Category: Breweries

We always look forward to March here at Abbeydale Brewery, as it means it’s time for Sheffield Beer Week! This year taking place 6-12 March, there’s absolutely loads going on all around our wonderful beery city, so do check out the events listings and support your local breweries and venues.

We’ve got a special collaboration due to launch for the occasion, brewed in conjunction with Sheffield Beer Week and Indie Beer Feast. Cloud Peak is a 4.8% mountain style cryo-hopped session IPA, packed with the big hitting combination of Citra, Cascade and Mosaic. Soft and fluffy with a crisp, bitter finish. This one will be available exclusively from Indie Beer Feast at Trafalgar Warehouse and Hop Hideout from Friday 3 March in keg, with the first pour on cask taking place at the Rising Sun, Fulwood on Monday 6 March. It’ll then be available in cask, keg and can more widely while stocks last!

Look out later in the month for our other collaboration too, which will be brewed during Sheffield Beer Week and hopefully out by the end of March. It’s the next in our Deliverance series, this time a bold 7.2% West Coast IPA which we’re brewing with Newcastle’s Full Circle Brew Co. Showcasing Galaxy in the whirlpool, before dry-hopping with Idaho 7, Amarillo and Eureka. Pithy and piney with notes of pomelo and pink grapefruit. 

In cask only, Citra is up next for our single-hopped Through the Hopback series (4.0%). As the name suggests, packed with citrus character with distinctive lemony notes alongside zesty lime and floral undertones. And we’re revisiting the OG Doctor Morton’s beer! Snake Oil was first brewed in 2008, and we’d never have predicted what it started! From “newfangled beers with weird pumpclips” to an extensive and entertaining range of easy drinking pale ales. Although the look has more recently been updated we’ve kept a strong hold on the humour and eccentricities this series brings.  

We’re also pretty excited that Spring is in the air once more, and so it’s time for our annual release of Reverie, our 4.2% sessionable dry-hopped pale ale. Always a lovely one to enjoy on those first warm(ish) al fresco evenings!

Cheers!

brewSocial‘s new beer in January was Nice Drop, a single-hopped blonde beer. Large quantities of pilsner malt in the mash give a pleasant mouthfeel. Harlequin hops impart tropical fruit notes, and a pronounced bitter finish. February saw Crackin’ Nuts go on sale, a 4% ABV chestnut ale.

The St Mars of the Desert taproom was sadly broken into on Christmas Day and damaged plus items stolen. Community rallied round and helped Dann and Martha get it tidied up. In more positive news they have recently brewed a collaboration beer with Ossett brewery, Amere Biere, a hazy French bitter.

Grizzly Grains launched a couple of new bottled beers in January – The Biggest Dimple (8.8% ABV, a parti-gyle with their Big Dimples Mild), Feste (a strong saison at 9.3% ABV). February saw their first cask beer of the year brewed, using low carbon Chinook hops. They’ve also got a pop up taproom arrangement set up in the brewery now, which saw it’s first opening on 15 February taking advantage of being close to Bramall Lane stadium to cater for pre-match drinks demand!

Loxley Brewery produced a new citrussy, hoppy easy going pale ale in January called First Totem Pole, celebrating an obscure reference to the first ever totem pole having a raven on top!

Talking of Loxley Brewery, they celebrated their fifth birthday with a bash at the Wisewood Inn at the end of February.

Beer Ink of Huddersfield has brewed a Sheffield collaboration to be launched at the Rutland Arms during Sheffield Beer Week. They have worked with Bullion Chocolate and Frazer’s Coffee Roasters to make two special beers. There is also a limited edition blend of the two to create a coffee Mocha Stout!

Bradfield Brewery continue to work through their roster of seasonal beers in 2023 with Farmers Blushed out for Valentines Day with Farmers Irish Dexter replacing it in time for St Patricks Day. Later in March look out for Farmers Plumb Bitter then of course for the World Snooker Championships in April will be CruciBULL Ale.

Grizzly Grains and Torrside released a collaboration brew in time for Christmas and New Year. Big Words is a 4.8% ABV pale ale hopped with Olicana and Cascade.

Intrepid have released a winter pale exclusively on cask, designed to be drunk in the pub, dreaming of the summer to come! B’an is 4.1% ABV and brewed with all British hops (first kettle hopped with UK Cascade and then dry hopped with Ernest T90, Olicana and Jester T45), sat on a clean base of extra pale and oat malt.

Temper in Dronfield also released a winter brew in time for Christmas; this one was Dark Fractions, a 4.3% ABV coffee porter. A blend of kilned and roasted malts in the grist was complimented by the addition of coffee in kettle and on the cold side.

