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The Real Lily the Pink

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Back in 1968 a comedy band called The Scaffold, which included Paul McCartney’s brother Pete and poet Roger McGough had a number 1 hit with “Lily the Pink”.

We’ll drink a drink, a drink

To Lily the Pink, the Pink, the pink

The saviour of the human race

For she invented medicinal compound

Most efficacious in every case

What may on the surface appear to be a novelty drinking song is in fact based on a real person and her real product.

Lily the Pink is based on the American businesswoman Lydia Pinkham (1819-83) who produced her own vegetable compound from 1875. This was said to contain black cohosh, unicorn root, life root, pleurisy root and fenugreek, preserved with 19% alcohol. This was originally marketed as a “woman’s tonic” for menstrual and menopausal symptoms.

This vegetable compound became very successful with her local community, then further afield. Branding played a major part in the compound’s success and Lydia Pinkham’s face was used in all the branding. Indeed she is the first woman whose likeness was used in her brand.

Over time the list of complaints Pinkham’s vegetable compound claimed to be able to cure grew. It was even marketed as an aid to fertility and marketed under the strapline “there is a baby in every bottle”. Lydia Pinkham was one of very few people at the time who was speaking openly about women’s reproductive health, then a taboo subject. She even published pamphlets about menstrual and menopausal health and also encouraged women to write to her to ask questions they were too embarrassed to ask a doctor.

However, doctors and the medical establishment did not approve of Lydia Pinkham and dismissed her as a quack, which might be considered understandable given that her compound was claimed, among other things to prevent faintness, flatulence, insomnia, depression, the cure of kidney complaints and even ovarian cancer. In 1922, it was described as a “valueless preparation kept on the market for about fifty years by means of lying advertisements and worthless testimonials.”

After Pinkham died in 1883 her family took over the business and continued to promote her image. During prohibition, the alcohol content rose to about 40% and people turned to Pinkham’s medicinal compound in order to get intoxicated.

As far back as the 19th century, the alcohol content and claims of cures for feminine issues provoked mockery in the form of bawdy drinking songs. Lilly The Pink by The Scaffold is a highly sanitised version of those early drinking songs. Some sample verses from the 19th century are below.

Mrs. Jones she had no children,

And she loved them very dear.

So she took three bottles of Pinkham’s

Now she has twins every year.

Lottie Smyth ne’er had a lover,

Blotchy pimples caused her plight;

But she took nine bottles of Pinkham’s–

Sweethearts swarm about her each night.

Oh Mrs. Murphy (Oh Mrs. Murphy)

Was perturbed because she couldn’t seem to pee

Till she took some of Lydia’s compound

And now they run a pipeline to the sea!

And Peter Whelan (Peter Whelan)

He was sad because he only had one nut

Till he took some of Lydia’s compound

And now they grow in clusters ’round his butt.

The company continued in family ownership until the 1930s and after World War II the US Food and Drink Administration intervened and the company made significant changes to the tonic and its alcohol content, as well as the claims being made about what it could cure. Lydia Pinkham Herbal Compound is still on sale in the United States. It is no longer alcoholic but may well still be most efficacious in every case.

Thomas Sturgess

Abbeydale Brewery

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The next of our Hopback cask only series is on the way, this time showcasing the Chinook hop (4.0%). Chinook doesn’t get much opportunity to shine solo, more commonly being used in a blend of hops, so we’re really pleased to be giving it a moment in the spotlight in this refreshing pale ale. Like a breeze through a forest of pine with a lovely, pithy grapefruit character alongside.

And also available in cask only, Dr Morton’s Safety Beer (4.1%) featuring the Aussie combo of Galaxy & Vic Secret hops is always a crowd-pleaser of a pale ale, with a tropical melange of passionfruit, mango and pineapple on the palate.

Moving on to our Brewers’ Emporium releases, Pathfinder from our hazy pale ale series (4.5%) makes a return this month, albeit with an all-new hop blend of Amarillo, Loral, and experimental variety HBC 586. Soft and juicy, with fruity flavours ranging from mandarin to mango and grapefruit to guava. 

