Firstly bad news to report,  after a hop shortage we have been unable to get hold of any Cascade hops which means we are having to let Nectar Pale take a back seat over the next couple of months. But not to worry we have the perfect replacement in Reet Pale (4.0%)  it is of a similar style to Nectar Pale just slightly more hoppy. Sticking with Admiral for bittering then the American pairing of Summit and Ahtanum to give a citrusy and floral aroma. We also tried something for the first time when we dry hopped the fermentor with Comet pellets to give even more great flavours and aromas. We are now constantly rolling out  5.0% specials which will be available to buy on some SIBA lists. First we had the Geek a single hopped Mosaic beer that flew out and next up is Simcoe IPA. Which you guessed is a single hopped beer with the US hop Simcoe used throughout including dry hopping in the fermentor. Simcoe is full of grapefruit and passion fruit flavours. On top of that we have brewed Kikorangi Red (4.5%) a red hoppy beer using Carared and Carafa malt along with three different varieties of New Zealand hops: Nelson Sauvin, Pacific Jade and Pacific Gem. Keep any eye out for further Blue Bee specials as we hope to brew a lot more, next in the pipe line will be a Black IPA and we will see what we can do with our Sorachi Ace hops.

 A returning classic and a brand new stout are on offer to Kelham fans in September. Wild Rider 5.5% Strong IPA. It’s Mad, it’s BAD & it’s BACK (again). Our strong full flavoured IPA makes its annual brief appearance this month. Brewed with a renegade blend of hops from the UK, USA, Germany and New Zealand for a massive, explosive hop aroma. Wickedly juicy, mouth watering & satisfyingly aromatic. Another of our American series is Old Blue Eyes 4.5% Blueberry Oatmeal Stout. Brewed from a quartet of toasted malts and malted oats for a full bodied black sweet stout. Bittered with British Admiral hops this beautiful stout is then complemented with the mouth-watering sweet refreshing flavour of blueberries for a full fruity fresh finish. A complex yet winning combination. We are all getting ready for the 40^th Steel City Beer Festival (Wed 29 October to Sat 1 November). This year’s venue, The Kelham Island Museum, is just a stone’s throw from the Kelham Brewery so we’ll be painting and weeding for the next month to get our place in tip top condition!

We all had Yellow Fever in July with the arrival of Le Tour De France in Sheffield. It was brilliant to see so many stretches of yellow banners, bunting and bicycles lining the streets of South Yorkshire, and to do our part we had limited edition bright yellow Cavendish T-shirts made. This was to promote our 5% blonde beer, Cavendish, in support one of our nation’s favourite athletes. The  Oughtibridge hub bar was serving pints of this thirst quenching brew, alongside our Red Feather and Kelham Island’s award winning beers. We hope you drank a pint of Cavendish joining in with the fun, and if not, then it’s never too late to reminisce! We were also pleased to be presented with two awards at Derby beer festival from the regional heats of the Champion Beer of Britain competition. Our Portland Black was awarded Gold in the Porters category, then overall  Champion Winter Beer for East Midlands. This means Portland Black is now in the national final for the Champion Winter Beer of Britain which will be judged next year. Thanks go to all who nominated us. The newest member of the team is Hannah, who has joined us from the other side of the bar at The Blake Hotel in Sheffield. Whilst she has thoroughly enjoyed working in the pub trade, she felt it was time to learn a new trade, and what could be more exciting than brewing!? We are pleased to have her as a full time delivery driver so make sure you give her a wave when you see her delivering beer. We are coming to the end of the building project here at Welbeck and would like to remind you that we are able to host your party or simply a brewery tour. If you’re interested please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Claire. Look out for our next specials too, in August we have Pilgrim, a 3.8% ABV honeyed pale and, and Aphrodite, a 5.2% New Zealand Pale ale. That’s all for now and we hope to see you soon!

Lots to get through, so little column space! Be sure to look out for some VERY special beers this month, we are really spoiling you! Let’s start slowly and build up to the big ones! The latest in our Doctor Morton’s range is Funny Luck and it’s a classic Abbeydale style pale at 4.1%. A couple of pints of this is sure to bring about a change in fortune. There’s nothing like a bit of Temptation to liven up any evening. This 4.5% deep golden beer, has sultry dark fruit flavours, in particular sultanas, leading to a long bitter finish. It’s a beautifully balanced premium bitter if we can say so ourselves! Everyone loves Black Mass, but we are going to push the boat out even further this month and brew a Russian Imperial Stout. Weighing in at a monstrous 7.1%, this behemoth of a stout will anything but subtle! Expect big in your face flavours and we will be dry hopping it for good measure. Making it’s triumphant return, just in time for the Steel City Beer Festival (hopefully!) is Galaxy 55! This caused quite an impact a few of years ago when first brewed and rightly so! A strong golden IPA jam packed with the Australian Galaxy hop. Aromas of tropical fruit with mango and passion fruit dominating the palate before a crisp bitter finish. I’m getting thirsty just writing this! We had a good response to our blog on using wooden casks, if you missed it you can find it on our website. Expect more blogs in the near future plus a couple of firkins of Old Ale may well have sneaked out of the brewery by the time you are reading this. The observant amongst the readers may well have noticed that both of our pubs, The Rising Sun, Nether Green and The Devonshire Cat have had a spruce up last month, and plans are in the pipeline for the expansion work at The Rising Sun, watch this (extra) space for more details in the following months! Until next month, mine’s a pint!

