Category: Breweries

At the end of April the World Snooker Championship returns and we will see four beers from Blue Bee Brewery to celebrate the event. Brown Ball, Blue Ball and Pink Ball are welcome returns however we present something rather special for 2014. Inhov the Black weighs in at 7% abv and is Blue Bee’s take on an Imperial Russian Stout. Richard describes this new creations as a vigorously hopped black stout with an enticing medley of five assorted malts and a carefully selected trio of hops. And so to the pUnK zone, and the latest in the pUnK-tuation series of beers. Back in ’77, amid a storm of Filth and Fury, one of the most important, influential LPs ever was unleashed onto the world. The Sex Pistols’ “Never Mind The Bollocks” was an unrelenting, uncompromising assault on the senses. Blue Bee Section is a pale ale, hugely hoppy, and, by chance, an unrelenting, uncompromising assault on the senses. Hop Save The Queen. Bitter to the end. Finally as the sun has appeared and winter feel like it is well and truly over, Light Blue (3.6%) can be seen on bars in and around Sheffield. 3.6% and very quaffable this pale ale is full of Summit Hops and bursting with flavour!

Following on from February’s Tin Can Avenger comes the second beer in our light versus dark series. Dunkel Devastator 5.6% Dark German Wheat Beer, combines wheat, toasted malts, german hops and a specially sourced wheat beer yeast. A superb pint with a full rich dark body and a luscious punch of toffee maltiness. Our second special for March follows our ‘Rocket Man’ theme as we leap toward the final frontier with Zombies of the Stratosphere 4.5% Stellar Golden Ale. ZOTS is a blazing extraterrestrial ale with a sweet caramalt flavour and resinous lime and pine aromas from two types of the finest Styrian Golding hop varieties. Alongside our usual brewery tours we have some great nights planned for the Kelham Island Loft Bar so check out our website for details of a Wine Tasting on Friday 28 March & Whisky and Chocolate on Friday 21 March. If you were lucky enough to get our Brewery Tour Vouchers in your Christmas stocking these can be used toward any of our interesting Loft Bar events. The Brewery Shop goes from strength to strength so if you are passing please call in to say hello and check us out.

With the Six Nations in full swing we have our seasonal special hitting bars in and around Sheffield. Rugbee! Rugbee! Rugbee! is a 4.8% New Zealand hopped pale ale. In other news we are in the process of revamping our website. It is a little rough around the edges right now but if you go to bluebeebrewery.co.uk you will find all the details about our core range beers, where to find our beer and a blog of upcoming specials and events.

March sees the return of some old faces. Our 4.1% pale Contraption makes a return from a 3-year hiatus. Made with the fabulous Rakau and Pacific Gem hops from New Zealand, its crisp, bitter, wonderfully aromatic and packed full of tropical flavours! In addition to this, our award winning Stormbringer is back! First brewed over a decade ago, way back in 2003, Stormbringer is a 4.7% deep golden beer with lots of fruity aromas. Hints of cinnamon and cloves permeate through the spicy and fruity flavours leading onto a crisp bitter but balanced finish – you can see why we brought it back! Keep a look out for two new Dr. Morton’s beers on the bar. Dr. Morton’s Cattle Prod at 4.1% and Dr. Morton’s Undetectable Poisson at 3.9% make their debut this month, both pale and hoppy with Cattle Prod being dry hopped, too.

Acorn’s new IPA range will feature hops from Austrailia and New Zealand starting with Dr Rudi. This hop has a mix of aromas such as pine needles & lemongrass. 3 new 25 barrel conditioning tanks are now in place enabling us to increase brewing capacity by 20% These additions to the plant along with the new cask washer and casks brings total investment for the financial year to over £60,000. Seasonal beer for March is 4 monkeys, abv 4.3% (for those who don’t know, a ‘monkey’ is 500). After a meeting with the 4 brewing staff, not to be confused with the beer name 😉 a recipe was formulated. Brewed using Maris Otter pale ale malt and Dark Crystal malt for a rich golden colour. Brewers Gold, Aramis and Cascade make up the hop grist. Old No7 beer festival will take place over the Easter weekend featuring a selection of beers from the Isle of Man and also some of our local South Yorkshire breweries (please see thw website for updates).

