Category: Breweries

March means it’s time for Sheffield Beer Week! We’re delighted to be playing a small part in the 10^th anniversary celebrations of this fantastic citywide festival. We’ve got a few special beers to celebrate – our collaboration with Sheffield Beer Week itself, Cloud Peak (4.8% Cryo Session IPA) makes a welcome return, as does heritage pale ale Sheffield Rocks (4.1%) … joined this year by all-new Sheffield Stout! A 4.5% classic stout inspired by the history of the city we call home. Expect a pronounced roasty body and flavours reminiscent of rich dark chocolate. A gently spicy hop character provides balanced bitterness before rolling into a smooth and long-lasting finish.

From our Stained Glass series, we’re heralding the arrival of Springtime (4.1%). A light and tropical pale ale to welcome the new season! Vista hops bring sweet, fruity notes of tangerine, cantaloupe melon and orchard pear, with an aromatic hint of green tea alongside.

And from the Brewers’ Emporium, a new series is on the way. We’re diving into the world of new and and exciting hop products, with Aquanaut (4.6%) searching for hidden depths of aroma and flavour. Immerse yourself in the intense tropical notes of Spectrum Galaxy and Lupomax Azacca, followed up with a piney, resinous finish from Incognito Centennial.

Finally, we have a very special collaboration with the iconic Sheffield electronic music duo I Monster. Fly P.A. is a 4.7% dry hopped pale ale brewed to celebrate the 20^th anniversary reissue of their album “Neveroddoreven” and their 2024 tour. Featuring Galaxy and Sabro hops for a tropical fruit explosion. A beer that’s perfect for dreaming amid the flowers, for a couple of hours, on a beautiful day.

Doctor Morton is back with a new brew, it’s 100% reliable Fake News (4.1%)! Juicy Idaho 7 hops are balanced by delicately resinous and earthy Savinjski Goldings. Completely ineffective against truth seekers, flat earthers and mardy Yorkshire folk who have already made their bloody mind up.

The “travel poster” inspired series which we launched last year continues by staying right at home – Visit Beauchief Abbey (4.1%) is a classic pale ale, single hopped with Galaxy. We also have more collaborations with other fantastic cask-led breweries to follow from this range, planned for a little later in the year.

And rounding off a trilogy of new pale ale specials this month, we have Through the Hopback Belma (4.0%) on the way. A new hop to us, Belma promises notes of melon and strawberry with a clean citrussy character alongside.

Onto returning beers and we see Sheffield Rocks (4.1%) back on bars, inspired by our wonderful city’s long heritage. And from our Brewers Emporium range, Irish Stout (4.5%) from our Salvation series makes a welcome return along with Sheffield Beer Week collaboration Cloud Peak (4.8%). Look out for more news on our plans for Sheffield Beer Week itself coming soon!

It’s hard to believe it but 2024 marks 10 years of Biblical brews for Emmanuales.  A lot has happened over that period for brewing, balding, modern monk Nick Law.

Starting off in his cellar in 2014 with a humble fermentation bucket, his first beer – Ale the Lamb – fermented hot and tasted like old hymnals with an aroma of fusty-churches thrown in for good measure.  After honing his beers of biblical proportions and gaining local popularity, Nick assumed the role at The Sheffield Brewery Company as the Head Brewer.

By January 2018, was apparent that he could no longer support both Emmanuales and The Sheffield Brewery Company simultaneously and decided to put Emmanuales on hiatus whilst he figured out what to do next.

After away from The Sheffield Brewery Company, Nick sought to help other brewers through his many skills in branding, marketing, and business and set up consultancy and agency Hop Forward to help a variety of businesses, including Lincoln Green Brewing Company, Great Beyond Brewing Co in Hoxton, Nigeria’s first craft brewery Bature Brewery, and filmmaker Guy Ritchie’s Gritchie Brewing Company.

During Lockdown, Nick felt it was time to resurrect Emmanuales and set up a fully functioning nano-brewery in his Walkley cellar, where it resides today.

To celebrate 10 years of Emmanuales, Nick is kickstarting the year with two beers: Ale the Lamb (6.0%) – a homage (and much superior version!) of his first beer, an Extra Special Bitter – and the second incantation of Swinging The Incense (9.6%): a peated quadruple with sweet smoky flavours and fruity undertones.

As ever, the beers will be available from local stockists including Beer Central, The Green Shop, Walkley Beer Co and The Dram Shop.  For more info on Emmanuales and where to pick up these divine beers, head over to www.emmanuales.co.uk or follow us on all the socials @emmanuales

Thornbridge are this year again running a year of beer programme with a different cask beer each month appearing as a guest in pubs partnering in the scheme (and probably a few other places too!).

The 2024 brew schedule kicks off with a cask version of Green Mountain, the hazy session IPA that is a regular on keg followed in February by Coco Cocoa, a coconut edition of their regular chocolate porter.

