July always marks the release of our annual charity beer, which this year is in support of Friends of the Porter Valley, and it’s a 4.1% pale ale called Golden Duck, in honour of their incredibly popular annual duck race! Chinook and Mosaic hops combine for a flavoursome citrussy character with notes of grapefruit, lemon and dare we say even mandarin. Do a runner to the bar for this one – it’s quacking! 10p from every pint sold is donated to the charity.
Our seasonal specials see three more cask only pale ales making a return to our offering. Dr Morton’s 4 Yorkshiremen (4.1%) is light and orangey with Amarillo hops, we have the always popular Belfry (4.5%) which is single hopped with Cascade for characteristic fruity, floral aromas, and Phoenix from our Mythical Creatures inspired series, 4.1% with notes of elderflower and a delicate bitter finish.
Onto the Brewers Emporium and Steel & Grit (4.4%) sees us team up with fellow Sheffield independents, outdoor gear specialists Buffalo Systems, to create a globally inspired pale ale with a spirit of adventure. Showcasing Citra, Mosaic and new experimental hop HPA 065, expect a diverse flavour profile of juicy citrus fruits – notably grapefruit, alongside tropical pineapple and a spicy edge. Untamed and hazy with a tantalisingly crisp bitter finish.
And finally, in honour of our 30th anniversary, we’ve taken the flavours of a classic “Millionaire’s” shortbread and given them an extra layer of va va voom in Trillionaire Shortbread Stout, new to our Indulgence series! Luscious and full of flavour with biscuit malts, silky chocolate, unctuous caramel and rich vanilla.
Stefan and Emma are the owners and operators of High Peak Wine & Beer Company in Castleton, and the soon to open Hope Valley Tap & Bottle in Hope. With a background rooted firmly in independent drinks retail, their approach is built on experience, relationships, and a genuine love of well-made wine, beer, and whisky.
High Peak Wine & Beer Co was founded in 2016, originally as a mobile bar business launched just two days after the birth of their first child. From the outset, the aim was clear: to create a business with full creative freedom, direct relationships with local suppliers, and a focus on quality rather than trend. That ambition led to the opening of the company’s first retail shop in Chapel-en-le-Frith in October 2020, with a strong emphasis on local producers, independent importers, and a carefully curated range, particularly whisky. In April 2023, the business moved to Castleton, placing High Peak Wine & Beer Co firmly at the heart of the Peak District community.
As the business has evolved, so too have Stefan’s personal interests, with an increasing focus on whisky. This has shaped the direction of the Castleton shop, which now stocks an extensive specialist whisky range. Much of the selection is made up of limited-edition bottlings and small-batch releases, many of which are unavailable to the mass market, reflecting a continued commitment to quality, character, and independent producers.
Hope Valley Tap & Bottle intends to follow the same formula over two floors with retail at ground level and seating to drink in on the first floor. Draught take away will also be available to service the local campsites with growler refills to compliment the already extensive retail options.
4 keg lines are planned to begin with to feature local High Peak and Hope Valley breweries such as Torrside, Intrepid, Buxton and many other smaller breweries not seen in the larger pubs of the Peak District. There is further scope for cask and more extensive drink in features as the business develops and responds to customer demand from the local population and visitor economy. Wines will be available by the glass as will many local spirits and whiskies. Corkage by the bottle will also be an option on select beers and wines from the retail range, giving us arguably the most interesting wine and beer list in the Peak District.
It is anticipated the Tap & Bottle venue will open in Hope in July.
It’s been a while since I last sent an Emmanuales update to Beer Matters, so thought it was about time to fill you in with where I’ve been up to with ’that Jesus beer’. The last you may have heard, Emmanuales was operating on a 100L kit from a cellar of a terraced house in Walkley. Since then, we’ve moved, upscaled and re-established the brewery on the outskirts of Sheffield.
Having bought an angle-grinder, many tins of anti-mould white paint and about 50L of epoxy resin, I spent the Christmas of 2025 doing up the space ready to install our new brew kit, which we purchased from Middle Child Brewing in Twickenham. Before them, the kit was owned by Verdant Brewing Co – famed formatting some incredible IPAs – who started their brewery on it in 2014, which is when I started Emmanuales.
(I guess that means every beer I make now will taste like Putty, right?!)