After showcasing the New Zealand Sticklebract hop in July’s single hopped IPA its Australia’s turn for August, we have used the Helga hop which is developed from the German Hallertau Mittlefruh hop.  A versatile hop bursting with floral aromas. Looking forward to this one. The team down in Barnsley are also busy brewing the regular seasonal and always popular in late summer Forester, a 4.5% Amber ale brewed with Challenger and Mount Hood hops. In other news, we’ve recently had a Taiwanese student working with us on a placement from his brewing course at Sheffield University. HanNing has been with us throughout July learning about the brewing process and the day to day operation of the brewery and he’s been a great help. He decided to give teaching a break in Taiwan and come to the UK and learn how to make great beer – we’d like to think that’s the reason he chose to spend time with Acorn!!  

Firstly, a HUGE thank you to everyone who came down to SunFest, it was a roaring success as always! It’s almost time to start planning next year’s festival! By the time you are reading this, Tramlines should have been and gone. In the last issue we stated that we were making Tramlines 2 again from the previous year. The week following the submission deadline, we made a decision to alter the recipe slightly to create a new beer called Tramlines. Apologies for the confusion! Onto this months beers, Dr. Morton’s Survival Kit and Dr. Morton’s Eternal Combustion Engine should be on the bars of local pubs as we speak and keep your eyes open for Dr. Morton’s Moon Block, a golden 4.1% NZ ESB (New Zealand Extra Special Bitter) packed full of Pacific Jade and Southern Cross hops that give a bold herbal aroma with a spicy citrus flavour and a soft bitter finish. August also sees the return of Alchemy, a 4.2% pale, ideally suited to a warm summer’s day. Fruity with citrus spice from the Amarillo hops leading to a refreshing bitter finish. Another returning favourite is Abbey Ale, coming in at 5.5% this strong IPA packs a punch! In the American style, crisp and clean hop content with hints of lemon. Dry hopped for even more flavour! Also keep an eye out for Doctor Morton’s Proper Gander (4.1%, pale) and Doctor Morton’s Ignortion (4.3% golden) towards the end of the month. Last, but not least, we recently purchased some old whisky firkins and some larger White Burgundy oak casks, and you can read all about what we have been doing with them in our blog, go to www.abbeydalebrewery.co.uk or check out our Facebook or Twitter (@AbbeydaleBeers) for more information! Cheers and beers!

Word from The Hive…

First of all, a small apology. To the 2.5million people who turned out to watch the Tour de France as it passed through Yorkshire, finishing Stage 2 in Sheffield. Blue Bee is sorry that not everyone got to sample their special Hops on t’Bike. Those lucky enough to try it lapped it up. It would have taken nearly 900 entire brews to provide every spectator with a pint!

Recently Blue Bee invited the lovely people at Technophobia to help brew a special beer with them called Geek. A single-varietal IPA at 5.0% ABV show-casing the excellent Mosaic hop. It is a daughter of Simcoe, with a full-on flavour intensity; look for no-nonsense tropical fruit, blueberry or citrus flavours. Now Technophobia people love a decent pub in which to drink their beer. Between them they are regulars at three of Sheffield’s very best: the Rutland Arms on Brown Street; the Closed Shop on Commonside; and the Three Tuns on Silver Street Head. No surprise that most of the special will go to these 3, with the remainder to a select group of free-houses across the city.

pUnK-tuation time

Since the last OED was published, the language has lost 16,000 hyphens. One punk band that did its bit to keep them was X-Ray Spex, whose line-up included the anti-fashion front-woman Poly Styrene. Their LP ‘Germ-Free Adolescents’ was chock-full of high-energy punk anthems, from the opening “Art-I-Ficial” to the last track, “The Day The World Turned Day-Glo”. Blue Bee Hyphen is a 4.7% ABV pale ale brewed with a hefty charge of hops – Admiral, Simcoe and Nelson Sauvin – all vying for attention.