Category: Breweries

Locally-Produced Cider Returns to Sheffield at The Cider Hole!

Sheffield’s only cider-centric bar and urban micro-cidery has released its first three batches, produced with apples collected from 31 houses around the city of Sheffield.

In September 2021, The Cider Hole opened in Kelham Island, becoming Sheffield’s only cider-centric bar. This March, The Cider Hole fulfilled its promise of also becoming Sheffield’s only urban micro-cidery by releasing three ciders produced on-site.

The Cider Hole has begun pouring three 200-litre batches of cider – all of which contain local Sheffield apples and two of which were produced with 100% local apples collected from gardens around the area.
“As far as I am aware, no one has been producing cider using locally-sourced Sheffield apples in the city for at least a couple years,” said The Cider Hole’s owner and cidermaker Mike Pomranz who has been covering the cider industry as a journalist for seven years. “I’m excited to be salvaging fruit from people’s gardens and turning it into Sheffield’s best cider… not that I have any competition!”

This past autumn, Pomranz put out calls on Facebook and Reddit asking if anyone with extra apples would donate them in exchange for free cider. He received over 70 leads and eventually collected apples (and some pears) from 31 different houses around Sheffield – including plenty of unexpectedly interesting finds in neighbourhoods like Crookes and Pitsmoor. He then crushed, pressed, and fermented all of the fruit in his tiny shipping container bar in Krynkl on Shalesmoor.

All three ciders are being served in thirds and halves directly from the fermenters until either all of the cider has been consumed or bottling becomes required. Refillable milk bottles are also available for takeaway.

The Cider Hole also continues to be open as a bar and now stocks over 60 ciders as well as a large selection of beers and wine. For hours, check The Cider Hole’s website: istheciderholeopen.com.

The Cider Hole, Unit 1.3, Krynkl, 294 Shalesmoor, Sheffield, S3 8UL. Shalesmoor tram stop is across the road.

Following careful review of their existing range of beers, and listening to customer feedback, Welbeck Abbey Brewery have decided to reduce and update their core range to just four ales. The ever popular ‘Red Feather’ will be staying and will be joined by three exciting new beers, all very different from each other. This will allow for greater availability of innovative ‘monthly specials’ throughout the year.

Managing Director, Claire Monk says:

“After 10 years supplying beer into pubs, restaurants, and bottle shops, we felt it was time to review our core range, and as such, our brewing team have been working hard over the last three months to hone recipes, using modern techniques to get the very best flavours from traditional malt and hops. By having a broader mix of ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’ beers in both the core range and specials on offer, we hope to appeal to a wider customer base. Having a smaller range of core beers plus more innovative specials will lend itself much better to our new bottled range, and with a joint approach across cask and bottled beer we hope to get drinkers excited about Welbeck and gain traction in areas of the market we have yet to break into.”

In a further exciting development, the brewery has had its own, in-house bottling line installed.

Brewer Tom Roe explains:

“This gives us full control over how we process our beer on site. We’ve taken the decision to move away from filtered and force-carbonated bottled beers, to the more natural process of bottle-conditioning. The benefits of this include increased flavour profile through no filtration and a slower maturation, ensuring that our bottled beer is as flavoursome as possible. It also means we can cut down on the use of plastic, transportation and externally sourced C02, improving our carbon footprint, something which is important to us here at Welbeck. Having a bottling line on-site also allows us to produce smaller, one-off batches of beer which we are very excited about.”

The new core range will include a 5% West Coast American IPA, a crisp Continental Pale at 4.4% and a 3.7% Golden English session ale. Monthly specials will always include a dark ale as porters and stouts remain popular, as well as low strength session ales, well hopped IPAs, and everything else in between.

These fabulous new beers will be in pubs from the week commencing 11^th of April, and if you want to find out more, Claire will be holding a Meet The Brewer event at The Winchester in Sherwood on Thursday 21^st of April, as well as tastings at Welbeck Farm Shop on Saturday 30^th of April. Bottled beers are available to buy online, with free local delivery and 10% off if you spend over £45.

