Author: Guest

We can’t quite believe another year has passed! 2025 has FLOWN by as our first full year as an Employee Owned business, and we can’t wait to head into our 30^th anniversary year – we’ve got some exciting plans in the pipeline, so watch this space!

Heading onto bars before the end of the year, we’ve got Winter, a crisp and flavourful 4.2% pale ale brewed with Ekuanot hops, and Holly, a new addition to our gorgeous botanical print inspired series. This one features Nelson Sauvin, Willamette and Cascade hops which come together to bring a cornucopia of citrus flavour and a well-balanced bitterness.

We’ve also got an exciting 6.5% IPA on the way – Further Greetings from Fort Mill, in collaboration with Amor Artis, who have visited us all the way from South Carolina! This one features Plumage Archer, a grain older than the USA, upon which we’ve layered oodles of punchy hop character from Simcoe, Centennial and Cashmere. Spicy and herbal, with notes of oily resin softened by hints of fruity melon.

Heralding the new year, as is our tradition, we’ll have Doctor Morton’s Duck Baffler back (4.1%), a pale ale single hopped with Citra which is always incredibly popular. January also brings another returning favourite, Alchemy, a 4.2% Amarillo hopped delight! 

From the Brewers Emporium, Sticky Toffee Pudding Stout will be the latest addition to our Salvation series which is a surefire winner on a dark winter’s evening. Best enjoyed by a roaring fire. And just in time for Burns Night, we’ve got our first ever 80 Shilling Ale on the way in the Restoration series. Loosely inspired by a recipe dating from 1957, expect a satisfyingly smooth and well-balanced beer, malt-forward with a rich dried fruit character and a gentle bitterness in the finish. Bring on the haggis! 

Abbeydale Brewery, Sheffield’s longest established brewery, are celebrating this week, having been announced on the shortlist for three prestigious nationwide awards.

Firstly, they’ve scooped a spot in the top three in the Best Drinks Producer category in the famed BBC Food & Farming Awards. The three finalists in each category were chosen from thousands of nominations by a judging panel of experts, headed up by renowned chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Abbeydale are the only brewery to be recognised on the shortlist this year, alongside sparkling wine company Nyetimber and the Yorkshire Wolds Apple Juice Co in this highly competitive category. 

In addition, they’ve been nominated for the title of Brewery of the Year in the 2025 Brewers Choice Awards, organised by industry magazine the Brewers Journal, where their much-loved beer Black Mass has also been shortlisted in the “Beer of the Year” category.

Founded in 1996, Abbeydale Brewery are well known for producing a huge range of beers (in particular their flagship pale ale, Moonshine), blending innovation with heritage and reflecting these values across their beers. These nominations all come as the brewery heads towards the first anniversary of becoming 100% employee owned, a pioneering change in ownership which has seen them gain a reputation as industry trailblazers, including winning the Employer of the Year title from the Society of Independent Brewers & Associates (SIBA).

Co-Managing Director Dan Baxter says of the nominations “I’m so proud of the team and what we have achieved in making the shortlist for these fantastic awards. Since becoming an EOT last year, our core values of working within our community, championing our employees, doing business the right way and dong it all with a sense of humour – as well as, of course, making excellent beer! – have been made ever more visible for more people to see, and it’s wonderful to see that recognised.” His fellow Co-MD, Toby Grattidge, echoes these sentiments, adding “We’re incredibly proud of our first year of employee ownership and how hard everyone has worked. Publicans and drinkers alike have been so supportive, and it feels fantastic to see this reflected by being shortlisted on a national scale”.

This month, as the evenings start to draw in, the light vs dark duo of Archangel and Dark Angel make a return – both 4.5% and hopped with the combination of Simcoe and Vic Secret, but there the similarity ends! In the pale version, expect a bright tropical character and a piney, fresh finish. In the stout, the hops meld with the rich malt backbone for tasty fruitcake flavours and a long-lasting bitter finish. 

Also hitting bars this month, Doctor Morton’s Angler Management (4.1%) is fishing for compliments with its pleasant floral aroma and delicate lychee flavours. Very refreshing with a pleasingly crisp bitterness. 

And our next collaboration is with the fantastic North Riding Brew Co, friends of ours for many years and joining us to create the latest in our acclaimed Travel Poster series. Ride North to Scarborough (4.2%). Columbus, Citra and Vic Secret hops combine in this classic, convivial pale with a vivid, citrussy character and a juicy finish.

From the Restoration series we’ll be releasing our first ever Ruby Mild (4.8%) – rich, smooth and full bodied, with unsung heroes of the UK hop world Fuggles giving a gently floral blackcurrant character to balance out the mellow and moreish malt bill. Subtle yet satisfying and the perfect choice as we head into autumn.