And we also have a couple of seasonal releases on the way! We’ve made our first ever Festbier, and gone as classic as we can for Oktoberfest (5.0%), creating a balanced, clean and crisp beer with a rich, bready aroma and a delicately spicy noble hop character. Full bodied yet uber quaffable! And finally, our pumpkin spiced beer Pilgrim (also 5.0%) is back towards the end of the month! Probably our most divisive beer, but we love it, and we’re very excited at the prospect of it gracing bars again throughout spooky season.

Welbeck Abbey

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Welbeck Abbey Brewery have some super specials lined up for the summer months and are brewing for both cask and bottled beers, with in-house bottling continuing to prove a success.

Nightingale will be available in cask only and has started shipping to pubs and bars, so keep your eye out for this proper English IPA appearing in your local. Named for a beautiful mature woodland spot right at the heart of the Welbeck Estate, this 5.5% IPA is as British as they come; packed full of English Goldings and UK Cascade hops, which give herbaceous notes, and balanced with honey-sweet caramalt.

Another cask-special to look out for is Watermeadows. This 4.5% lager-style pale ale is the perfect summer-time sup, with subtle meadow-fresh hop notes and a crisp, dry finish from European hops. Named for the Carburton Watermeadows, a low-lying grassland area near Welbeck, home to an array of rare and wonderful wetland wildlife.

In bottle, as well as cask, you can expect to see two new specials: Fiery Fox and Farrier. Fiery Fox is a classic pale ale with a twist; brewed with the addition of both fresh root and ground ginger.

Welbeck Managing Director, Claire Monk, says “Ginger beer is a quintessentially British non-alcoholic drink. Whilst it’s a refreshingly crisp drink without the ‘beer’, we think it’s much better with. The heady aroma of ginger and sweet biscuity taste make for a drink as smooth and sophisticated as the Welbeck night-time visitor; the wily fox.”

Farrier, which is available in minikeg as well as bottle, is a dark red ale, with rich caramel tones. This is one for the Red Feather lovers out there, and anyone who likes a dark beer. At 5.5% it has all the bitter-sweet and nutty flavours of Red Feather but packs much more of a punch into every glass. Horses have always played a huge part in the history of The Welbeck Estate and this beer evokes an equestrian, countryside feel that’ll have you reaching for your riding crop and boots.

If you want to know where and how the magic happens, you can see for yourself on one of the Wednesday night brewery tours that run through to September. Book online via Eventbrite and for just £10, you can enjoy a full tour of the brewery, two free-pints and the opportunity to ask Claire anything you like about how her award-winning ales are brewed.

And don’t forget, if you live outside of Welbeck’s local delivery area you can now order from their core range via the Best of British Beer website.

It’s just beer, mate!

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If there is one thing beer likes, it’s labels. Not a week goes by when a new acronym isn’t being wheeled out to confuse everyone, leaving them debating what on earth it stands for.  IPA, DDH, TDH, HDHC, you name it we’ve had it. There’s even been a TDHNDDIPA recently thanks to Verdant Brewery down in Cornwall. Yeah, figure that one out if you can! It doesn’t stop there either, as we try to pigeon-hole beer even further into either ‘craft beer’ or ‘real ale’.

Whilst I appreciate the effort to differentiate between what could be an old-school or traditional IPA and a thick and hazy juice bomb, at what point do we just accept that it’s all beer at the end of the day? Much like the tribalism of old where people defended their favourite brand to the hilt, it seems you’re in one camp or the other, whilst disparaging your opposite number at the same time. But why?

I was pretty snobby when I first got into beer, coming from a clean slate and jumping in to hazy beer with both feet from the off. I hadn’t progressed from industrially-produced lager or moved on from cask beer to keg beer, I started afresh on the cloudy stuff. As far as I was concerned, if beer wasn’t yellow, hazy and tasted of tropical juice I wasn’t interested. This is what beer could be and what I’d been missing out on all these years.

