Sheffield Revisited - I shouldn't leave it so long next time! Day One:

I visited to 1) see friends, 2) go to football at Hillsborough Park, and 3) drink ale!

 

As you will see, over the 2 nights I was there, I only drank at 5 of the very many fine ale houses in Sheffield, starting with the double National CAMRA Pub of the Year, and often Yorkshire and Sheffield POTY, the Kelham Island Tavern, 62 Russell Street S3 8RW (0114 2722482 - website). What can I say? Great ale house, spoke to the landlords, Trevor and Lewis, and to Dave, presumably Head Barman, I didn't ask, but I've known them all for a number of years now, and I felt reyt welcome, indeed, Dave came out for a drink with us the second time I visited the KIT with a couple of other mates, Lindsay and Jeff, later that evening! 

13 ales to choose from at the KIT, starting at £2.40 a pint for 4 of them, and upwards, but reasonable priced ales all! I don't think I made a note of all I had to drink here over the 2 visits, and a note of every ale that was available is certainly not forthcoming! First, though, Wigan brewery Allgates (website) Tuckers Hill (3.8%), a zesty golden bitter with a hint of smoked grain. 

Then I had 2 excellent IPA/APA style bitters; from West Yorkshire, Bridestones (website) American Pale Ale (5%), with "copious Willamette aroma hops" they say, and I believe! This was pale, sharp, and very bitter, great stuff, just what the doctor ordered... Then I had something even more exquisite, a collaboration between another 2 Yorkshire breweries, Brass Castle (website) Rampart (7%), and Ossett (website). The Rampart is described as a "heavily hopped IPA" and is another very dry bitter, though with a wee bit more hint of fruit. I'm sure I had more there, but you'll have to go there yourself to enjoy the pleasures of the many ales available!        

In between visits to the KIT, I met up with Lindsay at the Fat Cat, 23 Alma Street S3 8SA (0114 2494801 - website), a pub I first visited in 1989, and, locally, the two pubs, which are a stones lob away from each other, are referred to together as the KitCat! The Fat Cat has its own brewery next door, Kelham Island Brewery (website), where I worked whilst a postgraduate student many years ago.

Problem, I cannot remember what I had to drink, mainly because it was good to meet up and chat with friends I hadn't seen for years, I also chatted to Diane and Stephen behind the bar too, obviously... Also, we met up with 2 away fans, and their buddy from Exeter, father and son; the younger studying at Sheffield Hallam University.  

When Lindsay, Jeff, Dave and I left the KIT we finished off at The Shakespeare, 146-148 Gibraltar Street S3 8UB (0114 2755959 - website), 3 excellent pubs in such close proximity, and quite a few not so far away either! Here, by chance, I also met up with a few others I hadn't seen for a while, including 'Owls' fan, Ian, and, though I'm sure I drank something else too, or maybe just more than one pint of this, The Da Vinci Cod (4.5%). Brewed by another Sheffield brewer, Abbeydale (website), dry-hopped with Vic Secret, and I have written, citrus fruity, dry & bitter, "A Carman Miranda of an ale", £2.90 a pint, and I liked it, a lot!    

More to come, cheers! 

Congratulations to Louisa at the Tower!

Congratulations to Louisa, and her colleagues at the Tower, London Road, Bohemia, for winning the local South East Sussex CAMRA 2015 Pub of the Year, and Cider Pub of the Year too, nice one, or two! I've known Louisa, the manager at the Tower, for 3 years now, and can honestly say that I've never had a bad pint there. In fact, she has brought this pub into CAMRA reckoning by maintaining ales in excellent condition, with many local Sussex ales too, along with excellent value. 

Consequently, I have been writing about the Tower for 3 years now, and have had a look back over my blogs to help with this one. However, I didn't really need to, because Louisa has continued to sell good quality and good value ales. I first noted the cheapest ale as £2.30 a pint in 2012, now it is still usually just £2.60 a pint, a fair comparison relative to other pubs regarding changes in pricing, but still so much better value than most, and in lined glasses ('spoons apart for price!). The Tower has also been in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide for 2 years now. 

