Hello! Wow, it's been a long time since we last talked. That's because I bought a house in Bassetlaw, North Nottinghamshire. Because Sheffield houses were too expensive in 2016. Which is kind of hilarious in a depressing way, because they are now even more expensive than that. Hopefully one day I can afford to live in my city, but my leaving is why I had stopped posting on this blog. You can't really say that you are talking about Sheffield beer when you don't live there. That would be disingenuous. Also, I kind of had run out of things to say. Which is ridiculous really as there's always something to say about beer. It's a blog after all. Waffling is a right in blogging environment. 

And it's not like I have stopped drinking beer because I certainly haven't! Ok, I admit I have found myself buying more lager because there aren't many places near Worksop to buy real or craft ale. Yes, we now have to acknowledge that real ale is an older persons thing. New entrepreneur's generally characterise independent beer as craft beer. Which has become the new buzz word. Investors love a buzz word as it can usually translate into new market opportunities, which the nature of free market economics.

Sheffield has changed since I last blogged. Drinking beer in Sheffield has also changed since then. there's even a Facebook group. But I'm back to guide you through these changes. No, I don't live there anymore, but I work in Sheffield and I'll always love it. Once born, always bred.

There are several issues that need attention; the gentrification of Kelham Island for one, and the lack of decent places to drink beer in the city centre.

I'll see you soon, beer drinking compatriots. :) 

What is Craft Beer?

Now, my intention was simply to repeat a blog post about keg beer written in late 2014, which I feel is still a current issue and worth repeating here. But even just composing the title (Keg [craft] beer) I realised there was a minefield which needed exploring first. So...

Real Ale. Craft Beer. What is the difference?

This is a question that has been typed into Google many times and anyone who has done so will have most likely not found a satisfactory answer. Do we need an answer? Some would say we do and others would disagree. But if you are new to beer drinking and are trying to navigate the different products that exist you would probably like one.

Well the trouble is there is no definitive answer though many have tried to supply one. In my opinion it is simply a case of a new band wagon. The old band wagon was real ale (an old band wagon indeed as the Campaign for Real Ale began in 1971) which found itself thrust centre stage about 12 years ago with the explosion of microbreweries.

Ah, now we have another term that should be explained, just in case we’re unclear about that too. There will be a definition out there somewhere I’m sure, but I will offer a brief description here. From the mid 1700s through to the 1800s brewing started to become a serious business, indeed most businesses became serious as it was the industrial revolution. For a nation (or Empire) of hard workers a lot of beer was required and so supply matched demand. Fast foward a century and, as is inevitable in a free market economy, the stronger breweries had acquired the smaller ones (See the other Note on Duncan Gilmour) resulting in the domination of a select few. Bass and Whitbread were two of England’s biggest players and they made it all the way to the mid 90s until the government decided they were too big (their interests included restaurant and hotel chains by this point) and demanded they split up their businesses. So compared to these brewing behemoths the fellow who started a brewery in his empty outbuilding or a modest sized industrial unit was small fry indeed. Micro in fact. There are also idealistic differences attached to the term but consider these to be further reading.

A lot of microbreweries popped up as more people became interested in real ale and realised they could make money from it. There were a few that started in the late 1970s, 80s and 90s (Kelham Island & Abbeydale locally) but the majority came into existence around 2004.

So that is beer band wagon number one.

Now, like anything that is popular and successful a similar revolution started across the Atlantic as well. Microbreweries began appearing in America in the 1980s (again there are earlier examples such as Anchor) and the scene exploded a couple of years after it did here.

The Americans, however, had a linguistic problem. For them ‘beer’ was Budweiser, Coors, Millers and other mass production big brewers that had been around since the late 1800s. US versions of Bass and Whitbread if you will. We would call this lager because for us beer came first, but in the US lager came first and was known as beer.

And so when more and more American microbreweries started making interesting and exciting beer, the Craft Beer label was born. This is band wagon number two and because it is the second band wagon it is newer, cooler.

Then some UK brewers started calling themselves ‘craft’. But what does craft mean when it’s applied over here? Well there is a fundamental difference between how beer is dispensed here and how it is dispensed in America. The latter method is through pressurised kegs and taps on the bar whereas as we tend to favour casks containing sediment served through hand pumps (although casks are being embraced by some Us brewers). America also has far more hop varieties - different hops have different flavours and qualities - and UK brewers utilise these a lot as our own hop industry is sadly limited. If I see one more ‘New World’ pale or IPA...

