Category: Breweries

Loxley Brewery have been busy brewing over the festive period, with the new Milk Stout at 5.0% ABV being the most popular hit over the Christmas. Named Black Dog, this speciality ale has a heart-warming face behind it – Charlie, our Black Lab brew dog. The beer also has a musical twist, and those of you who love Led Zeppelin will have spotted that straight away! The owner of Loxley Brewery is a Led Zep superfan and it only felt right to include them in such a sentimental brew – check out the pump clip! Things can only get bigger and better in 2020, with plans underway to create a popular summer ale, to go alongside the ever popular winter brew. The last series of beer commemorated local reservoirs, including Dale Dyke and Dam Flask. Who knows what the next will be? You can find all things Loxley at The Wisewood Inn, and now The Raven Inn – a newly opened brew tap for Loxley Brewery. It is a very cosy and modern pub serving the finest cask and keg ales which go nicely with the selection of pork pies and sausage rolls on offer. Loxley ales are £2.50 between 12pm and 4pm weekdays, and you can’t get a better offer than that! CAMRA discounts are available at both venues. 2020 is looking to be an exciting year for Loxley Brewery, lots of events are planned so keep your eyes peeled to see where you can next get your hands on a pint. Happy New Year, or Happy New Beer (if you prefer!) Hannah

A we near the end of crisp winter days and optimistically head for spring we have three cracking brews to help you on your way! Sleeping Beauty is a 5.3% Honey-sweet IPA made with enchanting English ‘Beata’ hops. These flowers impart subtle notes of honey, apricots and almonds. This English IPA is inspired by the ornamental plasterwork ceiling of the Titchfield Library here at Welbeck Abbey. The delicately entwined display of flora and fauna has enchanted visitors over the years, and is said to have been inspired by the Sleeping Beauty fairy-tale. Our second offering for February is Admiral Keppel, a golden bitter at 4.3%. Under Admiral Keppel’s command of the channel fleet in 1778, a great battle against the French ended poorly. Keppel was accused of treason by parliament and tried by a court martial. He was acquitted in 1779. The Duke of Portland and others were made commemorative English gold anchor pins to thank them for their support to Admiral Keppel throughout. Inspired by this piece of history we have created a golden English ale brewed with Admiral hops which brings a pithy bitterness and the delicate aroma of spiced oranges. Finally, we have our first Foraged and Found brew for this year, Wake Up And Smell The Coffee. Brewed using the coffee grounds from our friends at the Harley Café, this 5% Coffee Porter has a rich roasted flavour. The Harley Café keeps the estate and it’s visitors well fuelled with quality coffee from Darkwoods in West Yorkshire. A huge volume of coffee grounds are generated during the process, which we have utilised to make this robust porter.

As usual, there are a couple of monthly specials brewed for February: Liquid Weapon – A Golden Ale Brewed with pale and lightly toasted malts for a golden finish with just a hint of caramel. The blend of American hops give a balance of bitter and fruity flavours with hints of pine below the surface. Bête Noire – A behemoth stout brewed with a trio of roasted malts to give an aroma of sumptuous dark chocolate with a sweet satisfying palate and silky-smooth finish. Joe.

This month, we’re looking forward to unveiling the first of a new artwork series for 2020, showcasing my personal favourite little piece of kit, our hop back! Originally our very first mash tun, and now used to ensure our beers benefit as much as possible from delicate hop oils and aromas that would otherwise be boiled away and lost, it’s a special part of our brewing process and we’re looking forward to giving it a bit of glory on our pumpclips this year. Final details of which hops we’re using in the first of the series are still to be confirmed, but we can promise a refreshing and quaffable pale ale from this one. Doctor Morton’s Ship’s Biscuit (4.1%) is making a comeback after a long absence, having last been seen in 2013! An easy drinking beer, well balanced with floral notes and a gentle spiciness. We’ve also got Demon coming up, a golden beer with a biscuity backbone from the addition of Vienna malt, and Bobek and Spalt hops for an earthy, piney character, balanced by notes of citrus. And a classic stout (4.8%) is to be the next version of Salvation, we’re looking forward to going a little bit back to basics with this one. Also in the Brewers’ Emporium range, after 21 different versions we are having a return of the original Voyager recipe! Citra, Centennial and Mosaic hops get together to provide a clean and juicy body to this flavoursome, fruity IPA (5.6%). Finally, look out for Funk Dungeon – Chapter 3: Heavy Nettle. A punchy, spicy saison weighing in at 6.66% and packed full of locally foraged nettles… our brewers don’t half go the extra mile for these beers! Cheers! Laura.

As we ‘cheers’ our pint glasses to the new year, we have three cracking specials to chase away those January blues. Ernest George is a well balanced 4.2% ruby ale. Blended using traditional roasted malts we have created a deep ruby ale with distinctively bitter-sweet chocolate notes. British Bramling Cross hops provide a subtly blackcurrant note in the background. Ernest George, this beer’s namesake, was a well-known country house architect who worked on the Welbeck Abbey between 1900 and 1901. He was responsible for remodelling the interior of the Oxford Wing after it was decimated by fire. Our second offering for January is Henrietta Grande, a pale ale at 4.0%. A more intense version of our most popular core range beer, Henrietta Grande is a clean-tasting, delicate golden ale, brewed with German Hallertau Brewers Gold. Named after two famous Henriettas in the Welbeck family linage; Henrietta Cavendish-Holles, and Henrietta Scott, this light golden ale has notes of honeysuckle and fresh hay. Finally, we have Tink’s Pixie Dust Pale. You may have heard of our head brewer James, but we like to call him Tink – short for Tinkerbell the beer fairy! He works tirelessly to produce our 15,000 pints of hand-crafted real ale each week with a great deal of skill, care and we think a little help from Pixie dust. Tink’s Pixie Dust Pale is a 3.8% fruity session ale brewed from a magical blend of hops from three continents. Louise

Kelham Island will be kicking off the new year brewing a couple of monthly specials

Gauntlet is a triple hopped refreshing ale, using only hops grown in the UK. Brewed with the addition of blood orange zest and fresh grapefruit. Which gives this beer an intense delicious tropical experience.