Whilst Emmanuales has been out of action, I’ve also had the opportunity to work on the production team and a role in marketing at Mount St Bernard Trappist Brewery, aka Tynt Meadow. It’s been very nice working on a fully-automated German-built brewhouse and hone my beer-making skills producing Trappist beer… a far cry from making small batches of beer in my garage!
Finally, after having had the fallow period between Easter 2025-26, I brewed and released two new beers, Haze The Lord – a 5.2% Hazy Pale Ale, very much a homage to Verdant’s ‘Lightbulb’, which felt fitting given the kit launched their brewery – and an Old English Ale (8.0%), All Hail Redeemer Ale. Additionally, two new beers should be landing just in time for summer – Hosanna in the Rye-est (a big, sticky West Coast Rye IPA) and Sanctus Tripel(a Saaz hopped Abbey style strong, golden ale… which may be called Blessed-malle if I can get away without trademark lawyers knocking on my door).
As ever, beers are available in 440ml cans and stocked in and around Sheffield, in venues such as The Old Shoe, Walkley Beer Co, The Dram Shop, etc. Find out more about Emmanuales at www.emmanuales.co.uk and follow us on Instagram @emmanuales where I’ve taken up the challenge to become the brewing equivalent of @eatingwithtod
Saint Mars of the Desert is in preparation for this summer’s SMOD fest with the acquisition of two Holzfass barrels that they are in the process of repitching.
These traditional German wooden serving vessels contain beer packaged during fermentation, and the beer is known as “ungespundet” in Germany.
In the meantime new releases include Welcome to the neighbourhood a pale NZ-hopped IPA with Nelson Sauvin and Nectaron, 5%. and fresh Jack D’Or their original hoppy golden Belgian-inspired saison beer, 7.4%.
A new beer from Dead Parrot Brewery spotted on the bar at Perch in May was Repeat, a 4.2% ABV Mosaic hopped pale ale.
Beers coming out of Blue Bee‘s brewhouse in April and May include a session pale ale brewed with the new Pink hop variety, a new IPA hopped with Idaho7 and Krush, American Five Hop version 89 and the special for Kelham Pride which is a west coast pale hopped with Simcoe and Pink Boots. Also making a comeback is their Ginger Beer, although only a small batch so get it while you can!
Bradfield Brewery‘s seasonal special in May was Nettle Nectar which will be followed by Farmers World Cup Ale which is described as a light pale hoppy beer with a kick of fruit and a refreshing taste.
New from Intrepid Brewing is Roke, named after the old dialect for the valley mists often experienced in our part of the Peak District. The beer falls into the stronger end of the session strengths at 4.8% and is hopped with Centennial and Citra in the whirlpool, Idaho 7 at pitch then dry hopped with more Citra and Idaho 7. The beer is fermented with saturated yeast for those peachy esters.
They held their first brewery open day on Saturday 2 May with a range of their beers on the bar, seating out in the year and Sunshine Pizza trading outside.
Eyam Brewery have again brewed the 11% ABV imperial edition of their Black Death Vanilla Stout and it is available in bottles from their brewery shop, with a click and collect facility available. The regular Black Death is 7% ABV and is available across cask, keg and bottle. Other dark beers offered include Bring Out Your Dead, a 4.4% ABV cappuccino stout and Eyam Plague, a 4.8% traditional stout. Their brewery is in Great Hucklow and the tap room is in Tideswell.
Fuggle Bunny Brew House continue to open for additionally tap days on the last Saturday of the month, usually with a food trader and live music planned.
Little Mesters have won an award for their Royd’s Bitter in a recent SIBA competition.
Kelham Island have been collaborating with Blackjack Brew Co to produce The Beautiful North, a 4.8% ABV pale ale. The away fixture saw the keg version brewed whilst the version brewed back home at Thornbridge was the cask version, which was launched on 20 May at the Botanical Arms micropub on Ecclesall Road.
As part of a programme of campaigns to highlight classic beer styles that some may consider to be endagered CAMRA has for many years championed Mild during May. Mild is a style that is designed to be easy drinking with subtle flavours and low bitterness. There are both dark and pale versions.
A couple of local breweries were promoting a mild in May with Stancill brewing a range of three!
Mild Steel 3.5%- If you like Stancill’s Stainless pale ale, you’ll love Mild Steel. With all the fresh, crisp character of their iconic core ale, but with a much milder ABV. Mild Steel is made with all-British hops.
