Category: Shops

Bottling It

Posted on by Dan Rowe

Sheffield is often described as the real ale capital of the UK, with over 400 pubs offering hand-pulled cask real ale in our area. However, it would be remiss to not give credit to the other venues that offer other serving styles of real ale, for off- and on-consumption. With varying opening hours and demand, it’s not always possible for some venues to offer a permanent cask option – there is a risk of wastage, or offering a sub-standard product if demand fluctuates. However, many venues do provide other options from real ale brewers, including bottle conditioned beers. In fact, there are too many to include them all here, so keep an eye out for a second article soon!

Craft & Berry is an Ecclesall Road taproom and bottle shop. They have 6 taps of keg beer, and hundreds of cans and bottles of craft beer – many from local breweries. They also have a good range of bottled real ale from breweries including Bradfield, Acorn, Welbeck Abbey and Peak Ales. The shop is also home to a Gin Emporium with over 80 different spirits (both local and national), and holds regular beer or spirit tasting events. Earlier this year owner Mark worked with neighbours to host the second weekend-long Ecclesall Road beer festival, and there will be a third in October.

Not too far away on London Road is Turner’s Bottle & Tap. They offer bottles from Bradfield, Peak, and Thornbridge, and have fridges and shelves stocked with a huge range of craft beers from predominantly UK breweries. They also have 8 keg lines available. Turners is part of the now annual Abbeydale Road Beer Festival, which has just celebrated its fourth year.

The Dram Shop in Walkley is one of the older independent off licenses in the city offering bottle conditioned beers, though owner Tony mentions that the number of these on offer is dwindling as more brewers embrace canning lines. Tony took on the Dram Shop in 2005, and stocks bottled beers from Durham, Welbeck Abbey, and Loxley alongside a huge wine, spirit, Belgian, German and craft beer selection.

More centrally (puns fully intended) is Beer Central, located in the Moor Market. As an off license they have no taps, but pack a large range of beer into a small space, with bottled beers often seen from Samuel Smith, Drone Valley and Titanic. They also have a wide European selection alongside craft beer offerings. During Sheffield Beer Week they ran ticketed tasting and food pairing events in the small event space in the Moor Market.

Hop Hideout v3 opens

Posted on by Andy Cullen

Hop Hideout began its journey on Abbeydale Road as a small craft beer shop with keg taps and a tasting room. When Kommune food hall opened with an attached independent retail area, the opportunity arose to relocate to a City Centre location. Hop Hideout left Kommune a few months ago, and there are now no shops there. Since then, some pop-up events in collaboration with local brewery taprooms have taken place.

Jules has now launched the third iteration of Hop Hideout at the newly regenerated Leah’s Yard on Cambridge Street in Sheffield City Centre. Leah’s Yard is home to a cluster of small independent businesses, including a Pete McKee gallery, designer clothing shops, ceramics, and various food and drink retailers.

The format for Hop Hideout is similar to before, with a cosy shop unit featuring fridges full of craft beer, cider, and natural wine, along with taps for draught beer and cider. There are also tables inside and outside if you want to sit and enjoy your drink on the premises. Moving from Kommune to their own space means Hop Hideout can now do much more on the special events side of things, so you can expect tutored tasting sessions hosted by brewers, winemakers, and cider producers.

Hop Hideout’s new opening was part of the launch of the entire Leah’s Yard development during the August bank holiday weekend, which attracted a lot of interest. The shop continues to see many new faces popping in, as well as a lot of old regulars who have followed them to the new location. The spot is ideal, in a busy part of the City Centre near City Hall, and it is looking fantastic following recent regeneration work. Leah’s Yard has the Cambridge Street Collective as a neighbour, along with many new shop units along the same street.

Once Jules has had a chance to catch her breath after getting the shop open, training the staff, serving the many customers, sorting out rewards for crowdfunding contributors, and getting everything organised and tidy, we will be having a chat with her for a future issue of Beer Matters, by which time some of the special events will have been announced!

