Author: Guest

Governments urged to use six-month anniversary of Crooked House demolition to strengthen pub protection laws

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Strengthening planning laws and enforcement powers would save more historic pubs, says CAMRA 

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is marking the six-month anniversary of the demolition of the Crooked House pub in Himley, Staffordshire by calling on government ministers to commit to extra protections for pubs to avoid them being illegally converted or demolished. 

The consumer organisation, which last week met with Levelling Up minister Lee Rowley MP to discuss protecting the nation’s pubs, wants more enforcement powers for local councils in England to stop pubs being illegally converted or demolished – including the ability for councils to force demolished locals to be rebuilt brick by brick. 

In England, changing the use of a pub or demolishing one requires planning permission – but figures compiled by CAMRA showed that last year up to a third of closures and demolitions may be happening without the required planning permission. 

The Campaign is also calling for similar protections for pubs in the planning system in Wales which don’t currently exist, and for a tightening of loopholes in Scotland to prevent pubs being allowed to be demolished without planning permission. 

CAMRA also produces a range of pub-saving guides offering advice for individuals and community groups looking to save their pub from conversion or demolition and is working with the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and Mayor Andy Street to list heritage pubs in that region to offer them better protections. 

CAMRA’s pub saving guides are available at Save your local pub – CAMRA – Campaign for Real Ale 

Commenting on the six-month anniversary since the fire and subsequent demolition of the Crooked House pub, CAMRA’s National Chairman Nik Antona said: 

“Six months on, this national scandal rightly still angers people up and down the country. Our pubs are at the heart of community life across the UK and must be protected as a vital part of our social fabric. 

“Local people deserve to have a chance, through the planning system, to save their local pub from demolition or conversion to another use. Where this is done illegally, it is vital that local authorities have the powers and resources to force buildings back into use as pubs – or for them to be rebuilt brick by brick if they have been knocked down. 

“That’s why on this anniversary we are renewing calls for governments in Westminster, Cardiff and Edinburgh to commit to improving planning protection laws and to make sure local authority planning departments are equipped to stop pubs being illegally converted or demolished without permission. Otherwise, we risk seeing more beloved locals across the UK being illegally taken away from the communities they serve.” 

CAMRA calls on Government for support

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In response to the news that Elland Brewery is facing liquidation, and reports that Adnams is looking at options to bolster its funding, CAMRA Chairman Nik Antona commented:  

“To hear that Elland Brewery is facing liquidation just six months after their 1872 Porter was crowned CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Britain 2023 is a major cause for concern. This, coupled with the reports that Adnams has been working with a management consultancy to explore options to shore up its finances – including the possibility of an injection of private capital – is a one-two punch at the heart of the UK brewing industry. 

“The news raises the issue of fair competition, access to market and consumer choice. CAMRA does not want any brewery or cider producer to close their doors for good, be it a contemporary small independent brewer or larger family-owned establishments with decades of history. 

“The worrying news that two prestigious, award-winning breweries are both facing pressure to remain trading and survive is indicative of the wider problems the brewing and pub trade are experiencing. CAMRA, along with the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) and the Independent Family Brewers of Britain (IFBB), is calling on the Government to increase Draught Relief to 20% from its current figure of 9.2% in the Chancellor’s upcoming Budget. Cutting tax specifically on draught beer and cider in pubs would encourage people to support their community local and help secure jobs and businesses in the pub and beer sector – particularly small and independent breweries that sell more of their products into pubs and taprooms. 

“CAMRA is encouraging everyone to email their MPs asking them to support the ‘Make it 20%’ campaign and call on the Government to show their support for pubs, social clubs, breweries and cider producers.” 

Abbeydale Brewery

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March means it’s time for Sheffield Beer Week! We’re delighted to be playing a small part in the 10th anniversary celebrations of this fantastic citywide festival. We’ve got a few special beers to celebrate – our collaboration with Sheffield Beer Week itself, Cloud Peak (4.8% Cryo Session IPA) makes a welcome return, as does heritage pale ale Sheffield Rocks (4.1%) … joined this year by all-new Sheffield Stout! A 4.5% classic stout inspired by the history of the city we call home. Expect a pronounced roasty body and flavours reminiscent of rich dark chocolate. A gently spicy hop character provides balanced bitterness before rolling into a smooth and long-lasting finish.

From our Stained Glass series, we’re heralding the arrival of Springtime (4.1%). A light and tropical pale ale to welcome the new season! Vista hops bring sweet, fruity notes of tangerine, cantaloupe melon and orchard pear, with an aromatic hint of green tea alongside.

And from the Brewers’ Emporium, a new series is on the way. We’re diving into the world of new and and exciting hop products, with Aquanaut (4.6%) searching for hidden depths of aroma and flavour. Immerse yourself in the intense tropical notes of Spectrum Galaxy and Lupomax Azacca, followed up with a piney, resinous finish from Incognito Centennial.

