Paul has been on the branch committee for a few years taking on Vice Chair, Good Beer Guide and Pub of the Month/Year Coordinator roles before becoming our new Chair.
Paul had a long career in IT and business project/programme management roles for a major financial institution before retiring in 2021. He now undertakes some part time exam invigilation work at Westfield School as well as helping his wife, Bev, look after their four young grandchildren on a regular basis.
Paul and Bev are often in their local, the Chantry Inn at Handsworth. They love foreign and UK travel which often involves beer!
Paul is passionate about supporting great beer, Sheffield’s fantastic pubs and also our superb annual beer festival. He is always willing to chat with members and punters over a pint or two.
Our chair Paul Manning, his wife Bev and long standing Sheffield camra stalwart Alan Gibbons recently visited the Oktoberblest beer and gin festival at St Matthew’s on Carver street.
The church was built in 1855 amongst the slums of the city, is now grade 2 listed and has long been regarded as a sanctuary in the heart of the city. The church has an ambitious target to raise nearly £800,000 for interior restorations and money raised at the festival will go towards increasing the £450,000 raised to date.
The festival opened with Rt Revd Stephen Race, the bishop of Beverley blessing the beers accompanied by Fr Grant Naylor, the current vicar.
Nick Law the founder of Emmanuales gave a very illuminating talk on the brief history of beer and belief and we also enjoyed some great music whilst sampling the beers.
Nick had brought two beers – Noah’s Dark a 5.4% dark Belgian ale and Solomon’s gold a 4.5% Belgian golden ale. Both tasted great and we also tasted (mainly half’s!) of Reunion Witbier a 5% cloudy white ale from Mount St Bernard Trappist brewer in rural Leicestershire. This was followed by Juiceinator a 4.7% pale and Days of Thunder a 5% hazy pale both from Bang the Elephant brewery in Langley Mill, Derbyshire.
We ended with Santa’s Little Belter a 4.9% ginger and cinnamon dark ale from the recently closed Halton Turner brewery in Digbeth, Birmingham together with Jolly YPA a 4.8% pale from Jolly Boys brewery in Barnsley.
We enjoyed the evening and look forward to next years event as it becomes a regular on the Sheffield festival calendar.
Our vice chair Paul Manning and his wife Bev recently visited Japan and South Korea trying the local beer scene on their travels.
Our 18-day adventure started with a brief flight stopover in the UAE at the ultra-modern sand dune shaped Abu Dhabi airport where we had time to sample a pint of 1758 Belgium IPA but at £13 each, they were easily the most expensive of the trip.
After 16 hours total flying time we arrived in Narita airport and, after a 40-mile taxi transfer, reached the excellent Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo which was to be our base for the first three nights. Fighting off the dreaded jetlag we headed out on a prearranged night-time beer and food tour round Shinjuku. Our tour group consisted off ourselves, three Americans, an Australian and our Japanese guide.
A great camaraderie ensued during the four-hour tour which consisted of stops at some great street food and beer stalls where the delights of fried chicken, dumplings and even raw horse meat were tried, washed down with copious amounts of the local beers – mainly Kirin and Asahi super dry lagers together with the local favourite, highball cocktail.
Shinjuku at night was like New York Times Square with neon lights, the famous 3D digital cat, a towering Godzilla and was crowded with people which wasn’t a surprise for the world’s most populated city where 34 million people live in the greater Tokyo conurbation. After a detour to a local Shinto shrine where we paid our respects, the tour finished in what could only be described as a dive bar and after more Kirin I tasted some snake infused liquor. It was basically a local Japanese whisky with a decapitated snake head occupying the bottle!
Having survived the horse meat and snake liquor our next two days were again on pre-booked tours of wider Tokyo and further afield. The city is an amazing metropolis but so safe and clean – no graffiti or litter in sight which contrasted wildly with home. We explored Tokyo far and wide on the first day visiting the emperor’s imperial palace, the royal Shinto shrine with hundreds of saki beer barrels, a trip to the top of the Skytree tower for amazing views and a trip round Tokyo bay.
Beer opportunities were a little limited, with some green matcha flavoured ale at lunch, followed by a dark Asahi pale at the tower summit and more Kirin on the boat. The 45th floor lounge bar in our hotel more than sufficed for a few more lagers and cocktails accompanying dinner with jaw dropping night-time city views.