Keg beer has been growing in the UK over the last few years (See note on Keg Beer) and now some brewers prefer that medium, Brew Dog being the first high profile example. Closer to home, there are two new breweries in Sheffield that only produce beer in kegs and bottle; Lost Industry and North Union. Although the former is looking to provide some limited cask beers. Keg beer has been slow to take off in Sheffield but it is on the rise. The best places to find it are; the Broadfield, Sheffield Tap, Rutland Arms, Shakespeare’s, Anchorage and of course Brew Dog. If would like to sample some bottled craft head to Beer Central, Hop Hideout and Archer Road Beer Stop who all sell American beers and UK craft breweries such as Weird Beard, Siren, Kernal & the Wild Beer Company.

So when you see the Craft Beer label you can expect to see at least two of the following; keg beer, American hops, strong and experimental flavours high ABV’s and minimalist, snappy branding. 

Local Brewery & Pub Updates

Happy new year! For 2016 and um.. 2015.

What can I say, 2015 was a busy year; I starting writing a novel, went to Glastonbury Festival, got married, went on two honeymoons and put an offer in on a house. Oh, and frequented as many beer festivals as I could possibly get to.

But I realised recently that, if nothing else, the info on local breweries and ale pubs really needed updating and this has now been done.

In the brewery section on the left I have updated all the lists; a sad goodbye to Harthill, Wood Street and Hand Drawn Monkey, but a warm welcome to North Union, Neepsend, Lost Industry, the Brew Foundation, Intrepid, Pigeon Fisher Craft and Pickled Pig.

On the right, the list of Sheffield pubs that sell real ale has also been updated with the addition of the Beer Engine, The Sheffield Beer House, the Tram Shed (bottles only) and Portland House.

I have also added a list of local shops that sell or specialise in bottled real ale, which was to be the subject of a blog post many moons ago and may still be yet.

With all these new breweries and venues there has never been a better time to drink real ale in Sheffield!

Local 2015 Good Beer Guide Entries & other Musings

So a couple of weeks late perhaps and yes, my first post since May I know, but I have been busy doing my part (as cellar manager) in trying to establish a new opening as a reputable ale and home cooked food venue in one of Sheffield’s suburbs. And as much fun as that has been it is time to look at the entries in this year’s Good Beer Guide.

So let’s start with the city itself. Well, not too much to report there with three venues going out and three more being voted in. Did I vote? No I didn’t get round to it as usual so it’s not just the blog my voice has been missing from. However, plenty of members clearly have voted and the results are in, published and sat in some of your bookcases.

The new entries in the guide this year are The Closed Shop, The Francis Newton and The Porter Brook. Now, on the face of it these are all pretty reasonable ale places. I have been in The Closed Shop a couple of times in the last 18 months and the beer range has always been good, but I have not been in enough to pass real comment. The Francis Newton is undoubtedly the nicest Spoons in Sheffield with its beer garden, car park and lack of reprobates. And it does usually have a good beer range but is it so much better than that of the Sheaf Island or the Huntsman? Even the Bankers Draft has been doing well with their beer choice recently which is good as it’s the nicest building Spoons have got in the city. In 2011 the Rawson Spring got in which I imagine is the year it opened. And lastly The Porter Brook, a good boozer, I’ve always like it even if it’s always been a little short on seats. I know it belongs to the evil Greene King but as The Ball in Crookes has shown, they do allow some of their pubs to stock an amount of local ales that is greater than their own.

So all very well and good in general you might say, but at what cost? Well it means that three places have been voted out of the Good Beer Guide. The Ship on Shalesmoor is no longer in but it has hardly been a mainstay anyway. It appeared in the 2012 and 2013 guides but was not in the 2011 edition, I’m not sure about earlier. However it has improved its beer range recently, even installing an extra pump. Considering its proximity to Kelham Island it was about time they took advantage although I appreciate it’s not a free house. And the Landlady is not in favour of tasters so that’s two pubs in the area with that policy as the Wellington started doing it last year. It is a policy I find particularly small minded and counterproductive for beer sales and in all the places I’ve visited around the country I don’t think I’ve ever been refused a taster. And if that is your policy then either the staff need to be extremely knowledgeable or there should be tasting notes on a board near the bar. It’s just good practice, simple as that.

Anyway, let’s not stray too far from the subject at hand. The second pub that is not in next year’s guide is The Cobden View in Crookes which has been in for the last few years. This is perhaps not entirely surprising. It is a lovely pub, friendly and cosy but it’s never had the best range of beers, lacking in guests as far as I’ve noticed. So while it was a solid local entry there is now more competition around the city for members to vote for. And perhaps the ‘bar’ has been raised too.

