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Punch Taverns teamed up with Everards Brewery to give four lucky Partners the chance to brew and brand their own beer. Every Punch Partner who bought the ‘Beer with No Name’ was entered into a prize draw and the winning four were selected at random: • Karen Lang-Norris of the Hop Pole, Beeston • Gary Fanton of the Rutland Arms, Holmesfield • Ian Jackson of the Black Swan, Henley in Arden • Alan Gibbons of Hen House, Cannock. As part of the prize, the four Partners attended the Everards Gold Cask Ale Champion course at The Brunswick microbrewery in Derby, where they learnt about the brewing process, raw materials and selected ingredients to brew their perfect pint. The Partners drew inspiration from the beers they know and love and used tools such as Cyclops to gauge what styles are working in their pubs. They put together their knowledge and experience to design their own beer recipe, create a name for their beer and design a pump clip to suit. This resulted in Amberella being born – a 4.1% golden amber ale, made with Maris Otter Malt and Ella, Summer and Cascade hops. With the recipe now logged, Everards will produce this beer which will be available through the Punch Finest Cask scheme throughout October. Stephen Martin, Category Manager for Punch Taverns, said: “It was a fantastic opportunity for our Partners to get involved, learn about the complexity of beer brewing and create their own ale. “We are delighted to work with Everards and produce an autumn-inspired beer and following the success of the Beer with no Name, I am expecting Ambrella to do really well.” Everards are giving those that try it in their pubs the chance to enter the same prize draw to brew a beer for next year. Keep a look out for the competition when Ambrella goes live in Finest Cask Rotation 6.

Situated near Worksop, the Welbeck Abbey has been home in the past to monks, earls and an army training college. Most recently it has become home to the Welbeck Project, a community of business, education and arts initiatives. Part of this is Welbeck Abbey Brewery. Founded in 2011 with a little help from the late Dave Wickett and Kelham Island Brewery, this 10 barrel plant is producing some very good cask ales. And on an overcast Tuesday night members of Dronfield CAMRA sub-branch paid a visit to the brewery for a tour. We were welcomed with pints of Red Feather, a best bitter and a new pale ale called Harley. Harley is a new beer, although some of us had already sampled this beer at the Travellers Rest in Apperknowle the previous weekend and pleased to be reacquainted with this beers hoppy flavour. There followed a tour of the brewery lead by head brewster Claire Monk, who was an excellent host who explained the brewing process, took us through the ingredients and answered many questions of the curious Dronfield CAMRA members very well. Welbeck Abbey concentrate on the local market, and look more to produce good characterful beers at sessionable strength over the more experimental beers (or ‘faddy’ beers as brewster Claire put it). They are also looking at the possibility of using barley grown on the Welbeck Abbey estate for their own malt in the future. After the tour was over and more Harley and Red Feather had been drunk, we made the short trip to the Butchers Arms in Woodsetts near Worksop. This is a village pub run by Raw Brewery with an excellent array of cask ales from the likes of Black Jack, Darkstar, and of course Raw themselves. A very good end to a most enjoyable evening.

Sheffield Forgemasters has swapped castings for casks in a partnership venture with The Sheffield Brewery Company. The iconic 200-year-old engineering heavyweight has teamed up with the brewery to deliver a tailor-made Forgemasters beer launched on 31 October at the historic brewery building in Neepsend. It will be made widely available from 31 October in traditional casks via independent pubs across the city and through a limited bottle-run with bottles only available for purchase directly from The Sheffield Brewery Company. Numerous local luminaries gathered to sample the brew and gave it the thumbs up. Forgemasters beer has been created by the company’s chief executive, Dr Graham Honeyman, who recognised Sheffield’s growing status as the real-ale capital of the UK and saw an opportunity to team up with local brewery boffins to engineer the perfect pint. Dr Honeyman said “Sometimes it is good to step back and take on a new challenge. And with some of the county’s finest breweries right here on our doorstep it seemed like the ideal project, to engineer the perfect pale ale and to market it through the region’s best pubs.” “Sheffield has a status of quality across the world for its engineering achievements and this is simply an extension of the philosophy which underpins that ethos, to take something and make it to the best of your ability.” “Crucially, I wanted the beer to become a household name in the region. I’d like people to walk into the pub, see the Forgemasters beer label on the bar and order it, confident that it will be of the best quality.” “We chose to work with a small, artisan brewery that could deliver the beer to our specific requirements, which involved a significant amount of research and development to get the correct balance of qualities – as do all of our projects! Even the bottles for the beer have been hand selected because nothing about this beer is run-of-the-mill.” Peter Rawlinson, director of The Sheffield Brewery Company, said: “We were delighted to be selected and the venture between the brewery and Sheffield Forgemasters is a great initiative and celebrates all that is good about the city. Tim Stillman, the brewer, said: “We have delivered a bespoke beer for Forgemasters, to their specification, which uses Lager malt and Maris Otter pale malt to give a very pale, straw colour, with Saaz hops used at the beginning of the brewing process and American Cascade hops at the end to give a really nice citrus twist to the drink. This has created a beer which we think has broad appeal.” The beer has been tested in the market under a pseudonym and sold very well. Coupled with its real Forgemasters name, it could well become a staple drink for people who appreciate the company’s iconic name and want a beer that they’ll go back for time and time again.

The collaboration brew between Blue Bee and Welbeck Abbey proved popular. Intergalactic had a combination of four hop varieties – Cluster, Galaxy, Stellar and Pilot. Look out for the return leg to be brewed at The Hive in January (it may have hops in). Awards corner. The illustrious Lustin’ For Stout scooped top spot at the Sheffield Tigers Rugby beer festival at Dore Moor recently. “Really delighted with this one”, said Rich, “because there was some stiff competition from a lot of excellent beers from other local breweries. And well done to Tigers for putting on this great little event”. This followed on from Nectar Pale taking top honours at the inaugural Beer and Curry festival at Insch in North-East Scotland. A fine performance indeed. Blue Bee’s new seasonal is out there. Dark Blue is a bit unusual, and, er, a little bit ‘out there’. So, a 4.4% dark ale that has had 2kg of fresh root ginger added to the boil. The colour is an enticing deep burnished copper; the flavours are warming and spicy. The ginger is there in abundance, without being overpowering. – Brilliant on bonfire night! – Perfect with parkin! – A hit at Hallowe’en! The kind of beer to be savoured next to an open log fire. Look out too for the latest in the pUnK-tuation series. Dinkus is a 5.2% pale ale with a riot of hops going on. Admiral for bittering, and stacks of Chinook and Cascade to follow. Think citrus… And finally, the Tangled Trail II. Six of Sheffield’s finest hostelries will each have an aged Tangled Up so you can try the different ‘vintages’ side-by-side. This time, head for the Rutland Arms, the Closed Shop, the Uni Arms, the Gardeners Rest, the Dev Cat and Shakespeare’s. In whatever order you fancy, of course. Richard Hough