Making its annual return for June is Summer Breeze 3.5%, a New Zealand pale ale. Perfect for the warm summer day. This light refreshing golden ale uses the choicest hops from New Zealand. The legendary Riwaka hops add a zesty grapefruit flavour whilst Wakatu adds a resinous floral character. Tipple malt adds a slight biscuit malt character to round off this glorious summer pint. Crimson Steel 4.0%, number five in our ‘Jim Connolly’ Light versus Dark series, is back. It’s a dangerously hoppy amber ale brewed with premium American hops for a charmingly pungent aroma of zesty citrus with a hint of nettle and aniseed. The colour comes from crystal and amber malt which balances the massive hop hit. Courageously hopped delicious ale. If you were lucky enough to get a ticket to see the Arctic Monkeys at Finsbury Park over the May bank holiday you should have spotted the Kelham beer tent working hard to supply our Easy Rider to 100,000 thirsty festival goers. Don’t forget the Kelham Brewery shop for your BBQ beer requirements. 9 pint cans, 18 pint and 36 pint boxes are available.

Steel City’s bank-holiday-enforced hiatus continued through May, but Dave did manage to find time between trips to Austria, Poland, and France to travel to the slightly less exotic Mexborough, to brew not one but two collaborations with Dale at Imperial. Well, sort of! Dave and Dale decided to indulge in a spot of parti-gyling, brewing 8bbl of Transatlantic pale ale and splitting it into two fermenters, one of which had dark malt and more hops added! On the Light Side is The Evil Empire Strikes Back, a Steel City-style Transatlantic pale ale with Maris Otter and wheat malts, Magnum for bittering, and a big flame-out charge of Galaxy, Citra, Willamette and Centennial. On the Dark Side is The Evil Empire Strikes Black which has added dark malt and Chinook hops. Both have yet more hops added in the conditioning tank.

After sifting through 100s of entries the judging panel for the Best Drink Producer, led by Victoria Moore and Pete Brown, has awarded the accolade for 2014 to Thornbridge Brewery. The BBC award is made to the company that uses “carefully sourced ingredients and skill to produce an outstanding drink”. Pete Brown commenting on the judging at Thornbridge said “Every time I go there, there are new surprises, and they had plenty more this time. Thornbridge are exploring the vast library of beer styles that already exist around the world, mastering them in turn. Having made their name with cask ale and then American style craft beers, they’re now exploring classic German styles such as Kolsch and Weizen” With the number of entries in the category doubling in 2014 Victoria Moore said the task was “incredibly tough” but that Thornbridge was “the one we were talking about weeks after the visit”. “Absolutely delighted” said Jim Harrison about winning the Award, “whilst we have won many awards in the brewing industry to win one across a wider range of drinks, given the tough competition, is indeed an honour and a reflection on the quality we aim to achieve at Thornbridge”. Thornbridge’s Head Brewer Rob Lovatt was also delighted “I’ve just returned from the World Beer Cup with a medal for our beer and so to win this award so soon after is a real testament to the hard work all my team put in day in and day out”

We welcome a new member of staff to Acorn towers this month, Ben Tysoe will be taking on the role of sales manager for the South Yorkshire region. Many of you may know Ben as he was the manager of the Devonshire Cat in Sheffield for 10 years. New beers for June include: Sur Votre Velo (on your bike) 5%. This is the first beer that Bruce Woodcock, our youngest brewer(aged 23) has put together. Brewed with Halcyon pale ale malt. The hop additions contain American Mount Hood, Chinook and Cascade then dry hopped in the fermenter with Cluster hops. The results are very impresive with floral and citrus aromas and a grapefruit undertone. England’s Dreaming 4.5%. Our football beer makes another appearance ready for the World Cup. Light golden in colour and brewed with 3 varieties of English hops – First Gold, Warrior and Bramling Cross, this could be a winning combination!