Chantry Brewery recently welcomed three new 40-barrel vessels into their premises at Parkgate, Rotherham. Previously used as storage, the team made the decision to expand into their second unit due to the popularity of their award-winning ales. They found a better way to utilise the space by adding in their new vessels which each hold 12,670 pints!

Director and Co-Owner, Mick Warburton is enthralled by the expansion plans, and he puts their success down to brewing ales that are only made with the finest ingredients and no added sugars. When asked about their expansion, Mick said:

“We had no choice really; we’d outgrown our original 20-barrel capacity. We have a fantastic, loyal customer base that we’re very grateful for – we couldn’t let them down! We decided to add extra vessels so there’s enough Chantry ales to go round.”

This year, Chantry Brewery will be celebrating 10 years of brewing and what a way to mark it! The new custom-built vessels from Moeschle will enable the team to supply the nation with 38,010 extra pints of ale!

To get your share or see what the latest brews are, head over to their website or subscribe to their monthly newsletter via the links below.

Website – www.chantrybrewery.co.uk

Subscribe to the mailing list – http://eepurl.com/hGFEQT

Blue Bee have been busy in the brewhouse and a number of new beers have been brewed including a vanilla porter. The rest have been all about them playing with the various hop varieties they have got their hands on. The 53rd edition in their American Five Hop series involves plenty of Mosaic whilst their session strength beer at 3.9% has been brewed with Vic Secret hops. Also to look out for is a 6% Mosaic and Enigma hopped beer and one with Simcoe and Idahoe.

We really seem to be whizzing through 2022 don’t we?! We’re keeping up with the new releases though and have plenty coming out this month for you to enjoy.

The next in our Hopback series should be released by the time we reach April, and for the first time it will be available in keg as well as cask! This time it’s 4.9% and has been dry hopped with Vic Secret for a burst of juicy freshness and a gently earthy finish.

Doctor Morton is back with Proper Gander, an easy drinking 4.1% pale ale with Columbus and Summit hops. And on the dark side, we’ve got a new version of Salvation on the way, which this time is a sumptuously fruity Raspberry & Chocolate Stout (4.8%). Smooth, sweet, rich and creamy – we’re looking forward to this one!

Also from the Brewers’ Emporium is Hinterland (4.5%), a pillowy soft New England style pale ale with Vic Secret, Mosaic and Talus Cryo. Promising a full-bodied juicy character, with a big and bold tropical aroma and low bitterness. On the palate floral notes hold their own alongside flavours of coconut and pink grapefruit.

And finally, we’re soon to launch an all-new series of single hopped IPAs. Meet your new Obsession! The first of this series will showcase Simcoe, and will be 5.8%. Packed with leaf, T90 and Cryo Simcoe hops, expect zesty grapefruit, resinous pine and a hint of fresh berries, followed by a hearty, bitter finish.

Sunday Times best-selling author Nick Hayes has been on a mission to highlight and campaign for the right to access more of the UK’s countryside for everyone. Connecting to the countryside is proven to help mental health and well-being, and throughout the Covid-19 pandemic was a vital resource for folks fortunate enough to be able to access green spaces. However not everyone has access and only 8% of England, for example National Parks, is open to such rambling. In Sheffield, citizens are fortunate to have a wealth of green spaces, parks and of course direct access to the Peak District national park.

Nick Hayes has joined forces on a collaborative beer with Sheffield independent businesses, who reside on the Peak District’s border for Sheffield Beer Week this March. The project brings together a number of threads including celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Mass Kinder Trespass which happened within the Peak District. This was key in opening up the area as the first UK National Park some 50 years later, highlighting the much-needed spotlight on the work of the Right To Roam campaign to continue efforts. This also celebrates Sheffield as The Outdoor City and its citizen’s access to green, open spaces and adventure trails.

Due to considerable interest and demand the beer has been released early and will be available from Monday 28 February at Hop Hideout (City Centre in Kommune), Hop Hideout (Abbeydale Road) and hophideout.co.uk, then across Sheffield and the rest of the UK at independent sellers throughout this week. On Saturday 12 March there is a sold out ‘A Right to Roam Walking Tour’ in Sheffield with author Nick Hayes starting at Hop Hideout beer shop and finishing at Brewery of St Mars of the Desert. These celebrations kick-off a whole month of focus leading up to the April anniversary of the Mass Kinder Trespass. What better way to call for a right to roam than by ordering a pint of it in a pub, direct at the brewery or a can at your local beer shop!

