Local Christmas/Winter Ales

The infamous Christmas beer from Bradfield Brewery has been available from 1st November but is now being seen more often. A minimum 50,000 pints of Belgium Blue will be brewed but so far I have only managed about 10! It'll be popping up in various Wetherspoons and is a mainstay in the Porter Cottage over the festive period and may also be permanently in Forum group outlets. The Broadfield and The York certainly had it on last week and my local; The Sheaf View, has 9 barrels but they are saving it for nearer Christmas as it will fly off the bar. Various other pubs also have it/have had it/will have it and I got a pint of in the University Arms last Friday night. Simply cannot get enough of the stuff. I may have to go and pick up a take out box of it from the Brewery to drink at home over Christmas.

Abbeydale Brewery have no less than 6 festive beers although 2 are sold out already. Head here http://www.abbeydalebrewery.co.uk/beers for

the full list but I can say that Baubles is a very nice beer as I tried that a couple of years ago. As I am drinking around Kelham Island tonight I am hopeful that I may see one of them in Shakespeare's or perhaps the Kelham Island Tavern. Should end up in the Museum and they can usually be relied on for Abbeydale specials. Fingers crossed!

Kelham Island Brewery have two Christmas Specials; Fairytale of New York 4.2% and Captain Crimbo 5.4%. Looking at the tasting notes I think I’d opt for Captain Crimbo; http://www.kelhambrewery.co.uk/specials.htm. As I am drinking in the Fat Cat tonight I hope to be sampling it this very evening!

Sheffield Brewery are offering two Christmas beers; Christmas Pudding Porter 5.2%, and Christmas Amber Ale 4.1%. Sadly I don’t think I’ll make it as far as the Gardeners Rest tonight, but I will try to next week in order to sample one.

Blue Bee have Hoe Hoe Hoe, a 5% pale ale that is probably best looked for in the Rutland Arms or the Three Cranes.

True North have First Noel, 5.2%, a traditional dark ale, which I have seen in the Broadfield and I imagine will be in the York too if not the Old House and the Forum. I haven’t been in the last two since the brewery started so I’m not sure if they have extended their hand pump range.

Wentworth have brewed Santa’s Secret a 4.0% dark and hoppy Christmas ale and you may still see their Plum Porter which I’d also like to sample.

Welbeck Abbey have catered for all with two beers that cover the pale and dark camps. Cocoa Noel 5.5% is a chocolate stout and Santa Baby a 5.9% Australian style IPA. I’m curious about the chocolate stout but I will naturally gravitate towards the pale. Yes I know it’s not original but it’s what I like so there.

Acorn have 10^th Noel a 5.7% ruby ale that I have seen (but not yet tried) in the Sheaf Island so I would think it’ll crop up in other Wetherspoons too. As the name suggest this is their 10^th version of this ale and in keeping with tradition it is 0.1% stronger than last years version.

Raw has Blizzard Bitter 5.0% which in their words is a ‘strong festive bitter with caramel flavours and a smooth dry bitterness’. I can’t reliably say where you’re likely to see that and at some point I might contact every local brewery to what which pubs they regularly supply to. Because I’d like to know that, and even though there are apps that try to do that, I’m uncertain of their comprehensiveness as they are often reliant on user info.

Peak Ales winters ale is Noggin Filler a 5% traditional dark winter ale. Again, this will be hard to come across in Sheffield as their beers are rarely seen here.

Duncan Gilmour Article in Beer Matters

Well... it has been a while. But as some of you may know beer articles have consistently been appearing in Beer Matters. The biggest one yet went in the November issue and provided a brief look at Duncan Gilmour, traces of which can be seen all around the city.

Feedback from that article is featured in the December/January issue and I was warned that history articles do provoke a response! Which should be expected if there are mistakes and there are bound to be when dealing with the past.

The trouble is that I did not do any original research as such, I merely summarised the data in David Lloyd Parry’s book South Yorkshire Stingo and added in some info from Mark Bone’s entry on The Tamara Valley website. This was sufficient enough to tell the overall story of Duncan Gilmour and in one place. However I am the first to concede much more work needs to be done to confirm the details. Of which there are a lot. And seeing as I work full time I am not really in a position to undertake a huge project like that. Because I could not stop there, I would have to chronicle the history of Wards and Stones too, and then all the breweries that they took over. I would try and find pictures of the pubs, map where they where located, collate anecdotal evidence and check business accounts.

So one day, in about 35 years, when I am retired then perhaps I will do that! It is something that will certainly hold my interest for a long time as local history fascinates me.

The Duncan Gilmour piece is not on this blog as Blogger is extremely inflexible when it comes to imbedding pictures. I tried but anger was the only result. So it is on the Face Book page along with some more pictures of ex Gilmour Windsor pubs. The historic photos are not included as Picture Sheffield own the copyright and despite me checking that Beer Matters was ok to publish them, I still managed to email the article to Sheffield CAMRA with the wrong reference on. Oops.

But either way I think I will be drawn to write a piece on the history of Wards and Stones (separately) sometime next year.