Our last RambAle of the year took place in late September: nine used the Huddersfield train from Sheffield, two took a double-bus route from Hoyland and one took the scenic route from Stocksbridge on the 3-times daily 23 Millhouse Green flyer.
The Untappd powered beer list at the Penistone Tap
After meeting on platform two, and admiring the 1912 Art Deco masterpiece which is the Penistone Paramount, our first stop was in the well-stocked Penistone Tap & Brewhouse. This was the original home of the Woodland Brewery (formally Whitefaced Brewery, named after a local breed of sheep). The brewery has recently moved to a larger local site.
In the Hunstsman, Thurlstone
We then utilised the Trans-Pennine Trail, originally part of the, Sheffield-Manchester, Woodhead Railway line, progressing to GBG-serial entry, the multiple award-winning and hardly-changed Huntsman in Thurlstone. The pub lived up to its billing, providing the usual six, well-kept, cask beers. The choice included Abbeydale, Acorn and Salamander.
A line up of Kibble Brewery beers at the Crystal Palace
Our next stop was the nearby Crystal Palace, since May 2021, the home, and only regular outlet, for Kibble Brewery. Four of their beers, all named after major coal seams, were available: Barnsley Bed Bitter (4.2%), Colliers Monday (5.8%), Kent Thin Pale (4.2%) and Kent Thin Pale: Strawberry (4.2%). In addition, Head Brewer, Alasdair Twist, provided a brewery tour and an entertaining series of anecdotes. The 2.5 Bbl. brewery is located in a former stable block in the car park. A kibble is a big bucket used in pit shafts: the owner felt that the mash tun (from the now-closed Hamelsworde brewery) looks like a kibble. There is also a smaller pilot plant which is used for one-off specials.
We then returned to Penistone via Stottercliffe Road, paying a return visit to the, now busy, Penistone Tap & Brewhouse before catching our return transport.
An excellent afternoon in the late September sunshine.
In Sheffield & District branch we get to enter two of our Pub of the Year award winners into the national competition – one in Yorkshire and one in North Derbyshire. Our Derbyshire entry is the Anglers Rest in Bamford and we’ll be presenting them with our District Pub of the Year award on 30 July at 3pm (all welcome to join us there for a beer!)
Part of the deal of entering a pub in the North Derbyshire competition is you have to help out judging all the other branch’s entries and this made for an enjoyable day out!
Judging is to a set criteria, this includes factors such as beer quality, clientele mix, cleanliness, service, promotion of real ale, value for money, community and sympathy with CAMRA’s aims.
We started with a ride on the Stagecoach X17 bus from Sheffield to Matlock, this is a limited stop service routed via the Dronfield by-pass and Chesterfield and takes just over an hour to get there, where we planned to visit the Matlock & Dales entry to the competition.
The Twenty Ten in Matlock was of a relatively modern design with a mixture of sofa areas and dining type table areas and a pool table at the back. The bar boasted a good selection of cask ales along with some interesting craft beers on keg plus some quality sausage rolls and other bar snacks as well as a more substantial food menu, all served by a friendly manager and staff. Standards were high with everything kept clean and tidy and this is the pub that went on to win the competition.
Whilst in Matlock we took the opportunity to visit Bod, newly opened just a few doors down, the latest branch of a cafe-bar chain owned by Titanic Brewery. This was a laid back kind of place with two counters – a traditional pub bar serving beers from Titanic plus guests and a coffee shop counter serving hot drinks and some rather nice cakes!
A half hour or so back on the X17 bus took us to Chesterfield to judge their entry, the Chesterfield Arms, which is now also home to Twisted Devil brewery, located in what used to be the barn function room. A visit here is of course an opportunity to try their beers, however there is a wide range of ales from various breweries both modern and traditional, including the classic bitter that is Bass! Bar snacks from the fridge include pork pies and cheese platters whilst the hot food menu features pizzas, wings and loaded fries.
Again, whilst in the area, we succumbed to the temptation to pop in another close by pub that we had to walk past to reach the bus stop – the Neptune Beer Emporium is on a residential street just down the hill and is of an interesting design – you walk in and are immediately faced with the bar, which features a great range of reasonably priced beers on both cask and keg and there are rooms to both the left and right plus a decent sized outdoor drinking area at the rear. This pub also regularly features live music.
