Firstly like to thank all those who came down to the beer tent at the Sheffield Food Festival (although as I’m writing this, its still a couple of weeks away!) and supported their local breweries and food outlets/suppliers. Secondly, we hope you also support the Three Valleys Festival on June 6th. We have a dedicated bar at the Manor House Hotel (High St, Dronfield) where you will find a range of our core beers like Moonshine, Deception and Absolution alongside some of our recent special beers including Demon Drink and the collaboration with Griffin Claw Brewing Co of Michigan USA! Thirdly, it’s not long until SunFest 2015 and planning is coming along nicely. If you haven’t already, get 9th-12th July in your diary, it’s not one to be missed. The usual set-up with 96 cask beers and a range of craft keg beers in the tent and the Abbeydale core range available from the bar inside! Plus all the usual fun and festivities! Now onto our beer for this month (finally!)… Popular as ever, the summer months mean the return of Belfry, our 4.5% pale ale showcasing the lovely Cascade hops from the US. Lots of citrus flavour with a hint of spice means this is a perfectly refreshing beer for those nice Summer evenings! Next up in our Dr Morton’s range is Morton Caesar, a 4.1% pale ale made with a combination of US and New Zealand hops to give a bold hop character with citrus and herbal aromas. We have the latest in the Albion British hop series this month featuring UK Cascade. Weighing in at 4.0%, perhaps compare this to the Belfry and see for yourself what happens when you grow the same plant in different climates.  Expect similar citrus flavours, but perhaps more rounded and not quite as intense. Larceny is rife at this time of year (well it is in our fermenters) and the beer is making a welcome return after a few years in hiding (probably for all that larceny!). Expect full on citrus hop flavours from the combination of American hops and a lasting bitter finish. Early July will see us all confused with our calendars as we release Dr Morton’s January Sales, but more to come on that beer in next month’s edition! Until then, mine’s a pint (of Moonshine!) Robin

The latest seasonal beers from Acorn include: Arcade 4.5% – Rich golden ale that takes its name from the UK Archer and USA Cascade hops. Citrus, lime and floral aromas, balanced with a sweet malty base from the Munich and Maris Otter malt. This brew is Ian Darvils first beer for Acorn and upon tasting I’m sure you will see what an accomplished brewer Ian is. El Dorado IPA 5% – 2nd in our next series of IPA’s featuring American Hops. Rich golden coloured beer with bold fruity aromas and notes of Citrus Fruits and juicy Apricots and Peaches. Summer Pale 4.1% – One of our most popular seasonal beers makes a return for the next few months. A clear, light straw coloured wheat beer with slight bitterness and a floral aroma. The brewery will be celebrating its 12th birthday on the 4th July so we thought it was time for a slight freshen up of our branding before we become stroppy teenagers next year! All will be revealed the first week in July, hope you all approve.

Fuggles First Year

What an extraordinary year.  We moved into our unit on 1st February 2014 and started producing our ales on 26th April.  During the early start there were teething problems as with any business but then Fuggle started to get noticed, and we went from strength to strength. Within the first 8 months we had produced 7 Quintessential – Quaffable – Quality Ales, the last one to be created was Chapter 7 – Russian Rare-Bit 5.0% Imperial Russian Stout which incidentally went on to win first place in the stout category at the Steel City 40th Beer & Cider Festival in October 2014 held at Kelham Island Museum; we were absolutely surprised and thrilled. Our first Christmas was a busy one. We bought a pool table, and dartboard in readiness for the brewery tours, one of which was the Mosborough Rugby Team, all dressed in Xmas Jumpers – ‘wot a night’ – brilliant.  With Christmas over we thought it would be quiet, but quite the opposite, the orders kept coming. With March on the horizon we were gearing up for the SIBA BeerX 2015 at ICE Sheffield. We had entered the best design concept, never thinking in our wildest dreams that we would win anything, however we did, and we took the Industry’s Top Award for Best Total Design Concept 2015.  We could not believe our ears as the awards rang out, what a finish to our first year, this was the icing on the cake.  I have been informed that the curator from the Brewery Museum in Burton upon Trent has requested our exhibit which we created for the award we won, in order to place it in an exhibition in a glass showcase at the museum. In order to continue to keep up with demand we have just received delivery of our 3rd FV, which is now in-situ and ready to go. We also enjoyed the long awaited awards night for our stout which won back in October and collected it from the beautiful setting at Thornbridge Hall Hotel on Friday 27th March last, great evening thanks to CAMRA. Fuggle also rescued a damsel in distress who had been let down with her forthcoming wedding beer she was having created by another brewery.  After Eleanor contacted us we were happy to be able to create a special beer and personalised pump clip for their special day.  It was a huge success and they were so pleased that Fuggle came to their rescue. So we would like to thank everyone for your continued support and good wishes as we prepare to go into year 2, and look forward to the challenges and more fuggalicious ales.  Always be on the lookout for more hoppy adventures with Fuggle.