The second day was bright and clear with the main highlight a visit to the snow-covered foothills of Mount Fuji which was out in her full glory (we were lucky as she is only seen out of cloud around 60 days a year). A cable car ride over a sulphur emitting dormant volcano and a pirate ship lake ride followed before another highlight being a super-fast return trip by bullet train to Tokyo. The ship had an excellent Gora Brewery Rising Sun IPA but our beer highlight was a visit to a Hitachino Brewing’s Nest Beer outlet just outside one of Tokyo train station’s numerous exits.
The craft beers were excellent at approximately £5 a pint, and we spent a good two hours sampling their Dai DaiAle 6% IPA, Amber Ale 6%, MikanSession IPA 4.5%, Nipponia 6% IPA, History 1602Pale Ale 5% and Espresso Stout 8%. I’d recommend seeking them out if ever in Tokyo.
The second part of our trip was a 12-night cruise down the east side of Japan onboard the cruise liner Celebrity Millennium. A great ship with attentive staff, great entertainment and food.
Onboard, craft beers were either bottled or canned and mostly American. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Goose Island IPA, Sam Adams Boston Lager, Lagunitas A Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale wheat IPA, Guiness (on St Patrick’s Day) were all sampled together with some more interesting brews including 90 Minute IPA 9% imperial IPA from Dogfish Head Brewery, a Unibroue Brewery (Canada) La Fin du Monde 9% wheat beer and a Terrapin Beer (Georgia, US) Luau Krunkles IPA 6.5% passion fruit, orange and guava IPA.
While the East China Sea was at times rather rough, the weather was mostly dry if a little chilly. Our ports of call were varied with trips to more Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, castles, spectacular underground caves, and exquisite Japanese gardens mixed in with spectacular views over the cities of Okinawa, Kagoshima, Osaka, Kyoto in Japan, Jeju Island in South Korea and paddling in the Pacific Ocean in Shizuoka.
Of course, the alcohol side was satisfied by trips to a saki brewery factory and museum with an 18% saki beer purchased, Nanto brewery in Okinawa and a sweet potato shōchū 25% proof beer purchase in Kagoshima.
All in all, a spectacular trip with plenty of opportunities to sample Japanese culture, cities and the beer scene in Tokyo which is highly recommended.
Our overall 2024 pub of the year and also Sheffield Kelham Island & Neepsend area pub of the year is the outstanding Kelham Island Tavern. The Kelham Island area is now a Sheffield beer tourist attraction, with excellent bus and tram connections from the City Centre.
Constructed in the 1830s as part of a terrace, and originally operating as the Sawmaker, the pub was later renamed the White Hart, and in 1995 became the Kelham Island Tavern, before closing in 1999. In March 2002, the derelict building was purchased and reopened, specialising in real ale.
Over the last 22 years, the pub has continued to thrive and since 2019, under the management of Josh and Louise, it has continued to offer a wide range of both cask (13) and craft keg beers always including a porter and stout along with many IPA’s and bitters. It has an excellent rear beer garden and the pub maintains the standards to which many others aspire.
The beer range is consistently excellent, always including at least one from Blue Bee. A simple snack menu is available including pork pies.
KIT is the only pub to be CAMRA National Pub of the Year two years running (in 2008 & 2009). It has been CAMRA Yorkshire Pub of the Year five times and Sheffield Pub of the Year on 17 occasions: a record which is highly unlikely to be overtaken.
Please join us on Wednesday 3rd July as we present the well deserved awards to Josh, Louise and the team.
The Oxbow micropub at Woodhouse Mill has been voted by our members as Pub of the Month for March 2024.
The Oxbow Micropub opened its doors in January 2020 in what used to be a kitchen showroom. It was started by a group of friends who had always dreamed of running their own pub. They managed to navigate their way through the challenges of 2020 and are now open every day, with the help of a brilliant team who do an amazing job in making the place such a friendly place to enjoy a drink.
They aim to offer a relaxed environment where everyone is welcome. Due to having three cask lines and seven keg lines (often including a cider), as well as a range of bottled and canned beer and cider, hopefully there is something to suit everyone’s tastes.
They do regular tap takeovers and specialist beer events, as well as hosting food vans and also host a quiz night every other Wednesday.
Please join us from 6pm on Wednesday 6th March when we will enjoy their quiz and then present the well deserved Pub of the Month award.