In March is a mild called Grand Purposes, to be brewed as part of the International Women’s collaboration day then in April is Hirundo, a 4.5% pale ale. In May the release is “Lost in the Forest” a Slovenian hopped pale ale, June sees the return of Wye cucumber pale ale with a red rye IPA in July and a tropical pale ale in August.

Into the autumn and the flavours start to change with the seasons – in September Lucaria ice cream porter puts in an appearance, this type a Biscoff flavoured version and for Halloween in October of course pumpkin is involved! November has a Chai Latte flavoured stout then for Christmas in December it’s a gingerbread pale ale.

Thornbridge have also been involved with the brewing of a couple of Titanic brewery collaborations. The away fixture (brewed at Titanic in Stoke) was an extra special bitter called Carpathia whilst the home fixture (brewed at Thornbridge in Bakewell) is an IPA called Britannic, brewed using Galaxy and Simcoe hops. Both beers are 5.3% ABV.

Bradfield Brewery now have two Gluten Free beers in their bottled range, available from their on site shop. The bottled versions of Farmers Blonde and Farmers Brown Cow are now suitable for those needing a Gluten Free option!

Meanwhile on cask the first half of 2024 will see a similar calendar of monthly seasonal specials from Bradfield as last year with a rotation of Light Ale (January), Irish Dexter (February), Plum Bitter (March), CruciBull Ale (April), Cherry Beer (May), WimBullDon (June) and Elderflower Ale (July).

Grizzly Grains released another beer just before Christmas, meaning they had 3 ales plus mead out in the pubs over the holiday season. The latest beer was Lustre, a citra hopped golden ale.

Tapped Brew Co, based at the Sheffield Tap bar, celebrated their 1000th brew with “Grand”, a 5.9% ABV classic IPA with a hop bill that delivers some pronounced bitterness.

A recent brew from Triple Point has been Cappadocia, a 4.6% pale ale. Soft and fruity, with peach, tangerine, and pineapple flavours. Using El Dorado, Cashmere, and Wolf hops. This beer kicks off a new series of bucket list inspired beers, with this one based on a hot air balloon ride in sunny Cappadocia, Turkey, apparently!

Back in October at the opening night of our Steel City Beer & Cider Festival we judged a cask beer from most of the breweries in the Sheffield & District CAMRA branch area in our Champion Beer of Sheffield competition. We mentioned the winners briefly in our festival review last issue, but here is a closer look at them!

BRONZE WINNER – Little Critters, Great Danish

This is a 7.4% ABV pecan and maple stout that brings you chocolatey richness, bolstered by a subtle hint of pecan and finished with sweet maple. It is brewed with English malt grains, pecan extract (nut allergy free) and maple syrup.

SILVER WINNER – Tapped, Brook

A porter called Brook (Porter Brook – the Sheffield river, get it? Groan!)

This London Porter is brewed with a generous mix of brown malt and chocolate malt to give depth in flavour and colour, dark brown with ruby hints when held to light. The mix of the dark malts give aromas of chocolate, caramel and subtle notes of coffee which develop in the flavour. Hopped with two UK hops, Phoenix and Goldings.

GOLD WINNER, CHAMPION BEER OF SHEFFIELD – Heist, The Bad Part of Gnome Town

A 4.6% ABV hazy session IPA. It is juicy and refreshing and the aroma is an immediate explosion of citrus and tropical fruits thanks to the generous use of Citra hops. Balance by subtle pine and earthy undertones from the Simcoe hops. As well as the usual keg and can this beer saw a limited quantity go into cask for the beer festival with Heist really proving they can also do that well!

Abbeydale Brewery are celebrating twice over this week, after two of their permanently available beers scooped medals at the prestigious Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) Regional Bottle & Can Awards (North East Region).

Heresy Lager (a 4.5%, gluten free continental style lager) received a Bronze medal, and Black IPA Black Mass received a top class Gold award in the Speciality IPA category, meaning it scored over 90/100 and will go forward to the National Finals, due to be held in March next year. Just three of the highest level Gold awards were given out across the whole region. 

This is the second year running that Black Mass, a 6.6% ABV, gluten free and vegan friendly Black IPA, has come out as the top Speciality IPA in the region. Following the award in 2022, the beer subsequently went on to win National Gold in category before being declared Overall Champion beer in can in the whole of the UK – so the team at Abbeydale Brewery will be eagerly waiting to find out if it can defend the title. 

Black Mass has been one of Abbeydale Brewery’s permanently available beers since the business was founded in 1996, and the team believe it to be one of the world’s first and longest standing beers of this style in existence. Lead Brewer Jim Rangeley says of the award, “Black Mass has always been one of my favourite beers to both make and drink, and it’s great to see that the judges agree! I’m looking forward to celebrating with a can of it.”