Our next hop was on TM Travel’s number 15 bus to judge the Dronfield & District branch entry. The bus was faster than expected (well I suppose the timetable might have gave us a clue I suppose) as it jumped on the Dronfield by-pass for a quick whizz up to Unstone then just nipped up the country lane to drop us outside the Miners Arms in Hundall, which sits on the edge of a hill in a rural spot with a great view over the valley. The Miners is a traditional local village boozer with a range of reasonably priced ales and ciders, pool table, sport on TV, occasional live music and beer garden. You can usually find beer from Pictish along with the local Drone Valley brewery plus changing guests, a great atmosphere and lots of dogs wandering around looking for attention!
To get back to Sheffield we had to join the next number 15 bus down to Dronfield town centre and connect with the Stagecoach 43 or 44 to Sheffield, this of course offers the chance for a beer between buses around the Dronfield High Street area (pubs here include the Victoria, Blue Stoops, Manor House Hotel and Green Dragon) or Dronfield Bottom (options include the Dronfield Arms, Underdog and White Swan). As it turned out the TM Travel bus didn’t turn up to pick us up in Hundall so a taxi was summonsed which quickly took us down to Dronfield, giving us time to visit 2 pubs with beer gardens before the bus to Sheffield was due!
More information about the pubs – visit whatpub.com, CAMRA’s national pub database maintained by volunteers (we are looking for some assistance with this if you are interested by the way!)
Bus tickets:
Stagecoach: a Gold DayRider offers unlimited travel on all their buses in Derbyshire plus South & West Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire along with Supertram. Adult £7.80, group of up to 5 people £20.
Bus 43/44 provides up to 3 buses an hour between Sheffield and Dronfield whilst the X17 runs hourly through to Matlock (half hourly as far as Chesterfield).
TM Travel: Their Daysaver costs £4.50. The rural bus 15 runs once every 2 hours.
Derbyshire Wayfarer: Includes almost all buses and trains in Derbyshire plus direct services between Sheffield and Derbyshire, adult £13.40, family (2 adults and 3 children) £24.
We were finally able to do our Redmires RambAle at our third attempt back in March. However, our first pub, the Shiny Sheff, had no cask ales on following a recent reopening under new management. (Hopefully that is no longer the case.) We left and carried on with our walk up to the dams and then down to the Three Merry Lads, followed by a visit to the Sportsman Inn.
Deer at the picnic spot
April saw us out in the Peak District, although our first intended pub the Fox House, was then closed for refurbishment. However, a short walk through the Longshaw estate soon brought us to the Grouse for some refreshment. From there we dropped down through Hay Wood to Grindleford Station, passing the busy café there and having our sandwiches outside the Padley Chapel. We were surprised to see a couple of deer calmly grazing in the field next to us. We then followed the Derwent riverside path to Hathersage finishing with a drink at the Little John Inn.
Queen Anne
For our May walk we took the 65 bus out to Great Hucklow, starting with a drink at the Queen Anne pub there. One of the few to have draught Bass on the bar, along with another beer on rotation. A short walk from there took us to the Blind Bull in Little Hucklow. A good choice of draught ales in this Inn which dates back to the 12th Century but which had a recent renovation following some years of closure. It was certainly proving popular with locals when we were there.
Blind Bull
From there we traversed a number of fields (and stiles) to get to Bradwell. We went in the Bowling Green there, although we also found some friends had gone to the Shoulder of Mutton. We all found our way back home via the 272 bus service.
Drone Valley Brewery festival bar
Our most recent outing has been to join the Dronfield One Valley Extra Beer Festival starting with a 43 bus ride to the Drone Valley Brewery in Unstone. They had extended their bar to have a full range of their beers on (see pic). Not everyone was happy with having to drink them from squashy plastic ‘glasses’, nor the pricing (an across the range £4 a pint) but there were no complaints about the quality. Food was also available and entertainment was promised later in the day.
We decided to make our way up the hill to the Miners Arms at Hundall, which was its usual busy self, both inside and out in the garden where a second bar had been set up, along with a stage and another food stall.
Travellers Rest, Apperknowle
Our third call was to the Travellers Rest at Apperknowle, where beer in glass glasses was available and taken with our sandwiches. We possibly spent too long there as by the time we got to Troway for a visit to the Gate Inn there we found it closed. We followed field paths from there towards Coal Aston, ending our walk there when a 44 bus appeared.
So an eventful year so far with some new faces joining the regulars.
We’ll be having another walk in June when we shall go from Malin Bridge up to the Wisewood Inn for their Loxley Beer festival. In July we shall be walking from Deepcar to the Wortley Beer Festival and in August a shortish walk from Castleton to Hope for the Bank Holiday Beer Festival at the Old Hall Hotel.
