Nearby Beer Missions

It occurred to me that seeing as the Mrs lives in Worksop and we have frequently drunk around there, that is deserves a write up like everywhere else we go. And yes, there should be some write ups of areas of Sheffield too. I have made some notes on pubs in Crookes and Woodseats just have too much to write up!

So there will be a Worksop write up pretty soon. There are only really 5 places that deserve the attention; all four establishments that feature in the Good Beer Guide plus the Wetherspoons which usually has 3 local guest ales on.

A return ticket to Worksop is £5.90 and it is a similar price to Chesterfield, check out the write up of our trip there in June. It is also well worth a visit to Barnsley to go to Old No. 7, the brewery tap for Acorn, winner of many local awards and plaudits.

Sheffield has an amazing beer scene but there are others nearby that are worth trying, go and explore!

Brewery Poll

I have decided to make use of one of the add ons for Blogger and conduct a poll to see which Sheffield based brewery gets the most votes. I already know which is the biggest brewery and also the most commonly seen ones, but I thought I'd ask just out of interest!

We don't have a bad brewery in this city but some have the advantage of being considerably older businesses than others. I was tempted to include other significant presences such as Thornbridge and Acorn but I decided to limit it to strictly Sheffield breweries. However I may set up another poll to measure the popularity of nearby breweries, we'll see.

After voting myself and finding it impossible to pick just one I have altered it so you can make more than one selection!

Sheffield Beer Survey Results

So with all the (misinformed) excitement about Sheffield’s 2012 GBG entries, the results of this fair city’s beer survey are out. Hopefully you have a copy of the September issue of Beer Matters to see the full results, but I will pick out the important bits here.

Yes, Sheffield is still the real ale capital of England! 309 different beers available and that is with a couple of areas of the city not being surveyed. Derby claims to be the capital on number of beers per head of population but as Sheffield CAMRA rightly point out; a village pub with a good range could therefore be the winner. And besides as Nottingham, Norwich and York have also done surveys recently it transpires that Derby don’t even win by their own criteria! Ours is a much more sensible measure. It shouldn’t matter how large the settlement is; it should be about how many different beers are available.

Now of course until everywhere in England is surveyed we’re never truly going to know which town or city has the largest range of real ale. And it would be good if National CAMRA could set the winning criteria instead of branches squabbling over how it should be measured. However, I reckon they’ve got more pressing campaigns to pursue such as halting the beer duty escalator.

Moonshine is still Sheffield’s most common beer (fitting as Abbeydale is Sheffield's biggest brewery) and it is good to see Bradfield’s Farmers Blonde in second place. Not at all surprising since it has been gaining momentum since winning beer of Sheffield Beer Festival last September. Easy Rider is joint third with Tetley’s but I would expect Tetley’s to be slowly falling out of favour as it is no longer brewed in Yorkshire. It’s not like Wards has made a significant comeback since Maxim took the brewing rights, and to be honest it’s better bottled in my opinion. Even the Sheaf Island doesn’t always have it on and it was supposed to be a regular for them. And you don’t see cask Stones anywhere either which is a shame because it is a fine beer when looked after. Everards have the brewing rights to the cask version and Coors have the Keg version, which is still common in the working men type pubs and clubs of the city. You can even get an Extra Cold version in The Sheaf House, Lord help us!

Sheffield 2013 Good Beer Guide Entries - Huh?

Well, actually it seems that the 2012 Good Beer Guide iPhone app can't make up it's mind after a couple of updates! Knew I should have bought the book as well and I think I will.

For as it turns out The Gardener's Rest, the Hillsborough Hotel, The Rising Sun The New Barrack Tavern, The Ranmoor Inn, and The Carlton are all still in the Good Beer Guide. Thank heavens for that, the world has not gone completely mad. Well...

Thanks for the comments guys, good to see some interaction with the blog. Was beginning to think that Twitter was the only medium people take notice of! But I probably should have tweeted the blogs address a lot sooner. Wee Beefy I would follow you but I can't work out how, possibly I'm being completely stupid or Google is being awkward.

I'm beginning to think this could be a full time job, which I would dearly love, but perhaps I should have reconsidered the rather ambitious title of Sheffield Beer! 4 national pub crawls to write up and there is still the rather daunting task of transcribing the interview with Eddy of the Gardener's Rest. But I almost have enough for an article and really hope to have something out in the next few weeks.

Less beer drinking and more writing about it!

Sheffield 2013 Good Beer Guide Entries

Well... The Sheffield 2013 Good Beer Guide Entries were expected to change somewhat but the result is nothing short of cataclysmic. Altogether there have been 14 entries that have been altered but overall there are 4 less entries than last year. Has Sheffield lost 3 entries to the newly created Dronfield sub branch and other nearby areas? That is the only plausible explanation although it should be noted 2 of the Dronfield entries were in last year anyway.

It is good to see The Ship on Shalesmoor being recognised for its efforts, perhaps it will not be so underrated from now on. It is not surprising that Shakespeare’s and The Blake have been included as both are excellent ale pubs in every way. And the remaining new inclusion is The White Lion in Heeley which is not unexpected as it was in the 2011 Good Beer Guide, and has always maintained a good range of local beer. But no Broadfield I hear you ask with horror? Well I think it opened just after the voting process was completed so its absence is to be expected.

But there have been some rather startling omissions, which I find simply unfathomable. The Gardener’s Rest, Hillsborough Hotel and The Rising Sun in Nether Green are no longer in the guide. All are exemplary real ale outlets, all are very popular beyond ale drinkers and all are attached to local breweries. I must say I have lost a little faith in Sheffield CAMRA members! We have also lost The New Barrack Tavern, The Ranmoor Inn, Champs (although that has changed and moved), The Carlton, The Ball in Crookes, and The Francis Newton.

The blog will be updated to show the new list of entries and there will have to be a new post on good ale pubs that are not in the Good Beer Guide.

Update

While the blog may have been quiet this last week I can assure you that plenty of material for writing (Drinking beer in different places) has been collected. Bristol, Bath and Birmingham have now all been visited, photos taken and opinions formed. There is quite a lot of writing to be done now so bare with me with the Newcastle review still outstanding, and the mammoth task of transcribing the Eddy Munnelly interview ongoing.

But the Lincoln review is featured in the September issue of Beer Matters by Sheffield CAMRA! Whilst you can read it on here, if you would like to see it in it's published setting please go to http://www.sheffieldcamra.org.uk/beermatters.htm