Category: Breweries

Steel City’s He’s Not The Messiah won the Silver Award in the Bitter category at Peterborough Beer Festival. Does this mean there was a beer that was more bitter than 127IBU?! Seriously though, Dave and Shazz (and guest brewer Noel!) are pretty please to pick up an award, especially from a festival with so many beers. Grateful Deaf American Pale Ale is now doing the rounds… it’s perhaps ironic the first beer Steel City name ‘Pale’ for years is three times darker than their usual offerings – almost makes Black IPA sound sensible! While the brew may look more like a traditional bitter, the taste is anything but, with tropical flavours and a bitter finish.   Somewhat unbelievably (to Dave and Gazza at least), September marks the fifth anniversary of the first Steel City brew. Brewed at The Brew Company, under Pete’s license, Hop Manifesto seemed pretty ground-breaking at the time, marking Steel City’s arrival with what they would later term ‘Transatlantic Pale Ale’, i.e. a very American hop profile but built on a very English pale malt base with no coloured malts or grains at all. The lads are contemplating marking the occasion with the unprecedented step of repeating a brew – a re-brew of Hop Manifesto in fact. Perhaps the most noticeable thing about the last five years for Dave and Gazza is just how much the beer market has changed – hard to believe now that they got into brewing because it was so difficult to find the hop-heavy brews they favour!

We opened our Brewery on the 1st of February 2014 and since producing and selling our beers in April of this year we are going from strength to strength. Our Director and Award Winning Brewer has over 37 years experience in the Brewing Industry, and his passion about Real Ale and what a ‘proper pint’ should taste like therefore lead him to the decision of biting the bullet and going it alone. We have a 6BBL plant and since producing our Quintessential, Quality Craft Ales we have gone from strength to strength, which we put down not only to the excellent beer we produce, but our new marketing strategy.  We decided we wanted to be a little different from the other breweries but still keeping the principles of what the customer wanted.  So we decided to treat our venture as a story, as in life we all go through different chapters, with a beginning, middle and end. Fuggle Bunny Brew House Limited was created around several key facts one of which was the Hop named Fuggle which was the cornerstone for English Hops in the 1800 to early 1900’s.  There are some differing stories to how it was discovered, but I am sticking by this one.  In 1861 Richard Fuggle from Kent came across a casual seedling in George Stace’s flower garden, the seed from which the plant arose was shaken out along with the crumbs from the hop picking dinner basket used by Mrs Stace, and is why we have named one of our Beers Chapter 5 – Oh Crumbs 3.8% easy drinking sessional beer.  It was then commercially introduced around 1875. We then chose a Rabbit which is synonymous with rebirth and resurrection and as we live in Sheffield where 3 of the biggest breweries foreclosed several years ago, we therefore thought what a great place to start our ‘New Beginnings’. The pump clips are causing quite a stir, again we wanted something a little different, we researched what drinkers looked for at the bar, and so we incorporated a story to each pump clip which follows each chapter and in doing so we highlighted the aromas and tastes into the story along with what type of beer it was under the Title name for e.g our Chapter 1 – New Beginnings 4.9% (AMBER BITTER) so that the drinkers can actually see what kind of beer it is without having to continually ask bar staff. The pump clips are designed around a book with the top right hand corner being the page turnover and that is where we decided to add the Union Jack with the words made in britain as we are proud of our Heritage. We also wanted to be a little more personal and flexible to our customers and on Friday it is Fuggles day when the public can call into the Brewery, taste our beers and take home 4pt carry out jugs which also have an interesting story label. We are sponsoring the Sheffield Steel City 40th Ruby anniversary Beer Festival and all our Chapters will be there, and hopefully we will have a New Chapter 7 which we will unveil on the night.  We are also entered into the SIBA North East Beer Competition in York.  We have secured 3 major contracts to date with another on the horizon which is not bad going to say we have only been selling for 6 months.  Our bar is near completion and ready for our first paying guests for the Brewery Tour which starts on 24th October 2014 which incidentally is with the CAMRA guys. Finally I know the sun is still shining bright but Christmas is looming in the wings, therefore in order to make your Christmas go with a bang – get your orders in now for a fuggling festive Christmas – hop to it! Check us out on our website www.fugglebunnybrewhouse.co.uk  A warm and friendly welcome awaits everyone at the Fuggle Bunny Brew House Limited. For all your party needs……we sell to the public, trade, wholesale and landlords. Wendy Steeple  

To kick things off this month, we have are proud to launch our Albion Ales series of beers with Scepter’d Ale a 4.1% green hopped beer that should be hitting the bar right about now! The Albion series has come about in partnership with Albion Choir (www.albionchoir.org.uk) and will be championing British hops.  We plan to have a new Albion beer each month, and coming up in October is  Full English Breakfast Stout a rich, full bodied 4.9% stout made with oatmeal and coffee, before being primed with maple syrup.  There is an excellent article on both the Albion series and the green hopped beer on our website and elsewhere in this issue of Beer Matters. New in our Dr Morton’s range are Gra’mma Checker and Typopotamus both will be 4.1% with the Gra’mma Checker being the paler of the two. We will also see the return of White Lady, a 4.7% pale ale made with a small amount of lager malt, with both European and NZ hops to give a fruity bitter finish. A quick apology to those who were looking forward to Temptation and the Russian Imperial Stout which were promised in the last edition. Temptation has been pushed back in the brew plan until 2015, and the stout was sacrificed to make way for the breakfast stout mentioned above! Capacity in the brewery is currently being expanded with the imminent arrival of a gigantic new fermenter and conditioning tank which will take maximum weekly production to over 225BBLs a week, we’re just waiting for the concrete to dry! Until next month, mine’s a pint!

