Category: Breweries

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 spinoff, 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 passionfruit, 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…

Plans are afoot for 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’, plus Steel City’s first band collab, and no doubt more crazy stuff for the Shakey…

Happy New Year everyone and here’s hoping that at the time of reading this you’re sat in one of our wonderful local pubs enjoying a delicious pint!

At the time of writing, it’s fair to say that our plan is a little bit up in the air as we are doing our best to remain flexible and adaptable in light of ever-changing circumstances, but here’s what we’re hoping you will be able to find on bars throughout February!

Dr Morton’s Duck Baffler (4.1%) is a staple of our range at this time of year, so we’re looking forward to having this Citra single hopped pale ale back in our lives! Also on the pale ale front, we’re teaming up with Charles Faram, one of our excellent hop suppliers, to try out an experimental hop for the next of our Hopback series. Tantalisingly titled CF247, it’s one of the stickiest, oilest hops produced in the UK to date and should hold dank, tropical notes alongside yummy berry flavours.

The next of our Salvation series will be an Irish Stout (4.5%), classic and more-ish with a smooth, roasted malt character and soft notes of chocolate and coffee. Bitter and sweet in perfect balance!

Remember Huckster Cryo, our collaboration with Peddler Market? Well it’s back, but with a new face! We’ve brought it in line with our Brewers’ Emporium range and it will soon be released as Wanderer – Cryo NEIPA (6.0%). The recipe has stayed exactly the same so expect all the juicy, tropical good vibes you know and love. 

We’re also lining up some exciting releases in time for Sheffield Beer Week, which we’re really looking forward to in March, so keep your eyes peeled for more news on that! 

…And if things don’t play out in quite the way we’re currently hoping, we will of course have plenty of beer out in can too, so please do pay a local beer shop (or our online store) a visit!

Cheers!

Laura, Abbeydale Brewery

2021 – the year of our 25^th anniversary! I think it’s fair to say it hasn’t been quite the year we’d planned (a Zoom night in, whilst very enjoyable – and you can watch it here – wasn’t quite the party we’d had in mind!) but we’ve made the most of it, we’ve celebrated in as many ways as we could, and most importantly we’re still here and ready to roll into 2022.

In amongst all the uncertainty and challenges, we have a lot to be positive about and thankful for. We’ve brewed over 2 million pints this year – mashing in over 330 times across a whopping 82 different beers. This means we’ve managed to increase our production levels back above those seen in 2020 by around 20% – although we’re still approximately 35% down on what we brewed in 2019. Cask now comprises just over 70% of our total output.

The beers we released in celebration of our 25^th anniversary were definitely some of our highlights – bringing back popular old favourites Brimstone and Last Rites, plus twists on some of our much loved regular beers including Cryo Heathen & Double Deception, and some big hearty stouts for good measure. And our Funk Dungeon project joined in the celebrations too, including our first big bottle releases with the launch of our Cellar Master’s Reserve series (stay tuned for more of these to come!)

The cornerstone of our Brewers’ Emporium range, Heathen has had quite a year too, with Fresh Hop Heathen making a guest appearance as well as Cryo Heathen – which we’d initially intended to be a special brewed just for our birthday, but which you all loved so much we had to do again in the autumn! We’ve got a few more twists on our APA up our sleeves for 2022, so watch this space. And Moonshine is still by far our most popular beer, making up more than 4 of every 10 pints we make (although pre-Covid it was consistently over 50% of our total volume, which is a good reflection of how much we’ve diversified in this ever-pivoting world!).

Our canning line, which you may remember arrived in the first few weeks of lockdown in April 2020, continues to prove itself a very valuable part of our team. We’ve released 59 different beers in can (over 17,500 cases in total), which accounts for about 16% of our total output – interestingly, a very similar proportion to that seen in 2020. Minikegs were filled with just under 1% of everything we made… which is almost the exact same figure as what we were releasing in keg just 7 years ago – how far we’ve come!

We added some wonderful new members to our team this year, with Chris and Ewan adding to our little fleet of drivers who’ve been busy meeting and delivering to our 1000+ direct pub, bar and beer shop customers, and Ash, Thom and Dan joining our brewteam. They’ve all settled in brilliantly and we’re looking forward to them creating and sharing their first recipes in 2022! This little bit of this post does also give us the opportunity to do a huge shout out and enormous thank you to our wonderful staff: it’s their flexibility, patience, ingenuity and willingness to do whatever they could to keep us moving forwards and working together which has guided the business through these very challenging times. This of course includes the fantastic team at our pub, the Rising Sun, who have coped admirably with changing regulations throughout the past couple of years and continually provided a warm, welcoming atmosphere at the heart of the community.

