Category: Awards

Award winning beers

Posted on by Andy Cullen
At our Steel City beer festival held last October at Ponds Forge, the opening night saw several panels of judges – a mixture of CAMRA members, publicans, brewers, writers and random drinkers – tasting most of the beers in the festival to decide which were the best examples of their styles. The winning brewers are presented with their certificate in front of an appreciative crowd at the Steel City Beer Awards night held at Thornbridge Hall on Friday 28th February. We’d like to thank all those involved with the awards night including the winning brewers for providing beer, Thornbridge for providing the venue and Richard Ryan for organising the night, all played their part in making it happen and at a very affordable ticket price. SO, the winning beers…. Mild Category – Brampton Brewery : Brampton Mild brampton mild Dark, roasted and jam packed full of flavour. Actually it’s very difficult to describe as the characteristics change so much the longer it is allowed to condition for. Brampton Mild is not so much a meal in a glass as a 5-course banquet. Coffee, toffee and caramel tones tease your taste buds and warm your cockles. Bitter Category – Sportsman Brewing Company of Huddersfield : Darker Shade of Ale Darker-Shade-of-Ale-141x200 A session strength Bitter at just 3.9% and darker than most, punches above its weight in the flavour stakes. Best Bitter Category – Ashover Brewery : Littlemore Citra Pale and a little fruity, this single hopped Best Bitter is mighty refreshing! Strong Bitter Category – Tigertops : Black Hop Porter Category – Acorn Brewery : Old Moor Porter old-moor-porter_lge A full bodied victorian style porter with hints of liquorice. The initial bitterness gives way to a smooth, mellow finish. Stout Category – Wentworth Brewery : Sloe Stout Champion Beer of Sheffield A separate competition, each brewery located in Sheffield selected one of their beers for a taste off against each other, the results… Gold – The Brew Company, Crazy Horse IPA Silver – Sheffield Brewery Company, Sheffield Porter Bronze (joint) – Abbeydale Brewery, Black Mass Bronze (joint) – Bradfield Brewery, Farmers Blonde black_massBlonde500-copy-2Sheffield_Porter_t

Pub of the Month March 2014

Posted on by Guest
A pub on the site since 1797, the Dog & Partridge was acquired by Duncan Gilmour at some time after 1860 as shown by the distinctive Gilmour’s frontage. Internally the pub still retains some of the original room layout with seating areas on both sides of the entrance. On the left there’s a small enclosed snug whilst the right leads to the main bar area with a comfortable lounge to the rear. Conor and Sarah Smith took on the lease in February 2013 following a refurbishment of the pub in 2012, Conor having previously had over ten years’ experience in the licensed trade. Currently the opening hours are Monday – Thursday 12-11 and 12-12 Friday and Saturday (closed Sunday). Food is available Monday to Friday lunchtimes 12-2.30. There are now six handpumps dispensing Black Sheep Bitter and Kelham Island Easy Rider as regular beers and up to four guest beers, many from local breweries but also from independents from further afield, with around 200 different beers in the first year. There’s a 10% discount on cask beers for CAMRA members on production of a current membership card. Traditional pub games available include darts, table skittles, shove ha’penny and bagatelle. Monday is quiz night with a £20 bar tab for the winners, Tuesday there’s an acoustic jam session and there’s a DJ on Saturday nights. To mark the pubs transformation in the last year to become a quality showcase for real ale, the pub will be receiving the Pub of the Month award on the evening of Tuesday 11th March 2014, when all are welcome to join us was presented with their award on an evening of good beer, music, buffet (including Connor’s excellent home made hot scotch eggs!) a raffle and a space hopper. B Feb-March 2014 006 Alt Dog & Partridge, 56 Trippet Lane, S1 4EL The nearest tram stop is City Hall. Buses 51, 52, 70, 95, 120.

Dronfield pub awards

Posted on by Andy Cullen
Our Dronfield & District sub-branch have named their award winning pubs to celebrate what is good and being done well in the pub world locally.

Most Improved Pub of the Year

Victoria Dronfield Presentation (3)The Most Improved Pub in Dronfield award has gone to the Victoria on Stubley Lane. This pub used to be part of the Punch Taverns estate but the building was sold off by Punch and thankfully, rather than being converted to housing, was bought by Chris Snell who has refurbished the pub, improved the beer range and created a great lively atmosphere. You can enjoy special offers on the beer on a Monday, free food at half time when football is on the telly and live entertainment at the weekend. Chris has been rewarded by all this effort with a pub that is much busier than before he bought it! The Vic have also put on their first beer festival, last August, as part of the Three Valleys Ridge festival.

Cider and Overall Pub of the Year

Cider Pub of the Year was awarded to the Travellers Rest at Apperknowle, which has since gone on to be voted the overall Dronfield & District Pub of the Year. The Travellers is a proper rural drinkers pub with friendly staff, cosy corners and a warm fire. A choice of up to 9 real ales are available with the guest ales generally sourced via local breweries and a blackboard shows the current range of traditional ciders, served direct from the cellar. They don’t do meals at the Travs, however if you are hungry £5 will get you a fantastic platter of quality cheeses, pork pie and pickles. Live music is hosted regularly and from time to time beer festivals are held, with the pub being one of the newer additions to the Three Valleys festival. All are invited to attend the Pub of the Year presentation night and celebrate this award with Sarah, Lauren and the regular and not-so-regular customers on Saturday March 8th and enjoy the great range of beers and ciders along with samples of their cheese platters. To get to the Travellers during the daytime buses 15, 16 and 16A run there from Dronfield Civic Centre and railway station, unfortunately there is no public transport to Apperknowle in the evening but taxis are available to/from the nearest bus route in Coal Aston (44) or Eckington (50).