The SIBA Bottle & Can Independent Beer Awards 2023 see beers marked against internationally recognised style guides for the different beer award categories – looking at appearance, aroma, flavour, aftertaste and saleability. The awards are judged by beer sommeliers, experienced beer judges and fellow brewers. Neil Walker, SIBA Head of Comms, praised this year’s winners: “This year’s SIBA Independent Beer Awards Bottle & Can competition was our biggest ever, including seven regions of the UK and hundreds of individual beers. The expert judging panel only give awards where deserved, so the winners listed really are the very best beers in the region.”

Well. Where on earth did 2023 go?! December brings us a cornucopia of seasonal releases, starting with Dr Morton’s Our Wayne (in a manger)! A 4.3% Simcoe hopped pale ale intended to bring to mind other old favourites such as “While shepherds washed their socks by night” and the unforgettabubble “O’ little toe of Bethlehem”. Also due for release in cask only is Winter (4.2%), brewed with Ekuanot hops which give an aromatic fruitiness and flavours of citrus and berries, plus a delicate herbal note in the finish. 

And from our Brewer’s Emporium range, Wilderness (4.5%) and Hibernation (4.2%) are making a welcome comeback. Both flavourful hazy pale ales – Wilderness is in the New England style, for a juicy character and low bitterness, whilst Hibernation is punchy, vibrant and crisp.

We’ve also got an incredibly special limited release on the way – our Old Ale is the perfect winter warmer. 8.0%, beautifully rich, mellow and well balanced. Toffee, fruitcake and raisins are the prevailing flavour notes with a light wood character and a subtle spiciness. This will be making rare appearances on cask and is also available in 750ml bottle conditioned bottles.

Our first beer of 2024 will, as is tradition, be the always popular Dr Morton’s Duck Baffler, a 4.1% Citra hopped pale ale. And we’ll be experimenting with a new-to-us hop in the next of our Through the Hopback series – Moutere, from New Zealand. This one will be a 4.1% pale ale and we’re hoping for a powerful grapefruity character along with hints of pine. Finally, we hear a rumour that Cryo Heathen (5.0%) is making a comeback to help us ring in the New Year in style!

A recent new brew from Temper Brewing of Dronfield has been Nectaron, a refreshing session pale with notes of passion fruit and peach in the flavour. This sold very quickly when it hit the Dronfield Arms bar!

Recently released in cask by Grizzly Grain brewery is Get Back, the latest in their “Get” series, hopped with Citra and Bru-1 which brings pineapple flavour with citrus background and refreshing bitterness. Meanwhile in bottle and keg is their latest farmhouse Saison, brewed with Sheffield grown Opal Plums. Looking forward, Sam with his Sheffield Mead hat on has been up at the Old Shoe bar pressing apples as part of a collaboration with Exemption Ciderhouse.

November saw Bradfield Brewery launch the 2023 brew of Belgian Blue for its annual outing in the run up to Christmas, however they have been hinting that December will be seeing the release of something a bit more limited edition and special and posted an image of some wooden barrels. Back in 2021 they produced “Farmers Kerry Stout”, a 12 month barrel aged 8% ABV stout, sold in bottles.

Emmanuales‘ annual Christmas event, “Hope & Beers”, is this year being hosted at the Raven in Walkley from 6pm on Saturday 9 December. The bar will be pouring some exclusive draught beers from Emmanuales (as well as the Loxley casks the pub normally serve) whilst brewer Nick will be leading carol singing including some funked up festive hymns. So come all ye faithful, it’s a most wonderful time for a beer!

Welbeck Abbey Brewery has decided to discontinue “Beer in a Box” polypins as they strive to reduce their use of single use plastics in the business.

One of Neepsend Brewery’s stronger offerings recently has been Apollo, an 8.4% ABV Double IPA hopped with a combination of Talus, Azacca, Citra, El Dorado and Lupomax Mosaic. This beer also marks their Gyle 900! If you missed it on cask at pubs like the Wellington (the brewery tap) and the Sheaf View (where it featured in their winter beer festival) it is also available in can.

New Triple Point Brewing beers seen on their bar recently includes AAGGHH!! brewed in collaboration with Loud Shirt Brewery of Brighton. This is a 5.4% ABV New England IPA brewed with Galaxy, Cryo Citra, and Cryo HBC 586 hops giving a fruity character and not too much bitterness. Also appearing ready for the winter is their Porter, 4.4% ABV with tasting notes of rich chocolate and spiced berry with a smooth coffee finish.

Drone Valley Brewery has brewed a special Christmas beer, it is a 4.5% ABV spiced amber ale.

We’ve previously mentioned collaborations between Dronfield CAMRA committee member (and keen home brewer) Rob Barwell and Collyfobble Brewery, including the introduction of their Grindleford Grit, he has now officially been recruited as assistant brewer!