More details in the diary section in Beer Matters or on the website
Chesterfield CAMRA’s usual annual beer festival at the Winding Wheel theatre couldn’t happen this year as Covid uncertainty had impacted the planning timescales. As a replacement a huge list of pubs across Chesterfield town centre, Brampton and Whittington Moor teamed up to put on a weekend walkabout event featuring beer, food and music.
Members of Sheffield and Dronfield CAMRA branches all arranged to get together for a couple of joint socials, with us visiting Whittington Moor on the Friday night then the town centre & “Brampton Mile” on Saturday afternoon. On both days we also caught up with friends from Chesterfield branch too!
Friday night saw us start at the Glassworks on Whittington Moor, which is run by Brampton Brewery. For the festival weekend they had a number of guest ales on the bar alongside their own including Anarchy Deafening Silence pale ale, Durham Apricity Copper Ale and Durham Dark Angel Stout. With a 6:30pm start we were able to sit and relax here for a bit! By the time we moved on to the Beer Parlour it was packed with the usual friendly crowd and great beers, including one from the relatively local Silver Brewhouse and a classic not seen about as much these days – Bass.
We finished in the Derby Tup to enjoy live blues music from Slim Wilson & The Swamp Brothers along with again a great range of beers including a plum porter and IPA from Eyam Brewery, a pale ale from Scarborough and more, including another local classic – Hartington Bitter from Whim Brewery.
On Saturday afternoon we met up at the Pig & Pump in Chesterfield town centre, which for the festival weekend featured an Abbeydale Brewery tap takeover, with the brewery supplying a diverse range of beers from Serenity, a 3.9% pleasantly hopped pale ale, up to Black Mass, a 6.66% black IPA.
Next we walked up to the Hidden Knight for a quick half, this is a Greene King pub but they had a guest ale on from Thornbridge. We then proceeded to an old favourite, the Chesterfield Alehouse micropub, who were hosting a tap takeover with all the handpumps given over to showcasing beers from Two by Two brewing whilst a good number of the keg taps featured beer from Seven Bro7hers Brewery.
We were then within touching distance of the Brampton Mile and visited the Tramway Tavern, Brampton Brewery and Real Ale corner (which had a couple of extra casks on gravity) before time ran out and we caught the X17 bus back to Sheffield.
However a special mention goes to David Marsh from North London CAMRA branch who joined us for the afternoon who apparantly managed to fit in another 5 pubs after we left before he caught his train home from Chesterfield!
Due to lockdowns and ongoing Covid restrictions we were only able to do four RambAles last year, but that was still four more than we expected and the previous year. We’re pleased to say that all of them proved enjoyable and it was great to get out and enjoy visiting many of our local pubs again for a drink whilst enjoying a not too strenuous walk with friends.
We shall be visiting more of them through the next few months and also going further afield to some of the many local villages in the easily reached surrounding countryside which have great pubs in them too – all worth visiting. Many of them are within walking distance and we shall have the back up of the city’s public transport system to help get us there and back.
Sheffield has many great pubs and green spaces within, and around, its boundaries. Now they are open again it’s time for us to get our boots on and make the most of them – do join us!
Redmires Circuit
Sat 12 Mar
Third time lucky! Catch 11:18 51 bus at stop from Arundel Gate (AG11) behind the library as far as the Shiny Sheff at Lodge Moor for a walk to Three Merry Lads and Sportsman.
Bluebells & Beer
Sat 30 Apr
Meet at Fox House by 12:10 (11:20 272 or 11:35 65 buses) for walk via Hay Wood to Hathersage (bus or train back).
Great Hucklow-Bradwell
Sat 21 May
11:35 65 bus to Great Hucklow (12:30) for linear walk via Little Hucklow to Bradwell (return on 272 bus).
One Valley Beer Festival
Sat 4 Jun
11:21 43 bus (AG12) to Unstone. 12:10 at Drone Valley Brewery stop. Then Miners Arms at Hundall; Traveller’s Rest at Apperknowle; Gate Inn at Troway; SCW (Sheffield Country Walk) to Coal Aston; Green Lane (B6158) to Dronfield pubs or Holmley Lane (B6056) to Coach & Horses and buses back to Sheffield.
Penistone-Thurlstone Circular
Sat 25 Jun
11:35 train from Sheffield to Penistone 12:19 Walk to Crystal Palace brew pub in Thurlstone and then the Huntsman. Back to Whitefaced Brewery Tap & Brewhouse and other pubs in Penistone (return trains at 15:43, 17:43, 18:26, 18:46, and 21:43).