Beer Central

Posted on by Guest

Ever since Beer Central opened in the Moor Market back in November 2013, it has been a go to location for beer lovers across Sheffield and the UK. Deborah Jackson and Sean Clarke has become a legends within the beer industry, has influenced and taught a lot of people about beer but sadly as many of you will know, Sean is now moving on to pastures new helping people set up new businesses in Sheffield. 

This month, the new owners Megan Lindop and Ross Lindsay have took over Beer Central. Megan and Ross will take over Beer Central with plenty of experience within the beer industry owning Krafty Fine Drinks in Scotland (kraftyfinedrinks.co.uk). The link to Sheffield is strong, Megan is originally from Sheffield and her love of craft beer started with the help of Sean at Beer Central.

Living in Scotland, Megan and Ross will leave the everyday management of Beer Central to new Store Manager Gavin Kieran. Gavin may already be known to a few customers at Beer Central having helped Sean out previously, covering holidays and regularly ‘working’ on the counter with his laptop since 2021. ‘Beer Central and Sean have taught me a lot about beer, I’ve also spent a lot of money and saved a lot of beers here in the boxes. Sean has been a great help to me within the industry and personally, it is a shame he’s moving on to new things. It is a privilege and a big challenge to be stepping into Sean’s shoes and managing Beer Central, I am excited and nervous to be taking this opportunity’. Gavin has over a decade of experience within the beer industry working with and helping various breweries such as Lost Industries, Steel City, Sheffield Brewery, Beer Ink, Lords Brewery Co and Craven Brew Co.

Even though Beer Central has new owners and management, it will endeavour to remain the same. We will continue to sell a wide range of beers from local, national and international breweries, saves boxes and deliveries in the local area will continue as will the social media posts. There will be one or two small changes. For example, we will be introducing a small range of wine and spirits, a website, and Gavin is hoping to bring back the Beer Central Bottle Shares and look at putting on other events in the future.

Inn Brief

Posted on by Andy Cullen

The Clubhouse sports bar on London Road is now open on Fridays and Saturdays offering cask beer and other drinks along with burgers and hot dogs for home delivery. Each weekend they generally have a choice of three real ales on handpump sold in 4 pint takeaway bottles, order via Uber Eats or Citygrab.

A new off licence has opened in Ranmoor focused on beer and wine. Ranmoor Castle has a range of craft beer and offers local delivery.

Another beer outlet is due to open in Hillsborough this spring. Pangolin Craft Beer will be a specialist bottle shop also featuring a small bar to try the beers they have on tap which will also be available to buy in carry out containers. It is located at Hillsborough Park tram stop on Middlewood Road.

Landlord Jake has handed his notice to Punch Taverns to terminate the lease of the Red Deer in Sheffield City Centre, another good pub to not survive the Covid restrictions, we can only hope the pub company find a new tenant as good as Jake to reopen it. A virtual leaving party will be taking place featuring live music on 13 March and until then the weekly quiz is still taking place online and their beer home delivery service will continue.

Chapeltown gets all La-Di-Da

Posted on by Andy Cullen

La Di Da is a new specialist shop is opening in Chapeltown on 5 December, selling Quality Wines, Rare Malt Whisky, World Spirits, Craft Ales and a selection of Havana and International Cigars.

The man behind the shop is Wayne Griffin, he’s been a manager at Mitchell’s Wines of Meadowhead for 10 years, they have a great local reputation and it is likely Chapeltown will be benefiting from his experience there!

The beer range at La Di Da includes many local breweries plus craft beers from further afield both UK and international along with some of the classic Belgian beers.

La Di Da will also be selling online at sheffieldcigarsandwine.co.uk.

