Category: Breweries

It’s Sunfest month! I’m very excited to be involved in what will be my 5^th festival as part of Team Abbeydale, it’s always such a highlight of our year! So (if you’re reading this before 11^th-14^th July!) please do pop along to the Rising Sun to sample some of the 72 cask and 30 keg beers on offer. It’s sure to be another corker of a weekend! Our charity beer for this year will be launched at the festival and for 2019 we are supporting the James Brownhill Memorial Foundation. We’ve worked with JBMF to create Blue Skies (4.3%), a Mount Hood hopped pale ale. 10p from every pint sold will be donated to the charity, so drink good and do good!

We’ve got a couple of tasty collaborations out this month. Raisins to be Fearful (7.0%) is a smoked fruited Dubbel with apricots and raisins brewed with our pals at Torrside Brewery. We plan to release the main batch this month with Sunfest being one of the first places to showcase it, with a small amount being held back to barrel age and launch at Torrside’s festival Smokefest in November. The second of our releases from our collaborations with breweries from the USA is due to be released too – Greetings from Charlotte N.C has been created with our friends from NoDa Brewing who are based in North Carolina. Expect a smooth and silky well hopped IPA brewed with oats and corn in the grist.

We’ve got two returning favourites coming soon too, both making the most of our incredible hop store – the ever popular Dr Morton’s Duck Baffler (4.1%) hopped with Citra, and Double Deception (4.5%), an amped up version of our beloved core beer with absolute oodles of Nelson Sauvin hops.

And in the Brewers Emporium range we are releasing a new version of our Indulgence dessert inspired pale ale, this time a blueberry and maple pancake beer!

Finally, once Sunfest is over (sad face) we start to look ahead to our next beer festival… Funk Fest! This year our mixed fermentation and sour beer celebration is taking place at the brewery on 7^th-8^th September. At the time of writing early bird tickets for both sessions on Saturday have sold out (still some left for Sunday) but general release tickets are still available for all sessions. Budding homebrewers don’t forget to enter our competition which takes place during the Sunday session too! Head to bit.ly/funkfest19 for more information and to get your mitts on a ticket!

Cheers,

Laura

Triple Point’s Nekter  was named Champion Beer at the recent Barrow Hill Rail Ale Festival following a blind tasting to judge the beers on the opening day. Nekter is a twist on a pilsener lager recipe, brewed with fruity US hops and available as a cask conditioned ale.  

Happy June! Summer is on the way and we’ve brewed some delicious specials this month to help get you feeling those summer vibes. We’re starting June with Duck Decoy, a popular 4.6% hoppy USA pale. This beer is filled with the mouth-wateringly fresh aromas of pear, orange and passion fruit, however at a low strength it’s a pleasantly light indulgence. Next on the table we’ve got Sleeping Beauty. This 5.3% honey-sweet IPA is made with enchanting English ‘Beata’ hops. These flowers impart subtle notes of honey, apricots and almonds. And finally, from our stellar new Foraged & Found range we’ve got No Pain No Gain. For hundreds of years nettles were included as a main ingredient in British beers, so our team has painstakingly hand-foraged this seasons fresh nettles to produce an easy drinking spring time pale ale at a lovely 4.0%. We’re also excited to announce that we are now releasing the next instalment of our Foraged & Found range at the end of this month. We have another 6 amazing and unique sustainable brews coming your way which includes our ever popular Cocoa Noel (we know we know, how can we even think about Christmas yet!). Check out our social media channels for updates on what’s brewing! Now, roll on summer! Jessica

We really are hurtling through 2019 at an alarming rate! Luckily we have plenty of delicious beers coming out this month to help you ease into summer.

Our Reaper series has been lying low for a while, but now it’s back! This time we’re releasing a Grapefruit Wheat Beer (4.8%) with the zesty fruitiness of Citra and Centennial hops backed up by the addition of plenty of real grapefruit.

Also joining our Brewers Emporium range we have two new Unbeliever sours, both fruity little numbers… one with Mango & Lychee (4.6%), and the other a Raspberry & Vanilla Berliner (3.8%). Try saying that fast after you’ve quaffed a couple! Finally a Citra & Sabro hopped Serenity Session IPA (3.8%), which promises tropical notes of coconut and pineapple.

Our cask only pale ale specials are looking good too, with Cascade hopped Belfry (4.5% and always a favourite!), Wilderness (3.7%) brewed with Pacific Jade & Enigma and Resolution (4.2%) all making appearances throughout June.  So keep your eyes peeled for them hitting bars around town soon!

Cheers!

Laura

Stancill are holding another party in their brewery on Friday 31st May from 7pm. “Summer Breeze” will feature their range of real ales and lager, street food and live music. The brewery is located on Oakham Drive, within the Parkwood Industrial Estate, which is off Rutland Road. The nearest bus is route 7/8 on Neepsend Lane, get off the bus outside the Gardeners Rest / Cutlery Works and walk up the hill past the Forest pub and turn left.