Our vice chair, Paul Manning and his wife, Bev went on a baseball and beer trip to London in late June.
After travelling down on National Express we booked into our hotel which was the Hayden Pub and Rooms in Bayswater – a great base for our 3 day trip which was in 30C + temperatures (great timing before the July washout)!
The Hayden’s on tap beers were Meantime Anytime IPA (4.7%) and Salt Loom pale (4%) both very drinkable. The first evening we headed over to Brixton and after a pint of London Pride each in the Beehive Wetherspoons (cheapest pint we had all weekend at £2.49)
We visited London Beer labs in a railway arch in nearby Nursery rd. We joined another 12 or so drinkers for a 10 tap beer tasting mostly brewed by the London beer lab co. The company was set up in 2012 and to date have brewed over 9000 different recipes. The beers went from a Kaiser Pils at 4.6% to Brixton Haze NEIPA, Saison DuPont, Russia Coloda Whitbeir and Black lab stout. A great start to our weekend and a quirky place to seek out if in London.
The next day we had booked on a London Craft Beer cruise which ran for 2 and a half hours along the Thames from Millbank to Greenwich and back. We each had 6 craft beers in very generous portions along with a take home commemorative glass. The beers included close to home Thornbridge Jaipur and am/pm and Siren brews DDH Calypso and Soundwave.
We then had another couple of hours sat outside at the Morpeth Arms, a Youngs pub which had great views of the river opposite the MI6 building. We both stayed on Peckham Ale from London’s Brick Brewery which was a superb brew.
A visit to a Greene king The Kings head in Bayswater for a pint of Level Head pale preceded a number of fantastic cocktails back at the Hayden (Buy a Guardian and banana old fashioned being our favourites).
The next day we journeyed to the London stadium home of West Ham Utd to watch MLB baseball where the Chicago Cubs played the St Louis Cardinals. The game was excellent with the Cardinals winning in front of 56000 fans. A great surprise was to find two craft beers brewed for the event being London Series Pale and The Birds and the Bears Tart ale both at 4.5%. The MLB returns to London next year in June and we will be back. We finished our trip with a trip to Portobello market and had a fabulous brunch with gins at Portobello Road Gin distillery.
The Chantry Inn (400 Handsworth Road, S13 9BZ) has been voted as Sheffield and District CAMRA East Area Pub of the Year for 2023 and third overall in the city wide competition.
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 varied past originally being a chantry and safe house for nuns, then a washhouse 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 alongside the regulars of New York pale, Iron and Steel bitter, Special Reserve and Diamond Stout. There are also changing keg beers available often from Tiny Rebel or Beavertown as well as real cider and Chantry brewery’s own Helles lager.
Their recent special Parkgate 200 has been on the members bar at the Houses of Parliament in London ensuring our elected leaders get to taste the excellent Chantry Ales.
Congratulations to all involved with the Chantry Inn including the brewery and the pub manager Terry and his partner Alison. The area pub of the year award presentation is planned for the evening of Tuesday 30th May from around 8pm onwards and all are welcome to join the celebration.
A fabulous trip to New Zealand by our vice chairman Paul and his wife Bev.
We started on Harvey’s brewery IPA at the Hilton Heathrow Terminal 2 with some great runway views. Singapore airlines took us to Auckland via a lengthy stop at Singapore due to cyclone Gabrielle but time for a few beers including Archipelago brewery’s Summer IPA.
Auckland was very blowy but our 1 night stay allowed samplings of Emerson’s Hazed and Confused IPA and an excellent Black Duck dark ale from Hawkes bay together with Tuatara hazy pale ale and Speights gold medal ale.
We moved onto Mount Manganui for a 6 night stay for the first test. A lovely sunny and hot seaside resort. Canned beers included Puha road IPA and the Island’s Dawn Daze IPA.
We enjoyed hospitality at the cricket, met England legends Mike Gatting and Gladstone Small. It meant all our drinks were included with the beer offering being Boundary Road brewery’s Haze of our Lives Hazy IPA. An England win in 4 days allowed time for a spectacular wild life boat trip.
We then flew to Wellington after a short visit to a Maori thermal village for a Haka ceremony. Wellington was different again being very hilly and windy. Trips to see the Pinnacles famous for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and wine tasting at Martinborough a great little town set up by an English settler with streets in a Union Jack flag orientation. Many beers were sampled including Fortune Favours brewery Optimist and a bean to beer double chocolate stout.