Tom’s Mild 3.4%, Stancill’s regularly available signature mild, is named after their co-founder Tom! This is a smooth, creamy, dark mild with a nutty biscuit note. Tom’s Mild is characteristically sweet with a gentle late hop aroma. Well balanced, moreish and extremely drinkable.
Ruby Mild 4.9% – It’s been over five years since they brewed a Ruby Mild. This one is ruby red in colour with a strong nuttiness and flavours of berries. A velvety mouthfeel of melted milk chocolate make this a luxuriously pleasurable pint.
Meanwhile over at Thornbridge the May cask release in their year of beer programme of monthly seasonal specials was a mild, although perhaps a less traditional version being a coffee mild, although at 3.8% ABV is still easy drinking!
Joining our Legacy Series of fondly remembered beers from the archives as part of our 30th anniversary celebrations, we’re bringing back Drop Hammer (4.3%) for a limited time only. A classic copper coloured bitter, satisfying and well-balanced.
We’ve got an exciting collaboration on the way with the excellent folk at Colbier, from Liverpool. In the Elements will be a 6.5% Baltic Porter brewed using a No. 19 Maris Otter, a special heritage floor malted version of our base grain, riffing alongside UK grown Olicana and Jester hops. Expect layers of robust, toasty flavours alongside smooth waves of caramel sweetness, with a rounded bitterness encore.
And of course we have our usual vast selection of delicious pale ales available too! Returning specials this month are Summer (3.9%), hopped with Vic Secret, Mosaic and Galaxy for a tropical, approachable and aromatic pale ale, and Doctor Morton’s Cask Paint (4.1%), with Amarillo and Chinook hops for notes of subtle tangerine and a punchy bitterness. Joining them we have a new addition to our botanical print inspired range, Sunsprite Rose (4.3%). This one is hopped with Styrian Dragon which holds delicate rose notes, and Styrian Eagle, bringing a pleasant citrussy character.
Here’s what we’ve got coming up this month… and hopefully, you’ll be able to come and try them at Abbeydale Beerworks, our new taproom on Abbeydale Road! At the time of writing work is well underway and we hope to be open by early May, but please do check before you make the journey. This is a really exciting time for us and we can’t wait to welcome you! Anyway, here’s what we will have available for pubs across the city and beyond…
Hop on the Penistone Line (4.0%) will be a collaboration with Woodland Brewing – where we’ll be welcoming back Ash, who has recently started working there after almost 5 years with Team Abbeydale! Citra, Riwaka and Nectaron hops combine in this tantalisingly tropical pale ale with notes of juicy peach and aromatic passionfruit.
From our Restoration series of classic styles we’ll have a 4.1% Yorkshire Bitter, well-balanced and easy drinking with a delicately floral flavour set alongside hints of pine, followed up with a pleasing bitterness in the finish.
There’s some kind of international sports ball tournament on the horizon so a new Willamette hopped pale ale, Dr Morton’s Verified Ale Recipient (4.1%), is here to ease the misery of constant kicking. It’s a game of two halves, no wait, that’s a pint.
And Cardon Cactus (3.9%) is new to our series with artwork inspired by vintage botanical prints. As this one features a giant Mexican cactus, we just had to go with a hop from the Neomexicanus subspecies! This tasty pale ale showcases Sabro, joined by spicy, grapefruity Chinook.
Finally there’s a couple of delicious stouts on the way too – the latest in our Salvation series will be a smooth, sweet and fruity 4.8% Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Stout. And as part of our 30th anniversary year we’ve got the first imperial stout in a while due for release too, Lost Souls will be a big, bold and boozy 11.0% classic impy. Complex and carefully crafted, full bodied and warming with luscious vanilla bringing a hint of extravagance to the drinking experience.
Many of you will look forward to the Abbeydale Road beer festival initiative, which this year takes place from 30 July to 2 August, when 12 venues along the run from the Broadfield into Sheffield City Centre hosting beery attractions such as tap takeovers.
However that’s not the only event venues down Abbeydale Road participate in and over the weekend of 18 and 19 April Abbeydale Live took place, with 20 independent venues hosting bands, DJs and performers with outdoor stages and family areas featured. This was all co-ordinated by the Abbeydale Traders Association.
One of our very long standing members, John Beardshaw, has provided this photo from the early days of our Sheffield beer festivals featuring (left to right) John Beardshaw, Mike Hodgson and Alan Gibbons.