The last omission is the most surprising as it was a worthy entry for a number of years. The Old House is a welcome respite on Devonshire/Devonshire Street from the bars and chain pubs, providing six hand pulled beers, an impressive array of cocktails, and good quality home cooked food. There is a robust guest beer policy that fits around the in house True North Brewing Company, whose own beers have been steadily improving of late. But such is the fickle nature of the voting public even within a member orientated organisation. I’m sure enough people will continue to go the Old House to drink beer but it is a shame it has lost that badge of honour. The Forum Group, who own it, have two other venues in the Good Beer Guide; the York and the Broadfield, current jewel in the crown. It remains to be seen if the new opening in the Mosborough (The British Oak) will be voted in, but it is out there all by itself in terms of ale pubs and we know that clustering does help. As does the number of (voting) CAMRA members who live nearby. Also, it has only been open since the end of March and voting for the 2016 edition takes place before Christmas.

The Sheffield AMRA branch is also responsible for part of North Derbyshire too but there is no change there. The Red Lion at Litton, The Grouse Inn near Longshaw, The Anglers Rest at Millers Dale, The Cheshire Cheese in Hope, The Packhorse Inn at Little Longstone and The Three Stags Head near Wardlow all remaining in the guide. Also still included is the excellent Arkwright Arms in Duckmanton, The All Inn at Staveley, The Rutland Arms in Holmesfield and The Hare and Hounds in Barlow. But the big upset occurs in Dronfield. Recently granted its own sub branch it has seen both of the pubs in last year’s guide slip out. These were The Three Tuns, Spire Brewery’s tap and The Coach House a Thornbridge outlet close to Sheffield. Both were worthy of inclusion in my opinion but have now been replaced by The Travellers Rest at Apperknowle and The Cross Daggers in Coal Aston. We have been in the former and it was reasonable for beer selection if not revelatory. But then, a pub in its location is hardly going to be pursuing that. The other usurper is one I have not heard of never mind visited, but it is off the main road. According to What Pub The Cross Daggers has three regular beers (Farmers Blonde, Moonshine and Tetleys and one guest but on that evidence I don’t think it beats the Coach & Horses or the Three Tuns. Of course it is not all about beer choice, with beer condition a factor, but it is surely the main consideration given the title of the guide. We shall have to see what happens next year in this area.

None of the exiting pubs are to be blamed in my opinion as they have not changed their way of working to my knowledge. But as previously stated, there is increased competition and the standard is rising with almost every new opening or venture. I don’t think I blogged on GBG entries last year but I have noticed that Archer Road Beer Stop has not been in the guide since the 2013 edition and this will also be for the reasons stated above. That is also a shame as it was good to see a real ale off licence in the guide. But, once again, there is more competition in that area with a flurry of activity in the last year. Beer Central opened in the new market and hit the ground running with some excellent beer choices, local and from afar. I remarked that they could do with a bigger unit but they like their location in the market too much to move. The Hop Hideout is almost next to the Broadfield on Abbeydale road and is a tentative operation but again the research has been done and beer is available there that is not available elsewhere in the city. There’s also a good chance they’ll move to bigger premises soon and extend their opening hours. Further down Abbeydale Road is the Yorkshire supermarket Mr Pickles. What a great concept! And, even better, they sell bottled beer. Only from God’s Own County of course but the selection is still as rich as you’d expect. I was able to get pretty much all the Tour De France beers that the Yorkshire breweries made. Dave at Archer Road beer stop has upped his game in response, although he’ll always have his loyal customers like me. And even Mitchell’s responded by increasing their range; now being the only place in Sheffield to stock Titanic beers. Although the Plum Porter sadly remains elusive.

I decided not to limit myself to Sheffield when checking the entries against those of last year, mainly out of curiosity. My other half comes from Worksop and my sister moved to Chesterfield this year so I drink in these neighbouring districts on a fairly regular basis. There’s no change in Worksop or in any of the surrounding settlements as far as I can tell. The Grafton Hotel, the Mallard, the Station Hotel and the Shireoaks are still Worksop’s premier drinking establishments. And of course you can get real ale in the Liquorice Gardens, the obligatory Wetherspoons which sits in a most curious building. I would like to see the Anchor, which is Dukeries Brewery nominated tap, challenge the Shireoaks one year as I think it deserves an entry. Primarily an eating pub but there is a tap room to the right as you enter and a choice of around five ales and the odd guest beer if I recall correctly.

