerly a Tetley’s pub (and Gilmours before that), for many years in the early days of Sheffield & District CAMRA, the Red Deer was the regular meeting place for the branch, as it was one of the few Sheffield pubs to retain handpumps.
Licensee Jake Nickles took over the pub in August 2010, having previously worked in pubs and bars in London and the Midlands. His focus on customer service and real ale quickly re-established the pub’s reputation for showcasing quality cask beer. The bar displays an impressive range of eight real ales, with regular offerings from Blue Bee, Moorhouse’s and Welbeck Abbey, along with oft-changing guest beers. There is a hand-pulled cider too, whilst a good selection of malt whiskies is also available.
The Red Deer has been a prolific winner of our Pub of the Month accolade over the years, with the most recent award coming back in August 2015. As well as real ale drinkers, it remains popular with students from the nearby University of Sheffield, and since 2016 the gable end has featured a large mural of a girl reading a book, painted by Austrian artist Frau Isa.
The pub is open from noon-midnight Monday to Thursday, noon-1am Friday and Saturday, and noon-11pm Sunday. Quality pub food is available every day, and in recent years there has been a focus on vegan and vegetarian food, so everyone is catered to. On Tuesday evenings there is a fairly challenging pub quiz, plus regular live music Saturday nights and alternate Sundays. CAMRA members can enjoy a 10% discount on pints of real ale and real cider.
We will be presenting the Red Deer with their well-deserved award on Tuesday 12 March, arriving from 8pm onwards. We hope you can join us!
The Eyam Real Ale Company have left their old premises and moved next door into the former Crafty Red Fox unit at the Eyam Hall Craft Centre (S32 5QW). Beers from the 1.5bbl brewery will continue to be sold in the shop as well as at pubs and festivals around the region. The shop also stocks a range of beers all made within 25 miles of the village. The new opening hours will be 10:30-16:30 Wed-Fri, 10:30-17:00 Sat-Sun.
The Brewery of St Mars of the Desert taproom is now open every Friday afternoon between 12 noon and 8pm. There are plans to extend opening hours to three days a week in the not too distant future.
The new owners of the former Sentinel Brewery on Shoreham Street have now registered the business as Triple Point Brewing. The first beer from the new brewers, Debut IPA (5.5%), was released on 8 February although the building still features branding from the previous incarnation.
Mitchell’s Hop House have released a statement denying rumours they had ceased brewing. No brewing took place during Dry January, but the brewery have confirmed they are set to recommence shortly. Mitchell’s bottled beers will now be contract bottled at Staffordshire Brewery rather than being bottle-conditioned in-house.
On Tuesday 12 February, we headed to the Blake Hotel in Walkley for our first Pub of the Month award of 2019. As always, there was a good attendance from both branch members and pub regulars alike as the pub celebrated its first Pub of the Month award since August 2012.
There was a celebratory atmosphere and, as expected, a good selection of cask ales available, including a couple from Neepsend Brewery plus favourites such as Shiny and Mallinsons. There was also a first appearance for our new-look Pub of the Month certificate, which will take pride of place behind the bar.
Our vice-chairman Patrick Johnson was present to make the presentation on behalf of the branch to Dave Barber and the rest of the Blake Hotel team. Congratulations once again to everyone at the pub on their award!
As I write this, it’s a day of unseasonable warmth – a perfect day to head to the pub, you might say! The days are starting to get longer and the sun is coming out more so we’ll all be looking forward to more pub trips in the weeks and months ahead. The pubs also look forward to this time of year as those who have been abstaining for Dry January realise what they’ve been missing and begin to ease themselves back into their old habits. That said, it was nice to see this year that more pubs have been embracing the month, for example, by offering more alcohol-free beers, and using it as an opportunity to attract new potential customers, who will hopefully keep coming back and supporting their local.
Those who didn’t give up the real ale for a month were, as always, treated to some excellent beers around the pubs and clubs of Sheffield. I used the month to try out some pubs that I don’t visit that often – some of them weren’t quite to my personal taste, but in plenty of others I was rewarded with a warm welcome and the pleasing sight of a bank of handpumps offering an interesting choice of ales. Either way, you never know where you might find your new favourite watering hole, so why not get out there and try a new pub for yourself?
What: Never Mind the Kent Hops (5.0%) – London Brewing Co (Finchley) Where: Lescar It’s not too often I pick a bitter for this column, but this one was Extra Special(!). The beer poured a rich brown colour, with the slightest bit of haze and a small creamy head. The aroma was complex, with a slight maltiness complimented by hints of pine and berries. Upon drinking, the initial flavours of caramel and berries gave way to a dry, hoppy finish which lingered for some time and left you wanting to go back for more. A great example of the style.
