The Bear came out top in the recent Pints of Sheffield “Battle of the Boozers” vote. We called in to see what earned them the victory.
Despite only been open since June 2021, the Bear has already made a name for itself. Based on Abbeydale Road, in the premises formerly occupied by the Rude Shipyard café, it’s part of an area that is rapidly becoming a beer destination to rival Kelham Island.
Owner Matt Beety had long had a desire to open a bottle shop/bar, and finding himself out of work after a 20 year career in Education gave him the final push to do just that. Opening in the middle of a pandemic would seem to be a crazy idea, but Matt says it’s not been a problem. “I originally planned it to be a bottle shop with people calling in to buy a few cans, and maybe me doing home deliveries, which I could make work financially. However it soon became obvious that it was more of a bar, with people staying in for a few drinks, as well as taking home cans and growlers.”
It was a steep learning curve with Matt having no bar experience at all prior to opening. But sheer enthusiasm carried him through, and talking to him now as he serves customers in between questions it’s obvious he’s a natural barman, being as much interested in his customers as the beers. “It’s a great crowd of regulars” admits Matt, “and not just locals, but a range of people making the trip to see us. And winning the Pints of Sheffield competition brought in a wave of new people.” At each stage of the competition Matt came up against some real heavyweights in the Sheffield Beer Scene and was amazed to end up the eventual winner. Pangolin, Rutland Arms, Hallamshire House, Broadfield and Shakespeares were all seen off to clinch the title. “These are all great pubs that I’ve been visiting for years, so it’s nice to know our customers see us in the same light.”
Things have picked up so much now that Matt has brought in an extra member of staff, Lucy, who has previously worked at Walkley Beer Company.
The bar has six taps, one of which is capable of dispensing cask beer, which is something Matt is considering in the future. “I’m keen to always have a good range. There’s usually a stout, a lager and an IPA, and I try to have a GF beer on tap as well. Favourite breweries at the moment are Missing Link and Beak, and locally, Triple Point and Abbeydale.”
The Bear has a monthly quiz with a £30 bar tab up for grabs, although you’ll need to book, and a few tap takeovers planned. The next one is a ticketed event in March featuring the brewer from Missing link. If you’ve not already been to the Bear, I’d recommend you go as soon as you can, and say CAMRA sent you. You’ll not regret it.
*Haha. That’s terrible. Free pint to anyone giving me a worse headline.
This friendly micro-pub is a converted gift shop and offers five real ales along with a number of craft beers on keg taps. Many of the bar snacks are of a Porcine theme with pork scratchings and pork pies involved, hence the humorous name!
The Itchy Pig is currently open selling beers to take home from 3pm to 5pm Tuesday to Sunday with home deliveries available locally those days from 5pm to 7pm (orders and enquires by email orders@theitchypig.co.uk).
As we near the 2019 Steel City Beer & Cider Festival, it seems like the 500th edition of Beer Matters is a good opportunity to look back over the festival’s history.
1975 – 2018
The first festival was a single day affair, held in September 1975 at Sheffield University’s Tapton Hall of Residence and featured around 25 beers. The following year saw a move to the University Lower Refectory and by 1981 had become a 2 day festival featuring 60 beers from 40 breweries including Hartleys, Mitchells, Oldham, Paines and West Riding. Cider and bottled beer had also been introduced, and the admission price of £1.00 included the glass and the first drink!
The 15th Festival in 1989 saw a move to the Students Union of Sheffield Polytechnic. Admission was now £2.00 and an extra day had been added. In 1993 the Festival returned to Sheffield University, but this was for one year only as the Lower Refectory was then closed for redevelopment. So 1994 saw us back at what was now the Nelson Mandela Building of Sheffield Hallam University.
There we remained until 2001 which saw the move to St Phillips Social Club, Netherthorpe. No longer tied to University vacations in 2003 we moved to October enabling us to attract the student audience.
After 6 years at St Phillips in 2007 we were again looking for new premises due to the impending closure of the Club. We eventually settled on Darnall Liberal Club, but this proved to be too far out of town. The festival’s success was also hampered by the discovery of an unexploded WW2 bomb that delayed staff and visitors from attending! Initial plans for moving under canvas in Endcliffe Park fell through, so the first tented festival was held at Cemetery Park in 2008. After 3 successful years we were finally defeated by the weather. Whilst the punters cheerfully coped with the mud in 2010 after torrential rain the day before opening, the conditions for take down proved too much for the volunteers.
In 2011, we moved to the International Sports Hall, Ponds Forge after managing to get approval for an ambitious budget, as a substantial increase in attendance and turnover were required in order to cover the venue hire. It turned out be unseasonably warm for the beginning of October, we struggled to keep the beer cool and the punters stayed away. Despite a substantial loss, with a modified budget we managed to obtain approval for two further years before we had to call it a day.
So 2014 saw yet another new venue for the 40th Festival. The move to Kelham Island Museum proved a huge success and continues to this day.
2019
So what does this year have in store? An excellent choice of beer of course. Over 300 beers including around 50 keg beers, over 40 real ciders and 2 bottle bars featuring continental beers. Last year we introduced the Sheffield Beer Of The Festival award and will be repeating this again on Wednesday evening.
We are particularly excited that world-famous beer writer Roger Protz will be joining us at the festival and hosting a tasting session based around his new book on IPAs.
Another improvement for this year is the introduction of rinsing points where visitors can clean their glass between drinks. No more heavy stout foam remaining in your glass when you fancy a pale ale for your next beer!
We have our usual array of live acts, booked by the irrepressible Saxbob, and a great variety of food stalls, with extended vegetarian and vegan offerings this year. There is also a welcome return of the Sheffield WI who will be hosting a charity cake stall on the Saturday. In addition to this we have our ever-popular Tombola stall, traditional pub games and CAMRA merchandise desk selling books and t-shirts.
No article on the beer festival would be complete without a word of thanks to our dedicated and hard-working volunteers. Each year they arrive to set everything up, man the bars, run the various desks, do whatever needs doing to ensure the festival is the success it is, and then dismantle everything and put it back in to storage for next year. We cannot thank them enough for the time and effort they give. The festival simply would not happen without them. As a thank you, this year we are running a free staff trip to Harrogate, and as an extra reward for the Sunday take down volunteers we have a free buffet at the Rutland Arms. If you fancy joining our happy band please visit our website Sheffield.camra.org.uk/festival to get more details on volunteering. We can guarantee that you’ll enjoy it more than you expected.
Finally, don’t forget to look out for our festival beermats around the locals pubs. As we have done for the last 3 years, the festival side of the mats are all different and once you collect all 12 they fit together to form an image of the festival poster.
See you there.
Steel City Beer & Cider Festival, 16-19 October 2019, Kelham Island Museum, Sheffield.
Paul Crofts & Alan Gibbons 
