Category: Breweries

The students are back in Sheffield and beer is flying out at the moment however we are still finding time to squeeze in brewing plenty of specials. Firstly we had Stuart down from the excellent North Riding Brewery in Scarborough to brew a colab with us. So we decided to brew something extra special, the result is Little & Large IPA 6.5% which combines 3 of our favourite American hops: Citra, Mosaic and Sorachi Ace. This beer is big on hops with loads of tropical fruit flavour and citrus aroma. As ever we also have another single hopped IPA this month this time using the new American hop: Jarrylo IPA 5.0% which has the rather interesting characteristics of spice, banana and pear so this is sure to be something a little different. If you prefer your beer a little more sessionable we have brewed Centennial Pale 3.9%, a refreshing hoppy pale ale with lemon and pine flavours once again using American hops. On top this we are on to American 5 Hop Version 7 4.3% which this time will combine: Citra, Columbus, Comet, Centennial and Jarrylo. Finally it is not often we rebrew our specials but Ginger Beer 4.5% is proving that popular we will be brewing it for a third time in November, it will be packed with as much fresh root ginger as before if not more to give that fiery kick!

First things first… Some of you may have heard along the grapevine that we’re opening our first bar? You’d be right. We expect it to be fully open to the public at some point during the second week in October. Work is well underway and we’re busily preparing to throw open our doors and welcome beer lovers’ everywhere! As we’re constantly referencing Welbeck heritage in our beers and ethos, we take the name for the bar from the family lineage. ‘Portland House’ is situated on the busy Ecclesall Road in Sheffield. You may remember we brewed a lovely golden session-ale on behalf of ‘Worksop Guide Dogs’ trust last year? We thought it was a great fundraising opportunity for the charity and have scheduled another brew for the same ale in October. We’ll be donating 10p per pint to this fantastic organisation. On 4th October the launch night and fundraiser will be hosted by our brewery tap ‘The Grey Horses’ with a Blind Man’s Buffet organised by the charity. It’ll be great fun for all involved. For more information please contact Chris at The Grey Horses on: 01909 730252. Now then, back to beer and our upcoming specials through September and October. We’re showcasing the fantastic qualities of British hops this month with Farrier our 5.5% ESB and Secret Wife at 4.9%. Farrier is a much more robust version of our best-selling ale Red Feather with superb bitterness complemented by warming caramel tones. Secret Wife is brewed using UK Cascade for a slightly softer fruit hit than the American counterpart. Fruit is best- backed up by strong bitterness and a dry finish and that’s what this cheeky little number does with great panache. Taking you into October we’ll see Kaiser straddling the end of September and the beginning of October. If you haven’t tried it before it’s a brewery favourite. At 4.1% it’s not too naughty but drinks as refreshing, dry and biscuit-y with lovely cereal malt flavour and a hint of lemon. German hops are used for authenticity plus lager malt is included in the mash. Going through to October we’ll see beers new and old: Firehouse Red 4.5% brings in the new with rye added to the mash for spice and loads of delicious American hops to keep it punchy and fresh. Then we journey to the other side of the world with Cubitt’s Voyage 3.5% and a resinous, pale New Zealand hop explosion! This is no shrinking violet, what it may lack in alcohol it makes up for in hop character. There have been a few new arrivals at the brewery recently notably four ex red wine casks which we’ve begun experimenting with- watch this space for more updates! In other news we have finally bottled Harley, our 4.3% golden citrus ‘quaffing ale’. It’s sold exceptionally well this year hence the move to bottling. Also new to the bottled range is Cocoa Noel. Just in time for Christmas (!) our very tasty Chocolate Stout brewed at 5.5% is the only one in the UK that uses Duffy’s Cocoa Nibs. Aside from a devilishly-dark mash the cocoa nibs impart fantastic bitterness and depth of flavour to this very indulgent stout.  

Blue Bee Brewery, as well as supplying the festival with their own delicious ales, have been busy swapping with other breweries around Yorkshire to supply us with some great Yorkshire beers, the list is already looking quite good. A number of our beer festival organising committee dropped in to Blue Bee Brewery to see a festival promotional special being brewed, this will appear in pubs in the weeks leading up to the festival. The festival is our 41st annual event, it’s in Sheffield, the beer is 4.1% ABV and it should be a nice thirst quenching beer. I think the name covers those bases…

Beer Club

Our next Last Friday of the Month Beer Club on 25^th September kicks off a weekend festival of music and World Cup rugby. Friday is a blues/folk acoustic night with the doors opening at 7.30pm. We’ve a couple of acts lined up and it should be an eclectic evening’s entertainment – a beatnik style return to great quality sounds. Saturday will feature the titanic clash between England v Wales in the World Cup rugby finals. We’ll have the big screen on and a wide range of beers available along with a guest ale. Doors open 4pm. All details are available on our Facebook page.

New Brews

Fresh Start 4.3%: We thought we’d brew a special for anyone contemplating a new start after their hols and to welcome all the new and returning students. This is generally a time for new beginnings whether young or old. Indeed, the arrival of the Freshers to Sheffield is always an exciting time and we warmly welcome everyone to this fair city. Romeo and Juliet 4.2%: Our other special is brewed once again especially to celebrate the Crucible Theatre’s production of the bard’s romantic tragedy. This raspberry flavoured slightly hoppy ale will be available at the Crucible bar and local pubs. It’s a delicious ale and is in limited supply so please get your orders in fast.