Wortley Beer Festival
Sat 16 Jul
11:35 Yellow tram from Castle Square to Middlewood, then bus to King & Miller at Deepcar for 12:15. Walk up to Wortley (bus back to Sheffield).
We already have a number of ideas for more RambAles in September and October but we’re waiting for the football fixture lists and dates of local beer festivals to come out so we can fit our walks around them.
We aim to provide a series of walks which we hope people won’t find either too long or too strenuous and most will feature a number of pubs and drop-out points where people can leave and make their own way back by bus or train to Sheffield if they don’t fancy doing the whole walk or want to stay for another drink in a particular pub. These will also provide joining points for any latecomers. Most timings and fares will be given in the walks listing. Any additions or amendments will also be published in new leaflets, future editions of Beer Matters and the branch website. Contact the RambAle coordinator on 07842 530 128 or rambale@sheffield.camra.org.uk if you need more information on any of these walks.
Everyone is welcome to join us but please come suitably equipped for changeable and inclement weather and walking conditions which may be rough, wet and muddy in places. In most cases you will also need to bring (or be able to buy) sufficient food and drink.
PLEASE NOTE: bus, tram and train times are subject to change and last minute cancellation. Please check before setting off.
I last wrote about Ukraine for this esteemed publication in 2013 – I booked a follow-up trip for 2014, and two days later Russia invaded/liberated (delete as applicable) Crimea, and by the time we were due to fly from Donetsk airport it had been reduced to rubble. The Curse of Unpro strikes again! I then planned a trip in 2020, didn’t end up going, can’t remember why… then last month I was idly browsing Skyscanner for inspiration when I saw Manchester to Lviv, out that Friday morning, back Monday night, fiver each way – I couldn’t say no!
I’ve never been a fan of morning flights, I’d have far rather flown Thursday night, but beggars can’t be choosers and all that… the 0245 alarm to get up for the 0325 train to the airport did nothing to change my opinion though! Flight was pretty empty and so I took advantage of a row of three seats to get my head down for a couple of hours. Landed on time at Lviv airport, showed my passport and vaccination certificate and I was in, no longer have to fill in any forms unlike previous visits. Got some cash out as wasn’t sure how widespread card use would be (practically non-existent apart from bigger hotels and restaurants in 2013) and bought a SIM card (200 hryvnia/£6 for 20GB valid for a month, bargain) from what looked like a market stall selling knock-off DVDs, then went outside and summoned an Uber to town for the princely sum of £3.
I’d done some preliminary research on Ratebeer and Untappd, and for Friday focussed on Untappd ‘verified venues’ (i.e. ones with real time taplists so knew what beers were available). First up was the Drunken Duck, nestled in the old town, a smallish place but with about 16 taps and a fridge of interesting cans and bottles, the food looked good but I didn’t have time to partake. As well as the 0.3l and 0.5l measures seemingly standard in Ukraine, they also offer 150ml (just under a third of a pint) so I set about trying as many as possible in the time, as well as grabbing a couple of ‘train beers’ for my journey to Ivano-Frankivsk. I tried a couple of sours, but they missed the mark a bit with some odd aftertastes, several stouts and porters, and a somewhat bizarre Borsch (yes, as in the beetroot soup!) gose from Red Cat.
From here it was a short walk to Choven, a few steps down from the street in an old building, and with 18 taps of local craft. I didn’t have long here so I focussed on having a beer from each brewery I hadn’t encountered at the Duck. This led to a variety of IPAs, an imperial stout from Gentlemalt, and the best beer so far Ten MenNot For Breakfast, a raspberry sour absolutely packed with fruit.
Third and final bar for the day was Lviv Craft Beer University of St Christopher, another downstairs bar, where among others I had Double Travmato from Didko, Hot Salsa V3 from Hoppy Hog and Blackberry Rolls stout from Kyivska Manufaktura. The former was one of several beers I found made with tomatoes, seems to be a big thing over there, but what can I say when I just brewed a Branston Pickle beer…
I then took the train to Ivano-Frankivsk, again far easier than previous trips – in 2013 you could book online but had to take the booking to a ticket office to get the actual ticket issued, and in 2008 there was no online booking at all, you had to go to the ticket office to try to communicate what you wanted, and if you resorted to writing it down it had to be in Cyrillic… now you simply book online and show your ticket on your ‘phone to the provodnik/provodnitsa (each carriage has its own attendant) along with your vaccination certificate and you’re good to go. Another advantage of the online booking is you can choose your place, so I’d made sure to pick a compartment with nobody else in. Drank my train beers, an excellent Black Bean tonka imperial stout from Varvar, and Apricot Sorbet Sour from Underwood.
