Category: Breweries

The change from Hopscotch is now complete. My launch night as Crosspool Ale Makers Society took place on Thursday 14 February, so by the time the next issue of Beer Matters is due I’ll hopefully be in full swing.

The first pubs and bars confirmed to be taking the first batch are: Boozehound @ Cutlery Works; Two Sheds Micropub, Crookes; Guzzle Micropub, Woodseats; and The Itchy Pig, Broomhill. Plus more to be confirmed, (hopefully!). The first beer for the launch was my 4.5% Citra-hopped golden ale, Horatio Bright.

The plan is to do a Tap Takeover on 11 March at Two Sheds as part of Sheffield Beer Week. By then, I should have 2 more beers in the lineup; a 5.4% extra pale, The Lost Tribe, and a 3.6% session blonde, Sandygate.

Mark Booth

The celebrations for Sheffield Beer Week are taking place this month, so there will be tons going on all over the city. We’re very excited to be representing at Indie Beer Feast at Abbeydale Picture House again this year, it was a brilliant day in 2018 and great to see that it’s already expanded to a two-day festival. Hope to see you there on Friday 8 and Saturday 9^t March!

We are also particularly looking forward to the Food & Beer Pairing evening to be held at the Devonshire Cat on Wednesday 13 March – please check the pub’s website for all the ticket information. The event is being hosted by the magnificent (not to mention world famous) beer writer Melissa Cole, who we were lucky enough to collaborate with, so one of two beers we created with her will be released in time for the event. Keep those eyes peeled for the details!

We’ve got plenty of other new releases this month too. New to the Brewers Emporium and ready to lead us into springtime after a very long winter, we have Reverie (4.2%), a Citra and Cascade dry-hopped pale intended to transport your mind to a glorious daydream. Bursting with a fruity, floral flavour that blooms upon the palate.

We’ve also got a (name currently TBC) Farmhouse IPA coming up, brewed in collaboration with the incredible Siren Craft Brew. Look out for the barrel aged version coming later in the year too, and if you get hold of a can then be sure to save your label as artist Lewis Ryan has come up with another mind-blowing idea for our artwork!

Our next (very) limited edition Methuselah (10.5%) is going into cask, keg and for the first time into can, and this iteration is a Bretted barrel aged imperial stout. Potent and robust, a quintessential impy with just a hint of a bretty twang which rounds the beer out perfectly. This one’s been a long time coming and we’re very excited to see it finally making its way onto bars and shelves around the country.

Staying on the dark side, the next version of Salvation is to be released and takes the guise of a classic Breakfast Stout (5.4%). A carefully selected malt grist (with some smoked malt for added complexity) and plenty of coffee from Sheffield based Cafeology provide a smooth and balanced bittersweet stout. We reckon it’s the most important beverage of the day…

And finally, we have yet another collaboration, this time with Leeds-based Wilde Child, a brewery we’ve long admired. We’ve teamed up to make a punchy West Coast style IPA with a winning combination of hops. These guys will be showcasing a range of their beers (including this one!) at a Meet the Brewer and Tap Takeover at the Devonshire Cat in April too, so look out for all the event details coming soon.

Cheers,

Laura

The nights are starting to get a little bit brighter and the days (hopefully) a little bit warmer, and we’ve got some specials this month that will help you start feeling some Springtime vibes.

We’re kicking off March with The Loyal Duke, named after William Cavendish (ancestor of the Welbeck dynasty). This is a 4.0% luxuriously smooth and biscuity four-grain golden ale, brewed using the very finest transcontinental hops to compliment these British malts.

Our next special is a St Patrick’s Day favourite dubbed Sligo. At 5.4% this is a velvety smooth, chocolatey oatmeal stout, created using the finest roast British malts and rolled oats. Mmm.

And finally, from our brand new and innovative Foraged & Found range we’ve got Take It Squeezy. At the Welbeck Farm Shop a mesmerising ‘Zumex’ orange chopper and squeezer instantly provides shoppers with the freshest orange juice possible. But what happens to the left over flesh? Well, we have harnessed the remaining flavour in these to create a wonderfully zingy, tangy golden ale with British hops. Its 5.6%, and zero waste!

Lastly if you’re interested in attending one of our Brewery Tours make sure to grab your tickets know as half the dates are already sold out! You can grab them online at www.welbeckabbeybrewery.co.uk.

Jess Low

Spring is in the air! To celebrate we welcome back a fruity beer to our range of ales as Farmers Plum Bitter (4.4%) returns to the brewing schedule once more. This deep rich reddish-coloured beer is smooth on the palate and has tonnes of plums for a fruity finish.