Now whilst I still love a pint of the hoppy custard, I’m no longer averse to a good well-kept pint of cask if I see one. Heck, cask might even be becoming ‘cool’ as breweries more recognised for their juicy numbers brewing and producing beer to be pulled through a sparkler. And yes, cask beer can be hazy for those still stuck in the 1970’s sat at the back. So, with that in mind, where is the line between ‘real ale’ and ‘craft beer’? In fact, is there even a line at all?

Whilst we can try and define our beers by serving method, how they’re stored, their colour or clarity there are of course grey areas in-between. Even CAMRA’s initial definition of real ale was revised as of January 2022, showing that it isn’t possible to give something an exclusive or permanent definition. Whilst the US has a legally-binding definition of craft beer the UK doesn’t, nor is CAMRA’s coined label of real ale. There’s simply too many grey areas to enforce it.

Take recently retired local brewery Five Towns as an example. Malcolm brewed (as far as I’m aware) exclusively on cask. He had, what would be defined as, real ale within some of those casks (bitters and low ABV pales etc) however he also brewed some heavy-hitting DIPAs and stouts, some of which would elsewhere be classed as craft. So does that make it a real ale brewery that dabbles in craft beer? A cask brewery that also does keg? Or, more simply, a brewery that just produces good beer?

They aren’t the only example either, take the likes of Vocation, Brew York, Revolutions and, looking further afield, Kernel as great examples. Breweries who excel in both cask and keg beer, so how do we define or label those?

Of course, there’s no right or wrong answer here but at the end of the day it is just beer. Be it hazy, clear, hoppy, bitter, sweet, carbonated or otherwise, it’s just beer and we can enjoy it in whatever measure and how we please. No sandals and socks needed for a pint of cask and no beard on man-bun needed to enjoy a pint from keg, man or woman can enjoy either, or both, equally.

Stephen Carter, Points of Brew.

You can listen to the Points of Brew via all the usual Podcast services.

Abbeydale Brewery

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We’re welcoming back Alchemy (4.2%) this month! It will have new artwork (due to a revamp of this series by our in house designer, James Murphy), but the same recipe, which is always a popular one – single hopped with Amarillo for notes of juicy orange and tropical fruits. And also in the pale ale corner will be Exodus (3.9%) – at the time of writing, the hops for this one are yet to be decided, but it’s sure to be a light and easy drinking refresher!

And we’re getting back into the swing of collaborations at the moment and have Wanderer – Mountain IPA (6.5%) on the way. This one sees us teaming up with Heist Brew Co – their head brewer, Scott, previously worked for us, so we just had to invite him back for the day! Having visited Heist last year and brewing Battle of the Axes there, we’ve reused the same recipe to see how it works on our kit, rustling up a hybrid between a West Coast IPA and a NEIPA, with Citra, Centennial and Idaho 7 hops. Expect resinous pine sitting alongside notes of black tea, juicy mango and pink grapefruit. 

We hope you’ll all be as excited as we are to hear that we’re brewing a riff on our “People’s Champion” New Zealand Pale Ale, and have Dry Hopped Deception (4.1%) coming soon! Our regular Deception recipe, still at the same sessionable ABV, but turned up to 11 with a double dry-hopping of Nelson Sauvin for flavours of white grape, gooseberry and elderflower in absolute abundance. 

And finally, there are two new releases from the Funk Dungeon to look out for – Pull of Gravity (5.6%), a graf (apple raw ale, brewed in collaboration with Ascension Cider Co) and Ryes Again (6.0%) – a reimagining of Ryes From the Grave, which some of you may remember was the first ever full release from our mixed fermentation project. A blend of beers aged in barrel for up to four years, fruited with sour cherries, raspberries and blackcurrants. We reckon this one’s pretty special.

Steel City Brewing

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Remember a few years ago when Steel City blagged a collab at Weird Beard?

