Category: Breweries

Like many brewers, Steel City had something of a hiatus during lockdown, being as draught accounts for 90% of our output. However, the opportunity was taken to increase small-pack production, with several bottles being released and more excitingly our first cans. The Shakespeare-led supercollab Collabracadabra was the first beer to be released in can, and sold out quickly, so much so a second batch is on its way, along with the barrel-aged version CollabracadaBA. Brewing restarted on the day the pubs were allowed to reopen, with an old-skool Transatlantic Pale Ale named 106 Days Later to commemorate the pubs reopening (though for many of our favourites it was a few more days until they opened their doors). To continue the theme, the IBUs were set at 106, coupled with flame-out hops Centennial, Rakau, and Lemondrop, with Rakau and Lemondrop again for dry-hop. The bulk of the brew was casked and donated to regular customers, with a small amount being canned. Also out very soon in small-pack are all three versions of the collaboration with Germany’s Freigeist brewery, appropriately enough all related to German metal band Rammstein. The base brew, Mein Herz Brennt is a Berliner Braunbier, resurrecting a near-extinct style. Reise Reise has the addition of cranberries and redcurrants, while Blitzkriek has been aged in a Bordeaux red wine barrel with cherries and redcurrants. Blitzkriek is in cans while the other two are bottled.

Neepsend Brew Co has been shut and not trading through most of the Covid-19 lockdown but are in their new brewery and preparing to be up and running again. Next week sees beer available to the trade, coinciding with some pubs reopening, but the big news is that Neepsend beer is now available in cans and will be sold direct to the public online, as well as via independent bottle shops such as Mitchells Wine Merchants at Meadowhead. Keep an eye on their Facebook page for the latest news!

Here at Abbeydale Brewery, despite challenges to our business and putting in place substantial changes to overcome them, we are doing everything we can to retain a sense of familiarity in the “new normal” we all need to learn to live with. Our brewteam haven’t stopped throughout the lockdown period – although we did quieten down in April and May, we have now increased production again and are getting plenty of lovely fresh beer ready for the proposed pubs opening date of 4 th July. Alongside this, you may have spotted that we were very fortunate to receive delivery of our very own canning line a couple of months ago. We were able to get to grips with this in super quick time, so we’ve got a great selection of cans at the moment, including Moonshine and Absolution, two of our popular core range which were both previously only available in cask. (Our best bitter Daily Bread is being added to this selection in the next week too!) Specials wise, these will mainly be released in keg and can initially whilst we get stocks of our core cask range nice and healthy, but coming up over the next few weeks we have Hop Smash Grapefruit IPA, and a couple of new Funk Dungeon releases too – a Tradition single hopped Bretted pale, and a tart lager. Plus a planned brand new Lost Souls imperial stout, this time inspired by the flavours of a Russian Honeycake! Sadly we have had to announce that we have taken the incredibly difficult decision not to re-open our city centre pub, The Devonshire Cat, as an Abbeydale Brewery pub. It’s been a huge part of who we are over the past six and a half years, and we will miss it immensely. However we’re cautiously optimistic about the Rising Sun, Nether Green, and this will be opening on Saturday 4 th July with a robust plan in place, do keep an eye on their website and social media for further details. We are planning to continue our online shop operation and direct delivery alongside supplying pubs of course, and would just like to quickly take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all the Sheffielders (and beyond!) who have supported us over these turbulent few months. We’ve gone through literally thousands of minikegs on top of our cans too! We genuinely couldn’t have got through this without you all, and we hope you will continue to stay with us as we all ride out this storm together. Hope to see plenty of you for a real life handpulled pint, from a safe distance of course, down the pub. It’s been a long time coming, and we’ve missed it so much! Cheers Laura, Abbeydale Brewery

Grizzly Grains had arranged to do a collaboration brew with Heeley City Farm for their fundraising beer festival, which of course got cancelled due to the Coronavirus restrictions. However they went ahead and brewed the beer anyway and have bottled it to drink at home! The beer is Belgian inspired and brewed with tons of Heather Honey from the farms own bees, hopped with Amarillo and Mandarins Bavaria for subtle orange flavour and comes in at 6% ABV. The brewery is donating £1 from every bottle of “Honey, I Brew up the Farm”, sold to Heeley City Farm. A second beer is also being released at the same time, Mangopocalypse, an 8% mango DIPA. Both beers will be available to order online along with bag-in-box cask beers for home delivery, their web shop launches on Thursday 28th May at grizzly-grains-brewing.myshopify.com Photos: Sam Bennett, Andrew Pearse and Rachel Gilbert

Stancill have launched a new 5% IPA, “Amazona” which they promise offers a citrus explosion. It is available alongside their other beers in 5 litre bag-in-box to order online for home delivery.

Sheffield-based Abbeydale Brewery are just days away from releasing their much-loved flagship beer, Moonshine, in can – having adapted their business significantly due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Brewery director Dan Baxter says of the release “Whilst it has always been a long-term ambition of ours of offer Moonshine in small pack, the present crisis has accelerated our plans. Moonshine is a beer which has so many loyal followers, especially in our hometown of Sheffield (which drinks about 70% of all the Moonshine we make!) and so we have responded by moving those plans forward much more quickly, allowing our drinkers the option of consuming our most popular beer from the comfort and safety of their own homes.” The recipe for Moonshine in can is exactly the same as that for the much-loved cask beer, which has continually accounted for around 50% of Abbeydale Brewery’s output. The brewery has always preferred canning as a method of presenting beer to bottling, as brewery owner Pat Morton explains – “Cans are light proof with less chance of extraneous air leaking in, both of which allow for a much higher quality finished product when compared to bottles. Cans are also lightweight, transport more easily than glass, and recycle well. Properly dealt with, the canned product is an excellent version of the beer. We have always prided ourselves on the quality and consistency of our products and we truly believe this extends to Moonshine in can.” Named Sheffield’s most likely cask ale to be found on bars around the city throughout the last decade, most recently in the Sheffield CAMRA (Campaign For Real Ale) 2019 Beer Census, Moonshine has been the recipient of numerous awards over the 24 years of Abbeydale’s history. Beginning with winning Sheffield’s Steel City Beer Festival on its very first appearance in 1996, other significant accolades include Champion Beer of Yorkshire 2012, runner up Champion Beer Of Yorkshire 2017, and a national bronze medal in the Golden Ale category at the prestigious Champion Beer of Britain Awards in 2018. During the present crisis, Abbeydale Brewery are very mindful of the devastating effects this is having on their pub customers who have been forced to close for the foreseeable future, and so are endeavouring to continue to support the trade via a “pay it forward” initiative, whereby members of the public placing orders of over £40 on their online shop are invited to nominate a pub of their choosing to receive a credit off a future order when they are able to reopen. Abbeydale Brewery have already made a name for themselves as producers of high quality beer in can, with their ever-growing Brewers Emporium range having been available for the past three years, however the recent addition to their brewery of their own canning line, a three-head filler manufactured by Wild Goose, has allowed them to increase production in this area in order to meet with growing demand. Moonshine cans launch on Tuesday 12^th May.  

Those that are missing the “Fuggle Friday” brewery tap room openings during the Coronavirus lock down were pleased when on Friday 17 April a trial of a Friday takeaway session took place – so much so it proved that popular the brewery ran out of takeout containers! This is now to be a regular thing, with Fuggle Bunny open every Friday for takeout sales between midday and 3pm and customers are welcome to bring their own containers to fill – or can buy one at the brewery. Given how popular the trial run was, it is advisable to get down early and also observe the social distancing arrangements. In the meantime Fuggle Bunny thanks you for your support and hope you keep safe!