Sheffield and District CAMRA are again using eBay to invite bids for three full sets of beermats which advertise the forthcoming beer festival. All proceeds will be donated to the festival charity, Weston Park Cancer Care (WPCC).
The full set for 2024 consists of nine mats, sponsored by Abbeydale Brewery, Abel Magnets, Blue Bee Brewery, Bradfield Brewery, Chantry Brewery, Heist Brewery, MKM Builders Merchants, Peak Brewery and Triple Point Brewery.
The 2024 Steel City Beer and Cider Festival will be opened by local legend, and South Yorkshire firefighter, Bronte Jones, runner-up in the 2024 series of the BBC hit TV programme, Gladiators.
The BBC reboot was a huge success, reeling in 8.7 million viewers across its first seven days on air. Filmed in the Utility Arena, the show began in January and showed 16 competitors complete various challenges for the chance to be crowned Gladiators Champion.
Bronte recently ran the Sheffield Half Marathon in memory of her boyfriend’s cousin Molly Midgley, who tragically died aged just 27 of a rare cancer, adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC). She and the rest of ‘Team Molly’ were raising money for our festival charity, Weston Park Cancer Charity.
The Steel City Beer & Cider Festival is held at Kelham Island Museum from 16 to 19 October featuring a range of around 200 cask ales along with other craft beers, traditional cider & perry, street food, live music and more. See sheffield.camra.org.uk/festival for more details.
A guided walk with a difference – you will explore Sheffield’s Little Chicago Quarter before your fast-track entry to our Beer Festival. Led by local author, John Stocks and editor of ‘Sheffield’s Real Heritage pubs,’ Dave Pickersgill, you will explore the beer, social and Industrial heritage of the area. The walk will explore streets that feature in John’s book ‘Sheffield 1925: Gang Wars and Wembley Glory,’ and also explore the beer, social and Industrial heritage of the area.
The comfortable walk, with one minor ascent, is just over a mile. It will last for approximately 90 minutes before concluding at Kelham Island Museum for a post-walk drink and discussion.
Tutored tasting – Abbeydale Brewery – Thursday
A tutored beer tasting and discussion led by experts from the oldest brewery in Sheffield. Established in 1996, last year Abbeydale produced over 200 Bbl./week of which over 75% was cask. They produce at least one new beer each week, including both the Funk Dungeon and Dr.Morton’s brands.
You will be introduced to five beers:
three cask, one key-keg and one bottled beer from the Abbeydale Funk Dungeon collection: Blood Orange Sour (abv 6.0%).
the latter is from a limited release of only 100 bottles: a collaboration made with Sicilian Moro blood oranges left over from the production of Locksley Distilling citrus liqueur. Abbeydale have added the flesh of the fruit (around 150g/l) directly into the barrel with a simple sour base beer, hopped with UK grown Opus hops. Sour, light and refreshing.
the cask beers will include the one-off dry-hopped cask which is available in support of the festival’s chosen charity: Weston Park Cancer Charity.
Pub Heritage Talk: Little Chicago – Friday
A short pub heritage talk which will concentrate on the Little Chicago area of Sheffield, taking you back from the C19th and up to the current day. Along the way, mention will be made of the 1884 ‘Sheffield Drinks Map,’ the establishment of a coaching inn and the Sheffield pub with the most CAMRA awards.
The talk will also act as a launch event for a new Sheffield Pub Heritage walk booklet.
More information on the Steel City Beer & Cider Festival is available here
Between Wednesday October 16th and Saturday 19th later this year, Sheffield CAMRA will be holding its 48th annual Beer and Cider Festival down at the famous Kelham Island Museum. We hope you can join us for some or all of it.
Over those 4 days we’ll be bringing you a choice of over 200 different cask beers, a further 50 keykeg beers, 30 ciders and food stalls, along with talks, tastings and music most nights, but like all beer festivals it is completely organised and staffed by volunteers, who gather together from Sheffield and beyond to set it up, staff and otherwise make it happen.
Set up starts on the Sunday beforehand (13th) with getting the floors protected and the stillage erected. The casks start arriving on the Monday and need to be put in place so the beer is allowed to settle. The bars are then erected and stalls set out. Glasses arrive and need to be washed and made ready, banners erected, tables and chairs set out, etc, etc, etc.
Lots of jobs which need lots of people. Could you help us out and help by doing a shift?
You don’t have to be a member of CAMRA or have a background in hospitality or bar work or worked at a previous beer festival but obviously such experiences all would be helpful. There’s also lots of other jobs which will need doing and are just as important.
Training will be given for anything you’re not sure of or have never done before.
We have shifts starting at 09:00 right through to after 23:00 when we close and need to clear up. We especially need people who can arrive and stay late to cover all our shifts. Food tokens are available to everyone who does two or more shifts and drink tokens are available for everyone who helps. You should also get a specially designed T-Shirt to keep as a souvenir.