Tapped released a new beer in November called Electric Works. This is a 4.2% ABV extra pale ale using solely extra pale malt, which really lets the hops shine through.

As in previous years, Thornbridge are running a Year of Beer programme with a monthly changing seasonal ale available for pubs. 2023 kicked off with Cortado, a flat white pale ale. February sees the launch of Apricity, an extra special bitter. In March we have a peanut butter brown ale to look forward to.

Richard Hough, brewer at brewSocial, was recently pleased to see a photo opportunity of a rainbow over the railway arch in Attercliffe they brew in that matches their pump clip design!

Happy New Year to you all! We hope 2023 is treating you well so far. We’ve got plenty of new cask beers available, so hopefully there’s something for everyone to enjoy a pint or two of while supporting their local pub!

First up, it went down so well during Sheffield Beer Week 2022 that we’ve brought back Sheffield Rocks in time for 2023’s festivities (6-12 March). A 4.1% heritage pale ale given our own modern twist. A balanced beer, completely characterised by drinkability and made using all UK ingredients including UK grown Pilgrim and Cascade hops.

Salvation – Irish Stout (4.5%) is also making a return; classic and moreish with a smooth, roasted malt character and soft notes of chocolate and coffee; bitter and sweet in perfect balance. 

The above two beers will also be available in keg and can as well as cask, but we’ve got some cask-only releases on the way during February too – Doctor Morton’s Non-Stick will be an Abbeydale classic 4.1% pale ale with Citra, Columbus and Chinook hops; and from our new stained glass themed series we have Renaissance, hopped with Eureka in the whirlpool for a bright bitterness and resinous notes sitting harmoniously alongside a stone fruit character. 

Cheers!

Steel City’s latest brew is, would you believe, a collaboration… their cuckoo brewing caught the eye of Bulgaria’s Alchemik, who cuckoo brew at Sofia Electric and another smaller site. Alchemik are best known for their dessert sours, so the three-way collab (Lost Industry being the third brewery) is a lemon cheesecake sour. The brew features a lot of oats for the biscuity base taste of the cheesecake, followed by lactose, vanilla and lemon zest. Fermentation was with Voss kveik yeast, a new one to the UK breweries but standard for Alchemik, so who were we to argue!

Yellowcake is out now in keg and can. Steel City and Lost Industry are off to Sofia in February for the return collabs, namely an imperial version of Yellowcake and a new dessert sour yet to be decided – both versions should make their way to the UK, along with a few of Alchemik’s other puddingy wares.

Nothing else may have been brewed for a while, but some barrels have been sitting quietly in the corner for eight or nine months, and were opened just in time for December. Firstly, Astral Mariner Baltic porter had been in a brandy barrel, emerging as Rime of the Ancient Astral Mariner.

Shortly afterwards, a big imperial stout went into brandy and rum barrels, emerging as Cask of the Red Death and Rum to the Hills respectively. All three are out now in keg and can and will be available in cask exclusively at the Shakespeares’ festival in January. There is also a single mega-blend (40% Rime, 40% Hills and 20% Red Death) at Shakespeares.

Other 2023 plans include a collaboration with Ukrainian brewery Didko to raise more funds for Brew for Ukraine – Didko also entered a can each of Steel City’s two previous fundraising beers into a charity auction, raising over £100 for the cause.

Grizzly Grains Brewery have hosted a collaboration with Shakespeares, brewing a Belgian style pale ale using Pilgrim and Phoenix hops supplied by Brookhouse Hops.

Intrepid have made another tweak to their ever evolving ITE small IPA (3.9% ABV). The latest batch sees a bit more oats added to the mash and a return to a Kveik yeast. It’s been hopped with a big mix of hops -Cascade & Mandarina are used late in the kettle for a subtle bitterness and citrus platform to work with the yeast. It’s then double dry hopped with Ekuanot and Azacca with a bit less of Chinook & Mosaic added bringing that drippy fruit punch flavour with some dank citrus.

Fuggle Bunny Brew House celebrated the first anniversary of the new ownership on 4 November and to celebrate their regular Friday tap session had the addition of live music and “Dough Box” pizza trailer trading outside. Their newest beer, Chapter 10 – Stomper, is a dry hopped IPA and was available at our Steel City Beer & Cider Festival. Also out recently was their special Halloween beer, Deadly Nightshade, a 5% AVB amber ale.

Triple Point Brewery have released “Canyon”, a 4.8% ABV American Red Ale on cask. On the hop bill it features a new berry inspired Cryo hop blend released by Yakima Chief along with a couple of American classics – Cascade and Centennial.