Steel City’s latest brew Protz’s Pleasure is currently doing the rounds in Sheffield and beyond, as well as appearing at the CAMRA AGM at the end of April. As there’s apparently no such thing as a Black IPA, Dave and ‘Collaborator In Grimness’ Stuart from North Riding brewed a normal IPA and used some dark malt to change the colour. Columbus at First Wort and Magnum at boil make up 139IBU of bitter goodness, while the ever-increasing flame-out charge consisted of Nelson Sauvin, Simcoe and Bramling Cross. Mosaic pellets in the fermenter complete the tropical fruit and strawberry flavours to contrast the bitterness.

The 6.5%+ minikit version has been named in reference to Roger Protz’s comment on Black IPAs in a recent blog – Insult To History packs 180IBU of Magnum followed by a big flame-out charge of Simcoe, and some Columbus in the fermenter for good measure. There will be a short break in production (too many bank holidays in April and May!), the next brew will be out in June. Also in June, Steel City will be making their third appearance at Birrasana, at Blanes (just north of Barcelona). Four beers are being shipped over for the event: Grim Overlords, Protz’s Pleasure, Insult To History and Unholy Trinity.

It’s not Bittern, it’s Butter Bump. When the local RSPB at Old Moor Wetlands ask us to create a beer to help their Bittern conservation projects on reserves across Northern England we decided to run a competition to name the beer. Local Sheffield lad David Woodhead won the competition with the name Butter Bump which is an old English name for the bird. It’s now also a 4.5% lovely golden ale, brewed using First Gold (an English Hedgerow hop), Chinook & Cascade hops to create a pale golden coloured beer with a slight bitterness on the palate and a grapefruit/citrusy aroma. A donation of 5p on every pint sold will be made by the brewery to the RSPB. Once again during May we will have our two distinctive Mild’s on various bars throughout the region. Lightness:  A Light golden Pennine Mild brewed with Fuggle hops that impart light noble aromas. Darkness: Aromatic roast malts give a deep red colour and Fuggles hops give a mild level of bitterness and aroma. Someone mentioned to us that a few cyclists might be making their way around Yorkshire quite soon and we were keen not to get left out of the peloton of local beers that will undoubtedly be brewed to celebrate the ‘Big Start’. Watch out for Acorn On Yer Bike hitting the roads towards the end of May, you might need your stabilizers.

After the success of our 6% full-bodied-belter of a brew North American IPA and our Belgian Saison, we’ve decided to pencil in a number of extra special brews in our brew plan, with a West Coast Pale being planned for later this month. May also sees the return of our very drinkable Surreal Ale series of 3 beers, starting with #1. This 4.1% pale was first brewed back in 2011, but its wonderful floral aromas and fruity flavours from the New World hops just had to be brought back for spring time supping. Dr. Morton started the month with two new brews; The Wrong Stuff a 4.9% Mild and The Right Stuff a 4.1% pale and plans on squeezing in one more new beer before the month ends; Dr. Morton’s Chicken Vindaloo. Our big news this month has to be our collaborative brew with American giants Founders Brewery.  Travelling nearly 4000 miles from Grand Rapids, Michigan to brew in the Steel City, brewmaster Jeremy Kosmicki and team are pairing up with our brewers to create a beer representative of both breweries. Ever the perfectionists, the Founders team are not committing to a hop grist until they have rubbed an smelt each hop variety in our hop store.  But you can almost certainly expect a strong, full bodied beer full to the brim with hard hitting hops. On a final note, we’d like to thank everyone who came down to the Founders “Meet the Brewer” at the Devonshire Cat at the end of April!

Forgemasters Ale is now available through SIBA and fast becoming one of the region’s favourite premium beers. Such has been the demand that it is joining our core range alongside our other award winning favourites, Five Rivers, Crucible Best and Blanco Blonde. Bottles are available only from the brewery and are selling out fast.