Our mascot, Farmers Blonde Bottle, has a new claim to fame – he only gone and popped up as poster boy for the Sheffield Half Marathon! Sticking with costumes and we are excited to announce that we are supporting elite runner Peter Knight in his Guinness World Record attempt for the fastest marathon dressed as a glass! Peter will be donning a new Bradfield Brewery costume at this year’s London Marathon on 28 April, where he will attempt to beat the current record of 4 hours. As part of his training Peter will be running the Sheffield Half Marathon in the new costume, look out for it and give him a wave!

As much as this kid loves running, he’s doing it for a good cause too! Peter is running for the charity Myaware which is the only charity in the UK dedicated solely to the care and support of people affected by myasthenia.  Myasthenia affects all ages and genders but it is treatable and can be brought under good control with medication, however in some circumstances, it can be fatal. You can support Peter via his JustGiving page: justgiving.com/fundraising/fastglass.

For further updates and to follow the progress of Peter and the Bradfield Brewery Glass, give us a like on facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Jackie

The Brewery of St Mars of the Desert is the latest brewery on the Sheffield beer scene. Based at 90 Stevenson Road, Attercliffe, this small brewery and tap room currently only has a small range of beers on offer but more are being planned in the near future.

Thornbridge have re-released long-time favourite AM:PM in cask. The beer will be available in all of the brewery’s tap pubs in Sheffield from 23 January. The brewery has also released its 2019 Year of Beer line-up, which as always features a number of interesting looking creations, including a pink grapefruit IPA (April), a summery tangerine wheat beer (July) and a Christmas pudding porter (December).

Sentinel Brewery and Brewhouse on Shoreham Street has reopened under new management. The tap room is currently open every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, plus Sheffield United home match days.

Hopscotch in its current form closed at the beginning of January – at the time of writing we had just distributed the last of our stock to Two Sheds, Guzzle Micropub, The Fat Cat, Boozehound@Cutlery Works and the Itchy Pig Ale House, five places that have given us amazing support over the last eight months, amongst others!

Joe has decided to take a step back from the brewery; he has a younger family than I do and did not have the time to push on to the next stage as planned. Rather than take Hopscotch on as a solo project, I’ve decided to rebrand. It didn’t feel right to carry on by myself as it was something we’d created together!

I’m re-registering the relevant licenses and certificates as Crosspool Ale Makers Society and hope to be trading again by the end of January. I’m pretty excited, I’ve had some equipment upgrades and renovated the brewery a little (although it currently looks a bit like a building site). I’ve also been ‘back in the kitchen’ working on recipes, both tweaking the old and coming up with the new.

The initial beer line-up is likely to be:

• Horatio Bright – 4.5% bitter orange golden ale
• Sandygate – 3.6% session blonde
• The Lost Tribe – 5.2% extra pale ale

There are a few more waiting in the wings too:

• 51 – 4.2% red ale
• Mount Zion – 4% smoky treacle stout
• Delph House – 7% DDH Imperial IPA

Mark

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2019 – now in our 13^th year, we continue to brew award winning ales in cask and keg and provide a consistent high quality great tasting range of styles.

Our brewery shop on Percy Street is now well-established and folk are welcome to pop in anytime during the week between 10am–4pm to pick up their favourites in bottle and mini-keg – best check our Facebook page to see what’s in stock or pop along anyway and have a browse and meet the team led by head brewer, Marv.

All the hard work invested by the community owners at the Gardeners Rest has certainly paid off for this fantastic gem of a pub on the Don. Revellers visiting the Kelham and Neepsend area as well as regulars are attracted by the fab atmosphere and also the pub’s eclectic range of music and alternative events – see their Facebook page for details. The Sheffield Brewery Co. is very proud to continue to support the Gardeners Rest as its brewery tap and looks forward to meeting more customers when we arrange another meet the brewer event.  

As part of our love of music and beer the brewery is opening the Cellar Room Sessions: a series of gigs and DJ nights deep down in the completely unique and atmospheric cellar conditioning room! We’re featuring blues, jazz, soul and anything else which sounds good and takes our fancy. We’ll be kicking off on Saturday 2 February with Swear Box Acoustic at their very best playing some mean tunes from their repertoire of blues rock and soul classics. Keep your eyes on social media for details of our Friday forays underground and in the warmer climes in brewery yard with funk, soul and rock ‘n’ roll nights too.

On the brewing front we have brewed a craft pilsner lager with the name Percy St. At 5%, very crisp and using Bavarian hops for a classic hoppy finish, it has gone down a storm with customers and is available to order from us direct.

Our favourites: Five Rivers, Blanco Blonde, Crucible Best and Razor Paste have been joined recently by SIBA award winner Get Thi’ Sen Outdooerz which is also now part of the core range. Sheffield Porter and our new stout, Ruskin, have headed up our excellent darker side of life with Renovator (black IPA) and the infamous Berlin Black. We will be releasing monthly specials again and will highlight details through the usual social media channels.