Also, that early 'cheapest' ale was the excellent Sussex brewed Dark Star Hophead (3.8%) at £2.30 a pint, and the other virtual regular from Dark Star brewery (website) American Pale Ale (APA, 4.7%) at £2.40 a pint. They were both on for my most recent visit this week at £2.70 a pint and £2.80 a pint respectively, great stuff!  

Over those 3 years, Louisa has also added 2 handpumps from the 4 when I first visited, meaning usually at least 4 regularly changing ales in addition to the 2 virtual regulars. Other ales on this week were the even more local Franklins (website) Pudding Stout (4.2%); from the North West, Robinsons Voodoo Dawn (3.9%), a 'deep red ale'; and from South Yorkshire, Abbeydale Accent Compensation (4.1%), a pale bitter.   

Oh yes, and the 6th ale on this visit, from Peterborough, was the excellent Oakham Bishops Farewell (£2.90 a pint), 4.6% of pale hoppy, citrus fruity, dry and bitter ale. I've written so often about this ale, as I have the Dark Star pair, that I really don't have anything else to add, except, I continue to love drinking them! 

And to add to Louisa's collection of awards was the local Cider Pub of the Year! She sells 2 keg ciders, Strongbow and Symonds Founders Reserve, and 2 real ciders, as can be seen from the photograph. There is Shepton Mallet Somerset Snuffler (4.8%), and the legendary Westons Old Rosie, 7.3% and dangerous!   

Congratulations Lou!

Sheffield Part II - even more greater ales!

Where do I start when visiting a City with a plethora of genuine free houses and microbreweries, and consequently, loadsa luvverly ale!?! The easiest way would be to start at the very beginning, as a certain governess said in The Sound of Music, so I shall... but I shall also deviate a wee bit from convention, and leave the second pub visited that day until last, particularly as I was drinking there twice that day... 

I was going to have a cheapo breakfast in one of the many Sheffield Wetherspoons, but kept putting it off and didn't in the end, as I don't like the last 'spoons I reached that morning, the one at Hillsborough Corner, it feels reyt unfriendly; though I did meet an old neighbour in there, Dave, before I used its toilet facilities. So, instead, I decided to walk to Hillsborough Stadium, through the Park, and visited the memorial to the Tragedy; a visit here has always helped me to put things into perspective. Then, as I was in the area, I did as people are meant to do whilst in Rome, do as the locals do, so I had a pork sandwich (to my Southern readers, that's a soft bap, called a bread cake there, with pork in it) for my late breakfast, followed by a £1 poke of chips for my early lunch; healthy eating... 

Anyway, a short walk from nearby Malin Bridge tram stop is the bottom of Stannington Road, a wee way up which, on a corner on the right hand side of the road, is The Anvil, an Enterprise pub, now run by long-time friends, and more, Tom (full-time at The Anvil) and Brigitte (who also works full-time elsewhere), as I mentioned in Part I. Tom being a chef, I have no doubt the food will be very good, but I only stopped in for a pint as I had much more to do that day, so cannot report on the food, but the lovely barmaid (I've forgotten her name, as in forgot to write it down) served up a decent pint of Derbyshire brewer, Derventio's Winter King, a 4% pale hoppy bitter with a dry aftertaste. As I hadn't let them know about my likely visit, I also surprised both Tom and Brigitte when I turned up. Good luck to the both of you with your venture! 

Anyway, after visiting the second pub of the day, reporting further down in this blog, I had some more food, and a rest from alcohol, before visiting one of the most recent additions to good ale houses in Sheffield, Shakespeare's on Gibraltar Street, a music venue as well, and for a while closed, when it desperately needed refurbishment. Indeed, this is one of 28 Sheffield pubs in the 2014 CAMRA Good Beer Guide, and 26th of those that I have had an ale or three in over the years, though I had been here in the past under different management. I had arranged to meet up at 6pm with Noel (fellow R), and other mates, Lindsay and Jeff MacDoughnut, all 3 living in Sheffield still, though none of the 4 of us are from South Yorkshire, being 2 Southerners (me with mucho Celt in me), a Scot and a Paddy; good company indeed! 