After the festival we also arrange a volunteers reunion social trip, this year it is on 9 November with our coach taking us to Nottingham for the day to enjoy a number of good pubs and tap rooms there!
An online volunteer form, along with all other information, is available at our Festival Website at sheffield.camra.org.uk/festival – just click on the ‘volunteers’ tab or get in touch on 0792-341-6865 and we’ll post out a printed version for you to fill in & return.
Please get your form filled in asap as we have already started allocating jobs. We need everyone to be as flexible as possible as we won’t necessarily be able to give you the job you most want to do but we’ll try and find a suitable alternative if we can.
Do help us make this 48th Sheffield Beer & Cider Festival yet another successful one whether you join us as either as a visitor or as a volunteer. Whichever you come as – we can promise you an enjoyable time.
Malcolm Dixon, SCBF48 Staffing Officer: (festivalstaffing@sheffield.camra.org.uk or 0792-361-6865
We are very happy to confirm we have the go-ahead to organise our 48th Steel City Beer & Cider Festival this year, which will take place from 16 to 19 October.
The venue is once again the wonderfully atmospheric Kelham island Museum with the same format as last year – bars spread across the Upper Hall, Brearley Room, Crucible Room and a marquee serving a huge range of real ales (around 200!) plus over 50 other craft beers in keykeg, bottle and can along with a selection of around 30 different ciders and perry.
The upper hall will also be home to the live music stage and stalls whilst in the courtyard you’ll find a number of street food traders. Meanwhile the Millowners Arms pub, located within the site, will be trading as normal exclusively for festival visitors with some additional beer choices plus all your other pub drinks such as wines, spirits and soft drinks.
New this year will be a street food trader in the rear courtyard by the Crucible room where the keykeg bar is based, adding to the experience for those hanging out around this part of the festival!
For more information visit the website – sheffield.camra.org.uk/sc, this will get updated as details get confirmed, alternatively follow the Steel City Beer & Cider Festival on Facebook, Instagram and X for updates.
After last year’s successful post-covid return, we were looking forward to welcoming everyone to another great festival this year. Little did we know the weather would have other ideas. Here’s how it eventually worked out.
Setup
Set up went particularly well this year, thanks to a good number of enthusiastic and willing volunteers. Starting on Sunday morning, we rattled through setting up the racks and cooling system and by the end of Monday all the beers were in place and chilling ready for opening. Tuesday saw us finishing all the bars and signage, and by Wednesday at 5, with all the food stalls in place, we were open.
Wednesday
The Beer of The Festival, contested by all our local breweries, was again sponsored by our friends at Beer Central and judging began straight away. By 6.30 we were ready to announce the winners. Heist Brew Co. took Gold with their “The Bad Part Of Gnome Town”, a hazy session IPA, and one of their first attempts at a cask beer! Silver was a porter named Brook from Tapped Brew, (also the best pun of the evening) and Bronze was Little Critters’ Pecan and Maple Stout, Great Danish. Purity Brewing hosted a drop-in Q&A session and things were well underway, with everyone enjoying themselves and it seemed like we might top last year.
Thursday
A slight change in the opening hours for this year meant we opened at 11.30 and we had a steady stream of visitors from the off. As usual Thursday afternoon saw a lot of beer tickers arrive to sample the best of what we had on the bars, and a number of works events also boosted numbers early evening. Mike from the Old Shoe ran a talk on cider and an excellent set from folk-rock band Kingfisher Blue rounded off the evening nicely. However, by this point we had already had the flood alert warning and were expecting the worst on Friday.
Friday
Rain! And more rain! When we arrived at 9 o clock the river was already quite high, and the management at Kelham Island Museum were planning hourly assessments to track the water levels. Unfortunately, late morning saw a directive from the Museum that we had to close. Everything that might get water damaged was either taken upstairs, or simply placed on top of the bars. The Museum even had to drive their two Sheffield-built early 20th century Simplex motor cars up to the upper Hall and park them in front of our stage. A disappointed festival committee trooped off home (after a quick pint in a local establishment of course) to follow the weather forecast and hope for the best for the following morning.
Saturday
Fortunately water levels peaked early evening on Friday without there being any flooding at the Museum and after discussion with the Museum staff on Friday night we got the green light to open, albeit at a slightly later time to allow to put everything back in its correct place.
The weather then decided to improve steadily and, in the end, it was a great day. The River Don engine drew it’s usual admiring crowd; the Loxley Silver Band entertained everyone upstairs; the boys from Kelham Rapper did their sword dances anywhere there was space (however tight that might be!); St Mars of the Desert hosted a well-attended talk on their beers; and live music from Galloping Dick rocked the Upper Hall to finish. The volunteers did their best to reduce the beer surplus at the afterparty, aided by pizzas from Sunshine Pizza Co, and the festival drew to a close.