A Right To Roam, Riwaka and Nectaron hopped hazy IPA, 5.4%

“On 24^th April 1932, 400 young people walked up Kinder Scout to protest the lack of public access to the moors. They were beaten by gamekeepers, six were imprisoned, but ultimately they won. We now have a right to roam over 8% of England.

“But today, 97% of rivers and 92% of our land is still forbidden to us. Science has proven how urgently we need regular access to natural spaces, for our mental health and physical health and also how we care more for nature if we have a personal connection to it. The Kinder Trespass, in what is now the Peak District, was the first step towards a new relationship with the countryside, but there is still much to be done.”

Join us at rightroam.org.uk to campaign for greater access to the English countryside.

The beer launch is taking place as part of Sheffield Beer Week.

True North Brew Co. have announced two new beers brewed for The Festival of the Outdoors and Sheffield Beer Week.

Peaky Climbers, a 4.3% Pale Ale, has been brewed for The Festival of the Outdoors, and celebrates the beautiful views and inspiring spaces for escape, adventure, and discovery that we’re lucky enough to have right on our doorstep in the Peak District. Head Brewer, Dean Hollingsworth, has used heaps of mosaic hops to create a bold and fruity beer with citrusy notes, making it the perfect thirst quencher for that post hike pint.

Freak Out, a 6% Red Rye IPA, has been brewed in collaboration with Gorilla Brewing for Sheffield Beer Week. Master Brewer for Gorilla, Ian Darvill, joined True North’s Head Brewer, Dean Hollingsworth, at their Eldon Street Brewery to create this beautiful Red Rye IPA using Zappa hops planted and grown by Frank Zappa’s family. This exclusive beer pours an alluring crimson amber, with notes of sweetness and spice.

Both beers are available for a limited time in True North venues throughout March.

After a relatively quiet year for obvious reasons, Steel City had a late resurgence in activity starting with the latest iteration of the Megacollab. This year’s concept had been kicking around for a while between Dave, Niall off of the Wellington, and McGregor off of various facey beer groups, and was brewed with Lost Industry, Bexar County, Neepsend, Doomed, Top Rope and Ramsbury, plus Lewy off of Lewis Ryan Art, who designed the epic label. Sour was the aim of the game, with a three day double pitch lacto steep and the addition of grapefruit, redcurrant and an unholy quantity of citric acid. A limited edition spin-off, Drop Acid Not Bombs, was brewed with Lemondrop hops in place of the fruit, with just one keg for the Welly and a few cans produced. Brewday was great fun though rain put paid to the usual barbecue and cricket so instead it was a big pot of curry and a nerf gun battle…

Also release in the autumn was the long-awaited Sour Wars first trilogy, with a keg launch at the Crow followed by cans at selected dealers – Hop Hideout may have a few left though maybe not by time you read this! The variants are: Episode 1 The Cranachan Menace – raspberry, mead and a touch of vanilla in a highland whisky barrel; Episode 2 Attack of the Stones – cherries in a red wine barrel; Episode 3 Orange of the Sith – hurricane sour with passion fruit, lemon, lime and orange in a rum barrel. Planning is now underway for the second trilogy to be brewed shortly and released autumn 2022. A few kegs of the first trilogy remain for future events planned in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester.