For those of you who’ve been following the journey of our new brew kettle, we’re pleased to report it is indeed now fully commissioned and we’ve got some fantastic beers coming out of it already! Fortunately everything ran to schedule meaning we have some tasty Christmassy beers on the way. As well as Wishlist, a 4.2% pale ale with Willamette and Columbus hops, the next version of Salvation (4.5%) will have a festive twist – it’s a Chocolate Orange Stout! A classic combination and an absolute treat, with a roasty toasty background, layers of silky smooth sweetness and a zesty finish. It’s mine! 

We’ll be bringing back Wilderness (4.5%) for winter, too – we’ve gone for the same hop combination as last year’s release (Amarillo, Nelson Sauvin and Simcoe Cryo), but at a slightly more sessionable ABV. This one’s a hazy, juicy, New England style pale with low bitterness and a clean, refreshing finish.

Fresh Hop Heathen is also back for 2022, but this time it’s also a Cryo version! Allllll the buzz words, luckily also all the flavour, still weighing in at a tasty and very pintable 4.1%. This year we’re pioneering the use of YCH 301 Mosaic hops from the Yakima Chief Hops Elite Product Trial programme… freshly harvested, unkilned hops, processed into Cryo form! This state of the art process keeps all those delicate fresh hop aromas and flavours but in a punchy little pellet. Expect blueberry and tropical notes to come through on the aroma along with a refreshing, tasty grapefruit and stone fruit character. This one sold out on pre-orders last year and we’re not expecting it to hang around for long. 

And in the new year (HOW is that coming around already?!) we’ll be seeing the return of our 2.8% Restoration Table Beer and the always popular Citra hopped Dr Morton’s Duck Baffler, PLUS rumour has it there might be a Lost Souls shaped big boozy stout on the way to get 2023 off to a corker of a start. 

The newest beer from Stancill Brewery is Dragon, a zesty 3.9% ABV pale ale based on the Slovenian Styrian Dragon hop. Expect a light lemony flavour and aromas of melon and passionfruit.

A couple of recent beers from Imperial Brewery in Mexborough carry something of a satirical theme. Papering over the Cracks is a collaboration with Silver Brewhouse of Chesterfield and is a 4.2% hazy pale ale whilst Boris and Scarper is a 4.4% pale brewed with Ekuanot and Cascade hops.

Recent brews in cask from Grizzly Grains includes Broken Spectre at 4% ABV, which is hopped with UK Phoenix, NZ Pacifica and UK Olicana. The beer is light and refreshing with beautiful fruit salad vibes. Aromas of arpicot and mango followed by big hoppy pineapple flavours.

Heist Brew Co. have one of the retail units in the new Fargate shipping container development where you can buy their beer in cans along with a range of merchandise.

Emmanuales brewed a couple of cask beers for our Steel City Beer & Cider Festival – The K.B.G, a West Coast IPA and England’s Green and Pleasant Land, a green hopped IPA.

Chantry Brewery’s new special is Styrian Fox, a 4.1% ABV pale ale, and talking of Chantry they now have a taco van on many of the nights their tap room has gigs on.

Hopefully by the time you read this, our new brewkit should be back in full working order and producing plenty of beer for you to enjoy! Doctor Morton’s Desert Sand (4.1%) is planned as the first special to be brewed on the new kettle, a refreshing pale ale with Cascade and Vic Secret hops for notes of peach, citrus and pine. 

We’re pleased to be bringing back our Deliverance collaboration with Yakima Chief Hops (7.0%), featuring Sabro, Talus (previously known as HBC 692) and HBC 472, which still doesn’t have a name but is very tasty nonetheless. Aromatic and flavoursome, with juicy citrus and lashings of creamy coconut flavour. Probably my personal fave from this range so I for one can’t wait for this one to be available again! 

And we know it’s a bit early, but we’re already shouting about all things Christmas here at Abbeydale HQ (sorry not sorry!). Excitingly, we’ve been able to create our very own advent calendars this year which are available exclusively on our online shop, so do take a peek at those! The festive theme will start to creep over into our beers by the end of the month too, with Doctor Morton’s Christmas Hamster, a 4.1% pale ale with Green Bullet, Citra and Cascade hops, coming up.

Finally, our “Baltic Up North” brew which some of you may remember from a few years ago has found a new home in our Brewers’ Emporium range as Restoration – Baltic Porter (7.0%). Brewed with lager yeast and fermented cold, expect a smooth and spicy dark beer with a delectable roast character and a very more-ish finish. This on cask in a cosy pub is going to be an absolute treat.