Finally, we have a very special collaboration with the iconic Sheffield electronic music duo I Monster. Fly P.A. is a 4.7% dry hopped pale ale brewed to celebrate the 20th anniversary reissue of their album “Neveroddoreven” and their 2024 tour. Featuring Galaxy and Sabro hops for a tropical fruit explosion. A beer that’s perfect for dreaming amid the flowers, for a couple of hours, on a beautiful day.

Abbeydale Brewery

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Doctor Morton is back with a new brew, it’s 100% reliable Fake News (4.1%)! Juicy Idaho 7 hops are balanced by delicately resinous and earthy Savinjski Goldings. Completely ineffective against truth seekers, flat earthers and mardy Yorkshire folk who have already made their bloody mind up.

The “travel poster” inspired series which we launched last year continues by staying right at home – Visit Beauchief Abbey (4.1%) is a classic pale ale, single hopped with Galaxy. We also have more collaborations with other fantastic cask-led breweries to follow from this range, planned for a little later in the year.

And rounding off a trilogy of new pale ale specials this month, we have Through the Hopback Belma (4.0%) on the way. A new hop to us, Belma promises notes of melon and strawberry with a clean citrussy character alongside.

Onto returning beers and we see Sheffield Rocks (4.1%) back on bars, inspired by our wonderful city’s long heritage. And from our Brewers Emporium range, Irish Stout (4.5%) from our Salvation series makes a welcome return along with Sheffield Beer Week collaboration Cloud Peak (4.8%). Look out for more news on our plans for Sheffield Beer Week itself coming soon!

Sheffield pub coasters

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Each year students new to the BA Hons Illustration course at Sheffield Hallam University are given an introductory illustration brief which helps them to find out, and report back, on aspects of the cultural heritage of the city – this year the focus was to draw our fantastic Sheffield pubs.

The underpinning intention of the brief is for students to practice and celebrate their drawing ability while coupled with getting to know each other a bit better as they are invited to draw on location together. For students new to the city this helps them to orientate the city helping them to seek and find out a little more about what it has to offer more generally.

Students were asked to produce a large body of observational drawings of their favourite chosen pub then, through selection, apply one of their designs, including the pub name, to a drink’s coaster. The designs were then digitally printed on Campus at our Fitzalan Square, Head Post Office location by our brilliant technical team.

Some of our students even returned to the pubs and took photos of them in situ with several requests to purchase a set of the designs after they were posted on the course Instagram page.

Frazer Hudson, senior lecturer on the illustration course comments, “Our pubs are special meeting places not only to share the news of the day but where ideas are formed, bonds are made, and culture is created.”

To see more examples of our Illustration student work visit instagram.com/shuillustration.

Frazer Hudson

Emmanuales

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It’s hard to believe it but 2024 marks 10 years of Biblical brews for Emmanuales.  A lot has happened over that period for brewing, balding, modern monk Nick Law.

Starting off in his cellar in 2014 with a humble fermentation bucket, his first beer – Ale the Lamb – fermented hot and tasted like old hymnals with an aroma of fusty-churches thrown in for good measure.  After honing his beers of biblical proportions and gaining local popularity, Nick assumed the role at The Sheffield Brewery Company as the Head Brewer.

By January 2018, was apparent that he could no longer support both Emmanuales and The Sheffield Brewery Company simultaneously and decided to put Emmanuales on hiatus whilst he figured out what to do next.

After away from The Sheffield Brewery Company, Nick sought to help other brewers through his many skills in branding, marketing, and business and set up consultancy and agency Hop Forward to help a variety of businesses, including Lincoln Green Brewing Company, Great Beyond Brewing Co in Hoxton, Nigeria’s first craft brewery Bature Brewery, and filmmaker Guy Ritchie’s Gritchie Brewing Company.

During Lockdown, Nick felt it was time to resurrect Emmanuales and set up a fully functioning nano-brewery in his Walkley cellar, where it resides today.

To celebrate 10 years of Emmanuales, Nick is kickstarting the year with two beers: Ale the Lamb (6.0%) – a homage (and much superior version!) of his first beer, an Extra Special Bitter – and the second incantation of Swinging The Incense (9.6%): a peated quadruple with sweet smoky flavours and fruity undertones.

As ever, the beers will be available from local stockists including Beer Central, The Green Shop, Walkley Beer Co and The Dram Shop.  For more info on Emmanuales and where to pick up these divine beers, head over to www.emmanuales.co.uk or follow us on all the socials @emmanuales

Pub of the Month February 2024

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I’m getting a sense of déjà vu writing about Shakespeares for Pub of the Month… There have been a few changes since my last piece, not least manager Lucienne moving on to a career on the brewery side of the trade, and Tom stepping into her place. The pub has also just won another accolade in the form of the annual Pints of Sheffield Battle of the Boozers on the Instagrams.