What: Mosaic (4.5%) – Great Heck (near Goole) Where: University Arms Using a single hop to flavour a beer can be a risky strategy, but when done right the results can be exquisite. Great Heck’s range of single-hopped golden ales is consistently good, but this is the best I’ve had so far, with the Mosaic hops imparting a deeply fruity, tropical flavour along with a pleasant bitterness that made this beer very drinkable. It was appealing on the other senses too, with its perfectly clear golden colour in the glass and a crisp, hoppy aroma on the nose.
What: Papa Jangles Voodoo Stout (4.5%) – Totally Brewed (Nottingham) Where: Itchy Pig Ale House Regular readers will know I’ve never made any apologies for my love of dark beers. While I understand the reasons that not all pubs offer stouts and porters on cask, it’s always a highlight for me when they do. This was a nice example of a traditional stout where the dark malt is allowed to take centre stage. My pint was almost black with an attractive tan head, and upon tasting it had classic bittersweet characteristics of chocolate and roasted coffee flavours. Great stuff.
Next month, I’ll be bringing three of my favourite beers from some of the Sheffield Beer Week events taking place around the city.
Our branch AGM takes place at Shakespeares on Tuesday 2 April at 8pm and one of the main items on the agenda is electing the committee that runs the branch for the year ahead. A number of long-standing members are unfortunately having to scale down their involvement, but this means we have some great opportunities for some new faces to get involved and give the branch a bit of new energy and enthusiasm.
Fancy a voluntary role on the committee? Here are the jobs we will possibly have available:
Beer Matters Editor and Webmaster: responsible for the content of our branch magazine and website and building a working relationship with local breweries and publicans that supply news and adverts.
Press and Social Media Officer: Spreads the word and ensures coverage of our events and campaigning themes, makes sure our viewpoint is reported when issues of our interest are topical, participates in media interviews, builds and maintains relationships with local journalists and influencers.
Social Secretary: Organises and hosts various social events for members throughout the year including guided pub crawls, brewery tours, beer tastings and more.
Young Members’ Contact: Acts as a local contact for the wider network of young members (aged 18-30) and takes the initiative to get more of our younger members actively involved in the branch by organising specific young members socials and liaising with the universities’ real ale societies.
Members are also welcome to put their names forward for other committee positions if they are interested. In the event that there are multiple candidates for a role then an election will be held at the AGM. If you have any questions about what being on the committee entails, please come along to a branch meeting or contact the branch by email or on Facebook.
Our brand new special New Dawn is a vegan-friendly session IPA which comes in at 4.5% and is flavoured with real lemon zest, Cascade, Amarillo, Kazbek and Mosaic hops. It has a great taste with a refreshing kick and a perfect way to welcome in the Spring. This will be available in cask and keg from the beginning of March so please contact us to place your order. New Dawn will also be available in bottles from our shop on the Percy Street entrance. We’re open between 10am and 4pm so you can pick up your favourites in bottle and mini-keg – best check our Facebook page to see what’s in stock or pop along anyway to have a browse and meet the team led by head brewer, Marv.
Our craft lager, Percy St. continues to find new customers as we spread into new markets. Its light crisp flavour is proving to be a hit with customers and is available to order from us direct.
We’ve been busy decorating to spruce up the walls in the brewery so it’s worth a visit at the next Peddler weekend when we’ll be open on Saturday 2 March. We’ll also be continuing our love ofmusic and beer down in the Cellar Room Sessions: thanks to SwearBox for February’s gig which went down a storm with punters and members. Don’t forget if you join our Beer Club you get 10% off at the bar and in the shop.
Coming up on Saturday 2 March we have a double bill, with an excellent covers band, the Zeroes,and Irish jig band, the Peddlers– always a welcome return.
Our heartfelt and sincere thanks to those pubs and kind folk who continue to support our brewery as we continue to deliver great tasting beers for your enjoyment!
As mentioned in last month’s Beer Matters, Saturday 30 March will see the return of the Sheffield Beer Census for 2019.
This city-wide survey is organised in order to collect information on which beers are available in the city on a particular day. We have been doing this for a few years now, and we are pleased to say that despite various claims from other cities such as Norwich, Derby and Nottingham, the information on the number of beers on sale usually shows that Sheffield can rightly claim to be Beer Capital of the UK.