Our first Catfest down at the Devonshire Cat 1st-4th October is a British hop festival supporting Blind Veterans UK charity. We have selected 24 casks that all feature British hops, so come down and se what our own soils can produce! We will certainly have a strong presence at the Steel City Beer Festival later in the month, you may well have started to spot our promotional beer mats around town. Not 100% sure which beers of our will make the list, but they are sure to be some of the following: ‘Los Bancos’ – 4.2% – Following the great reaction to our Masquerade, we have another beer in our Lost Treasure series. This beer features two glorious American hops Mosaic and Simcoe, for a wonderful fruity and refreshing bitter pale beer. ‘Hop Hideout Stout’ – 6.8% – Those of you familiar to the Abbeydale Road area will have certainly stumbled into Hop Hideout over the last year or so, and Jules and Will have been itching to brew a beer with us for ages, and we have eventually managed to find a time that works for us all! In a nod to a certain 80s movie monster, we have a strong robust stout brewed with Hazelnut, coffee and marshmallow flavours. ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ – 7.0% – More strong dark beer for you! When we brewed the ‘Bex’ earlier in the year with a specialist Belgian yeast strain, we were able to crop enough yeast for another brew. So John took it upon himself to brew a 7.0% Belgian style Dubbel back in June. This was then filled into seven of our wooden barriques and left to age in our cold store. However, each of the barriques had some different ingredients added to represent each of the deadly sins. Who will try them all? Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Pride, Sloth and Wrath. There will only be about 5 or 6 firkins of each Sin, so keep your eyes peeled! ‘Dr Morton’s Zombie Chainsaw’ – 4.1% – In preparation for Hallowe’en, we have a scary offering from the other good Doctor! Expect plenty in the way of fruity hop character, and a resounding bitter finish. Also keep your eyes peeled for another Hallowe’en beer called Cinder-hella which is our first attempt at a Pumpkin Spiced beer, more details in next month’s edition! Until then, mine’s a pint of Moonshine! Robin Baker

Steel City’s latest brew The Light At The End Of The World sold out before the casks were filled – in fact when the last cask was filled there wasn’t so much as a pint leftover for ‘quality control’! Look out for it at the Shakespeare and at the Steel City Beer Festival (well when the festival’s named after the brewery it’d be rude not to…), and the festival special Chasing The Dragon which has added Komodo Dragon Chillies in the cask! The main brew will also be appearing at Nottingham Beer Festival (7-10 October) along with the chilli (Scotch Bonnets this time) and lime version Death In Fire, and a week later Wakefield Beer Festival will have a kiwi-fruit version. The final part of the unholy trinity of chillies is the Ghost Pepper version, Her Ghost In The Fog, which will be bottled and exclusive to Beer Central and Cotteridge Wines of Birmingham. Meanwhile, the ‘away collaboration’ at Landlocked, Stone Sour, is also out. There should be three different versions at Sheffield beer festival: the ‘base’ version which is a ‘straightforward’ lactic-mash sour beer, a version primary fermented with brettanomyces, and a version primary fermented with ‘normal’ yeast then reseeded with brettanomyces. Hopefully they should all taste very different despite only the yeast being different, and will provide an interesting contrast when tried side-by-side. The next brew, a home collaboration with Bridestones, is a tribute to Nightmare on Elm St creator Wes Craven, who passed away last month. In a pun worthy of Abbeydale, the guys have created a milk stout named Craven d’Ale. As well as lactose, the brew also features a generous quantity of malted oats and plenty of Bramling Cross hops. For a full breakfast stout a few casks will have coffee added to become Macchiato.  

This month we have yet more specials available. The first of which is Citra Fusion 4.4% this American pale ale is  jam packed with one of our favourite varieties of hops Citra, which impart plenty of citrus and passion fruit flavours . On top of this we have the slightly weaker Amarillo Gold 3.9% the perfect beer for the last of this year’s summer sun, predominately hopped with American Amarillo this is sure to be a refreshing citusy pale ale. We are also looking forward to using yet more American Mosaic hops, continuing the theme we have Attack of the Geek 6.0% the plan will be to use four different malts to create a golden IPA with bags of grapefruit hop flavours and great bitter finish. On the cards as well is the return of Ginger Beer this time it will be slightly weaker at 4.5% but hopefully will have even bigger fiery ginger kick.

Name your own Beer and be the Brewer for a Day Ever wondered how your perfect pint is crafted? Learn how to brew beer with this deal from The Sheffield Brewery Company, and let the experts teach you a few of their tricks of the trade. You can book for one, two, three or up to four people at one time and enjoy a ‘brewer for the day’ experience.

• Your unique experience includes helping to mash the malts, prepare for the hop mash, and transfer to the fermenter.
• The experience begins at 8 a.m. and is hands-on right from the start, giving you the perfect opportunity to get stuck into the brewing process.
• You’ll get the chance to work under the guidance of Dr Tim Stillman, who has almost 10 years’ experience of commercial brewing as well as 40 years of home brewing.
• Lunch is included, from our favourite local sandwich shop, the Crusty Cob.
• That’s not all. You’ll also be invited to the next Beer Club event as an honorary member for the night, where you’ll get to enjoy the beer you brewed. We’ll even ask you to name the beer so you can see it on the pump clip at the event and you can show off the beer you brewed to your friends!

So if you’re looking for an ideal gift or fancy it yourself just book by visiting the Living Social website at www.livingsocial.com and search brewery under Sheffield. It’s really simple to do and all the prices and terms are on there. Made near Sheffield brewery owner meets Made In Chelsea star! Sat on the beach in St Ives, Pete’s kids and Mrs said Andy from Made In Chelsea is on the beach selling “tees and sweats”. Being one to support aspiring entrepreneurs, Pete bought a top and persuaded Andy we could perhaps help promote his business if he featured in Sheffield’s Beer Matters. So here it is – can you spot the celeb!