Crimson Chaos is a full bodied American Red Ale will blast your taste buds with American hop flavours with a subtle pine aroma, and leaves an after taste of slight toffee and caramel.

Don Valley Brewery, who operate the Blind Monkey pub in Walkley, have launched a new Wheat beer called ‘Teenage Dirtbag’. Lost Industry brewing are holding a 4th birthday celebration at their tap bar on Sidney Street on 7th December. The Brewery of St Mars of the Desert are opening their tap room in Attercliffe every Friday and Saturday until Christmas now, 2pm-8pm. The Out & About X Blue Bee collaboration beer launched at the Kelham Island Tavern on 19th November. It is a chocolate orange stout called “Stout and About”. Triple Point have brewed a black liquorice beer called Hidden, a 4.4% ABV dark beer, in support of the Sheaf & Porter rivers trust who will receive a donation for every cask and keg sold. Drone Valley Brewery found themselves out of action as a result of flooding mid November.

Steel City celebrated their tenth anniversary with a ‘Decade of Bitterness’ event at the Crow featuring beer and cake (cheers Sue!). The anniversary brew Hop Manifesto Reloaded was launched at the event and is now doing the rounds in the usual suspects, and some one-off beers were also available including a tonka version of Stout Wars. Hop Manifesto Reloaded is brewed to the ‘Transatlantic Pale Ale’ style Dave and Gazza made their name with all those years ago, with a UK-style pale malt base and American-style hop additions, when IPAs still had bitterness rather than being brewed to taste like fruit juice #makeIPAbitteragain. For winter rather than brewing a beer for the season Dave opened three barrels that had been maturing between six and nine months. Firstly, the final instalment of the Burn the Kirsch series is Holmenkollen, this started life in the same way as the Fantoft Edition, a cherrywood-smoked rauchbier with cherries, but then aged nine months in a Bordeaux red wine barrel with more cherries. The result is a deep red brew with soft fruity smokiness cut by sour cherry and wine. Next up is Corvus Corone – the Crow from Bordeaux, this is the sour brut IPA brewed with Kate, Chris and Adam from the Crow and aged in a Bordeaux wine barrel with grapes. The end result is almost like a sour wine, with the sharp acidity complimented by the tart grapes. Finally, The Rum Thieves is the megacollab Lactose the Intolerant chocolate coconut milk stout aged in a 21-year-old [REDACTED] rum barrel, the rum going perfectly with the chocolate and coconut. The latest brew is a collaboration, who’d have thought it, this time with one of Germany’s most innovative breweries, namely Freigeist. Dave met Sebastian several years ago and a collab has been mooted ever since, and has finally happened. Mein Herz Brennt (German for ‘My Heart Burns’ but also a track by German metallers Rammstein) resurrects a near-extinct style, Berliner Braunbier. As well as being darker than the better-known Berliner Weisse, the Braunbier was historically more sour and had more hops (or indeed, had hops). Being Steel City, this was interpreted liberally to mean lots of Wai-iti and Lemondrop. Part of the batch had blackcurrant added, and some has been hidden away in a wine barrel with goji berries for a few months

After what feels like the longest autumn ever, we’re feeling very ready for some seasonal merriment and thankfully our brewteam have been working hard to make sure there’s plenty of beer to bring you all tidings of comfort and joy!

Before all of that though, just in time for election week we’re releasing Purgatory (4.1%), a feeling we’re probably all feeling familiar with by now! It’ll be a quaffable pale ale with Citra and Delta hops. And after that I think we’ll all be ready for some Hibernation (4.2%), a hazy pale with Centennial, Simcoe and Cascade hops.

Heading closer towards 2020 we’ve also got Prophecy 4.5% coming up, plus Reveller, a tasty 3.9% session pale ale to get you in the party mood.

In January, we’ll have the return of the ever-popular Citra hopped Duck Baffler, our most requested Dr Morton’s and becoming something of a new year’s tradition here at Abbeydale! And joining the Brewers Emporium range we plan to release a new version of our Serenity Session IPA, and an as-yet to be confirmed iteration of our Wanderer “weird & wonderful” beer! We’re also really excited for one of our first brews of next year to be a collaboration with Beatnikz Republic. It’s DIPA time!

And just to finish off, because apparently I didn’t make this joke last year and I don’t wish to waste another opportunity (sorry), may I wish you a beery Christmas, and a very hoppy New Year!

Cheers,

Laura

Stancill have a range of 4 seasonal beers ready for Christmas. Red Velvet is a 5% ABV rich, full bodied stout whilst Blizzard, Mistletoe and Wonderland are all pale ales at around 4%.