We all turned up within a couple of minutes of each other, and I was pleased with the work done in the pub, which has not noticeably changed at all architecturally. It was great to meet up with the 3 lads, who are great friends I hadn't seen for a couple of years. This being a beer and pub blog, though, I shan't go over our conversations, but just add notes on the 2 ales I had from their 12 real ale handpumps. The only regular ale is the Sheffield brewer Abbeydale's Deception, a 4.1% pale, fruity hoppy ale, though this wasn't one of the two 'guests' I tried. No, I had ales from further afield, though still from 2 Yorkshire breweries. First, the 4.3% North Riding Brew Pub's Galaxy (4.3%), another fruity pale hoppy bitter, presumably using Galaxy hops, and very nice too. Second, Great Heck's Five, a 5% pale hoppy bitter with plenty of grapefruit aroma and flavour, I liked this very much!     

We then ventured to the Kelham Island Tavern. Shakespeare's has already won awards, which is great, but the KIT, as we like to refer to it locally (oh dear, I'd became a local all over again, if only for 48 hours), has won the CAMRA Pub of the Year, in recent times, NATIONALLY... and 2 years in a row, which is some feat! Immediately, we saw Pete (who works part-time behind the bar at the Wellington) as we entered, the pub was tightly packed, though, with a great variety of people as we expect in here; young and not so young, male and female, it is an excellent success story for Trevor and Louis, the owners/landlords. Indeed, I had a good chat with Trevor whilst there, and with Dave, who I keep in touch with on facebook, though he'd probably deny we are 'friends' ;-) was serving behind the bar, together with a few others, including a rather fetching young lady who, again, I hadn't added her name to my notebook, but she made an impression... 

Ales-wise, there is an excellent choice of ales served from 12 handpumps, regular and guests, as you would expect from such a prolific award winning pub, from local microbreweries, and some from further afar. Indeed, I drank an ale brewed over t' Pennines in Rochdale, Pictish Polaris, a 4.5% dry pale bitter, perfectly suiting my taste, and as recommended by Dave, cheers! 

From the KIT, we wandered round the corner to the Fat Cat (get it? KIT-CAT, as locally referred to) and bumped into 2 more great friends, Bob and his wife Marie, as they left the Cat, which sits in front of Kelham Island Museum, and which has it's own brewery Kelham Island (where I worked for a while at the turn of the Millenium until 2001/2). Bob and Marie were on the way to the KIT with a couple of friends I didn't know, but you can appreciate the general mobility of regulars in this area... 

So, our penultimate destination was the Fat Cat, one of the earliest exponents of real ale in the country, a very early brewpub of modern times, and started up by my old employer, Dave Wickett, who sadly died in 2012, following a lengthy illness with cancer: RIP Dave. We met up with a few folk in here too, and Duncan still the manager too, though it was too busy to chat with him, another pub packed with young and old, male and female alike; who said real ale was just for old men? I didn't drink one of their own ales, from the array on offer, but had a 'guest', from another Yorkshire brewer, Salamander's Scarf & Mittens (5%), a very good pale hoppy winter ale at £3 a pint. Whilst at the Fat Cat, another mate, Will, contacted me to say he'd meet up with us at our next port of call, which he did...  

My second visit of the day to The Wellington (previously, Cask & Cutler and, previous to that, The Wellington), so my second and ultimate pub of the day, which serves up many of its own ales under the label of 'Little Ale Cart Brewery' that used to be brewed out' back, but now brewed elsewhere in the city. They brew excellent pale and hoppy ales, but, as I'd let Will know, this day they had their own dark bitter, and a stout on sale too, hence ensuring his joining us! They also serve, from their 10 handpumps, a real cider, and guests from other micros too; their only 'regular' being Millstone Baby Git, an excellent 4% pale hoppy oxymoron of an ale at £2.40 a pint. There are no keg beers and lagers only in bottle; and quite a few Belgian bottled beers too. 