A Wellington craft breweries tour started at Garage Project brewery for Pernicious weed (8% IPA) and Garagista (5.8% bitter). Next stop was Baylands brewery taproom for a taster flight of Esplanade, Woodrow Vero, Rail Slider and Hop Enforcer. Highlight was then a visit to Brewtown in Upper Hutt. This was a craft brewery Mecca in an old Dunlop tyre factory with numerous breweries including Panhead and Boneface . More taster flights followed with a favourite being Unf*ck the world 8% double IPA.
The second test match was very exciting but England lost by just 1 run. We drowned our sorrows in a great little dive bar sampling Wired Wireless brewery’s Black IPA, Garage Projects Leeds street rye ale and a Birdseye hazy IPA from Parrot Dog brewery.
A super trip for the beer and cricket with many fabulous memories.
The Dog & Partridge (56 Trippet Lane, S1 4EL) has been voted as CAMRA Sheffield & District Pub of the Month March 2023.
This pub which dates back to 1796 has a unique frontage including the pub name and “Gilmours Windsor Ales & Stouts”. It also has some modern wall graffiti art outside on Bailey Street.
It compromises of four different rooms each with some original and unique features including real fireplaces in both the snug and rear room. The snug is largely unaltered retaining features including bell pushes from their table service days together with the original door and fixed seating.
The central bar has a range of cask and keg beers – four rotating cask beers often include offerings from Stancil, Abbeydale and other local breweries including a stout.
Conor who took over as landlord in 2012 has recently become free of any brewery ties. This popular pub has regular events including a weekly quiz, weekly folk evening and shows major sport events on the TV screens.
Congratulations to all involved with the Dog and Partridge including Conor and his team. The pub of the month award presentation is planned for the evening of Tuesday 14 March and all are welcome to join the celebration and perhaps enjoy the usual pub quiz from 7pm beforehand.
Our vice chair, Paul Manning and his wife Bev visited Fullers brewery and a number of pubs in London.
We visited Fullers brewery which is on the bank of the Thames at Chiswick. Although Fullers is now owned by Asahi, brewing their famous brews continues on the site as it has since 1845. The brewery itself although being fully modernised still retains much of its previous equipment which can be viewed on their excellent tour.
The brewery is also home to reputedly the oldest wisteria plant in the Uk grown on the outside wall of the head brewers house since 1816. The kit included modern tanks holding 96,000 pints to old open brewing tanks which due to some furry visitors that used to sample the brew gave rise to the phrases ‘rat arsed’ and ‘bottoms up’ as they floated with their behinds upwards! The tour concluded with sampling time of numerous brews including London Pride, ESB, Oliver’s Island, Black Cab stout and their seasonal amber ale Red fox. They also brew Dark Star and Gayles beers.
A very pleasant walk on the Thames Path to Hammersmith bridge followed including visits to The Ship Inn, a Youngs pub and the famous Dove pub serving more Fullers brews.
A later in the day trip was made to the Star Tavern in Belgravia which has been in every Good Beer guide since inception and rumoured to be where the Great Train Robbery was planned in the 1960’s. We tasted more Fullers London Pride and London Porter plus a cask by the excellent pint of Radio Silence by the Falmouth brewers Verdant.
We also took in the Churchill Arms in Kensington another Fullers pub which is famous for its outdoor floral displays especially at Christmas and home to great Thai food.
The Church House (4 James Street, S1 2EW) has been voted as CAMRA Sheffield & District Pub of the Month for November 2022.
This historic pub is in a Grade II listed building built in a gothic revival style on the site of an old vicarage in 1859. It had a number of uses for the first hundred years including a cookery department, a choir boys school and a home for squatters!
In 1987 it opened as a pub called Gladstones and has also been the Ferret and Trouserleg, the Priory and the Sanctuary. Star Pubs & Bars bought the pub in 2012 and it then changed to its current name.
It normally has four cask ales on tap including from Robinsons, Bradfield and Titanic. The pub has a thriving and popular live music scene and in partnership with Honey Bees Blues club holds regular music nights featuring many local bands.
Congratulations to all involved with the Church House including the pub manager Andrew Delemere and his team. The award presentation is planned for the evening of Tuesday 8 November and all are welcome to join the celebration.
