Ey up everyone, we hope 2019 has been good to you so far. We want to start off and say a huge thank you to everyone that donated prizes, money and turned up for our first birthday party back in November.
We recently presented a cheque to Weston Park Cancer Charity where the grand total came to £4511.38 – we were overwhelmed with the amount we raised so give yourselves a pat on the back.
Sheffield Beer Week is only around the corner and we’ve got some cracking events lined up. Orbit Brewery from London are coming up on Sunday 10 March for a beer showcase with cheese event all day, plus meet the brewer from 1-3pm.
On Thursday 14 March we have a meet the brewer event and brewery showcase from local legends Lost Industry Brewing from 5-8pm. As well as all of this we will have special Sheffield Beer Week offers on.
We’re also adding to our collection of fantastic Brew Foundation beers as we’ll be brewing a new cask beer and launching it at the Ale Club during Beer Week.
We first visited the Blake during the Sheffield Beer Census in June 2017 and were so impressed with it that we make a point of calling in whenever we are visiting friends in Walkley. Although we are neither local or regulars we are always made welcome.
Formerly part of the Stones brewery estate, the Blake is now owned by James Birkett, who also runs the Sheaf View and Wellington pubs, along with Neepsend Brewery. It’s a street corner pub with a central bar and three comfortable rooms, including one with a log burning stove for the cold nights. There’s also an outside sitting area for when it gets warmer.
On the bar you’ll find Neepsend Blonde plus 5 rotating guest ales, usually from small independent brewers. There’s also a good choice of international beers either on keg or in bottle and a scrumpy for cider lovers. On the shelves behind are over 180 different whiskies, plus a range of rums and gins. Pork pies are usually available as well as the usual snacks.
A major attraction of the Blake and the other pubs in this group is that they don’t have TVs or background music. You go there for the company and conversation. It’s surprising how many dog walkers find their way there too, and quiz lovers are welcome on a Wednesday.
It’s a great local – I wish it was nearer to where I live! You’ll find it open between 12 noon and 11.30pm seven days a week but it’s either uphill or downhill if you’re walking to this pub on Blake Street. A choice of either the 95 (Fulton Rd stop) or 31 buses will help get you there.
Malcolm Dixon
We will be presenting the Blake Hotel with their award on Tuesday 12 February, as usual arriving from around 8pm onwards for a presentation at 9pm. We hope you can join us!
On Tuesday 8 January, we took a quick break from our monthly branch meeting to make a very special presentation to the Fat Cat on Alma Street to mark 30 continuous years of inclusion in CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide.
The pub was opened in 1981 by the late Dave Wickett, with the first pint being pulled by legendary footballer Derek Dooley. Also working behind the bar on opening night was Diane Johnson, who is still assistant manager to this day.
The decision to import beers from small independent breweries outside Sheffield saw it quickly gain a dedicated following of real ale enthusiasts, and since entering the Good Beer Guide in 1989 there has been no looking back. It was also the first pub in Sheffield to introduce a no smoking room, and live music and games machines have always been eschewed.
Left to right: Duncan Shaw, Ed Wickett and Glyn Mansell
Sadly Dave is no longer with us, but his son Ed and the Fat Cat’s manager Duncan Shaw, who has looked after the pub for around ten years now, were both present to receive the 30-year certificate from branch chairman Glyn Mansell.
Handing over the award, Glyn said: “I first visited the Fat Cat soon after it opened. A few years later I attended union meetings on Sundays and after the meeting I would have a few pints and lunch with my brother. I have visited the Fat Cat over the years and still enjoy the atmosphere and of course the beer. As branch chairman I’m not supposed to have favourites, but I like the Fat Cat!”
Congratulations once again to Duncan, Diane, Ed and everyone involved with the Fat Cat over the years on their magnificent achievement. Here’s to a few more years!