And on the topic of new additions, in March, our designer James and his wife welcomed their baby boy Phoenix Johns Murphy to the world… so it was felt the naming of our last Geoglyph beer would be a suitable way of celebrating his arrival! The beers within this range of pale ales were all named after constellations that correlate with the Nazca lines of Peru (more on the series here). No Phoenix Geoglyph exists, but James wasn’t about to let that get in the way of his artistic vision and so created one! The actual Phoenix constellation can be found in the Southern Hemisphere during the winter months.

Collaborations have been a little trickier to co-ordinate this year, so have played a smaller part in our production than we’d have hoped, but we have loved hosting Queer Brewing along with Out & About Sheffield to create two beers with us (which have also been raising money for local organisation SAYiT, who we will be making a donation to early next year), and we’ve also made an as-yet unreleased cider-beer hybrid with the excellent Ascension Cider, so look out for that one in 2022. In addition, we have welcomed local tea purveyors Batch Tea Co and members of the Institute of Brewing & Distilling to brew with us over the course of the year. Our team have visited other breweries as far afield as… erm… still Sheffield, making a mountain IPA with our pal Scott, previously of Team Abbeydale and now head brewer at Heist, and also venturing down to London to create a Margarita inspired Gose with ORA Brewing.

For obvious reasons, events have also been just a small feature of our year, but we were privileged to be selected as one of three breweries to create a nationwide collaboration for Indie Beer Shop Day, producing a special beer to celebrate the wonderful independent beer shop sector in the UK. And we did manage to celebrate Funk Fest in style – this year we went mixed venue for our mixed fermentation celebration, with Sheffield becoming a city of sour for Halloween week! Looking ahead to next year – if, fingers crossed, things return to whatever anyone can remember as normality, we WILL be having that big party for our 25^th-and-a-bit birthday! And hopefully will be able to get out and about a little more to say hello to you all in person too.

An ENORMOUS thank you to everyone who’s supported us this year – whether that’s as one of our amazing trade customers, by buying a pint in a pub, some cans from our shop or one of the fantastic retailers we supply, or simply sending us a little hello on social media – it really is hugely appreciated by us all. We’re a team that love what we do, and we hope that shows in the beers we produce. Once again, our staff, industry peers, customers and community have shown what an adaptable, resilient, imaginative and overall really rather wonderful bunch they are, and it’s that which has made our 25^th birthday year one to remember.

Here’s to the next chapter!

Cheers,

Team Abbeydale

Temper is a new brewing company just started up, however neither the brewery location nor the brewer behind it is new to the game.

Chris Wigg is the man behind Temper who has previously worked for breweries including Little Critters and Buxton and is now leasing the brewery underneath the Dronfield Arms that was originally set up as Hopjacker but since mothballed.

The first three beers launched at the Dronfield Arms (also look out for them at the Joiners Arms in Bakewell and Beer House at Hunters Bar) on the 16 December including on cask their Resolve, a 4% pale ale while on the keg taps were a couple of slightly stronger options: Prism, a 5% pale ale and Rivers, a 6.3% IPA.

Bradfield Brewery’s six month Barrel Aged Kerry stout has now been released! For this limited edition of Kerry, the original Kerry stout has been aged in Jack Daniels and Buffalo Trace Bourbon and Speyside Whisky barrels. Blending after six months of aging has created an 8% ABV imperial stout with flavours of oak, vanilla bourbon and spicy whisky, backed up by roast coffee and chocolate with a warming finish. There are 1,000 individually numbered bottles available from the brewery shop, hand bottled and wax sealed by brewers Sam, Kieran and Bruce.

South Yorkshire’s answer to the Coca Cola truck has been to kick off the countdown to Christmas – yes, the Bradfield Brewery dray vans have been delivering Belgian Blue, their seasonal fruit flavoured pale ale, to pubs and shops and it is now available!

That said it is no longer the only show in town for if you head down to Perch, Dead Parrot Brewery‘s taproom you can try their Norwegian Blue, a naturally hazy 4.7% ABV pale ale brewed with Citra, Simcoe hops and blueberries.

Stancill Brewery celebrated bonfire night by bringing back Treason, their spiced Yorkshire parkin porter. Treason brings all those comforting toasty, roasty flavours thanks to it’s nine-malt blend, with added ginger for that signature spark of warmth.