New beers

Limited edition beer to celebrate VE 70 Day – Pint of Pride 3.8%. Special for Barrow Hill Rail Ale Festival – a ruby red ale 3.8% called Black Forest packed full of fruity cherries… cherrylicious.

Dates

28th,29th and 30th May – we have been asked by Ossett Brewery for a special beer for the Three Pigeons Beer Festival in Halifax in celebration of their 10th Anniversary. 10th June – we are attending the Manufactured Yorkshire Food & Drink Trade Show at the John Smith’s Stadium in Huddersfield. Again, we will be taking along our pop up bar for tipples. 31st July, 1st and 2nd August – Fuggle is rather excited and getting out his best bib and tucker as he has been cordially invited to the Prestigious Harewood House.  We have been invited to showcase our beers at the CLA Game Fair at Harewood House.  This is the biggest game fair show in Britain.  We have created two special beers with bespoke personalised pump clips for this spectacular occasion, there is going to be a huge marquee which will house the round bar serving Fuggles finest ales in the beautiful grounds of Harewood.  There will be a host of activities in celebration of the Great British countryside.  Don’t miss an opportunity of attending this incredible show.

Special one off versions of Exit 33 Imperial Stout are making an appearance on the bar at The Harlequin including interpretations infused with toasted coconut, morita chipoltles, vanilla, and lactose (milk sugar). Project filmmakers came to film a days brewing at the brewery a few weeks ago.  This short film follows the beer from grain to glass culminating in pints being pulled at their brewery tap. This should be ready to view at the food festival tent and on their website shortly. In the spirit of development, the brewers will be making a trip to the Oregon Brewers festival in Portland Oregon in July. Brewery founder Pete Roberts said “The inspiration for many of our beers came from visiting Oregon several years ago and I’ve been itching to get back to this amazing event. There are some amazing brewers there, 53 in Portland alone! During our visit we will be doing a collaboration brew with Lucky Lab Brew Co who themselves brew cask ale from time to time. It’s a chance to learn something new from them and pass on our knowledge of brewing cask beer”

From mother to daughter, father to son, teacher to pupil; passing on knowledge and the joy of learning and is one of the many unique aspects of being human. There are many age-old crafts and skills which are rarely taught to our children now, be that baking, cheesemaking, pottery or woodwork skills. Here at Welbeck, there is community focussed around rekindling the passion for these crafts and passing on the skills and knowledge from Masters to the younger generation. Brewing, like baking, is one of these ancient crafts enjoying a well deserved renaissance. Although we are a commercial brewery making up to 18,000 pints a week, we also work closely with local schools and charities to teach a little about brewing. During Sheffield Science week, we worked with Sheffield Hallam University and Doncaster CAMRA to host 21 adults of all ages from Sheffield and the surrounding area to explore the science behind beer and brewing. We looked at the way in which brewers need to extract fermentable sugars from malted barley and then made our own hydrometers for testing the sugar content in a mystery solution of beer. We also explored what exactly makes hops smell the way they do, and malt taste the way it does. The University-grade microscopes came out too, giving all the budding scientists a look at live yeast taken from the brewery not an hour beforehand. A question and answer session followed the brewery tour and practical experiments, and we were pleased to be able to answer questions on not only the practical and scientific elements of brewing, but also the complexities of setting up a business and dealing with the logistical side of delivering. Not only have we hosted a number of adults on a science-focused evening, we also hosted 36 year 11 top set science students studying for their GCSEs. The students from Beaumont Leys were brought to the brewery by three teachers to learn about enzyme activity, fermentation and process engineering. Whilst I’m sure the teacher who thought up the plan may have had an ulterior motive, actually the science of brewing turns out to be bang on Y11 curriculum! There is often a very romantic image surrounding brewing, quite probably similar to that of an artisan baker or pottery. The reality, however, is that running a brewery requires not only passion and enthusiasm for the craft, but a vast breadth and depth of scientific knowledge dosed with a hearty helping of hard graft and business sense. That said, we all love working in the brewery and sharing that passion. Needing to bring in science, hard work, and decent business accumen makes learning and working in this artisan industry exciting, varied and ultimately a joy. Claire Monk