It’s a hard life writing about beer! No sooner had I recovered from the festival than Christmas and New Year appeared on the horizon, bringing with them the usual raft of pub trips, from after-work outings to family catch-ups. Luckily most of the pubs I visited over the festive period had some great quality ales on offer – a perfectly kept pint of London Pride down in deepest Berkshire sticks in my memory. As much as I enjoy trying new beers and breweries, sometimes the classic ales can be just as satisfying when treated with respect.
As I sit and write this column with two months’ worth of cask ale check-ins to try and whittle down to a top three, I can’t help but wonder what 2019 will have in store. Will we see the continued dominance of pale and hoppy beers, or will porters, stouts or even milds start to see a comeback? And as hops get more expensive, who knows what kind of weird and wonderful flavours will end up in our nonik glasses this year. Whatever we end up with, I’m sure we’ll all have fun trying it.
What: Plump Penguin (5.0%) – Little Critters (Sheffield) Where: Bankers Draft Plum porter, hasn’t that been done before? Well of course, it’s by no means a new idea but this seasonal brew from Sheffield’s own Little Critters is one of the best takes on the concept I have tasted. The juicy, fruity flavour of the plums was perfectly balanced with the bitterness of the roasted malt, and the smooth, rich mouthfeel was reminiscent of the Titanic Brewery original. The perfect beer for those cold winter nights, it’s a shame it’s only available two months of the year!
What: Fakir (3.7%) – Empire (Slaithwaite) Where: Fat Cat Session beers can sometimes get a bit of a bad reputation, and often I can’t argue with that, but done properly they can be just as enjoyable as their more robust siblings. This low-ABV pale from was on the pumps at the Fat Cat, so I had reason to trust that it might be one of the better ones and I was not left disappointed. The beer poured a lovely straw colour and the aroma of the American hops was evident straight away. On tasting, the lower strength allowed the hops to come to the fore, without being overwhelmingly bitter. Definitely one you could stick with for the evening.
What: Storm (6.0%) – Ramsbury (Marlborough) Where: Gardeners Rest When I arrive at the bar to find a brewery I’ve not tried before, I don’t usually need much encouragement to rectify that. Wiltshire’s Ramsbury Brewery don’t make it up this way too often, but on this showing they’re more than welcome to make a return. This American pale ale, brewed using hops grown locally to the brewery was a nice amber colour in the glass with a slight hint of haze. Bursting with hop aroma on the nose, upon tasting the hop flavours balanced nicely with a slight boozy sweetness. Will certainly be looking out for this brewery again in the future.
Saturday 30 March will see the return of the Sheffield Beer Census after a break in 2018.
For those who haven’t taken part in the census before, Sheffield & District CAMRA organises this city-wide survey to try and get an idea of the full range of real ales and ciders available around the Steel City on a particular day. Volunteers take an area of the city each and visit as many pubs as possible, noting the name, brewery, ABV and price of every real ale available in each one.
Other cities such as Derby, Manchester and Norwich also undertake similar surveys as we compete for the coveted title of Beer Capital of the UK.
At the February branch meeting we are hoping to recruit volunteers to lead each route. If this is something you might be interested in, please come along for more information. Those wanting to lead routes in suburbs we don’t often get to, particularly in the north and east of the city, are especially welcome. The meeting will take place at the Old Queens Head, Pond Hill on Tuesday 5 February (8pm start).
Look out in next month’s Beer Matters for full details of all routes and route leaders.
It has been confirmed that the 45th Steel City Beer and Cider Festival will take place from 16–19 October 2019. The festival will again take place at the historic Kelham Island Industrial Museum for the sixth year running.
Festival planning is already underway; we had our first planning meeting in January where many of the committee positions were filled, with a large number of volunteers taking up the same positions as last year’s hugely successful festival. However, a number of roles, particularly deputy positions, still remain. Don’t worry if you haven’t been involved in organising a beer festival before, new faces are always welcome!
We hope to have the festival website and staffing form live as soon as possible. In the meantime you can register your interest in either volunteering at or sponsoring the festival by completing the form to be found on our website (under the Festivals tab).