Winter Pub of the Season

Cross-Daggers-Coal-Aston-POTSAlso in Dronfield, the sub branch have presented their Winter Pub of the Season award to the Cross Daggers in Coal Aston.
   

Pub of the Month December 2013

Posted on by Admin
The Red Deer on Pitt Street, hidden away off West Street is approached via Mappin Street and is one of the gems of the City Centre real ale scene. Dating from the 1870’s, the pub originally comprised three small rooms with a central bar area. This was opened out in the 1980’s and the bar repositioned to provide the present format of an L-shaped lounge. The “gallery”, a raised area at the rear, was added in 1993 and this leads on to a beer garden. Formerly a Tetley pub, for many years in the early days of Sheffield CAMRA, the Red Deer was the regular meeting place for the branch, it being one of the few Sheffield pubs to retain handpumps. Jake Nickles took over the pub in August 2010, having previously worked in pubs and bars in London and the Midlands. By focusing on good customer service and increasing the choice of real ales he quickly re-established the pubs reputation as a quality showcase for cask beer. The bar displays an impressive range of handpumps, serving up to nine beers, including regularly changing guest beers. A good selection of malt whiskies are also available. Quality “pub grub” is available 12-3pm and 5-9pm weekdays and 12-9pm Saturday/Sunday. Tuesday evenings there is a fairly challenging pub quiz, there’s an acoustic session on the first Thursday of the month and open mike on the third Thursday. A popular movie night is held in the upstairs function room on the second and fourth Sunday, alternating between sci-fi and arts films. The well-deserved Pub of the Month award will be presented on the evening of Tuesday 10th December 2013, when all are welcome to join us. An incentive for CAMRA members is a 5% discount on real ales, on production of a current membership card.

Festival Awards

Posted on by Admin
Two tasting competitions were held on the opening night of the festival, the Champion Beer of Sheffield and Beer of the Festival. Both were judged in blind tastings by panels of brewers, publicans and drinkers. And the winners are…

Champion Beer of Sheffield

Sheffield’s breweries can nominate one of their regular beers to be judged in this competition. The top three were:

1st – The Brew Company, Crazy Horse IPA

2nd – Sheffield Brewery Co., Sheffield Porter
3rd = Abbeydale, Black Mass
3rd = Bradfield, Farmers Blonde

Beer of the Festival

Beers available at the festival were separated by style and judged in these categories. The winner of each category went on to the Beer of the Festival competition.

Category Winners

Mild – Brampton, Mild
Bitter – Sportsman, Darker Shade of Ale
Best Bitter – Ashover, Littlemoor Citra
Strong Bitter – Tigertops, Black Hop
Porter – Acorn, Old Moor Porter
Stout – Wentworth, Sloe Stout

Overall Winners

Gold – Ashover, Littlemoor Citra

Silver – Brampton, Mild
Bronze – Tigertops, Black Hop
Congratulations to all of the winners. All are available at the festival so come down and try them.

Sheffield Pub of the Year 2013

Posted on by Admin

Shakespeares

Gibraltar Street, Sheffield City Centre 314987_144850238938159_2244940_nThe winner of our Sheffield Pub of the Year competition has been announced as Shakespeares on Gibraltar Street. The award winner is selected by local CAMRA members being invited to vote for their top 6 pubs in the city which are then judged objectively on individual visits by a number of judges, who score the pub on criteria including the availability, range and quality of the cask beers, consumer friendly practices, clientele mix, service and the general experience of visiting the pub. Shakespeares, under its previous ownership of Punch Taverns, was closed, sold off and spent a year or so boarded up. The current owner, William Wagstaff (who also owns the New Beehive Inn in Bradford), bought the pub and invested in bringing the building up to standard and the construction of an extension, without losing the simple charm of this old coaching Inn. The pub is managed day-to-day by Chris Bamford and Robin Baker. 302123_144831658940017_7001770_nThe bar has an extensive and ever changing range of well kept and carefully selected beers from small craft breweries both local and across the UK along with artisan cider, all at reasonable prices. There’s also an upstairs concert room known as the ‘Bard’s Bar’ with a busy programme of live music. Shakespeares also hosts a beer festival every few months. This involves all the handpumps on the main bar showcasing local breweries and a temporary bar constructed upstairs featuring new, rare or interesting beers from the rest of the UK along with an extended cider range and entertainment. For the summer festivals the event spills into the beer garden with a stall selling freshly baked pizzas. Shakespeares does not normally serve food other than sandwiches, crisps, nuts etc but if asked nicely are generally very friendly and accommodating if you wish to have a curry delivered from the takeaway over the road to eat in the pub with your pint! We’ll be presenting their award certificate at the pub on Tuesday 8th May. Celebrations commence 8pm and all are welcome to come down for a pint or two and toast the pub’s success. As the Sheffield winner, Shakespeares goes forward to CAMRA’s Yorkshire Pub of the Year competition, the winner of which gets into the national competition. Sheffield & District CAMRA also award a District Pub of the Year which is entered into the Derbyshire competition. The winner of this was the Anglers Rest at Millers Dale. Dronfield pubs are no longer judged by Sheffield branch as it now has its own subbranch who choose their own Pub of the Year winner. This was The Three Tuns in Dronfield Hallowes which has also gone into the Derbyshire competition. They also awarded a Country Pub of the Year award to the Rutland Arms in Holmesfield.