Category: Breweries

This month we are kitting out our brand new bottling plant and we are extremely excited to give the bottles a home of their own! The ‘container’ is situated right next door to the Brewery itself, behind The Wisewood Inn. The demand for our bottled beer has been better than we could ever have hoped for, so we are expanding to keep our customers happy, hoppy and hydrated. Our core range of bottle beers: Revill, Fearn, Gunson, Halliday and Lomas will be flying out of the plant and onto local shelves in and around Sheffield. If you fancy a bottle, our full range is available at both The Wisewood Inn and The Raven Inn. Our new series of beer is already underway, taking inspiration from the countryside which is on our doorstep. We kicked off our latest series with a 5.0% American Pale Ale named Windy Bank, which has proved to be a fan favourite! Work is already commencing on part 2, and hopefully it will be in pint glasses very soon. Follow us on social media for updates on the release date!

Kelham’s April specials being brewed are:

Risen Rider: A robust stout blended from dark malts that give rise to a classical burnt and roasted aroma with caramel flavours coming through from the malts and a little something later on for a bold yet sweet finish.

Operation Wolf: A pale amber hue forged from a combination of pale and Vienna malts for a sweet and malty finish. Offset by a light hop bittering whilst pine, floral and fruity notes compliment the late addition of honey for an added sweetness.

Joe

We’re all in for a treat this month, as we team up with local legends Frazer’s Coffee Roasters and Bullion Chocolate to create Indulgence – Mocha Stout (7.4%). They’ve contributed some stunning ingredients to this beer, with Ecuadorian cacao nibs and single origin Peruvian Tunki cold brew coffee adding a rich and sumptuous depth of flavour to our creamy stout base. YUM.

Also on the dark side we have our next release of Salvation stout – bringing back one of our most popular versions from a couple of years ago, our beery take on a Jamaican Ginger Cake (5.5%)! Spicy, smooth, full bodied and fragrant, with a lingering finish.

In other collaboration news, we’re proud to once more be partnering with the Festival of Debate to create a special beer for the occasion! This year we’re releasing Change Maker, a fruity and refreshing 4.3% Citra and Cascade hopped pale ale, which is both vegan and gluten free. There’s over 130 events throughout April and May taking place as part of the festival, making it the biggest yet! The full programme is available now at www.festivalofdebate.com.

And as always we’ve got an absolutely delicious selection of pale ales available on cask only. The second in our Geoglyph series, Nelson Sauvin & Enigma hopped Orion (4.0%) should be hitting bars by the time this gets published – we’ve written a blog all about our inspiration behind this on our website so give it a read and join our Dan in discussing some nice space related conspiracy theories! We’ve also got Larceny (4.2%) with Chinook and Columbus hops coming out, alongside Doctor Morton’s Aftersave (4.1%) which is hopped with Summit and Pacific Jade.

Laura

Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun… 15 years has flown by! This month 15 years ago we ventured into the world of Brewing and as the Farmers Ale range continues to flourish, it’s safe to say we haven’t looked back!

Sticking with our traditional credentials, next up on the seasonal offerings, in celebration of St George’s Day is the Bradfield Ye Olde English Ale. The badge has seen a facelift but the beer remains a traditional light copper coloured English ale with citrus and spice and dry aftertaste, 4.6% ABV. Available in cask from the 6 April.

Next on the table will be Farmers Cruci-Bull Ale, brewed annually for the Snooker World Championship tournament which takes place at the Crucible Theatre from 18 April until the 4 May. A session ale at 4.1% ABV, it is an amber coloured best bitter with well balanced malt and hop flavours. Available in cask from 13 April.

There are some exciting brand new brews coming up next month – keep your eyes peeled…

Jackie

Spring has well and truly sprung and we have three special brews to celebrate the warmer weather. Greendale Oak is a 4.0% Springtime ale. Dry hopped using the freshest Australian and American hops to give zesty citrus and fresh apple-blossom aromas. The Welbeck parkland has always been famous for its oak trees. The most famous of all was the Greendale Oak which was said to be so vast, that the Duchess had a cabinet made from the centre of the trunk, leaving an archway so wide that a horse drawn carriage could be driven right through. Our second offering for April is Mistress of the Robe, a honeyed pale ale at 4.4%. In 1902 the sixth Duke commissioned Cartier to make a tiara which the Duchess wore at the coronation of Edward VII that year. She was ‘Mistress of the Robes’, senior lady in the royal household, to Alexandra between 1913 and 1925. This luxuriously silky blonde beer has been created with sweet malt and juicy New Zealand hops. Finally, we have the next brew in our Found and Foraged range. Breaking Bread is brewed with overbake from the School of Artisan Food. Sixteen keen bakery students are currently working hard to hone their skills at the School. As a result, they generate a monumental amount of bread. We have replaced a portion of the usual malted barley with this bread to produce a deliciously malty pale ale.