Well finally it was time for the return fixture! While Weird Beard has undergone a change of ownership and is currently relocating from up that London to up north, founder Bryan remains fully involved, and came to Sheffield to brew a proper DIPA with actual bitterness – remember them?

Dave and Bryan are both big fans of old skool IPAs with lots of bitterness and citrussy hops, and rue the lack of them these days. The recipe drew on Weird Beard’s ‘Holy Hoppin Hell’ and old Steel City recipes, and features a mix of American and Polish hops.

The result is ‘Russian warship, Go F**k Yourself’, a pale 9.8% brew, bone dry, with high bitterness (126IBU!) and citrus flavours. The brew was Steel City’s second for #brewforUkraine, with profits again donated to the DEC Ukraine Appeal. Between this and the earlier ‘Vlad the Invader’, nearly £1,500 has been raised for Ukraine humanitarian aid.

Pub of the Month August 2022

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When I started going to the Rutland it was under the old Reet Ale Pubs management, and was renowned for good beer, great food and legendary parties. When it was taken over five years ago (where did that time go?) by Chris (previously manager of last month’s PotM, Shakespeares) and Kate (previously manager of Three Tuns) not much changed apart from the beer went up a notch, in fact several notches. Two house cask beers are from the local Blue Bee brewery, with a further five handpumps featuring an ever-changing range, always including something dark and often including something slightly (or seriously!) unusual. Keg-wise, the house pale is a rotating Kernel tap dispensing whatever is new and pale from the brewery who started the infamous ‘Bermondsey Mile’, while up to eight more craft taps have a wide range of styles, including dedicated lines for sours and imperial stouts. Cider is not forgotten, with one draught and two regularly changing handpumps dedicated to all things apple (and often pear). Regular tap takeover and meet the brewer events are held, recently including Holy Goat from Dundee and Brewski from Sweden. Following their success with the Rutland, in 2019 Chris and Kate opened a second pub, former PotM winner the Crow Inn on Scotland St, which features a similarly top notch craft beer range as well as seven comfortable ensuite bedrooms.

As well as one of the best beer ranges in Sheffield, there is also an excellent spirit range including a wide array of single malt whiskies and a good selection of rums. As previously mentioned, the food is very high standard, especially the ever-changing specials board, and always includes vegetarian and vegan options. There is also a jukebox with an eclectic selection of music, over which stands a blackboard of ‘recommended music’ and ‘forbidden music’, both regularly updated but the latter quite rightly permanently including Morrissey.

The Rutland was built, in 1936, on the site of a previous pub built in 1902. It has since been opened up with the removal of internal walls. However, it is possible to see the layout of the 1936 pub, with the tap room and servery on the left and the lounge on the right (from Sheffield’s Real Heritage Pubs by Dave Pickersgill, available from Sheffield CAMRA). The pub is decorated with a mix of pumpclips on the walls and ceiling plus a miscellany of props dotted around. Outside is a smallish garden, usually offering a choice of sun (subject to availability, this is Britain after all…) and shade.

Dave Szwejkowski

The presentation will take place on the evening of Thursday 18 August, all are welcome to join us from 8pm for a beer or two!

Award presentations

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Pub of the Month June 2022 – Sheffield CAMRA Secretary Paul Manning, centre, presents the Pub of the Month award to Lucienne Mullen and Chris Wadsworth managers of Shakespeares, Gibraltar Street. Following the presentation there was a buffet to enjoy. The weather was kind and the opportunity to sit outside with a pint or two was also enjoyed!
Sheffield Pub of the Year – west Sheffield and overall winner – Beer Matters magazine editor Andrew Cullen with manager of the Rising Sun, Garry Raynes
East Sheffield area pub of the year – Paul Manning presents the award to managers Terry and Alison
South Sheffield Pub of the Year, the Sheaf View at Heeley. Our branch Chairman Glynn Mansell presents the certificate to Dominic Durham.

Photographs by John Beardshaw.