Well the building work has commenced! We’re planning on knocking the walls down in the brewery to get more tanks in, and will also be building a kitchen and office. Whilst all the work is on we shall be striving to maintain a reliable supply of beer to your locals. Firstly we’d like to congratulate all those involved on the opening of Stancil brewery. We’re looking forward to drinking the newest Sheffield beer, and wish them the best of luck with taking over and developing the exciting range of ales for the Forum Café Bars group. The final beer which we shall be brewing for the Forum Café Bars group will be American Blonde. This will be hopped used Cascade and Galaxy to produce a delicately balanced fruit-flavour infused ale at 3.8% ABV. Whilst we won’t be brewing these bespoke beers any longer, we’re pleased to continue to work closely with this exciting pub group. We are pleased to announce that we are to team up with Nottingham based beer producers From the Notebook Limited (FTN) to produce a series of wildlife beers in order to benefit the work of Butterfly Conservation. In total, 4 new beers are to be brewed which represent the characteristics and traits of moths. The style of the beers, beginning with the spookily named Death’s-head Hawk-moth will follow FTN’s mantra in producing what they call “Wildlife-Inspired Idiosyncratic Beers”. FTN’s founder, Graeme Denton and Welbeck Abbey’s head brewer Claire Monk have got their heads together to come up with a series of beer styles and flavours appropriate for the moths they are to represent. Our February specials will be Nightingale and Kaiser. Nightingale is the next in our ‘Best of British’ series and is named after a beautiful woodland spot right in the heart of the Welbeck estate. A 5.5%ABV authentic English India Pale Ale, packed full of flavour from British hops and balanced with sweet caramalt. Kaiser on the other hand is quite different, being part of the ‘Continental’ series. This has become one of our much-loved ales and will be repeated in November. Crisp, dry, biscuity lager malt flavours are perfectly balanced with sweet, honey like floral hops from Germany. There are several collaboration events happening over the next few months which we’re pleased to be part of. Firstly on the 20th February our head brewer Claire will be working with the Biology societies at the University of Sheffield to give a talk on exciting careers in science. For a more open opportunity to speak to Claire, there will be a Meet the Brewer event at the Welbeck Farm Shop on Thursday 27th February. This will include free tasters and a talk about how we make our range of beers. To book your place pop in to the shop or call on 01909 478725. On the 17th March the Welbeck Abbey Brewery, School of Artisan Food, and Doncaster CAMRA, will all be joining forces to host a free evening exploring and understanding the science behind English Real Ale fermentation. For all details about this event and the many others taking place around Sheffield please have a look at their website.

It’s a new year and we have a new plan to bring you delicious new ales. Over the past year we have grown into a thriving brewery with an expanding number of different recipes in our repertoire. Thank you to everyone who has helped us to grow, from drinkers to publicans, brewers to CAMRA bods, we’re looking forward to another successful year with you all. As we’ve grown to work with a wider range of pubs, it’s allowed us to be a little more creative with our recipes. This year we’re bringing to you two limited edition beers every month, along side our core range of five ales. These exciting new beers will fall in three series’: Best of British, Continental, or New World. Each and every month we will present to you a ‘Best of British’ beer. These will range from pale English ales to strong traditional IPAs but will all be brewed using only British Ingredients. The first in this series is Endeavor, using the brand new and highly sought after English hop. On alternate months we’ll craft either a ‘New World’ beer using choicest hops from America, New Zealand or Australia, or a ‘Continental’ style using hops and techniques from the continent. In January we have a Continental series beer – Henrietta Grande, brew­ed with Hall­ertau Brewers Gold. Look forward to February for Admiral Keppel, a 4.3% golden English ale brewed using Admiral hops in the traditional way to give a warming aroma of spiced oranges. It will be the turn of the New World hops to be showcased, and we’re kicking off this series with an old favourite, Dark Horse. This 4.8% black IPA is brewed using a combination of four different dark malts and hops from 3 continents, to give a complex citrus aroma that mingles with the burnt roast flavours. The dry addition of New Zealand hops gives an extra fruity zing.