Arrival at Ivano-Frankivsk was around half an hour late, unusual for Ukraine, and by the time I’d walked to Hotel Nadiya and checked in it was past 11pm and as I’d been up since 3am I called it a night rather than seeking any of the bars, even though they were close to the hotel.
Saturday I partook in the excellent buffet breakfast at the hotel (it cost 50p more to book with breakfast than without so I had to get my money’s worth…) before heading out to explore the surrounding area – train to Vorokhta, another to Kolomiya, then a third back to IF to complete a triangular trip. Not much beer-wise at Vorokhta but was a scenic journey. At Kolomiya there’s nothing on Ratebeer or Untappd, but I stumbled upon Beer Zhe (Beer Men) opposite the station, a ‘draught bottling’ bar similar to the one I discovered in Luhansk in 2013, where beers are dispensed from kegs into PET bottles between 500ml and 5 litres, so I got a couple of small bottles for the next leg of the journey, nowt special, just a couple of pale beers from a local brewery.
Back in Ivano-Frankivsk, I had intended to go to the Tsypa Taphouse, the highest rated bar on Ratebeer, sadly at some point in the last two years it seems to have closed down. However I found a few other bars to keep me occupied for the evening and Sunday. First up was Pivni Klub Desyitka, an underground bar with a glass street level entrance not much bigger than a ‘phone box, indeed I walked straight past it before I knew what I was looking for, once inside it’s got a kind of German brauhaus feel. Only three craft beers so didn’t stay long, these were Hoppy Lager and Milk Stout from Varvar and Kohane lager from the bar’s eponymous local brewery but not actually onsite.
I then went in search of brewpub Pinta Pab, I found a pub in the right place but called Fyst Pab, guessing recently taken over as Untappd still showed the former identity. Similarly the house beers appeared as Moi brewery but on the beer menu were shown as Fyst Pab. Of their own I tried IPA One, a fairly 2005-era East Coast IPA being dark amber with sweetness and bitterness, and Stout, then from the guests had Apache red ale from Stanislavska Galba and Medova Rosa amber lager by Good Brewery.
Gost Bar is a fairly modern looking bar and has a couple of craft beers on draught, I had GonirIPA before moving to the fridge or bottles of MOVAStout V and CNRIPA. I got chatting to a local at the bar who spoke very good English, and she told me a couple of other places to try that weren’t on my radar. The first of these was Prom Bar, in a multi-outlet factory conversion – from outside it looks almost derelict with almost every window on the lower floors smashed, but the top floor has been renovated in a similar vein to Cutlery Works. At the far end is the bar, I only had time for a quick sour from 2085 brewery before they closed at 2100.
I ran out of time to visit Copperhead brewpub but had tried a couple of their beers in Lviv at least so my final stop was another brewpub, Bartik. The brewery is visible behind the bar, and a number of beers were available. Luckily they did a ‘desyitka’ (tasting board) of 6 x 150ml, unluckily it included the Ginger Ale! The beers were fairly German in style, apart from the last one I tried, Kriekbier, it lacked the sourness I could tell it was aiming for but was at least not alcoholic cherryade as so many non-lambic ‘krieks’ seem to be.
Sunday night I took a train back to Lviv, alas rather busy so I couldn’t get a compartment to myself, but still managed some sleep. After three days of cold but crisp dry weather, Monday was decidedly damp and later turned to snow. I spent the morning being touristy before heading to Re:Bro for lunch. This is a fairly modern setup, with a kitchen offering a wide range of traditional Ukrainian dishes as well as burgers, pizzas etc, and a bar with a dozen taps. Unusually, 0.5l is the only measure offered, but as prices were around 70-80 hryvnia (less than £3) it was no big deal, just meant I didn’t get to try as many beers as I would otherwise, just had the two sours: Didko Never Again, a citrus sour, and the slightly crazy Odd Brew (aptly named!) Smth Odd: Sea Buckthorn Tonka Lactose El Dorado Sour, which was very fruity, slightly sour with a sweet edge from the lactose and tonka.
Next I walked to Lemberk, only to be defeated as the opening hours on google turned out to be incorrect, and it wasn’t open. Luckily, next door was Krani, another ‘draught bottle’ shop plus also had cans and bottles in fridge. I bought three draught and a couple of cans, drinking the draught ones as I walked to the next bar as I’m classy like that…
One of the few Ukrainian breweries known outside the country is Varvar, not seen them on sale in the UK but used to be able to order from Dutch website Beerdome until they stopped shipping to the UK for some reason… They have a taproom in Lviv (as well as at least Kyiv and Odesa), Mad, which is arranged over 5 floors, the concept being each floor up is higher in alcohol, so the beer bar is on the ground floor, then the wine bar, finishing with a spirit bar on the top floor. On this occasion I stayed on the ground floor, trying a couple of Varvar’s IPAs and taking away a bottle of a barrel aged wild ale which I ended up drinking at the airport.