A recent brew at Neepsend heading for cask is Nago, a 4.3% pale ale brewed with Mosaic, Simcoe, Bravo and Azacca hops bringing lots of tropical fruit character.

Triple Point have been growing hops in their beer garden and these have now been put in a one off beer! Flora was launched in cask at their bar on 18 November.

Well, it’s that time of year once more – and we can’t quite believe our 25th anniversary year is coming to a close already! It’s been another wild ride and we can’t thank you all enough for your support. Here’s to the next 25!

Onto what we’ll be releasing for the various upcoming festivities… perfectly pintable Doctor Morton’s Rude Elf (4.1%) and a cheeky Mosaic and Summit hopped Reveller (3.9%) are both making a comeback to take us firmly into the party season. Joining them on the pale ale front are Prophecy (4.5%) and Centennial single hopped Resolution (4.2%). All of these will be released in cask only, so look out for them popping up on bars soon!

We’ve also got a couple of brand new beers being released in keg and can as well as cask – look out for Wilderness (5.2%), a gorgeous soft and juicy New England style pale ale loaded with Amarillo, Enigma and Nelson Sauvin, and Wanderer which this time takes the form of a 6.5% Aussie IPA with Galaxy and Vic Secret hops.

The new year will bring the first of a new series which we’re really excited about – our Restoration series will see modern interpretations of classic and historical beer styles, the first of which will be a light, bright and drinkable 2.8% Table Beer, low in ABV but packed with character from Vic Secret and Enigma hops. If there are any styles you’d like to see us try our own contemporary twist on, do let us know – we can’t wait to see where this range will take us!

Plus as is now customary, the new year will see the return of the ever-popular Citra hopped Doctor Morton’s Duck Baffler (4.1%).

Finally if you’re wanting to get some easy Christmas shopping done, I just can’t resist giving a little shout out to the lovely new merch we’ve got recently, including Deception t-shirts and cosy zip up hoodies – all available on our online shop!

Wishing you all a very merry festive season, and a joyful start to 2022!

Cheers!

Laura, on behalf of all of us at Team Abbeydale

Fuggle Bunny has announced the brewery has been sold as brewer Dave approaches his retirement, although their Chapter One bar in Worksop will continue under the same management. The new owner is Matt, who has been working there for the last six years and he and is wife Laura are now running the brewery with business as usual in both the brewery and tap room, located between Halfway and Killamarsh.

In a post on the brewery’s Facebook page Wendy and Dave said ‘a huge thank you to all our customers many who have become firm friends over the past 7 years. Your support through good and bad has been immense and we would have not come this far without all of you. So from the bottom of our hearts thank you to one and all who has hopped on board our adventure.’

We are gearing up for a busy pre-Christmas in the taproom! Smodfest, our weekend-long lager celebration, was a roaring success, and we had a fun summer brewing collaborations with Deya and welcoming our new brewing apprentice Scarlet onto the team.

In the meantime, it’s winter on Mars so our thoughts in the brewery are turning to richer, darker beers. Expect some creative Flanders-inspired beers and some big stouts to celebrate the cold. Plus we are continuing our fruity series of tart oak-fermented beers and radlers. I’m sure we’ll squeeze in a hoppy beer here and there too!

Cheers and hope to see everyone soon.

Grizzly Grains have brewed their Tilt Hammer again, it is 4.9% and smooth, full bodied stout and should be hitting bars about the time of publication.

Eyam Brewery have brewed a new beer in their White Label series, White Gold Fruity Pale as a result of a mistaken delivery of El Dorado and Blanc by their hop merchants. This 4.6% beer is a modern pale with grapefruit/tropical fruit aroma and flavour with a gentle bitterness.

Little Critters have brewed a new 10% imperial chocolate caramel stout which involved two mash tuns full of grain! It is called Mallard Reaction.

A recent special from Chantry was Mods & Rockers, a pale bitter.

With a reassuring sense of normality, Bradfield‘s seasonal beers have been appearing including Jack O Lantern for Halloween, Yorkshire Farmer for harvest time and looking ahead Belgian Blue for Christmas.

A whole host of beers from Dead Parrot were on the bar at Perch, their new tap room, for Steel City On Tour. These included Aardvark Biscuit which is a traditional brown bitter, Aardvark Brown Ale, PenAleTy Charge Notice pale ale, Pitch a 4.5% stout and Tart a Citra hopped raspberry blond among others.