The lunatic alliance of Steel City, Emperor’s and Lost Industry brings forth a new trilogy of imperial stouts, bigger and imperialier than ever. Except they got their space franchises mixed up and made a Douglas Adams-esque trilogy of four, or maybe five… the new episodes are:

Triple Point Brewhouse & Bar on Shoreham Street (the premises that used to be Sentinel Brewery) have racked their first full brew of “Debut IPA” following a couple of test brews to gain feedback. They have also supplied a beer to the bar at the Crucible Theatre that tied in with the “Standing at the Sky’s Edge” show being performed there, the beer is “Sky’s Edge Gold”. Thornbridge Brewery in Bakewell have commenced the 2019 dates for their brewery tap room socials. As before every month there is a Wednesday and Saturday where the bar in the visitors centre is open alongside the brewery shop, offering a range of their current beers along with a street food trader and the ability to book brewery tours. The next couple of Saturday events (open 12-8pm) are 27th April and 25th May with the Wednesday events (5-9pm) on the 24th April and 29th May. Northern Monk brewery of Leeds has brewed a Henderson’s Relish beer! It’s first appearance on tap was a keg in Brewdog on 10th April with cask appearing in the Rutland Arms and others whilst in cans it appeared in various outlets including Hop Hidout, Beer Central and Archer Road Beer Stop. The beer is a Bloody Mary Porter, which seems like a fairly traditional porter on initial taste but with a Bloody Mary style after taste and a bit of gentle spice burn that builds up on the throat! At the time of writing, On the Edge Brewery have announced the first three of the nine beers brewed for their 9 Pin event at Regather Works on 27th April. These are White Magnum, a 3.8% pale ale brewed with Magnum hops. The second is White Feathers, also 3.8%, a wheat beer brewed with traditional Czech hops and a wheat beer yeast. The third beer is Summit Gold, a hoppy session ale at 3.9% ABV. Drone Valley Brewery are now opening up for a tap session in the brewery every Saturday from 11am to 5pm. You can grab a pint to drink on site or buy bottles to take home. The brewery is in Unstone, just south of Dronfield, buses 43 and 44 from Sheffield stop at the end of the drive. On Saturday 1st June this tap session will be expanded to form part of the fringe festival alongside the CAMRA beer festival in Dronfield with a full beer range, music, food and gin! Neepsend Brewery are now back in the routine of opening their brewery bar once a month for drinkers to come in and try their latest beers at source. This event coincides with Peddlers Market on the Saturday of the first weekend of the month. Loxley Brewery will be supplying some of their beers to the ‘Eats, Beats and Treats’ tent located at the top of Fargate at Sheffield Food festival this year, which runs from 24th to 27th May. This may or may not include one of their most recent beers, Wisewood Eight, a very pale and refreshing 3.8% ABV session beer brewed with Motueka and Amarillo hops. Heist Brew Co in Clowne has released a collab brew with Alphabet Brewing. It is a white stout in a black forest gateaux style with the flavour delivering mountains of chocolate with cherry and a thick mouthfeel. Vadum Brewery, a cuckoo working out of Hill Top brewery in Conisborough have started supplying their beers to pubs in Sheffield and have been spotted in the Fat Cat amongst others. Their range is mainly very traditional, for example the Centurion Best Bitter – a 4% malty brew – however they have already broken those shackles with a West Coast IPA! Magic Rock of Huddersfield is now an internationally owned brewery having been bought by Lion, an Australian headquartered company that has also bought a number of other craft brewers around the world including Fourpure and Little Creatures as well as a number of mainstream brands. Magic Rock will see the new owners invest in expansion of the brewery which is currently struggling to meet demand. News of the new owners hasn’t proved popular amongst some fans of independent craft brewers however and a number of pubs and bars including the Rutland Arms and Bar Stewards in Sheffield have decided to replace their regular Magic Rock line with a different brewer, in the case of the Rutland the keg High Wire is being replaced by beers from the Kernel on a rotating basis. Mr Humphrey Smith of Samuel Smiths Brewery has issued one of his now famous memos to his pub managers and now use of electronic devices such as mobile phones and tablets are banned from his pubs in order to preserve the pub as a place for personal social interaction. If a customer needs to take a phone call they will be asked to do that outside with the smokers. This ban joins the strict rule of no swearing at Sam Smiths pubs, which includes the Brown Bear in Sheffield City Centre. The Old Mother Redcap at Bradway, another of their pubs, remains closed, seemingly due to difficulties recruiting a management couple to run it.

Glyn Sanderson founded Barlow Brewery back in January 2010, initially on a rather Heath Robinson esque 2.5 BBL kit, later expanded up to 5BBL. It was located in converted buildings on a working farm in the village of Barlow (the building was previously a cow shed and pig sty!). All the beers brewed at Barlow have received a great reception from drinkers with particular favourites here at Beer Matters being Carnival Ale, 3 Valleys IPA and Anastasia Imperial Russian Stout. Barlow Brewery also hosted a number of beer & music festivals in the farmyard which were enjoyable affairs! When Barlow first started brewing they were the only brewery in S18. Since then Collyfobble has launched in the village with a rather impressive set up whilst over in Unstone the Drone Valley Community Brewery has set up with lower operating costs. Glyn has decided to close and sell Barlow Brewery, partly because he’s had enough of the manual labour and wants to enjoy semi-retirement! Their taphouse pub in Chesterfield will continue to operate as a free house. Meanwhile the new owner of the brewery premises is Ade Cole of Pigeon Fishers who will be locating his gin distillery there and also opening a tap room selling his gin along with craft beer, tea & coffee. Gin production is expected to begin in May with the tap room & shop following in June. Pigeon Fishers ales were being cuckoo brewed at Barlow Brewery and a decision on the future of the beer has yet to be announced.

In time for the bank holidays and the flutter of activity on the beer festival scene, Farmers Peach Ale makes a return to the seasonal calendar. Available in cask from the beginning of May, this light rosey ale is a firm favourite with the fruity ale fans.

Speaking of Festivals, we were proud to be named main sponsor for the Ridgeway Beer Festival, taking place on the 18^th May – look out for a selection of Farmers Ales at the festival!

We are also excited to have secured a cask ale stand at this year’s Great British Beer Festival – it will be great to showcase some of our ales in that there big city!!

Jackie @ Bradfield Brewery