Bradfield Brewery

After a great finish to a busy 2018, we spent January recuperating and preparing for another busy year ahead. The brewing schedule is complete and it was full steam ahead for the seasonal ales kick-starting with Farmers Cold Start (3.8%) in January.

Sticking with seasonal ales, back for 2019 (and its 13th outing since first being brewed in 2006), Farmers Irish Dexter returns to our seasonal calendar. Available in cask from 25 February and up to St Patrick’s Day, this deep red-coloured ale at 4.8% ABV has a sweet malty flavour with a dry finish.

Plans are underway on further developing our second Brewery Tap, the King & Miller in Deepcar. The next stage of works include a full refurbishment of the kitchen facilities as well as the upgrading of a further seating area and function room. Keep an eye out for the food served date coming soon!

Jackie

Steel City Brewing

Steel City started the year with a collab, a ‘home’ three-way with Lost Industry and Boutilliers. The base beer is Burn the Kirsch, a cherry-smoked pale with cherries and cherry blossom. Cherry-smoked malt gives a sweet fruity smoke flavour, rather than the unpleasant phenolic flavours of beechwood or peat. There will also be a wine-barrel aged version later in the year, as well as a braggot (beer/mead hybrid).

The launch of the special Stout Wars box sets of bottles went incredibly well, with Hop Hideout and Beer Central selling out before the beers even went on the shelf, and the online launch through Hoptimism selling out in under two minutes.

The barrel aging of the third Stout Wars trilogy is almost complete, and there will be a launch event in the spring. The main brew started at 12%, some of the barrels have fermented quite a bit further! The trilogy is in fact a Douglas Adams-esque trilogy of four:

  • Episode VII: The Brett Awakens – aged in a red wine barrel with raisins and brettanomyces. Thanks to the brett this episode has fully fermented out so is 15.8%.
  • Episode VIII: The Last Berry – aged in a bourbon barrel with blackberries and blackcurrants.
  • Episode IX – aged in a sherry barrel with damsons.
  • Solo – second runnings, soured and bretted in a red wine barrel with cherries.

All four will be available at the launch, the Solo will be on keg and the other three will all be cask. The exact date is still TBC, as it depends on the opening of the venue…

Dave Unpronounceable

Brewery Bits

Huge thanks to Mark at Dead Parrot Brewing Company for giving us a tour of his brewery back in October. The visit was organised to welcome new branch members who joined CAMRA during our recent festival and was well attended. The free beer and pork pies were very much appreciated! The Thornbridge Brewery tap room now has extended opening hours: 12-6 Wednesday and Thursday, 12-8 Friday and Saturday. Brewery Socials for December will take place on Wednesday 12 and Saturday 15. Little Critters have expanded their core range with the addition of Sultanas of Swing  chocolate and raisin stout (6.0%) – this was previously part of the Incubator series.

Exit 33 Brewing

Our new special will be Winter Warrior: a dark, strong winter warmer full of tradition with a big malt presence and additional flavour complexity from black treacle. Live music at The Harlequin for December: Saturday 1st: Bad Penny Friday 7th: Mahogany Newt Saturday 8th: Rooster Friday 14th: Rocket 88 Saturday 15th: Outside the Box Saturday 22nd: Swear Box During 2018, The Harlequin has raised money for many charities with our charity quiz nights. The organisations supported were Multiple Sclerosis Society, Parkinson Disease Society, Sheffield Real Junk Food Project, Pitsmoor Adventure Playground, RSPCA, Refuge womens charity, Black & Blue for victims of violence, Sheffield Tent City & Sheffield Tree Action Group Pete Roberts

Sheffield Brewery Company

The nights have definitely drawn in, so here at the brewery we have got our seasonal dark beer offering well stocked. Sheffield Porter (4.4%) has made a welcome comeback along with two new friends: Renovator, a 5.3% Smoky but hoppy mind bending black IPA and Ruskin, a thick and warming 5% stout named after one of Sheffield’s great philanthropists of old, John Ruskin. Both will be found at the Gardeners Rest and at our monthly brewery tap opening nights on 7 and 8 December.

We have even more exciting news to give you as this month our brewery shop will be opening. As of Saturday 1 December we will be open in the week and on selected Saturdays for you to grab a bottle, a case or one of our brand new 9-pint mini kegs. We will be putting all of your favourites and a few new specials into mini keg this Christmas; something for you to put under the tree or on the Christmas dinner table. Keep an eye on our social media for opening times.

In case we don’t see you, everyone at The Sheffield Brewery Company would like to wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Paddy Spencer

Welbeck Abbey Brewery

A very merry Christmas to all you wonderful folks! We hope you’re enjoying the season and we’ve got some fantastic festive brews to help you soak up those Christmas vibes. We’re kicking off Christmas with The Rink (5.2%). This ice-smooth oatmeal stout is brewed using a carefully chosen blend of roasted barleys and malted oats, creating a sumptuously smooth and velvety finish. Virgins Wing is our next brew this month. This lightly hopped festive brew uses the German Mandarina Bavaria variety, giving a suitably seasonal hint of clementines and is easy drinking at 3.8%. From our Brewers Choice range, we have Jacob’s Jazzy Jumpers. Jacob (progeny of brewer Tom and manager Claire) is famous for his array of Aunty Jean’s spectacular hand-knitted jumpers, and he and the brewery team are proud to present a Christmas-jumper inspired, tremendously fruity IPA. At 5.8%, it’s sure to get you feeling festive! You may have also seen our limited edition bottles of Cocoa Noel (5.5%) around and about at your favourite bottle shops. We’re excited to announce that we’ve also done a limited-edition run of 20 casks of this sumptuous chocolate stout. Check out our social media to see where you can grab a pint of this festive favourite. Lastly, don’t wait until the last minute this Christmas to pick up some of our Brewery Tour tickets – it’s the perfect gift for the real ale lover in your life (and you can always get one for yourself too!). Tickets can be purchased via our website or at the Welbeck Farm Shop. Jess Low