Our 50th Steel City Beer & Cider festival takes place this year at Kelham Island Museum from 21 to 24 October 2026.
My beer history has not included a trip to Burton-on-Trent, so with free entry for CAMRA members currently, a visit to the Burton Beer Festival seemed like an ideal opportunity.
Additionally for convoluted reasons involving a tombola win at Chesterfield Beer Festival, I know Jeff Henderson, head brewer of Airline Brewing in Maine USA. Jeff spends a two week holiday in Burton around the festival every year, so we had a chance to meet up.
My wife and I arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and went on a walk around Burton. It’s immediately obvious that, despite being able to see brewery buildings all around, things are not what they used to be. We pass the entrance to Molson Coors Burton Brewery, with no reference to a cask ale, and a sign that “celebrates” Carling!
Across the road there is plenty of evidence of closed up brewery buildings, and around the corner we saw one of the iconic Burton Union System sets sat on the edge of the site, unused and unloved. At this point I was feeling a bit disheartened about Burton, so time for a beer!
We went to the Burton Bridge Innand things started to look up. A classic old-school pub that has been tastefully modernised with an excellent choice. The pub is both next door to, and owned by the Burton Bridge Brewery, who also brew the Heritage Brewing Co beers. Sat in the small sun trap beer garden overlooking the brewery I thoroughly enjoyed the Bridge Bitter and Stairway to Heaven.
In the evening we went to the Roebuck Inn to meet up with Jeff. Again the Roebuck is a classic old-school pub, with six out of eight hand-pulls on. What followed was a delightful evening with Jeff, who it turned out stays in the Roebuck when he visits, and is essentially an honorary regular. Talking to Jeff it became clear that he has a real love for classic UK cask beer, waxing lyrical on the beautiful balance of flavours in a pint of Bass. He also had nothing but good things to say about Burton Bridge Brewery, Gates, and Tower Brewery.
While I had been upset by the obvious decline in the status of Burton as a cask ale producer, Jeff was eager to point out the smaller operations that are now producing classic cask styles at high quality, of which the Gates Reservoir was an excellent example.
The next day was Festival time, but first a quick trip to the National Brewery Heritage Trust that since the closure of the National Brewery Centre is trying to develop a National Hub for Britain’s brewery and pub heritage in Burton-on-Trent. They have grand plans in motion, and are worth supporting (breweryheritage.com)
So to the festival where we meet up again. I started steadily as normal with the Burton Bridge Sunshine Pale (3.4%), Jeff went straight for the Thornbridge Imperial Stout (7.7%) as he couldn’t wait to try it! Inspired by talking to Jeff I stayed on beers from local breweries throughout the festival; Burton Bridge, Heritage Brewing, Outwoods, Gates and Tower, and didn’t have a beer I didn’t like, a highpoint being Tower Ale to the King (5.5%).
A quick thanks to Andy Morton who we met, and took the picture, and joined us in taking some of the large brewery name signs on offer, including his namesakes “Morton”. The Burton Festival was very enjoyable, with an afternoon of live organ music to drink to.
Late afternoon and the call of new pubs to try was too strong so we left. Not far away was the Outwoods taproom was a brilliant railway arch operation, which for a small operation had their own three cask and six keg beers on, plus six others. Cask Hop Into the Abyss was a fabulous 4.9% black IPA.
Next the Coopers Tavernthat several people had recommended, and quite rightly it turned out, for the Bass on gravity if nothing else. A quick beer in the Last Heretic just before they closed, Tower Gone for a Burton, alongside the hottest pickled onion ever, that couldn’t be finished between us! Jeff told us he loves English food (not something you hear everyday) with a soft spot for pork scratchings, bacon, Sunday roasts and a crumble with custard.
Final drink with Jeff back in the Roebuck, which was Gates Reservoir Gold, a 7.5% barley wine style beer, and again a classic old-school English beer.
By the end of the trip we had exchanged beermats, badges, t-shirts (Airline for me, SMOD for Jeff) and I had some Airline Brewing beer cans he’d brought over in his luggage. More importantly an exchange of appreciation for English beers and pubs, and Burton-on-Trent for what it is now, never mind the past. I highly recommend a trip to Burton-on-Trent, and like Jeff, I intend the festival visit to be an annual event in the future.