A number of Spring specials have been brewed and started to appear in pubs during May: Slovak Paradise 4.5% Pilsner-style. This pilsner-like blonde is brewed with lager malt and Dana hops from Slovakia for a dry finish. St. Simon 4.0% English Pale Ale. Making a reappearance this year after great success in the last two. This is a classic English pale ale which makes the most of home-grown malted barley and hops, giving a delightfully balanced pint. Kaiser 4.1% Lager style pale. Crisp, dry, biscuity lager malt flavours are perfectly balanced with sweet, honey like floral hops from Germany.

The Dronfield Arms has just received planning permission to install a small brewery in the former restaurant area downstairs at the pub.  Initially they will be investing in a 4 brew barrel kit, aiming to brew a small core range with a larger array of more innovative takes on traditional styles as specials, to sell, not just at the pub itself, but also throughout the local area.  They aim to be up and running in the Autumn but have lined up some trial brews at a number of breweries in the meantime, so watch this space! Landlord, and soon to be head brewer Edd Entwistle has been running pubs in Sheffield for the past 6 years before making the move out to the Dronfield Arms and is keen to instil some of his passion and experience into the venture.

Steel City haven’t been back in the brewhouse since Troika, which should be doing the rounds now, but have been busy with collaborations. The Hopcraft collab is an Insult to History, being a white porter, and is named Midnight in Antarctica as it’s light when it should be dark! Next up was a three-way collab at Imperial brewery in Mexborough with Great Heck… or rather two three-way-collabs, as once again parti-gyling was used to create dark and pale versions. The Four Stooges is the pale versions, with hops including Magnum, Dana, Chinook and Citra. Incubus, named after a demon, is the dark side. Finally, the Shakespeare has a special and possibly incendiary cask of Molten Steel, a pin of Troika with added Scotch Bonnet and Naga chillies. Hopefully the chillies will give a lemony and peppery flavour as well as several thousand scovilles!

Elland Brewery Celebrate Their National Triumph

  Elland 1872 Porter was recently named ‘Champion Winter Beer of Britain’ for second time in three years and a few days ago Maureen and Neil at the Junction pub in Castleford found themselves hosting another award ceremony. As winner of CAMRA’s Supreme Champion Winter Beer of Britain 2015 for 1872 Porter, Elland Brewery requested that their recent National CAMRA award be presented at the pub. CAMRA officials, headed by Nik Antona, Champion Winter Beer of Britain Director gathered with brewers, enthusiastic beer lovers and locals at the pub last Thursday. In presenting the certificate, Nik said: “Elland 1872 is a fantastic example of what a traditional porter should taste like and has been hugely popular for many years, particularly it seems with competition judges, who have named it Champion Winter Beer of Britain twice and overall Champion Beer of Britain once in the last three years – a huge achievement.” The winning 6.5% ABV beer is described in CAMRA’s 2015 Good Beer Guide as a “creamy, full-flavoured porter with rich liquorice flavours and a hint of chocolate from the roasted malt. A soft but satisfying after taste of bittersweet roast and malt.” Mike Hiscock, Elland Brewery Manager, commented: “It’s absolutely fabulous to win the Champion Winter Beer of Britain, though we certainly weren’t expecting this, it is amazing to get the hat trick and win this award for the third time. We know it is independently judged so for it to keep coming out on top is testament to the depth of flavour and complexity that we get into the beer. This really is fantastic news. We chose the Junction to host the event because Maureen and Neil are great supporters of our brewery, the Junction is the Wakefield CAMRA Branch Pub of the Year and because it provided the opportunity to drink our beers from the wood, notably the aged version of our Champion beer from a Bourbon cask.” Licensee Maureen Shaw said “Neil and I are both delighted and most honoured that Elland Brewery asked us to host such a prestigious National CAMRA event.” High quality beers served from Elland brewery in the wood are regularly found on the bar at the Junction. The 1872 Porter features frequently but never lasts long. We now know why!