Sunday
As always at the festival there is an amount of beer left which sadly has to be poured down the drain. As a result of Friday’s closure there was a lot more to dispose of this year, with an obvious effect on the festival’s finances. We’d like to say a thank you to Bradfield brewery, who kindly took back the unopened casks of their beer, and the Rutland Arms and Kelham Island Tavern, who bought the unopened kegs and cider boxes. And thanks to the volunteers who came and dismantled it all on Sunday. They did an incredible job and by 3 o clock we had everything cleared and back in storage.
Final verdict
Overall the festival was a great success on the days we were open, and had we been open on Friday we would no doubt have exceeded last year’s visitor numbers. We raised £1750 for the festival charity, Yorkshire Air Ambulance, thanks to generous donations of unused portions of beer cards, cash, and sales of a special beer from Abbeydale and MKM Building Supplies. Feedback was excellent, and we had several encouraging comments from new visitors, and also new volunteers, who are already looking forward to next year. Here’s to 2024 (and hopefully better weather!).
The organisers of the recent Steel City Beer & Cider Festival would like to thank the following for donating items to the festival tombola and to sell for this year’s festival charity – the Yorkshire Air Ambulance:- Blue Bee Brewery, Kelham Island Tavern, Peak Ales, Ossett Brewery, Alan Gibbons, Sheffield Tap, Chantry Brewery, Terry Palmer, MKM Building Supplies, Purity Brewery, Paul Goddard, Tom Pugh, Paul Manning, Bradfield Brewery and everyone who donated anonymously. Apologies if we have missed anyone.
By the time you’re reading this, our annual Beer Festival will be over and hopefully it’s been another great success.
The Festival Committee will be meeting in November to review how things went, and where we can make improvements for next year, and as part of that review we would love to receive feedback from visitors on anything related to the festival.
Opinions on the range of drinks; the food stalls; the live music; layout of the festival; the range of activities and events; the volunteers – we want to know what you think.
If anyone wants to be more involved, either by attending the November meeting, or even becoming part of the committee for next year, please mention it in your email and we’ll contact you personally for an informal discussion, and probably buy you a pint while we’re at it!
For the first time, events at the forthcoming Sheffield Steel City Beer Festival will include a guided historical walk: Sheffield’s Little Chicago Quarter in 1925. This will explore streets that feature in the leader’s book ‘Sheffield 1925: Gang Wars and Wembley Glory,’ with a narrative explaining how Sheffield briefly became the most turbulent city in Britain because of an escalating gang war involving the Park Brigade, Mooney Gang, the Gas Tank Gang and many others.
The short walk will explore the social and Industrial heritage of the area, examining the myths and reality of a tumultuous year in Sheffield history, before finishing at the Beer Festival.
Dave Pickersgill, editor of ‘Sheffield’s Real Heritage Pubs,’ will provide an illustrated presentation while, the three tastings: ‘Bridging the Gap between Beer and Cider,’ ‘Cask is Craft?‘ and ‘From Europe to Mars,’ will, between them, cover a wide spectrum of the 21 st century UK beer scene.
Mike Pomranz (Old Shoe) will compare two beers and two ciders: two ‘single variety’ and two of a ‘funkier’ description before sampling the single box of a 2023 mixed-variety Sheffield grown and made cider from his Exemption Ciderhouse. Mike successfully delivered a similar, more cider- focussed event, at the recent national Members’ Weekend.
Julia Gray will introduce four contrasting beers: two cask (gravity and hand-pull), one key-keg and one from a small pack. An experienced beer trade professional with almost twenty years in the field, she aims to showcase, “the variety and quality of beer currently available in the UK.” Jules owns a local independent award-winning beer shop and tasting room, Hop Hideout (established 2013). In 2015 she set-up a city-wide beer celebration in her hometown: Sheffield Beer Week. In 2018, this was followed by a new craft beer festival: Indie Beer Feast, now an annual event.
Dann Paquette and Martha Holley from local brewery, Saint Mars of the Desert (SMOD), will introduce two European favourites and the beers which they have inspired. SMOD draw their brewing inspiration from many sources, from traditional 19 th century recipes to the bright, vibrantly hoppy beers of New England. Their greatest influence is possibly the Belgian monastic style. As Martha put it, “this is an ideal opportunity for us to look back to our key influences, the Belgian and German beers which inspired us to produce such classics as Clamp and Jack D’Or.” After seven successful years managing the ‘Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project,’ in Boston, Massachusetts, Dann and Martha spent two years travelling. In 2018, they relocated to the best beer city in the world. On RateBeer, they were quickly named as amongst the top ten new breweries world-wide. Their brewery and taproom is hidden behind old industrial units in a currently unfashionable part of the city.
The 47th Sheffield Steel City Beer Festival will be held at Kelham Island Museum: 18-21 October 2023. Advance tickets for all events are available: https://sheffield.camra.org.uk/2023/07/tours-talks-tastings/