The latest in the frankly ridiculous series of one-off brews with Lucienne off of the Shakespeare surpassed even the previous brews (barbecue stout and hoi sin stout) for silliness, being a Branston Pickle porter! After ‘deconstructing’ the ingredients of the pickle, Dave and Lucienne procured a load of dates, apples, tamarind, mustard seeds, molasses, brown sugar… even they drew the line at pickled onions though! It was certainly, erm, interesting! Opinion was certainly divided, as expected some low Untappd scores but also some decent scores from those who rated it for what it is – nobody could deny it tasted of pickle! Dave and Lucienne certainly proved that they could, but not necessarily that they should…

The first brews of 2022 are due for release in Sheffield Beer Week, after a twin brewday in February. On the main kit comes Astral Mariner, a first for Steel City in two ways, firstly as a music collaboration, being brewed with Sheffield black metal outfit Ethereal Shroud, and more surprisingly it’s a lager! Well, in the technical sense if not in spirit… Dave is no fan of ‘damp air’ but sees Baltic Porter as the acceptable face of lager – brewed with Pilsner malt, Carafa Spezial for darkness, and Saaz hops (plus a modern twist with some Azacca hops) and fermented cold with a bottom-fermenting yeast. Meanwhile on the minikit a stout was produced for the 200^th ‘Wind Up North’, a Thursday drinking club who gather at a different pub each week, a spin-off from the original ‘Wind Up’ which has been going in the south-east for over 40 years. The venue for WUN200 is the Pangolin, and the brew ‘Rule 6’ (one for Monty Python fans…) will be available there from 10^th March.

Plans are afoot for the rest of 2022 including a tonka stout I’ve Had My Fun And That’s All That Matters (and a BA version I’ve Had My Rum And That’s All That Matters), a sour NEIPA Exercises in Futility, and no doubt more crazy stuff for the Shakey…

Dave Szwejkowski

The last couple of years have been tough on cask beer, both for producers and the pubs that sell it. A combination of government guidelines and hesitation among the public at returning to venues and public spaces led to nationwide decline in the category, as consumers opted to stay at home and drink small pack beer instead.

With pubs reopening and a return to normal hopefully not too far on the horizon, things are starting to look up for cask. Legendary Derbyshire brewery Thornbridge certainly think so, unveiling their plans for a cask Year of Beer for 2022.

Started in 2017, Year of Beer is a project where Thornbridge announces a new draught beer for every month of the year. Originally envisioned as a way to give trade customers and consumers the means to plan ahead months in advance, it quickly evolved into something more ambitious: a showcase of the range of Thornbridge’s output, and an opportunity for their Brewing team to explore and innovate with different styles.

The rise of Covid-19 and national lockdowns in the UK seriously affected Thornbridge’s huge plans for their 15th Anniversary in 2020, where they had planned a year of highly innovative keg beer and cask collaborations with the best and brightest of British brewing. The continued stresses of the pandemic prevented a Year of Beer announcement for 2021, so 2022 is a triumphant return to form for a brewery that has always pioneered craft and cask beer.

We’ve already seen Hacksaw, an East Coast IPA with all the haziness and tropical fruit flavours that entails, and you might have had a chance to try the return of Twin Peaks, an Anglo American pale ale that when it was first released in 2013, was California brewing legend Sierra Nevada’s first UK collaboration. The rest of the year promises to go from strength to strength, with Thornbridge putting out everything from a Golden Mild to a Pina Colada pale, by way of returning cult favourite ice cream porter Salted Caramel Lucaria. Perhaps most excitingly, Thornbridge has teamed with rising star of Mexican Brewing, Cervecera Macaria, to create Carlotta, a Mole inspired Chili Chocolate Mexican Stout, in time for Cinco de Mayo. This is a truly excellent year for drinkers of cask beer.

Simon Webster, Chief Executive Officer of Thornbridge Brewery says: “Cask beer has always been in our DNA, from our very earliest days brewing at the hall to today. The last couple of years have unfortunately required us to make less of it than we’d have liked, but that’s why we’re all the more excited to get it into people’s hands this year. We’re so lucky to have such a talented team of brewers working for us and such an enthusiastic audience ready to sample their creations, and hopefully this Year of Beer will do them all proud.”

But cask is not all in Thornbridge’s future. Their Market Leading craft beer subscription Thornbridge Beer Club continues to grow at a steady rate, augmenting the online and direct sale aspects of their business that saw an explosion during lockdown. This is boosted by their growing output of packaged beer, including brand new projects and series that have been gaining momentum already. Combine that with the recently launched Thornbridge Experience at their taproom and brewery in Bakewell, and it looks like this legendary brewery has much more to give in 2022.