Anyone interested in volunteering is invited to come along to our festival planning meetings. These will be held in the upstairs room at the Gardeners Rest (105 Neepsend Lane) every third Tuesday of the month at 8pm from now until September. Hope to see you there!
The Brewery of St Mars of the Desert is the latest brewery on the Sheffield beer scene. Based at 90 Stevenson Road, Attercliffe, this small brewery and tap room currently only has a small range of beers on offer but more are being planned in the near future.
Thornbridge have re-released long-time favourite AM:PM in cask. The beer will be available in all of the brewery’s tap pubs in Sheffield from 23 January. The brewery has also released its 2019 Year of Beer line-up, which as always features a number of interesting looking creations, including a pink grapefruit IPA (April), a summery tangerine wheat beer (July) and a Christmas pudding porter (December).
Sentinel Brewery and Brewhouse on Shoreham Street has reopened under new management. The tap room is currently open every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, plus Sheffield United home match days.
Hopscotch in its current form closed at the beginning of January – at the time of writing we had just distributed the last of our stock to Two Sheds, Guzzle Micropub, The Fat Cat, Boozehound@Cutlery Works and the Itchy Pig Ale House, five places that have given us amazing support over the last eight months, amongst others!
Joe has decided to take a step back from the brewery; he has a younger family than I do and did not have the time to push on to the next stage as planned. Rather than take Hopscotch on as a solo project, I’ve decided to rebrand. It didn’t feel right to carry on by myself as it was something we’d created together!
I’m re-registering the relevant licenses and certificates as Crosspool Ale Makers Society and hope to be trading again by the end of January. I’m pretty excited, I’ve had some equipment upgrades and renovated the brewery a little (although it currently looks a bit like a building site). I’ve also been ‘back in the kitchen’ working on recipes, both tweaking the old and coming up with the new.
Having spent Christmas at different ends of the country, myself and Dom decided a few nights away before New Year would be the perfect opportunity to visit a city we had both heard great things about, but never properly visited. Although admittedly a little far for a day trip, our pre-booked returns from Crewe to Glasgow were £30, and the hotel not much more so it was a perfectly affordable couple of days away.
Less than a five minute walk from the station, Shilling Brewing Company provided a warm welcome to a rather nippy Glasgow. The brewpub sits in an imposing building on the corner of West George Street. Alongside an excellent range of guest beers, four of the brewery’s beers were on the pumps, all brewed a couple of meters away. The full series could be purchased in a stylish flight deck and included Brew Tang Clan (5% coffee porter), Unicorn IPA (5.2% IPA) and Glasgow Red (4.4% red ale).
Throughout the evening we also visited a number of pubs and bars down Argyle Street on our walk into the city centre, sampling Magic Rock Dairyfreak (5.2% ice cream porter) in the Taphouse, Drygate Chimera (5.9% India pale lager) and ending in the CAMRA award-winning Bon Accord drinking Black Iris Snake Eyes (3.8% pale) and a couple of single malts. A highlight of the evening was being served Leffe on ice in a champagne bucket at a local Indian restaurant.
The following morning spent at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum listening to the free Organ Concert and learning a little more about Scottish History, before setting off for the West End. The first stop was at BrewDog directly opposite the Museum, where my drink of choice was admittedly something mulled in an attempt to combat the chill.
Lunch was enjoyed at the Kimchi Cult, a tripadvisor recommendation that certainly didn’t disappoint, and after that a five minute walk up Byres Road led us to the Curlers Rest where we enjoyed a pint of 2018’s Champion Beer of Britain, Siren Broken Dream.
Following this we headed to an unassuming little lane which all the locals kept telling us was a must visit on our trip. Ashton Lane had whisky bars, Belgian beer bars an Irish pub and everything in-between. Our first stop was the Innis & Gunn Beer Kitchen where we settled in for a couple of hours, with Dom trying most of their tap beers and a couple of bottles (Blood Red Sky, a 6.8% rum-barrel aged red ale, and Don’s Choice, a 6.2% coconut and rhubarb black IPA, stand out as highlights), and me repeatedly ordering Magic Rock Stiggy Pop (7.3%), a brilliant example of the NEIPA style.