One of the things I love about the local beer scene is that while other cities have some great craft bars and some great traditional pubs selling trad beer, Sheffield is almost unique in having proper pubs selling top tier craft beers (as well as superb cask of course). Shakespeares is a perfect example of this, being a proper old school pub with cask beers from across the country rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest names in craft from around the world (and some more obscure of course!).

Only a few of the more senior members of the branch will remember the pub’s opening in 1821, since when it has passed through various breweries’ (notably Wards) and pubcos’ ownership, and closure, before opening as a fully independent free house in 2011. In its current guise over 7,500 different cask beers have been sold plus about 2,000 keg. Permanent fixtures on cask are Red Willow Feckless and Abbeydale Deception while the rest of the handpumps host the ever-changing guests. The keg taps feature beers from within a mile to the other side of the planet, almost always including an imperial stout, a sour or two, various IPAs and usually some crazy ****. If that really isn’t enough there’s a large list of cans and bottles available from the cellar. There is also an impressive selection of whiskies and a smaller selection of whiskeys and rums (the latter needs to expand, hint hint…).

The pub itself retains a multi-room layout with rooms on all four sides of the central bar area, including a bustling front bar area, a (usually) quieter ‘clock room’ to the side, and the ‘long room’ with bench seating and a dartboard. Upstairs are two function rooms, a larger one regularly featuring live bands and a smaller one sometimes used for pub games and a couple of times a year for the festival cask bar, often including beers not seen anywhere else on cask (or in some cases at all!). Outside is a large paved beer garden which catches the evening sunlight, with a small covered area for more typical British weather…

Oh, and the sofa is still my Spot, so anyone who isn’t me should keep out!

Dave Szwejkowski

Abbeydale Brewery

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Abbeydale Brewery are celebrating twice over this week, after two of their permanently available beers scooped medals at the prestigious Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) Regional Bottle & Can Awards (North East Region).

Heresy Lager (a 4.5%, gluten free continental style lager) received a Bronze medal, and Black IPA Black Mass received a top class Gold award in the Speciality IPA category, meaning it scored over 90/100 and will go forward to the National Finals, due to be held in March next year. Just three of the highest level Gold awards were given out across the whole region. 

This is the second year running that Black Mass, a 6.6% ABV, gluten free and vegan friendly Black IPA, has come out as the top Speciality IPA in the region. Following the award in 2022, the beer subsequently went on to win National Gold in category before being declared Overall Champion beer in can in the whole of the UK – so the team at Abbeydale Brewery will be eagerly waiting to find out if it can defend the title. 

Black Mass has been one of Abbeydale Brewery’s permanently available beers since the business was founded in 1996, and the team believe it to be one of the world’s first and longest standing beers of this style in existence. Lead Brewer Jim Rangeley says of the award, “Black Mass has always been one of my favourite beers to both make and drink, and it’s great to see that the judges agree! I’m looking forward to celebrating with a can of it.”

The SIBA Bottle & Can Independent Beer Awards 2023 see beers marked against internationally recognised style guides for the different beer award categories – looking at appearance, aroma, flavour, aftertaste and saleability. The awards are judged by beer sommeliers, experienced beer judges and fellow brewers. Neil Walker, SIBA Head of Comms, praised this year’s winners: “This year’s SIBA Independent Beer Awards Bottle & Can competition was our biggest ever, including seven regions of the UK and hundreds of individual beers. The expert judging panel only give awards where deserved, so the winners listed really are the very best beers in the region.”

Christmas in Crookes

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Members of Sheffield CAMRA gathered for their Christmas meal at the Ball, Crookes on Saturday 9 December.

Some members sampled the delights in Two Sheds first of all. I met them a little later in the Punchbowl, where there was a good selection of beers including a True North Dry Irish Stout of 5%, and a Black Iris Snake Eyes, a 3.8% APA.

We then decamped to the Ball, where they had seven to eight wickets. A popular choice was a dark ale named Rocking Rudolph, admittedly a Greene King beer, but tasty with a little spice. For my second, I plumped for a paler ale in Saltaire South Island, a NZ pale ale at a sessional 3.5%. Plus 10% discount with your CAMRA membership card.

The meal consisted of three courses, soup, prawn cocktail or chicken goujons. Followed almost unanimously by a turkey dinner. For those of a sweet tooth, there was a fruit cheesecake or Christmas pudding, while a few of us had the cheese and biscuits which included a tasty blue cheese.

Kevin Thompson

For details of future events for local CAMRA members see the diary page.

Pale Rider

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Pale Rider, from Stephen Wragg

Like many of us, I was so disappointed when Kelham Island brewery stopped brewing beer, especially their flagship Pale Rider. Then, I was delighted when the Thornbridge brewery was involved with its renaissance.

Having tried several examples from Thornbridge, I’m not sure that it is an exact copy of the original and wondered if any Sheffield CAMRA members had expressed a similar opinion?