And so on to Chesterfield where the most heinous crime has been committed. When my sister and her partner moved there I told them the best pub for beer is the Chesterfield Arms. So how on earth has it been passed over for inclusion?! Well this can happen; it’s all down to members and herein lies the problem with the Good Beer Guide. For a lot of people it’s probably about proximity and reputation but that doesn’t mean that pubs not in the guide are not worthy of visiting. It is after all only a guide and not the definitive word on the subject. I think that is most likely impossible to achieve. We use it when visiting somewhere new as it’s the easiest way to find real ale. But take Leeds for example, one of our first crawls. We used the guide when we first went and we checked it on our second visit. But we still went back to places that featured in the guide of the previous year even if they were not in the current one, because we knew we could find good ale there. It is this knowledge gap that (for me) What Pub aims to fill. That and local blogs I suppose. The other change in Chesterfield is Spa Lane Vaults, one of the two Wetherspoons, but we’ve seen in Sheffield that these can flit in and out of the guide year to year. So the new ones that go in are both veterans of previous years; the Peacock in Brampton and the Market in the centre. Both decent pubs but neither have up to 16 beers on at a weekend like the Chesterfield Arms. Oh well, I would hope at least that the Chesterfield Ale House goes in the 2016 guide.

Keg Beer

So yes, I aim to be blogging a little more this year. Yes I know, it's May already and there's only been one post but I've changed jobs and life has generally got in the way. Beer has not got in the way though. Well, I suppose it has actually but I don't really mind that. It was good to meet Wee Beefy in person the other week even if our initial handshake had disastrous consequences for my colleagues drink, and the dryness of his crotch! Having a chat with him made me realise I need to be on here more, spouting my irrelevant thoughts about the beer world.

And so... kegged beer. Sorry if I just swore at you then but its rise on the bar cannot be denied no matter how you feel about it. I must admit I was less than enthused about the concept when I came across it but I am slowly being won over. Now as a member of CAMRA I am aware of course that their organisation is duty bound to have a problem with beer that comes out of a keg and is chilled to a greater extent than cask beer. After all it is the very foundation upon which they built their cause. So I therefore appreciate that many members will most likely shun keg beer on principle. And it is a fine principle but the times they are a-changing. CAMRA does its upmost to attract younger drinkers, in order to challenge the middle aged bearded man reputation which they have been saddled with. And yes, many different types of people drink and enjoy ale, real or otherwise. But middles aged bearded men in particular enjoy and drink ale. And the problem with kegged beer is that it is somehow a little bit sexier than cask beer and therefore is consumed largely (I suspect, from what I have observed) by younger drinkers.

Are CAMRA shooting themselves in the foot here? Well I'm not going to go that far but I will say that every organistion reaches a point where it has to move with the times or risk becoming obsolete. The church for instance. So we will just have to see how it all pans out; they certainly can't just ignore the trend. But I suppose kegged beer needs to have more going for it than simply being a trend before it gets acknowledgment.

So why have I come around to keg beer? Well... it's beer. Why would I ignore it? It may not be drawn by a hand pump from a horizontal vessel but to me it is still beer. Yes, I can hear the howls of derision as I type this but that it is my opinion as it stands at the moment. For me it means greater choice on the bar. But I will not call it real ale, we can have the debate about what should or shouldn't be real some other time. I don't mind that it is colder and fizzier, that makes it refreshing to me. It is fair to say that many ale drinkers (perhaps not the serious ones) will switch to lager on a hot sunny day (remember those?) and lager drinkers may switch to cider. Yes, some real ale drinkers will switch to real cider but they will be the serious ones. So perhaps some of these 'sunny switchers' will now switch to a kegged ale instead of a lager, And that's a win surely? One less person swigging Carling is definitely a good thing in my book. And as I've said before, it offers a greater choice. Many breweries now have a keg beer among their portfolio and so there is even more to choose from. Now, not everything produced is going to be original and great but the same can be said of cask beer. If breweries are simply kegging one of their cask beers then I may frown slightly as that is rather a case of jumping lazily on the beer wagon. But it would be a start at least and there are plenty of brewers who take keg beers seriously and are designing beers specifically for that medium. Abbeydale for instance; their Pale Ale #2 appears to be a roaring success, and with good reason. I think it also allows for more experimentation with novelty beers, especially higher percentage ones as kegged beer should last longer (so I am led to believe).

But anyway, I have no more time to expand my reasoning as I'm off to a wedding reception where I hope to find some ale, real or otherwise. So next time you see a kegged beer from a reputable brewery, give it a shot. You just might surprise yourself.