Hope to see lots of you at the Steel City Beer Festival!

Cheers,

Team Abbeydale

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of Sheffield CAMRA’s branch magazine. Here, Richard Hough looks back to the time when he, and wife Kathryn, could call themselves Beer Matters editors.

We edited for a couple of years towards the end of last century – I know… During one barely believable 6-month period, we witnessed upheaval that changed the Sheffield brewing scene beyond recognition.

Stones

In January 1999, production of Stones’ Bitter came to an end in Sheffield with the closure of the Cannon Brewery.

William Stones established the Rutland Road site when he bought the lease of Neepsend Brewery in 1868. (That’s right, you read that correctly. The current Neepsend operation down the road, where I brewed for a while, is a resurrection of an old brewery name.)

Over the years, the brewery expanded, and Stones’ became the country’s biggest selling bitter, with one in every ten pints drunk in Britain being Stones’. At its peak, the Cannon Brewery was producing 50,000 hectolitres of cask-conditioned Stones’ each year. (1 hec = 176 pints = that’s a LOT of beer.) Such was the demand that the brewery was paying up to £1.5 million PER MONTH in duty by 1991. After that, the quality – and strength – of Stones’ Bitter deteriorated, as Bass chose to promote Worthington instead.

Following the closure of the Cannon Brewery in January 1999, Stones’ became known as the ‘beer on wheels’ after Highgate (Walsall), Thwaites (Blackburn), and Everard’s (Leicester), all had a go at brewing it.

As for the brewery site, it is now a derelict shell, and a bit of an eyesore, although the Urban Artists of Sheffield would strongly disagree! The more modern reception centre is currently occupied by an accounting firm.

(The site is about to be redeveloped for housing, with a little encouragement from the South Yorkshire Mayor! – ed)

Years later, production of Stones’ returned to Sheffield, albeit on a much smaller scale. True North took on the name, the old recipe and, happily, returned the ABV to its original 4.1%.

So to Ward’s…

Ward’s

In 1868, Septimus Henry Ward moved to Sheffield and joined an ailing brewery. Due to his financial clout, the primary brand was named Ward’s Best Bitter. In 1876, they bought the Soho Brewery on Ecclesall Road and renamed it the Sheaf Island Brewery (after the brewery on Effingham Street); later the business became S. H. Ward & Co and the Eccy Road site became the Sheaf Brewery.

There was wartime suffering when, in 1940, three incendiary bombs landed on the brewery, killing 4 workers. Ward’s recovered post-war, and continued to brew their distinctive bitter, all the while improving and expanding their pub estate.

[This is from David Lloyd Parry’s excellent STINGO: “Then in 1973 a successful bid for the company was made by Vaux of Sunderland. Ward’s continued healthily up to the time of writing (1995) with 229 tied houses.”]

YOUR BEER – YOUR BREWERY said the gold lettering shining proudly atop the tower.

Then greed took over. In April 1999, it was announced that Ward’s Brewery was to close. At the time, the company was making £4 million profit a year. But the new owners, Swallow Hotels, wanted more. It closed in July 1999, and 600 jobs went to the wall.

“It was revealed later that the price achieved was several million pounds less than the buyout that would have saved the brewery.” Swallow Hotels, hang your heads in shame.

The old entrance arch still remains, but the site of the Sheaf Brewery has been converted to apartments, with the ground floor now occupied by a Wetherspoons pub, The Sheaf Island. A large metal sculpture of a hop cone serves as a reminder of the days when the aroma of brewing filled the air on Eccy Road.

The closure of Ward’s left the tiny Kelham Island as Sheffield’s largest brewery. It had only been established in 1990! Astonishing that they could now call themselves the biggest in the Steel City. Not far down the line, they became the best too, when their flagship Pale Rider was voted Champion Beer of Britain in 2004.

This brewery is sadly no more with Kelham Island branded beers now being brewed at Thornbridge in Bakewell.

Some breweriana from the old Ward’s site can be seen at the Millowner’s Arms at the Kelham Island Museum, while Chris at the Harlequin is collating an interesting collection of Ward’s memorabilia.

Suffice to say, our short period editing Beer Matters back then saw change beyond belief. Interestingly, this upheaval paved the way for Sheffield to become the Beer Capital of Britain – something I will explore in future issues.

RICHARD HOUGH

STOP PRESS! Last month it was announced that True North is to discontinue production of Stones’ Bitter – see elsewhere in this issue for details. What next for this famous Sheffield brand, we wonder?