This year we are looking for more keen volunteers to help collect the information. There are several routes you can join, or if you live in an area not listed you can help by simply visiting one or two of your local pubs. Each route will be led by a designated leader who will have the survey forms and a plan for visiting the various pubs. Many routes will involve public transport at some point, but your route leader will have details and can advise on costs and timings.
Daytime crawls will start at 12 noon, and eventually arrive at the Red Deer on Pitt Street by early evening to hand in the completed forms. Evening crawls then start from the Red Deer moving through the city centre before regrouping in the Kelham Island area.
If you would like to join on one of the crawls simply be at the start point for midday and look out for someone carrying survey forms or a copy of Beer Matters. If you are unable to join on a crawl, but would still like to help with collecting information, you can enter information directly onto our survey website, track.beer/survey.
We will need the name of the pub, and then for each cask ale on sale that day we need the name of the beer; the brewery; % strength; and price of a pint. There will be a Notes section where you can add if the pub serves real cider and keg beer. Please note only submissions made on 30 March will be counted towards the final totals.
The routes this year (and how to get to the starting points) are as follows:
Will be done in the evening after all volunteers meet at the Red Deer around 7pm.
It would be great to see a few more faces on the crawls, and even better if we can prove yet again that Sheffield is unrivalled in its range and quality of beer on sale. Hope to see you there!
2019 sees Sheffield Beer Week celebrate its fifth year as a city-wide beer festival and umbrella beer focused event occurring in multiple venues, launching from Monday 11 March.
It is with great excitement that the first few breweries have been announced for 2019 #SheffBeerWeek events. Follow updates as they are released via our Twitter. Not only do we have great local breweries such as Neepsend, Kelham Island Brewery, Thornbridge and Abbeydale all getting involved but a list of national and international breweries including Wander Beyond, Wild Card Brewery and Mikkeller. Brand new Sheffield brewery, Saint Mars of the Desert, will also be hosting their first Sheffield Beer Week event; adding to the vibrancy of the Sheffield beer scene.
With beer tourism alive and kicking in Sheffield, the city’s beer reputation was solidified with research after 2016’s University of Sheffield commissioned Beer Report written by broadcaster Pete Brown. It is great to see traction building in Sheffield’s beer scene with recent mentions of the city in the Guardian’s ‘Top 50 UK Pubs’ featuring Shakespeares pub and The Times article ‘Sheffield: the northern capital of cool’.
Jaega Wise of Wild Card Brewery. Credit: Nicci Peet
Sheffield Beer Week’s additional strands for 2019, on top of its core beer and food, community and heritage, sees a continued celebration of women working in the beer industry, building on this to cover diversity and inclusion in beer. With a brewsters’ tap takeover collaboration with Norwich based organisers Fem.Ale and award-winning beer shop Hop Hideout. As International Women’s Day on 8 March precedes the beer week, it’s a timely moment to take stock of and celebrate women’s contributions.
The People’s Photography Trail will build on the success of last year’s photography exhibition trail across multiple venues with a broader focus on the people in the beer industry and beer lovers – tackling the lack of visual representation of the diverse range of people who work in and drink beer. Sheffield Beer Week will be working closely with photographers Nicci Peet (follow her project on niccipeet.co.uk/women-in-beer) and Mark Newton (his Beer Yorkshire project) to produce this photography meets beer trail around the city.
There will be a continued celebration of our Norwich City of Ale partnership and active exploration of the greener side of Sheffield – The Outdoor City, with walking, running and cycling events. Including local historian, Sheffield CAMRA’s Pub Heritage Officer and British Guild of Beer Writers’ awards-shortlisted author Dave Pickersgill’s popular Sheffield Pub Heritage Walk and a Mikkeller Running Club event.
The Sheffield Beer Week Photography Trail in the Sheffield Tap. Credit: Mark Newton
On Friday 8 March we kick off the week with Sheffield’s craft beer festival, Indie Beer Feast. which has grown to two days for 2019. A celebration of great independent craft beer in the iconic Abbeydale Picture House with brewery bars and street food, the beer festival champions and supports The Everyone Welcome initiative.
Jules Gray, Sheffield Beer Week Director, said: “Sheffield Beer Week wouldn’t be what it is without those involved. It shows the unity and community of the Sheffield and global beer scene. Beer tourism is a crucial cog to Sheffield’s continued success and positive economic growth. The city is not only attracting engaged and inquisitive tourists to the area for beer, outdoor sports and creative arts but also new beer-focused businesses to locate here. The beer week really adds vibrancy to the city, boosts the local economy and keeps the high street buzzing with good beer chatter”.
For full listings of all Sheffield Beer Week events taking place, head to sheffieldbeerweek.co.uk.