Popping over the road our next stop was Brel, famed for its impressive beer menu incorporating everything from Belgian to Scottish beers, and its beautiful beer garden. Favourites sampled here were the classics including Leffe, St Bernardus, Boon, and a wee Drambuie too! A notice in the beer garden did make me smile noting no hill climbing or head dives – a subtle nod to the 45% angle that the tables were perched upon. By this time we decided to have a break from beer and try some more whiskies in the wonderfully-named Ubiquitous Chip – we were in Scotland after all.
A full Scottish breakfast and surprisingly clear heads rounded off a much-enjoyed weekend in Glasgow, a trip we will definitely be making again.
A few weeks before Christmas it was announced that Trevor Wraith, landlord of the Kelham Island Tavern, was to retire after 17 years in charge of the multi award-winning pub.
Mexborough-born Trevor’s pub career began as a barman before he and friend Philip McKenna took over the Rutland Arms on Brown Street in the early 1990s. After building up a positive reputation over his ten years in charge there, he left when an opportunity to renovate and reopen the somewhat dilapidated Kelham Island Tavern on Russell Street arose in 2001.
Trevor and business partner Lewis Gonda fully refurbished the pub and once reopened it soon became well-known around Sheffield and beyond for the variety and quality of its cask ale offering and its friendly, welcoming ambience.
Trevor (centre) being presented with one of the Kelham Island Tavern’s many awards.
It wasn’t long before the awards began to roll in and the Tavern was named Sheffield & District CAMRA’s Pub of the Year in 2004. It has gone on to win the accolade almost every year since, with the exception of 2013 when it was narrowly beaten by Shakespeares. The local awards led to more widespread recognition, and since 2004 the pub has also been named Yorkshire CAMRA Pub of the Year seven times, most recently in 2015.
But the reputation of the Kelham Island Tavern is not only confined to Yorkshire. In 2008 and 2009, the pub won CAMRA’s highest honour, the national Pub of the Year award. To this day it remains the only place ever to have won the award two consecutive years, and it continues to attract real ale enthusiasts from around the country.
Speaking to the Sheffield Star just after his retirement, Trevor explained: “We put a lot of work into it. We doubled in size with the extension at the back which made it more viable as a business because we could get more staff and had more space.”
“It was very intense for a few years, in 2009 it got very busy. I would spend time behind the bar a lot, and always made sure to be prominent. Up until last week I was still doing 60 to 80 hours a week, and was always involved.”
The news had been circulating for quite some time that Trevor was considering calling time on his career behind the bar, with various rumours abounding regarding who might be taking over the mantle. Once the confirmation was finally received and the identity of the new owners emerged, the changeover happened very quickly.
Those new licencees are Josh Jepson and Louise Singleton. Josh and Louise are both well-known in the Sheffield real ale scene; they own the nearby Blue Bee Brewery, where Josh is head brewer, and in recent years have been involved with the Steel City Beer & Cider Festival, Louise as festival organiser and Josh as beer orderer.
Speaking to the new management couple on their opening night, Josh explained that there are no plans at present to make major changes at the Kelham Island Tavern. There will still be 13 real ales on offer, always including a mild and either a porter or a stout, but we might perhaps expect to see one or two more Blue Bee brews appearing on the guest pumps! Many of the staff will be remaining too, including Lewis, who will still be providing a familiar face behind the bar.
Since Christmas, the pub has re-launched its lunchtime food menu with homemade hot specials, sandwiches and chips being joined by locally produced pies and breads. Food is served from noon to 3pm, Monday to Saturday.
Sheffield & District CAMRA would like to congratulate Trevor on his well-deserved retirement and we hope to make a presentation to him in the near future to recognise his outstanding contributions to real ale in Sheffield. All the details will be in Beer Matters and on our website once arranged.