Our heartfelt and sincere thanks to those pubs and kind folk who continue to support our brewery as we continue to deliver great tasting beers for your enjoyment!

Paddy Spencer

It’s not too late to wish you all a happy new year, is it?! After our biggest production month EVER in December 2018, we’ve not given ourselves very much of a rest as we dive straight in to yet another exciting year for us here at Abbeydale.

Firstly, we are very pleased to announce that by the time you read this we will have brewed the first batch of our new lager, Heresy! Whether it will be the final recipe or if it will need a little more tweaking is yet to be discovered, but do keep a look out as we’ll be sure to keep you updated on our progress.

In terms of releases for this month, we’ve got the return of Doctor Morton’s Safety Beer. A 4.1% Australian hopped pale, this fruity and refreshing beer is one of our favourites within the series. You might notice that we’ve given the range a little bit of an artwork refresh to bring it more in keeping with our other beers… spot the cheeky little cameo of Doctor Morton himself!

We’ve got another returning beer this month which we are very excited to welcome back… it’s Brimstone! We know it’s been missed by many of you since we had to make the difficult decision to take it out of our core range due to difficulties in sourcing Amarillo, the key hop in this 3.9% American style take on the classic English bitter. Luckily, we’ve managed to get hold of just enough to bring Brimstone back as a seasonal special. So keep your eyes peeled for it as it won’t be around for long!

There’s an all new Voyager IPA (5.6%) on the horizon too, this time hopped with Simcoe, Vic Secret and Enigma. Expect strong, citrus aromas and an upfront bitterness balanced by a punchy fruit-driven flavour packed with notes of grapefruit and dried peaches.

And finally, we’ll be releasing our (at the time of writing, unnamed) collaboration with the absolutely superb Siren Craft Brew. We’ve got together to create a DDH Farmhouse IPA, focusing on the interaction and bio-transformation between Brettanomyces and hops, an area we haven’t looked at in detail before. A barrel fermented version is coming later in the year too.

Laura

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and are getting back in the swing of things.  Whether you partook in Dry January or Tryanuary, we’ve got a range of specials this month that are sure to get you excited! 

We starting with an old favourite that we haven’t see in a while, Admiral Keppel (4.3%). This golden English ale is brewed with Admiral hops which brings a pithy bitterness and the delicate aroma of spiced oranges.

Our next special, Nightingale, we have you thinking of Springtime. This IPA is as British as they come and is packed full of herbaceous notes from English Goldings and UK Cascade hops. The balance in this golden brew comes from honey-sweet caramalt and boasts a generous 5.5% ABV.

2019 will see more changes for the brewery, including a brand new range entitled Foraged & Found, which goes hand in hand with our new initiative “Go Green for 2019”. In addition to their 6 core real ales and kegged lager-style beer, “Pivo”, we also brew 3 unique specials each month, designed to offer something different in terms of taste and style and to pick up on developing trends.  This year we have developed a bold new range of specials centred around sustainable production. Each ale within the Foraged & Found range will be brewed with a food by-product from food producers, eateries, and community groups local to the brewery.

The range showcases the brewery’s efforts to have a positive impact on environment and local community, and highlights their commitment to reducing unnecessary waste. A variety of typical beer styles from across the world will be brewed, chosen to enhance and highlight the key flavour notes of the foods utilised.

First up from this new range we introduce Out of the Blue. This experimental 5.8% Stilton porter is brewed with whey from the award-winning Stichelton Dairy.  They produce a world class unpasteurised blue cheese following an original Stilton recipe. The whey is a by-product of generating curds for cheesemaking and it’s full of water, protein and sweet lactose. Using this as a proportion of our brewing water gives this porter a full-bodied, rounded sweetness. If you want to learn more about our innovative new range check out our blog at welbeckabbeybrewery.co.uk/blog.

Jess Low

We are back into the swing of things after the New Year here at Blue Bee and it’s been a busy start. The first brew of the year was the returning Amarillo IPA (5.0%), this single hopped IPA showcases the American hop’s floral, citrus and orange characteristics beautifully.

On the brand new beer front, following on from our range of single hopped session beers this month we have Mosaic Session (3.5%), a low ABV oat pale showcasing the fantastic Mosaic hop and its tropical and grapefruit flavours, expect bags of flavour despite the strength. Also on the cards is the return of Ginger Beer (4.5%) and we are now brewing the thirty fifth version of American 5 Hop (4.3%) this time combing Columbus, Eureka, Amarillo, Mosaic and Chinook.

On top of this we’d like to let everyone know that all our core beers: Reet Pale (4.0%), Hillfoot Best Bitter (4.0%), Triple Hop (4.3%) and Tempest Stout (4.8%) are all vegan.

Josh Jepson