100 yards from Varvar and opposite the impressive Town Hall in Rynok Square is Pravda Beer Theatre, formerly a brewpub but with the beers now brewed elsewhere. Beers are mostly served from tanks, and many are Belgian styles, not really my cup of tea but I had to try a couple, plus a mint wheat beer!
Less than half a mile from there are two more bars on the same pedestrianised street, where I was to finish my trip. First up, Bratyska is a fairly industrial looking bar, a dozen taps, I went for Copperhead Triple Berry Sour, Kyiv LocalMango & Passionfruit Sour and MOVAC.C.Citra IPA. Finally a few doors down is Zolotij Kolos (‘Golden Ear’), a beer and pizza place with a superb range of both, but one thing missing – seats! I’d been looking forward to sitting down with a few beers and a pizza but they only have standing tables, bizarre. Still the pizza was good, and I had some good beers including Volta Sangrita Red Orange Gose, Bad Beaver Double IPA, 2085 14 Kveik Vanilla Lemon Tart sour and finishing on another excellent smoothie sour from Ten Men, my favourite brewery of the trip, Berry Smoothie: MBR Blueberry Raspberry Marshmallow Gose.
All that remained was a Bolt to the airport, drink my remaining bottles and cans, and fly home… on the Saturday I’d seen the news that the PCR test scam was coming back and this time with quarantine requirement until result, fortunately by Sunday it had been clarified this would apply from 0400 Tuesday, so I beat the deadline by just a few hours! Another quiet flight back, making the last train to Sheffield by the skin of my teeth (why TPE can’t run a later train I don’t know, given how many flights land late at night…). An excellent trip overall, I’ve always enjoyed Ukraine and now it’s easier than ever to get to, and easier when you’re there (Bolt and Uber so much easier than communicating directly with drivers who speak no English, cards taken most places, SIM cards easy to acquire so can use google maps etc), and still cheap as chips with craft beer mostly under £3 for half litre (and unlike the neighbour to the west, smaller measures are correctly priced pro-rata), good hotels around £20 a night, a 12 hour overnight train in a sleeper around £20, Uber/Bolt £1-2 a ride, local trams and buses 25p a ride, etc. I can thoroughly recommend a visit and intend to head back early next year, Covid-permitting.
A mid-December London trip by committee member Paul Manning and his wife Bev
Our long arranged trip, which coincided with the start of Omicron, got underway after boosters and negative lateral flow tests, with a train journey from Sheffield to St Pancras on a sparsely populated East Midlands train. We were in need of some refreshment on arrival so went in the Barrel Vault Wetherspoon’s on the station where we had a couple of pints of Winter Star (a dark winter ale) and Naked Ladies (a light hoppy ale) by the excellent Twickenham Fine Ales. Priced at £3.98 it was by far the cheapest beer all trip! A short, even more sparsely populated tube journey took us to Hampton by Hilton London Waterloo, our base for the trip.
South Bank Bev
We ventured out late afternoon and enjoyed a very lonely and quiet walk on the South Bank to meet an ex-colleague and his wife for an evening meal. We called in at the Mad Hatter Fuller’s pub at Southwark for some London Pride and then Blitzen dark ale by Black Sheep Brewery at Doggett’s Coat & Badge. There were excellent views across the river and a number of pop-up Christmas stalls and bars. We sampled one at Hay’s Galleria but it wasn’t cask – an unpronounceable IPA at over £7 a pint. An excellent meal at Côte Brasserie followed with some French bottled beer, which was very nice.
The next day we jumped on a tube for the Bank of England counter where I changed some old bank notes. The streets and shops were eerily quiet with many office staff clearly following working-from-home advice.
McMullen’s Bootwarmer in the Old Bank of England
We called in at the Old Bank of England on Fleet Street, now a McMullen pub, for a pint of their Bootwarmer, a great festive ale.
Memorabilia in the fantastic Edgar Wallace
Southwark Brewing’s Bankside Blonde
Across the road down Essex Street, we went in a fantastic little pub called the Edgar Wallace a regular CAMRA award winner and sampled Bankside Blonde by Southwark Brewing Company. The pub featured an amazing array of drinking and smoking memorabilia on all the walls including brands such as Double Diamond, Babycham and Swan Vesta.