Bradfield Brewery

With Belgian Blue flowing through the tanks, a busy December marks the end of a successful year for Bradfield Brewery! Offering late night openings and sampling weekends at the on-site Brewery shop during December, there’s even more opportunity for customers to pop in and fill their Christmas stockings with their favourite Farmers tipple!

Our new Brewery tap, The King & Miller in Deepcar has seen a successful reopening and is being well received by the local community and Farmers Ales fans! The new year will see a food offering introduced into the pub and further works to its spacious function room and outdoor garden areas.

Our original Brewery Tap, The Nags Head, received a pat on the back from their nominated charity Weston Park Cancer Charity for their fundraising efforts raising a whopping £17,361.33 over the last 3 years.

In support of #tryanuary 2019, look out for our seasonal ale Farmers Cold Start – available to pubs from 21 January. A smooth dark beer, using arctic hops to create a bitter sweet flavour with winter floral tones, at a sessionable ABV of 3.8%.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers, wishing everyone and all of you a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Jackie

Stancill Brewery

This November, Stancill will be opening its doors to host a gig in the brewery. Best of all the event is FREE! Come down to Stancill Brewery on Friday November 30 from 7pm until 11pm. Expect good music, great vibes, delicious food and of course… great beer. Christmas only comes once a year, and to celebrate Stancill Brewery is releasing not one, not two, but three festive beers this winter season. Red Velvet is a classic festive brew, guaranteed to fill you with Christmas spirit. Providing winter berry notes and spice with cocoa and milk chocolate, it brings all the Christmas scents into one! Rich, fully flavoured and full bodied. With an ABV of 6.0% it’s guaranteed to keep you in a jolly mood this season. Blizzard perfectly provides a smooth, sweet and malty pale ale – everything great about a Stancill brew. Complimented with a white head and golden colour, this brew is guaranteed to keep you warm against the snow this Christmas. Welcome to a Winter Wonderland, or shall we say Lapland! Indulge in this winter session ale for a smooth and tasty flavour. With an ABV of only 4% it’s sure to keep you going throughout this party season! Lauren Barker

Abbeydale Brewery

Tis the season to be jolly, and we have many a good tiding to bring you! Our big news this winter is that we are absolutely thrilled to have taken ownership of some additional units adjoining our existing brewery site. As well as some much needed new office space, we’re also going to be able to increase our capacity, expand our cold store and open up our first dedicated on site event space! Look out for details of a launch party coming soon in the New Year…

Over the next couple of months we have a great selection of new beers coming to our Brewers Emporium range. First up, a real sumptuous treat is coming your way, with Salvation Chocolate Gateau Stout (4.8%) making an appearance. We’ve also got an all-new Voyager IPA (5.6%) sailing in for supping, our first to be single-hopped – with oodles of Galaxy hops (one of the favourites of the team here) promising notes of peach and passionfruit. We also have a welcome seasonal return for Hibernation (4.2%), a deliciously drinkable dry hopped fruity pale.

Our recent series of beers with artwork from Barnsley based artist Lewy draws to a close this month, with our collaboration with Blackjack Brewery of Manchester and possibly my favourite beer name to date – Chai Tea Chai Tea Bang Bang (6.4%), a Chai Latte stout. Be sure to send us your photos of all your can labels for this series, we’re sure you’re going to love the completed “jigsaw” just as much as we do!

Obviously we’ve got to have some festive themed beers in the mix and we’ve got Snow Globe (3.9%) and that Christmas classic, Doctor Morton’s Damn Good Stuffing (4.1% and totally turkey free). Rounding off 2018 we have Reveller (3.9%), an American hopped session IPA perfect to bring in the new year with.

As always we’ve got some big plans for the year ahead (the new units are just the start!) and can’t wait to see what 2019 brings us.

Cheers!

Laura

Blue Bee Brewery

First of all we’d like to wish a Happy Christmas from everyone at Blue Bee Brewery. Here’s an update of the beers we have been brewing recently… First up we have Citra Session (3.4%), a vegan, single-hopped session oat pale showcasing American Citra hops which impart big flavours of mango and lychee. Oats are added to the mash to give body to this low-ABV beer. On top of this we have brewed a second milkshake beer, this time a Peach Milkshake Pale (5.0%). This beer has been brewed using lactose and oats to give a creamy body. It has generous amounts of peaches and is hopped with peachy, American El Dorado hops. We have also brewed an extra-special Eureka session pale in collaboration with the Independent Salford Beer Festival which is taking place on Thursday 29 November to Saturday 1 December 2018. This beer showcases the fairly new Eureka variety of hop with its very strong bittering qualities and complex, robust flavour and aroma. It is said to impart flavours of citrus, resin, tropical and dark fruit along with aromas of grapefruit rind, citrus and tangerine.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Christmas without a tasty Christmas special beer so returning for a second year is It’s Mine (4.8%). This chocolate orange stout is our take on the famous Christmas treat.

Pete