It’s a bold move to try and muscle in on Sheffield’s bustling beer market with so many great breweries in and around the cask-centric city. Despite a global pandemic also adding to the list of challenges he has faced (and will continue to face), Sam Bennett, owner of Grizzly Grains Brewing, is doing just that. A former charity worker, and now full time with the brewery, Sam is one of the latest producers trying to add to Sheffield’s broad brewing heritage, doing things the Grizzly way. 

Only a stone’s throw away from the city centre, Sam is ideally situated when it comes to spreading his beer around the vast array of pubs on his doorstep. But, after looking at his operation, he is a one-man-band in the truest sense of the term. Sharing his premises with another project he’s involved with, a local beekeepers and honey producer, his brewing kit isn’t quite as big as you may think.

Sam initially started on a pilot kit in his cellar at his home in Walkley, before moving onto his current site now at Sheaf Gardens, “It was either a large home brewers kit or a very, very small brewing kit,” Sam explains as part of the recent podcast we recorded together. But he wasn’t phased by the scale on which he could initially produce and Sam appreciates the task ahead of him and how lucky he is to be able to supply his local area, “We really are spoiled in Sheffield for the quality and number of pubs that we have got.”

“The original plan was to brew on a really tiny scale and see if it was good enough,” Sam continues, reiterating the quality of beer he finds himself surrounded with locally. Being local doesn’t grant you a free pass into the beer scene, you’ve got to prove yourself and that’s exactly what he did and continues to do. Faced with the closures of the pubs he was attempting to supply, like many, Sam had to change how he operated for a short time, “I wasn’t geared for anything other than cask to begin with. I brewed [roughly] every fortnight into casks, filled bags in boxes and did home delivery.” 

Due to his scale, this may not have been the most profitable method of him shifting his beer, but it helped him continue to promote his brand whilst his outlets were closed. Following this success, he continued with small pack and bottled his beers into 2021 until pubs began to tentatively open their doors once again. “I started to do a couple of keg runs, but continued to do bottles as it was nice to get things into bottle shops,” Sam goes on to say, once again emphasising the availability of quality beer he is surrounded with and also competing against. 

Now operating on a slightly larger kit, Sam believes he has found his niche with which to carve his own path and identity. “When I started, I thought I was going to do loads of keg beers that were really hoppy. The further I get with this, I’m happy to be a more traditional and cask led brewery, with 80-90% of my output now being in cask,” Sam tells me, which he is extremely pleased with. But, just like being local, shipping in cask doesn’t count if the product isn’t up to muster or pique the interest of potential customers, so how does he do that?

“I made four fruited saisons, a rauchbier and a sourdough fermented sour ale last year (2021), and I’m currently in the process of making a Roggenbier,” Sam proudly tells me, showing he isn’t afraid to do things a little differently. It’s this difference that sets him apart, which is demonstrated by his fruited saisons and his sour ale, Hunt for Bread October, as he works with local producers to source ingredients for his beers. Bread October was fermented purely on a sourdough culture from a local baker whilst a local orchard donated apples to be used in his apple saison that would’ve otherwise gone to waste. The brewery owner is also involved in a local program, the Sheffield Wheat Experiment, which is a community project that is trying to grow a wheat crop specific to Sheffield’s climate. 

It’s these nuances that are giving Sam not only a great USP for his beers, but also allowing him to demonstrate his passion and commitment to his local community and trying to make a more sustainable future for his business and the industry as a whole. It’s this locality that has ultimately established him thus far, “Without the likes of Shakespeares and Walkley Beer Company buying my beer, Grizzly Grains wouldn’t be where it is today,” Sam concludes, with both companies stocking his beers on a regular basis. 

There are many issues facing the beer industry right now, but sustainability is at the very forefront given the rising costs many brewers are currently facing. They may be small steps, but they are very important nonetheless not only helping Sam build Grizzly Grains’ brand, but also helping change the ways in which we consume and produce beer in the future.

If you want to learn more about Grizzly Grains, you can listen to the podcast I recorded with him on all major podcast platforms including Spotify, Apple and Google.