£22 of pie
A quick pint of Wandle by Sambrook’s Brewery in the Nell of Old Drury followed before a visit to the Pie Room, a MasterChef-featured dining room in Holborn where we had a fantastic meal even though the pies alone were £22 each.
La Chouffe in Lowlander
On the way to our evening visit to see the musical Mamma Mia! we stopped off in the Lowlandercraft ale cafe on Drury Lane which served excellent Belgium beers in keg and bottles. We had the delightfully named La Chouffe and Kwak beers and then battled our way through a huge Covid booster queue to the Novello Theatre.
Windsor & Eton’s Mandarin
On leaving we visited a local Wetherspoon’s, the Shakespeare’s Head, for pints of Three Kings by East London Brewing Company and Mandarin by Windsor & Eton – both very quaffable. A quick look around the now much busier Covent Garden ended our evening and visit.
Covent Garden getting busier
London is a fantastic place to visit and seek out some real ales and I’m sure we will be back in safer and hopefully busier times.
On a recent trip to Cornwall our committee member Paul Manning and his wife Bev called into Dorchester for a short two day stay.
Dorchester is the county town of Dorset with Roman roots and location of the Tolpuddle martyrs trial. We stayed at the Kings Arms hotel, a lovely hotel and before venturing out around tea time just after arrival we sampled Summer Luvin a 4.2% session brew from Piddle brewery in the hotel bar. Just across the road on Church St was the Blue Raddle free house. Built in 1850, this has been West Dorset CAMRA Pub of the Year three times and the beer and food quality showed why. We had a few pints of St Austell’s Tribute and Proper Job beers – both very well kept and popular.
Blue Raddle free house
The next day we ventured further into town and after a visit to the Tutankhamun museum found a great little micropub called the Convivial Rabbit. This was very popular and we sampled King St Pale: a 4.2% hoppy pale from Wild Weather brewery, Ernie’s Milk Stout: rich and malty with coffee and chocolate flavours from Settle brewery, a Cheltenham Gold APA from Cheltenham brewery and a real cider, Dorset Nectar Sweet Maiden at 5%.
Bev enjoying the Convivial Rabbit micropub
We then headed to the Brewery Square redevelopment project, a relatively new mix of retail, cinema and offices on the site of the original Eldridge Pope brewery which brewed in Dorchester from the mid 1800s to its closure in 2002. It was probably best known for its Thomas Hardy barley wine which won awards in the late 1970s. The first place we found was a great brewery, bottle shop and tap room called Copper Street brewery across the road from the train station. We sampled their Egbert’s Stone session bitter and Dark Ages vanilla porter. Being the day before the Euros final, the owner had renamed many ales including Egbert’s Stone becoming Sweet Caroline! He also had closer to home Little Critter brewery cans in stock.
Copper Street brewery tap room
Copper Street’s rendition of Egbert’s Stone as Sweet Caroline ahead of the Euros final
Our final call was into a pre-booked beer tasting masterclass in the Brewhouse & Kitchen which was also in the Brewery Square complex. This had an onsite brewery and the masterclass turned out to be just Bev, me and the brewer, Ian Gosney.
Ian took us on a fabulous journey of eight different beers, some brewed onsite and other speciality beers – 5% Legend Craft Lager, 5.4% Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier, 4% B&K Best Bitter, 4.8% B&K American Pale Ale, 6% La Chouffe Soleil Belgium beer, 5.5% B&K Traditional IPA, 5.1% Schlenkerla Smokebeer and finally a 5.2% Tailgate Peanut Butter Milk Stout. Some fine beers and the last one was a pleasant surprise as we have previously been to the Tailgate brewery in Nashville, Tennessee and what an excellent place that was but that’s for another day’s article.
Tasting masterclass at Brewhouse & Kitchen
After this we called again into the Convivial Rabbit for a beer I can’t recall before calling it a day. Dorchester is a great place for a stop off on the way to the south coast with a good choice of real ales.
Those of you planning on using buses, trams or trains to get to pubs and brewery tap rooms in the coming weeks have some discounted ticket offers to take advantage of, with all the adult tickets in the Travelmaster range discounted.
Travelmaster tickets are accepted by all operators and includes CityBus for all buses in Sheffield and CityWide that includes trams too along with SY Connect that includes all buses and trams in South Yorkshire and SY Connect+ that also includes trains.
For more information and to buy tickets online visit sytravelmaster.com. Day tickets can also be bought from bus drivers and tram conductors or on the First and Stagecoach apps. Be aware that railway stations and train conductors cannot sell the discounted tickets, so if you want a train inclusive ticket buy from a bus or tram company or online!
