Author: Guest

St Mars of the Desert

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We are gearing up for a busy pre-Christmas in the taproom! Smodfest, our weekend-long lager celebration, was a roaring success, and we had a fun summer brewing collaborations with Deya and welcoming our new brewing apprentice Scarlet onto the team.

In the meantime, it’s winter on Mars so our thoughts in the brewery are turning to richer, darker beers. Expect some creative Flanders-inspired beers and some big stouts to celebrate the cold. Plus we are continuing our fruity series of tart oak-fermented beers and radlers. I’m sure we’ll squeeze in a hoppy beer here and there too!

Cheers and hope to see everyone soon.

Inn Brief

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Pangolin at Hillsborough is hosting a meet the brewer and tasting event with Yonder on 29 October. This is part of the Funk Fest Trail. Advance tickets are required and cost £20.

Other venues hosting events in Abbeydale’s Funk Fest Trail include the Rising Sun, Rutland Arms, Crow Inn, Hop Hideout, Cider Hole, Shakespeares and St Mars of the Desert. There will also be sours to try at a number of other venues such as Bar Stewards, Bear, Jabbarwocky, Industry Tap and Kelham Island Tavern.

The Sheaf View has now reopened following the arson attack, the first day back trading after restoration work was the opening day of Steel City On Tour with the bar sporting an impressive range of beers and Sunshine Pizzas outside serving food.

The Clubhouse on London Road continue to offer discounted prices on cask beer on Mondays.

Chesterfield Alehouse micropub celebrated their 8th birthday over the weekend of 21-24 October with eight of their lines taken over with sours!

The Horse & Jockey on Wadsley Lane near Hillsborough reopens as a True North Brewery pub from November with reservations for dining available from 15 November (it’ll be walk ins only for food until then). The menu features pies, burgers, pizzas, grills, hanging skewers and small plates. They will also do a Sunday roast. On the bar like True North’s other venues expect a mixture of their beers and guests along with cocktails, wines and spirits. The pub also has a function room upstairs and outside area.

Meanwhile across many of the True North venues during December they are hosting Christmas with Santa breakfast events in the morning, Enjoy a full English and the kids get a gift from the man himself! This needs to be booked in advance.

Stew & Oyster at Kelham Island closed on 17 October for a reburbishment.

Brewery Bits

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Grizzly Grains have brewed their Tilt Hammer again, it is 4.9% and smooth, full bodied stout and should be hitting bars about the time of publication.

Eyam Brewery have brewed a new beer in their White Label series, White Gold Fruity Pale as a result of a mistaken delivery of El Dorado and Blanc by their hop merchants. This 4.6% beer is a modern pale with grapefruit/tropical fruit aroma and flavour with a gentle bitterness.

Little Critters have brewed a new 10% imperial chocolate caramel stout which involved two mash tuns full of grain! It is called Mallard Reaction.

A recent special from Chantry was Mods & Rockers, a pale bitter.

With a reassuring sense of normality, Bradfield‘s seasonal beers have been appearing including Jack O Lantern for Halloween, Yorkshire Farmer for harvest time and looking ahead Belgian Blue for Christmas.

A whole host of beers from Dead Parrot were on the bar at Perch, their new tap room, for Steel City On Tour. These included Aardvark Biscuit which is a traditional brown bitter, Aardvark Brown Ale, PenAleTy Charge Notice pale ale, Pitch a 4.5% stout and Tart a Citra hopped raspberry blond among others.

My Steel City On Tour

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I’d like to add my thanks to all of the venues and to everyone who was out enjoying themselves during the course of the festival. I bumped into some Kent CAMRA members who were blown away by the festival and thought more CAMRA branches should run something like this to not only showcase some fantastic beer, but local pubs and bars too. I also met some volunteers from the previous Steel City Beer Festival who said the festival on tour was a fantastic idea, and would love to see it return in the future!

It made me feel so proud to visit the venues and see people enjoying themselves, and overhear conversations about the beer festival and where people were heading to next. After a tough 18 months for the beer industry, it felt as though this was the lift everyone needed, for both venues and punters. It felt like it really brought everyone together.

Every single venue has had something different from the norm, and I’m sure they will have gained many a regular as a result. From smaller venues like The Bear running their first tap takeover and meet the brewer event, to Heist managing to organise a tap takeover from Hungarian brewery Mad Scientist to showcase beers never before seen in the UK.

I took part in the Neepsend Brewery tour which was very interesting, especially as they had 20,000 pints in their tanks ready to go! It might have taken a while to drink them all though… Everyone involved should be proud of their efforts in putting on a fantastic citywide festival that showcased exactly why Sheffield is such a fantastic place for a pint.