 

2013 - The Stats

Now, like every good beer ticker we have analysed the results of last year to see what our drinking habits were. Well maybe not every good beer ticker as we operate by iPhone note when out and about and it all ends up on a spreadsheet. (I am, according to a colleague, a digital ticker and I quite like that!) Yes, yes I can hear your snorts of derision from here, but if real ale is truly an interest then I think you should be interested in what you drink, where you drink it and how much of it you drink. But yes, I have always been one for lists I'll give you that.

So... to the results. 

Most Popular Beers

1. Moonshine 4.3%,  Abbeydale - 24 (Surprised us! Because we generally seek out new ales. But that's the ubiquitous part. Not that it isn't a damn fine beer mind you)
2. Acorn Blonde 4.0%/Easy Rider 4.3%, Kelham Island - 19 (Both are regulars at my local)
3. Deception 4.1%, Abbeydale - 18
4. Blue Moon 6.0%, Pictish - 15
5. First Blonde 4.0%, True North - 12

Most Drunk Local Brewery

1. Abbeydale - 80
2. Acorn - 53
3. Kelham Island - 42
4. Bradfield - 34
5. Thornbridge/Welbeck Abbey - 27

Most Drunk Guest Brewery

1. Pictish - 67
2. Castle Rock/Milestone/Ossett - 21
3. Saltaire - 18
4. Dancing Duck/Great Heck/Phoenix - 16
5. Rudgate - 14

Most Visited Public House

1. The Sheaf View - 82 (It is my local after all!)
2. The Broadfield - 13
3. The Fat Cat -12
4. The Harlequin/Shakespeare's - 11
5. The Red Deer - 9

No, of beer festivals visited; 11

Highlights being; Great British Beer Festival, Bradford (held in Saltaire), Barrow Hill, Nottingham.

Notes

• Counts include halves and pints consumed; how often we have chosen a beer or brewery, not the amount consumed
• The results are definitely a reflection of what we like but are also indicative of how ubiquitous a brewery or beer is, or how narrow the choice may be
• 'Local' includes all South Yorkshire, North Derbyshire and North Nottinghamshire breweries
• 'Guest Brewery' refers to all breweries that are not local but are found and drunk often enough to be counted

This year there will be more stouts and porters as we have recently got into them properly, and our tastes have changed so I doubt Pictish will be top gust brewery next year.

Restating the Purpose

Yes I know, it has been too long between posts to really call myself a blogger these days. But fear not, ale is still being drunk, in Sheffield, at home and in various other places around England. Yes, yes, I am really behind with my write ups but I still aim to catch up and there are a couple that can be added to the blog since Beer Matters don't seem to want to push them. I have many things to muse on (over?) though if you will.

But hey ho (and ho ho ho far too soon) we are looking forward to going around Newark the week before Christmas and checking out a micropub, which is an excellent concept and fast catching on. Just to recpap (and remind myself how far behind I am) we have toured the Good Beer Guide pubs in Newcastle, Durham, Scarborough, York, Wakefield, Leeds, Halifax and Sowerby Bridge, Todmorden, Rochdale, Manchester, Liverpool, Rotherham, Worksop, Chesterfield, Derby, Lincoln, Leicester, Nottingham, Burton (a cool but weird place), Birmingham, Bristol, Bath, Bradford-Upon-Avon and parts of London. And we can tell you that Sheffield is one of the cheapest places to drink real ale, despite what you might think (perhaps you're drinking in the wrong places!). 

I started this blog to charter the real ale scene in Sheffield and felt some obligation to champion it since I picked such an ambitious name (oops). However I also found a new purpose by touring the country; the search for a comparable ale crawl to our own famous Kelham Island scene. And there are some that do hold up to scrutiny to be fair; Manchester's Northgate Quarter, Newcastle, Wakefield (yes really) and Chesterfield (dee da accusations none withstanding). And there are some that fall short; Birmingham, Lincoln and Burton. Birmingham was too busy with itself and too hip to worry about an ale scene. Lincoln had wonderful pubs but no local breweries (Marston's dominated) and Burton was just an odd place. It's a brewery surrounded by a town but there's only two major breweries left there; one of which does thankfully see cask ale as a just cause (Marston's) and the other of which it is a byproduct (Coors/Worthington's) of countless takeovers and downsizing. Bizarre that Coors now own the Bass site but Bass ale is now brewed by one time rival Marston's. At least part of the site is now the National Brewery Centre which every self respecting beer drinker should visit as a matter of course.

But I digress, tis the season to be jolly (like we need an excuse) and Christmas beers are starting to appear. But I can't bring myself to buy any yet. Maybe next week. But at least I have got into stouts and porters which has broadened my pallet at last. I'll be posting soon about bottled beer in Sheffield, something I have long since been meaning to post about. But even more pertinent now with these new businesses...