Alongside the Travelmaster summer sale there are a number of ongoing offers from individual operators, for example Stagecoach Yorkshire are running a five travel for a fiver deal every weekend. Check out operator websites for the latest information.
One of the few things we’ve been able, and even encouraged, to do over the last 18 months of Covid and lockdowns is to go out walking. Even when the pubs were shut. Now they are open again it’s time for us to get our boots on and go for our drinks further afield.
Sheffield has many great pubs and green spaces within its boundaries. We shall be visiting many of them through the next few months and also going further afield to some of the many local villages in the easily reached surrounding countryside which have great pubs in them too – all worth visiting. Many of them within walking distance and with the backup of the city’s public transport system that will help get us there and back.
Sheffield CAMRA branch has organised mini-bus and other trips to many of these pubs – usually on our way to present one of them with a well-deserved award. And later this year we’ll be having a bus trip to Glossop on 14 August 14 and a tram trip on 25 September (see website for details).
Although we’re already halfway through the year, we’ve decided to re-start our popular RambAles again – a series of roughly monthly led walks in the countryside surrounding Sheffield visiting a number of pubs for a drink whilst enjoying a not too strenuous walk.
2021 RambAle 01
Sat 31 Jul
Bents Green to Totley via Ringinglow and Fox House
We shall be meeting in the Hammer & Pincers at Bents Green for a 12:30 start. Then up Ringinglow Road to the Norfolk Arms, before walking over the Houndkirk Road to Fox House. You can catch a bus back there (5.5mls) or walk another 3.5 miles over Totley Moor for another drink at either the Cricket Inn and/or the Crown.
An 83 or 88 bus will get you to Bents Green and the 97 or 218 buses will get you back from Totley, 272 or 65 buses will get you back from Fox House.
A CityBus day travel pass covers all buses in Sheffield (OL1 & OL 24 maps).
2021 RambAle 02
Sat 28 Aug
A Hope Valley Meander
You’ll need to catch either the 11:20 272 bus or 11:14 Northern train to Bamford. The walk from either the station or nearby bus stop up the road to Bamford village itself where we’ll be meeting up in the community owned Anglers Rest. Around about 13:00 we’ll leave to start our walk to Thornhill and Ashton to the Cheshire Cheese in Hope before walking down to the Old Hall Inn to sample more beers at their bank holiday beer festival.
Return in your own time by either 272 bus or train from Hope Station.
2021 RambAle 03
Sat 18 Sep
Totley, Holmesfield and Millthorpe Circular
We’re meeting up at 12:00 in the Shepley Spitfire on Mickley Lane in Totley, before walking through Gillfield Woods and along field paths to Holmesfield then onto the Royal Oak at Millthorpe. Returning via Cartledge, Holmesfield and Gillfield Woods to Totley.
Catch 97 or 218 buses to Mickley Lane (CoOp) stop on Baslow Road or alternatively bus M17 will stop outside the pub on request. (use CityBus day travel pass)
2021 RambAle 04
Sat 23 Oct
Woodseats to the Heeley Triangle via Graves Park & Meersbrook
Meet at around 12:00 in the Guzzle Micropub in Woodseats. We’ll then walk through Graves and Meersbrook Parks visiting the Mount Pleasant and Cross Scythes pubs on Derbyshire Lane on our way to the Heeley Triangle pubs of the White Lion, Sheaf View and Brothers Arms (catch any of 24, 25, 43, 44, 75 or X17 buses to Woodseats, using CityBus day travel pass).
We hope that people won’t find the walks either too long or too strenuous and most will feature a number of pubs and drop-out points where people can leave and make their own way back, by bus or train, to Sheffield if they don’t fancy doing the whole walk or want to stay for another drink in a particular pub.
These will also provide joining points for any latecomers. Most timings and fares will be given in the walks listing. Any additions or amendments will also be published in new leaflets, future editions of Beer Matters or on the branch website (sheffield.camra.org.uk), or by contacting the RambAles Coordinator on 07842 530128 or rambale@sheffield.camra.org.uk.
Everyone is welcome to join us on any of these walks but they are advised to come suitably equipped for the day’s walking, which may be rough, wet & muddy in places. You should also come prepared for the possibility of changeable and inclement weather. In most cases you will also need to bring (or be able to buy) sufficient food and drink for yourself for the day.
I’m afraid they’re all on our side of town, but we hope you’ll be able to join us on one or more of them. Cheers.