Scratching for an audience

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Launchpad support helps Beerpig unlock crackling year of growth

Two Rotherham-based entrepreneurs are hoping to snaffle up a piece of the lucrative pub snacks market after successfully reinventing the humble pork scratching.

John Walker and David Mace launched their pub snacks business, Beerpig, back in November 2019. Despite losing their entire customer base due to the pandemic just four months into their business journey, today, Beerpig’s tasty pork scratchings, which are sold warm directly from the bar, can be found in over 250 pubs and clubs across the UK.

Insurance broker John hit on the idea of producing warm pork scratchings when he decided to conduct an experiment at home. To his surprise, John discovered that the process of heating the pork scratchings improved their flavour, and after sharing his discovery with friends, the Wickersley-based entrepreneur decided to explore building a business around selling warm pork scratchings to the pubs industry.

Central to Beerpig’s growth plans was the creation of a custom-built warming cabinet, enabling pubs to sell heated pork scratchings. At the same time, John embarked upon a quest to design and create the perfect pork crackling which would be suitable for warming, meet the necessary shelf life and comply with all food safety standards. Armed with a few samples of Beerpig Crackling and some business cards, John and David ventured out to several local pubs and secured their first orders.

With each heating unit requiring significant investment, John knew that the key to the success of the business would be securing repeat orders. He also recognised that by serving the pork scratchings in washable, porcelain dishes, it would also help to reduce single-use plastics or cardboard.

However, John and David also knew that to build and grow the business, they would need additional help and called upon Launchpad, a free business support programme aimed at helping new entrepreneurs and SMEs within South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw to realise their potential.

Working with experienced business adviser Darren McDool, John and David realised it was vital to protect the Beerpig name and successfully secured a trademark to protect their unique brand. Together they developed a short term and a long-term business plan setting out the company’s ambitious growth plans over the next six months and over the next three years – the shorter term six month targets they successfully achieved within just six weeks of trading. With Darren’s help, Beerpig relocated from John’s home office to Rotherham’s Fusion Business Centre within their first month.

During this time, John and David also took part in a number of the free workshops provided by Launchpad, giving them the confidence to build and develop their own website from scratch, further protect their brand, as well as learning how to market their products more effectively.

Poised to enjoy a significant period of expansion and growth, disaster struck just four months into Beerpig’s business journey, when the Covid pandemic prevented the pubs industry from opening. Overnight, the company lost its entire customer base and with Beerpig HQ full of pork scratchings, John and David realised they needed to diversify their business model. They quickly redeveloped their plans and began to sell  stock online via their website and Amazon, immediately receiving rave reviews from pork scratching fans from across the UK. 

Recognising the challenges the hospitality industry faced during lockdown, John and David worked closely with their pub customers, replacing all snacks that had reached their expiry dates completely free of charge. Since the re-opening of the hospitality industry, Beerpig has enjoyed a significant period of growth, with the number of pubs stocking their products rising from just 30 in January 2020 to over 300 today. Beerpig sells one ton Beerpig Pork Crackling to pubs and clubs across the UK every week, and the company is hoping to expand its pub operations to over 1000 outlets by the end of 2023.

John Walker, co-founder, Beerpig said:

“Pork scratchings are the most popular pub snack in the UK, yet despite their popularity, the way they are sold today has hardly changed since they were first developed nearly 200 years ago. I felt selling warm pork crackling would be something that would be popular with drinkers,  so after tailoring and perfecting our recipe, we quickly started receiving regular orders; however, when Covid struck, we were forced to completely re-evaluate our business model. Imagine starting a new company selling to pubs and bars for them ALL to be forced to close their doors within a matter of weeks,

We approached Launchpad for help fairly early on in our business journey and Darren and the team have been incredibly supportive. We knew that for our business to succeed it was important to get everything right from day one. The one-to-one advice we’ve received helped us to get our terms and conditions right, protect our brand, as well as refining our business plans. The workshops we’ve attended have helped us to build our customer base, increase online presence and understand what it takes to run a successful business.  Launchpad has provided a constant source of support throughout our business journey, and the help we’ve received has enabled us to not only believe in our ideas but lay the foundations for significant future growth.”