Hop Hideout

Posted on by Andy Cullen

Thurs 25th Aug to Mon 29th Aug: Pucker Up: A Bank Holiday Weekend Homage to Sour Beer

Mikkeller-Spontan-Tasting-Pack [1511125] Sour beer covers a myriad of styles and we love them all here at Hop Hideout. We’ve decided to dedicate the Bank Holiday weekend in August to host our homage to these styles. We’ll be dedicating our full keg taps to sour styles. Plus we’ll be spending the next few months sourcing some special bottle stock for you to try over the weekend too. Throw into the mix ticketed Mikkeller: Spontan Your Face beer tastings on the Friday and Saturday evening (tickets online £13pp inc 5 samples). It’ll be a special few days all in all. One for the sour heads and those wanting to take their first sip and pucker up! The garden area will be open, so fingers crossed for sunshine. They’ll also be a select menu of scotch eggs and pork pies on offer from Liberty Foods  and extended opening hours. Find out more: www.hophideout.co.uk/events Julia & Will

Hop Hideout

Posted on by Andy Cullen
Abbeydale’s award winning specialist beer shop Hop Hideout launched their Tasting Room in August, enabling customers to sit in the intimate space and enjoy the wide range of bottled beers and ciders on offer from across the globe. The Tasting Room will be open from noon to close, Tuesday to Sunday and in addition to the varied bottled selection, customers can enjoy a selection of two draught beers via the dedicated tap facility. Hop Hideout stocks over 400 beers, with a larger dedicated range covering the UK, in addition to countries like America, Holland, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy and Spain. Key to Hop Hideout’s success has been to search out and find interesting beers and offer a rotating range including a dedicated cider and perry offering. The two draught keg lines have featured beers from Yorkshire favourites Magic Rock to hard to find breweries like Kent’s Alphastate and experimental Swede’s Omnipollo. The ciders and perries are all sourced to showcase the rich variety produced across the UK, with over twenty-five different varieties. Oliver’s from Hereford, Somerset’s Sheppy’s, Welsh producers Ty Gwyn and Thistly Cross in Scotland all nestle in the fridges. Jules Gray, one half of Hop Hideout, shared, “The intimate space and ever-changing beer selection makes this a great space to visit, discover and enjoy a beer. We’re starting to plan events in too. We have the fantastic young London brewery Brew By Numbers hosting a tasting in September, Yorkshire’s Brass Castle in October and an exciting evening as part of Sheffield’s Off The Shelf festival with one of the UK’s top beer writer’s – Pete Brown”.

Focus on…. Mitchell’s Wines

Posted on by Andy Cullen
Dennis Mitchell opened his butchers shop at Meadowhead in 1935 to service the new build residential area of Meadowhead and Norton. In 1963 the shop was enlarged to create an off-licence section or beer off as they were then known. John Mitchell joined the family firm in 1968 and started to drive the drink side of the business forward, it was very much returnable bottles in those days. The biggest seller being Tennents Gold Label barley wine sold in nips. Guinness was bottles everywhere, we bought ours from Skinner Rook and Chambers as they used Dublin Guinness, our customers preferred this rather than Park Royal London. Other popular ales included Tetley’s family ale, Whitbread Forest Brown, John Smiths Magnet & Mansfield Ale. Our best seller was Shipstone Gold Star sold in flagons because it was the cheapest. Well wind the clock on 50 years and Mitchells are still there, having picked up many awards over the years including Courage Beer Retailer of the year back in 1994, Winner of Off Licence News Wine Merchant of the Year twice, Spirits & Beer Retailer as well as coming runner up to Selfridges on Oxford Street as Drinks retailer of the year 2015. What makes this shop so special? Well within its 3000 sq foot of floor space lay a labyrinth of drink departments as well as the North of England’s best fine Havana cigar selection. The biggest hit of the last 2 years is the rise in popularity of Whisky and Gin. We are also now seeing a major rise in Craft & Artisan Beers. We currently stock over 500 real ale and ciders including 26 from Thornbridge Brewery alone from which we started out with just 2 core ranges Jaipur and Kipling. We have a dedicated fridge to cool selected ales down to between 10c and 14c for that perfect serve. Wherever possible, we try to support local breweries and stock over 100 varieties of Yorkshire/Derbyshire ales. Along with cider from Holmfirth and Tadcasters very own Samuel Smiths. Looking further afield we have great beers from surrounding counties and have a great selection of quality ales from as far as Scotland and Cornwall. We also specialise in coeliac approved beers from Wold Top Brewery along with other Gluten free, Organic & fair trade products. We always have an ever changing £1 guest ale value offer. So next time you’re passing Meadowhead there’s no excuse to not call in Mitchells.