Derbyshire brewers Heist Brew Co make the big move from the sleepy mining village of Clowne to the once beating heart of Sheffield’s industry and now hive of activity for  development and regeneration, Kelham Island and Neepsend. The craft beer brewers’ new location will be situated in the Neepsend area of the city, on Neepsend Lane, close to the bustling Cutlery Works and legendary Gardeners Rest pub. From humble beginnings brewing once a week and distributing locally and regionally, Heist are now expanding their operation to deal with national and international demand and have seen the positives of moving into the brewing community currently building in the Kelham and Neepsend areas. The massive project will see an old machine works transformed into a brewery with interactive tours, tastings and events capable of hosting private bookings and corporate events in their two large bar spaces. Combining a modern style with raw materials to maintain the original character of the building, it will retain the two industrial cranes and other internal structures, along with maintaining a lot of the original characteristics of the building inside and out. With 30 craft beer lines hosting ten Heist lines of staple and limited release as well as beers from the rest of the UK and Europe, there will be regular guest lines from the US and further afield brought in especially for Heist, as well as special release bar top cask. The bar spaces will house gaming, eating and comfy spaces and a burger joint which will be serving up signature burger stacks and loaded fries provided by a very special street food vendor which is TBA, who will host regular guest street food vendors from around the UK and other unique food experiences. Adding to this vibrant area Heist will join a number of Sheffield Breweries in the area such as Sheffield Brewery, Neepsend Brewery and Kelham Island Brewery, which will be sure to gain the attention of avid beer drinkers, creating a popular spot for those beer drinkers seeking a day out in the steel city, as well as those looking for a unique shopping experience in the local area. Working with other local businesses Heist will be hosting a number of events over the coming months such as food and beer pairing at Boozehound (Cutlery works), a summer skate jam and BBQ at the House Skatepark, and a beer cocktail evening at the Millowners to name just a few. The details for all the events will be updated on their social media shortly. Heist Brew Co are planning to be open mid summer with dates to be confirmed. A weekend long opening is planned with special experiences to the opening up for grabs for a few lucky winners and their friends, plus other goodies up for grabs too. Head over to their social media pages @heistbrew and @heistbrewtap to keep up-to-date on the progress of the build and everything else Heist.

Steel City’s latest brew was a ‘super-collab’, with several of Sheffield’s craft-est breweries gathering along with Lucienne off of the Shakespeare to brew Collabracadabra for that pub’s eponymous event in Beer Week (Friday 13/03). Lucienne had been on a tour of the country brewing a dozen collabs for the event then a little closer to home arranged the super-collab hosted by Steel City with Lost industry, Abbeydale, Blue Bee and Neepsend visiting. After much discussion the brewers settled on an Apricot Vanilla braggot, brewed with 60kg of apricot, Madagascan vanilla and slightly more local Sheffield honey. Much beer was enjoyed on the day as well as a barbecue, oh and the brewing went pretty well too. 200 litres of the brew have been squirreled away in a Bordeaux red wine barrel with another 20kg of apricot and even more vanilla, this will launch at Sheffield Beer Week 2021. In other news, the brewery is finally getting round to exporting, with a shared pallet with Lost Industry making its way to Koeln (Cologne) where the beers will be featured at Craftbeer Corner Coeln as well as making their way deeper into Germany. The quest for world domination starts here…

March sees the return of Sheffield Beer Week and we can’t wait to enjoy some of the great beery events planned throughout the city. We were really pleased to welcome Luicenne from the Shakespeare down to the brewery to brew a beer for their Collabracadabra brew fest, the beer in question is a style we have not brewed for a while, a Black IPA showcasing American Ekuanot hops. At the time of writing the full details had not been decided but expect a dark ale packed full of hoppy bitterness. We also headed down to Steel City/ Lost Industry to join the Shakespeare team, Abbeydale and Neepsend to brew a beer for the event and can’t wait for Friday 13^th March to try both beers at the Shakespeare. Other beers we have available for March are the new American 5 Hop version 43 4.3% this time combining Amarillo, Columbus, Cascade, Centennial and Mosaic. We also managed to get our hands on some Australian Galaxy hops for the first time in a long time and have combined it with Mosaic to create a citrusy and fruity West Coast IPA with a bitter finish, inventively named Galaxy Mosaic IPA 5.8%. On top of this we have Citra and Simcoe session New England Pale Ale in the pipeline so watch this space.

You may recall in our issue 500 one of our correspondents providing memories of their time in Sheffield beer talked about when the Wards brand returned. The following brings things up to date.

In your review of Sheffield Brewing in BM 500 you mention that Robinsons have taken over brewing Wards which is not strictly true. Yes, we franchised the brewing of the keg version to Robinsons brewery some time ago as we did not have those facilities at the time – but we remain the Brand owner here at Maxim Brewery at Houghton le Spring in County Durham and continue to brew the cask version. We have however removed the yeasty sulphur smell that Wards did sometimes have. Do try it again if you’re up our way.

For my part I started at Wards in 1985 before moving to Sunderland to become Wards and Vaux Breweries finance Director in 1995 and was there at the end when the City of London asset stripped both breweries and closed them on 2nd July 1999. I was part of the MBO team that attempted to buy Vaux Brewery and a number of pubs in 1999. In 2000, I was able to salvage a portfolio of the brands and their recipes including Double Maxim and Wards Best Bitter and founded the Maxim Brewery.

This year marked the 20 year anniversary of the closure and we sponsored a film that has been made by an independent film company – Lonely Tower Films. It’s called a ‘passion for Vaux’ – but does include a bit on Wards and the tragedy of that closure.  Its available on Amazon  – £13.99

Here’s the challenge – In an ideal world we would now look to a quality Sheffield brewer who would want to brew the cask (and bottle/can) going forward which would be a great story for the City. Anyone interested?

Mark Anderson, Managing Director, Maxim Brewery