 A great new beer and a returning classic for Kelham fans in October. Rye Plains Drifter 4.9% rye pale ale. You can take a walk out west with this brand new rye pale ale. Choicest El Dorado and Cascade hops complement the complex malt/grain flavour from a grist of tipple, caramalt and rye malt. A fine golden refreshing ale. Radar Men From the Moon 4% cosmic golden ale. Makes its annual re-entry to bring you an exciting adventure in a pint pot. Brewed with a blend of Australian and American hops to produce a golden ale with an out of this world aroma of fruit & earthy lychee. Couple of interesting comings and goings at Kelham this month. After 7 years at the brewery Matt Emsall is leaving us to take a position with Great Orme Brewery, he will be joining, Richard, another Kelham ex brewer & we wish them both every success. On the arrivals front a new pallet truck has arrived and from the smiles on the yardboys faces it really feels like Christmas has come early. In the shop we have bottles of 125 Ale now in the stock. The first pallet sold out at the Bramall Lane open day in a couple of hours. A great present for a blades fan.  

We’re ploughing on with lots of new and exciting projects here at Welbeck. We have just extended the cold store here at the brewery so that we can make sure we keep sending out our wide range of top quality beers to your local pubs. We’ve made the most of the ground floor extension by turning the new space upstairs into a rather nice ‘industrial’ bar area. This means there is a permanent cosy bar area in which we are now able to host parties and brewery tours. It’s still a couple of months away but you’re probably planning your Christmas activities already, and let’s be honest, you’ll probably need some real ale over the festive season! We are able to sell you bottled beer and casks in either 36 pint disposable polypins, or 72 pint casks. Please contact Claire for details of brewery tours and beer sales on 01909 512539 or Claire@Welbeckabbeybrewery.co.uk. Did you know it’s Guide dogs week between the 4th and 12th October? We have produced a lovely Cascade hopped pale ale at 4.0% which was designed and brewed by the Mansfield branch of Guide Dogs. This citrussy creation is called Barley May, named after two of the active guide dogs in our region. For every pint we sell 10p will be donated to the charity and we will also be placing collection boxes in our regular pubs. The official launch of this beer will be on Wednesday 24th September, 6pm, at the Grey Horses Inn, Carlton in Lindrick. Please support this campaign and donate to the Guide Dogs charity – yes you may be able to help change a blind person’s life by simply drinking a pint of our beer! The last and probably one of the most exciting projects is a Pop-up pub at Cuckney House. This beautiful early 18th Century, Grade II listed country house is currently unoccupied, however we’ve been granted permission to use a few of the spectacular rooms for a pub during the six weeks that the village pub is closed for refurbishment. This will be open on Thursdays to Saturdays between 9th October and 15th November. The profit from this venture will be going to the local Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance charity. More details will be coming soon and we hope you are very much looking forward to it. That’s all for now, we’ve got to get brewing!

Don Valley Railway , the group behind plans to re-introduce passenger services to the remaining section of the Woodhead railway line on the East side of the Pennines between Stocksbridge and Sheffield,  wish to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the opening of Britain’s first electrified inter city main line between Manchester and Sheffield, which was officially opened on September 20^th  1954.

 We, The Sheffield Brewery Company, whose brewery is a few hundred yards from the line, are delighted to be brewing a hoppy light, zesty electrifying ale for Don Valley Railway in its memory. The Woodhead Railway built back in Victorian times was electrified in work starting before the war in 1938 and only completed in 1954, making it Britain’s first electrified inter-city railway line. DVR plans are being proposed to feature revolutionary new Light Rapid Transit vehicles that are low fuel, low cost, easy to run vehicles that could revolutionise the operation of rail branch lines from highly subsidized to break even, and the line to Stocksbridge could be at the start of this. Don Valley Railway head of publicity Chris Hyomes says: “Alas the government called time on the Woodhead Railway, but as well as a drink to the memory of its opening 60 years ago, we’d like to raise a toast to a new future for the route.” We’ll be selling the special direct to landlords so don’t delay in ordering this momentus ale!  

Two Steel City beers are currently doing the rounds. Firstly, He’s Not The Messiah is in the ‘usual’ Steel City style, ultra pale with 127IBU of US Magnum followed by loads of Centennial and Motueka after flame-out, and Citra & Chinook in the fermenter. Good enough for Jehovah himself! False beards not required. The second brew is a home collaboration with American brewer Ken Fisher of Grateful Deaf Brewing. The beer is a variation on Ken’s American Pale Ale recipe, though hardly pale by Steel City standards! The usual Maris Otter and Wheat malts were supplemented with Carared and Belgian Aromatic for both flavour and a light amber colour (Ken’s recipe called for crystal malt, which was substituted for obvious reasons!). A relatively restrained 70IBU of US Magnum followed by a rare (for Steel City) late boil addition, in this case Chinook. More Chinook post flame-out, and yet more Chinook in the fermenter, supplemented by Columbus. Supplies are limited, but look out for it in the Shakespeare, the Sheaf View and at Nottingham Beer Festival.