Elliott

As well as Press Officer for the festival, Elliott regularly posts about the local beer scene on Instagram. Find him at thenotsosoberbarcrawl.

Wetherspoon beer festival

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With pub going a bit more normal now the JD Wetherspoon chain is once again running a national beer festival this autumn with the Sheffield launch taking place at the Sheaf Island on Ecclesall Road on 20 October.

There is a list of 20 real ales in the festival in a brochure containing tasting notes with each pub being allocated around half of them which will be rotated across the pumps, so you will need to visit more than one pub to try them all!

On launch day the Sheaf Island will feature five of the festival beers alongside their regular ales and they will be celebrating the launch with a pub quiz and games.

The festival beers expected at the Sheaf Island are:

  • Purity APA
    A 3.9% gluten free session pale ale brewed especially for Wetherspoons with Nelson Sauvin, Galaxy and Columbus hops.
  • Adnams Old Ale
    A 4.1% ruby red ale with caramel and chocolate aromas, flavours offering hints of liquorice and berries with a bitter finish.
  • Bath Ales Queen of Hearts
    A new 4.3% amber ale brewed for Wetherspoons.
  • Hogs Back Citrus Pale Ale
    A new seasonal beer, this is a 4.5% pale ale offering floral and citrus notes, the bitterness from the Fuggles, Mosaic and UK Cascade hops balanced nicely by the subtle malt flavour making the beer an easy drinking, light hoppy beer with a dry finish.
  • Thornbridge Shelby
    A 5% golden/amber ale with aromas of stone fruit and berries which leads to a gentle maltiness on the palette balanced by a citrus and lemon bitterness from the Bramling Cross and Fuggles Hops. An official beer of the Peaky Blinders TV series and inspired by beer recipes of the era.
  • Greene King Ruby Abbot
    This 5.2% ruby ale is a special edition of Abbot Ale brewed for Wetherspoons.
  • Wadworth Sweet Molly
    A 5.5% red ale brewed for Wetherspoons.
  • Bank’s (Marstons) New Wave IPA
    A 6% golden IPA brewed for Wetherspoons.

Pub of the Month October 2021

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The Chantry Inn has been voted as Sheffield and District CAMRA Pub of the Month for October 2021.

This historic pub which was built around 1250 is uniquely one of only four pubs in the UK set in consecrated grounds being within the grounds of St Mary’s parish church in Handsworth.

It comprises of three different rooms each with some original and unique features including real fireplaces, beamed low ceilings and even the bell pushes used in previous days to order the ale. There are also claims of various tunnels and passageways from the cellar to the church. 

It has had a chequered past originally being a chantry and safe house for nuns, a washouse and a school before being a pub for much of the later years from the early 1800’s.

Chantry Brewery acquired the pub in early 2019 and undertook a tasteful restoration and deliver real quality beers. There are always 5 cask ales on tap from Chantry brewery with a rotating special including Steelos, Kaldos, Full Moon, Wentworth Red, Cashmere Time alongside the regulars of New York pale, Iron and Steel bitter, Special Reserve and Diamond Stout. There are also changing craft beers available often from Tiny Rebel or Beavertown as well as real cider. 

Congratulations to all involved with the Chantry Inn including the brewery and the pub manager Terry and his partner Alison. The pub of the month award presentation is planned for the evening of Tuesday 12th October and all are welcome to join the celebration.  

Paul Manning

You can find the Chantry Inn at 400 Handsworth Road, S13 9BZ. Buses 30, 30a, 52, 52a, 73, X5 and X55 stop almost outside.

Champion Beer of Britain

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The Champion Beer of Britain is one of the most prestigious beer competitions in the world. It is the ultimate honour for UK brewers and has helped put many into the national spotlight. It is awarded every year at the trade session of the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF).

The competition starts with individual nominations from CAMRA members and tasting panel nominations, then area competitions.

At the GBBF, the Champion Beer of Britain judging spans real ales across the categories for milds, session bitters, premium bitters, IPAs, session pales/blonds/golden ales and premium pales/blonds/golden ales. These are combined with the Champion Winter Beer of Britain category winners from the GBBF Winter (held in February) – session stouts/porters, strong stouts/porters, brown ales/red ales/old ales/strong milds, barley wines/strong ales, speciality beers (differently produced) and speciality beers (flavoured)– to create a shortlist for the final round of judging.

There is also a competition for the Champion Bottled Beer of Britain with two categories: ABV 4.3% or below and ABV 4.4% or above.

The process for next years competition starts with member voting opening on 1 September until 1 November inclusive and this will be the first year with the new beer style categories, of which there are 12. To vote log in at cbob.camra.org.uk and in the meantime keep an eye on What’s Brewing, the online members’ newspaper for more information.