Hop Hideout expands

Posted on by Andy Cullen
After 16 months trading within Vintedge on Abbeydale Road, the award winning Hop Hideout has moved location to an independent neighbouring shop at 448 Abbeydale Road; nestled alongside the original unit in the Antiques Quarter. The picturesque corner location, next door to The Broadfield pub, means the specialist beer shop can focus on evening events in conjunction with offering a growing range of beers (400+) for enjoyment. Previous events have included book readings from 2014 Beer Writers of the Year – Boak and Bailey, art exhibitions (featuring work from Alec Doherty of Partizan and Rich Norgate of Magic Rock) beer and cheese paired nights and Meet the Brewers. The next Meet the Brewer event is with Marble Brewery on Thurs 21st May (previous events have included Northern Monk Brew Co, Mad Hatter and Thornbridge). The independent shop space has launched extended opening hours and now offers draught beer to take out via growler fills – all detailed on their freshly designed website www.hophideout.co.uk Jules and Will of Hop Hideout shared that, “We hugely enjoy sourcing beers from Yorkshire and all over the world to offer a fantastic selection for our customers. Now that we have our new shop location it means we can showcase a wider range of beers on draught too from exciting breweries such as Magic Rock and Mikkeller. Importantly for us, now that we have our own dedicated space, we can host regular evening events. We’re already working on future events which include ‘Beery Book Club’ every 2nd Thursday of the month starting in May and ‘Pucker Up’ a night of sour beers.” Over the Easter weekend Hop Hideout joined forces with Picture House Social to host ‘A Firkin Beer Festival’ featuring 18 casks, kegs and a specialist bottled beer and cider selection. With lots of collaboration beers from outstanding breweries such as Siren, Fyne, Ilkley, Yeastie Boys, Bad Seed, Northern Alchemy, Weird Beard and Marble showcased. The duo are looking to continue with the success of this inaugural event and are already planning future beer festivals. Catch Jules hosting beer and cheese pairings alongside friends Anchorage in the demo marquee at the Sheffield Food Festival over the May Bank holiday weekend (23rd to 25th May).

Best beer off in the North!

Posted on by Andy Cullen
The country’s best beer retailers were honoured at the inaugural Celebrate British Beer Awards held at the House of Commons last night. Leading industry names and MPs attended the event organised by trade magazine Off Licence News to recognise the retailers both big and small making the biggest contribution to selling our national drink.

OffLicenceNewsAwards

The awards singled out the top independent beer shops from across the UK – along with the best national drinks chain and supermarket. The winners were voted for by over 500 industry experts. Rosie Davenport, Editor at Off Licence News Editor, said: “Pubs do a great job promoting beer, but the swathes of great beer shops play just as important a role in enhancing consumers’ appreciation. More people are drinking great beer at home than ever before and the businesses recognised at Off Licence News’ Celebrate British Beer Awards are dedicated to sourcing and selling interesting brews and supporting the UK’s vibrant brewing scene. “ List of winners
Category Company Name Location
Supermarket of the Year Waitrose
Chain of the Year Oddbins
Regional Retailer of the Year – London Real Ale Twickenham
Regional Retailer of the Year – North Hop Hideout South Yorkshire
Regional Retailer   of the Year – South Beer Emporium Bristol
Regional Retailer of the Year – Midlands/East Hopology Nottingham
Regional Retailer of the Year – Scotland The Beer Hive Edinburgh
Regional Retailer of the Year – Wales Gwin Llŷn Wines Gwynedd, Pwllhel