Darren McDool, Launchpad adviser, said:

“Beerpig is an exciting company with a bright future ahead of it. Like any true entrepreneur, John and David spotted new opportunities when faced with adversity, and despite being forced to radically transform their original plans, almost overnight, they were able to adapt their business model and tap into new ways of generating revenue for the business.

Building a strong brand can be an important way of distinguishing your services from those of competitors. John and David knew they would be entering into an incredibly competitive sector and recognised the importance of distinguishing their products from others. Crucially, they also knew it was vital to protect their brand and spent time successfully trademarking their company name, logo, as well as developing custom built equipment to heat their products, as well as getting their terms and conditions right from the first day they started trading. Launchpad was designed to not only help new entrepreneurs to understand what it takes to build and grow a successful business, but also to help them to create solid foundations, paving the way for future growth.”

Pork Scratchings are believed to have originated from the black country in the early 1800s, but first became a regular staple of pubs in the 1930s. In 2020, a survey revealed that 72% of pub goers have bought a packet of pork scratchings in a local pub. Today, the UK pork scratchings market is estimated to be worth a staggering £28 million.

Beerpig is continuing to grow with the support from Launchpad and are constantly receiving and looking for new stockist enquires where their unique product will thrive in satisfying the UK public with their favourite pub snack.  For more information on Beerpig contact the team on 07368 697020 or visit beer-pig.co.uk.

Launchpad is a business support programme for new businesses. Financially supported by the European Regional Development Fund and delivered by local authorities within South Yorkshire and The Prince’s Trust, the programme provides free help and support to budding entrepreneurs who are thinking of starting their own business or looking for help to achieve business growth.

For more information on the Launchpad programme and how it operates, contact the Growth Hub Gateway on 0333 000 0039 or visit scrlaunchpad.co.uk.

Festival season at True North

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With summer well and truly in swing True North have revealed their exclusive 2022 festival season with a series of events popping up across Sheffield. Over the coming months they will be hosting a number of day parties including Crookes-Chella, JockFest, Blueberry and CrownFest.  

All of these events will be filled with family fun for all. Children’s entertainment will run in the early afternoon, including a magician, comedian and glitter painters, continuing on with an eclectic mix of music throughout the day featuring everything from indie to rock and pop artists until 10pm. To make things even better, outdoor bars will be open at each of the festivals, including an exclusive Sheffield Dry Gin Bar, as well as an amazing outdoor BBQ with delicious food on offer all day long. 

The festivities will span over the months of July and August with four True North venues participating: Punch Bowl in Crookes Saturday 2 July, Horse & Jockey in Wadsley Saturday 16 July, Blue Stoops in Dronfield Saturday 30 July and Crown & Anchor in Barnsley Saturday 27 August.  

Each event will host a lineup of amazing local talent spanning across all genres of music including: James Scanlan, Steve Delaney, SUMO, What Katie Did Next, Risky Heroes and many more which can be found on the venue websites. As well as this children’s entertainer Barney Baloney will be on at each of these events between the hours of 12:00 and 14:00 performing magic tricks and comedy for all the family to enjoy. 

This is the perfect opportunity for a day out with the family with things finally being back to normal after the struggle of the Covid-19 pandemic. When the weather is nice, what better way to spend the day than enjoying a few drinks at your local with the people you love? 

Head of Sales, Emma Swales stated “These events are in place to give back and support the local community giving them a chance to get out and enjoy the sun with family and friends, with a showcase of locally sourced talent it’s a day people will remember!” 

While you’re there, don’t forget to give all the True North Brewery products a try, including this summer’s exclusive new products to celebrate 30 years of True North: The Celebration Pale and the Celebration Gin as well as the core range including favorites such as the Sheffield Dry Gin Marmalade, the True North Haze and Sheffield Dry Gin Summer Cup which will be on offer to customers at the outdoors bars!