Sheffield Eagles “Champions Ale” launch night 16^th May

The Sheffield Brewery Co and Sheffield Eagles Rugby League Club are launching a special promotion with participating pubs in South Yorkshire. Long time supporters Adrian Bentley and Mick Pridmore (landlord at The Wharncliffe) approached the brewery to brew special ale and the popularity of Champions Ale has really taken off. The Sheffield Brewery Co & the Eagles will be hosting a celebratory launch night on Friday 16th May at 7.00pm at the brewery. Mick Pridmore said, “To kick start the promotion we thought we’d arrange a proper real ale and pie ‘n’ pea bash at the brewery.” Liam Claffey, Eagles Marketing Manager added, “The evening promises to be a great event with our Head Coach Mark Aston and a host of first team players in attendance.” “It’s a great chance to meet and chat with the players along with a quiz, a chance to win a signed shirt and a tour of the Brewery itself on the evening.” This limited ticket only event is offered at a reduced rate of just £20 per person including food and real ale with bookings being taken through the Eagles on 0114 261 0326. Don’t miss out and help make this a great night out of support for the Eagles! Pubs stocking Champions Ale in support of the Eagles are The Gardeners Rest, The Wharncliffe, The Bessemer, The Beehive, Shakespeares, Fat Cat, Rutland Arms (Brown St), Kelham Island Tavern, The Plough (Sandygate), Three Horseshoes (Wickersley) and any landlords wanting to take part should contact the brewery at sales@sheffieldbrewery.com

Grand Depart big screen open day cyclists’ party – 5^th July

All you cyclists (keen or otherwise) please book this date in your diary. We have ample space to park bikes safely in our cellars (should you choose to come on two wheels!) and thought it would be fab to watch the start of the race on our big screen. The plan is you can spend the Saturday afternoon with us and your pals enjoying a real ale and bbq while making your final plans of how you are going to watch the race stage as it hits our region on the 6^th. Look out for forthcoming details on our website.

By the time you read this the Snooker Wold Championships will be nearly over and I am wondering how many of you have ‘downed the brown’, ‘sinked the pink ‘or even gone Inhov the Black? As always Blue Bee Brewery pockets the colours of the snooker table, Brown Ball (a lovely dark bitter), Blue Ball (easy drinking American hopped ale), Pink Ball (Strong IPA) and the new edition to the mix and trying to make the maximium break is Inhov the Black! our brand new 7% Imperial Russian Stout. In other news, we are looking in to buying a new fermenter, FV3 will help us expand our capacity and enable us to brew three times a week, more news and updates soon so watch this space!

It’s been an eventful few months at Welbeck with building work starting, events being held and most excitingly, awards being won! We were extremely pleased that Portland Black, our 4.5% porter was crowned Champion beer of East Midlands to win its regional heat at The National Winter Ales Festival held in Derby. The final will be held at the same festival next year, so fingers crossed for a win. Thanks go to everyone who nominated our beer. The Brewery yard project is progressing at a swift pace. Our brewery is housed in a renovated farm building, however the buildings attached either side were not included in the project and are now being worked on. They will become purpose-built units for other food producers, and we already know that Boutique Aromatique, a fine chocolatier, will be a neighbour. A chocolate beer may have to be brewed! While the work is going on we will unfortunately be unable to host brewery tours but are hoping to start again once it’s completed. Meanwhile, we’re knocking some walls down in the brewery to make room for two new tanks. This will take our production up from 15,000 pints a week to 18,000! We’re confident that we can continue growing this way, particularly because the chancellor has seen the light and dropped beer duty AGAIN! It’s a good job I was sat down when I heard… Our latest collaboration with From the Notebook is going well, with our first beer, Deaths Head Hawk Moth, proving very popular. It’s a velvety smooth 5% stout with hints of chocolate and coffee but no burnt notes at all. The second moth beer brewed to support the Butterfly Conservation charity will be Merville Du Jour, a 4.6% IPA brewed with American and New Zealand hops. Another recent collaboration we are hoping to repeat was an event to demonstrate the Science Behind Beer. We were asked by Doncaster CAMRA and Sheffield Science Festival if we would be happy to host an event in the brewery for member of the public to attend. Of course, we said yes, and roped in the School of Artisan Food to provide a brilliant venue and superb food. The evening saw 30 people visit the brewery for a tour, take part in exciting science experiments, and have the chance to ask a panel of specialist brewers, publicans and academics about the science behind beer. It was a fabulous night and we have already been asked to take part next year. And finally it’s all change at the brewery again, as Kyle leaves us and Joe joins. Joe lives a stones throw from the Broadfield in Sheffield and is a keen real ale fan. We look forward to having him as part of the team.