As soon as we walked into the 'Welly', sans MacDoughnut (who has an issue with Richard the owner here) standing at the bar already were Andy and Jan, two former regular customers at the Bath Hotel; which is why I hadn't seen them at the Bath the previous night, they've moved allegiance. It was good to see them, plus the rest of the regulars here; it was like going back 3 years, and I'd have known everyone who would be there, virtually. Indeed, my earlier in the day visit had seen me meeting up with a few old friends too, NB the other Richard (not owner) and Pete, who was serving behind the bar then. It was excellent to meet up with so many people I hadn't seen for years and who I like; too many to mention individually, but great stuff! 

Little Ale Cart ales? The 2 dark ones that enticed Will to visit and appreciate were the 3.9% brown bitter Farmer's Boy, the pump clip featuring Richard the landlord/owner as a wee lad on a tractor even further up North, as can be seen above; he's not so cute now! The other dark ale was Daft Sheep Stout, 6.2% and just £3 a pint. The 4 pale hoppy bitters I tried during the 2 visits included 2 featured in their steam engine series, Alnwick Castle, a 4.3% fruity bitter and Flying Scotsman Mk 4, 5% with more body and more bitter. 

The other 2 were 'Harley's Dog's Dinner 97' (Harley is Richard's, the owner, dog, and 'Dog's Dinners' are mixes, generally using up ale left over following racking off brew lengths) Sleekit Beastie, a 4% slightly darker beer than usual, in that Farmer's Boy was one of the ingredients, and my favourite ale of the weekend, a 'Harley's Hop Special', Tornado, 4% as well, but much paler, dryer and more bitter with plenty of grapefruit aroma and flavour, and just £2.30 a pint, luvverly!   

Next blog, my journey home via London, cheers for now!

From Frank's Front Lounge to The Tower!

Obviously, I started at Frank's Front Room, central Hastings and very close to the Railway Station (and to my home). Still quite new to me, indeed, still new to Hastings!  Clean, bright, and, quite frankly (sorry for the pun), very woman/younger person/older person/food seeker/ale drinker friendly... 3 ales - Hastings Blonde and Best Bitter, and, not so local, Sambrook's of Wandsworth Wandle.  I do come from Wandsworth, so maybe... but no! The local Best Bitter for me, decent ale, indeed.

On my way up to St Leonards, and not so far from the centre of Hastings, the Dripping Well. 3 ales on here too, including Hastings Best Bitter, which I again drank, thanks to Steve the Fireman for the beer :-) Also, they're still selling Henry's IPA and Directors, but I do prefer the Hastings Best. So, now up Bohemia Road...

...to the North Star, which still has good ales and friendly bar staff, 5 ales on here, but I only drank one of them, the Sunset Blonde from Cross Bay Brewery, a 4.2% dry, pale bitter with a pleasing aroma, though lacking a bit on the flavour hops, but very easy to drink, I thank you!  Also, on the bar, were Young's Special, Landlord, the ubiquitous Sussex Best, and Shepherd Neame's Whitstable Bay (4.1%).

Round the corner to drop off books at their 'book club' (though I'd already offloaded most at the Dripping Well to another customer there) and the Dripping Spring... Still a good pub, good ales, and friendly company, and not just the landlady... I drank Rother Valley Northam Imperial Pale Ale (NIPA), at 5% a very tasty pale bitter, with good body; I do like Rother Valley ales. I also drank the Ringwood Boondaggle, a 4.2% 'blonde' ale, with a nutty flavour. I spoke to a bloke who'd lived in Wandsworth before, and a Devonian couple and their daughter... I got a bit homesick, I have to admit ;-)

Also available were London Pride, Sussex Best, Hastings Best, Greene King's London Glory (their attempt to emulate Fullers Pride), and Marston's 5 Hops.

So, to my last pub of the session, the Tower, and Louisa, the landlady, was here today, yay! (I trust she's not been avoiding me on purpose), later, Linda took over behind the bar. Good chat to Louisa, a continuation of the good service from Linda, and the bloke who'd lived in Wandsworth was here too! Good chat with other regulars and Olympics events on the screens too, and also 4 ales, again dominated by Dark Star, ie Festival (5%) and Summer Meltdown (4.8%), and Hylder Blonde (4.2%), which I drank, after a pint of Island Brewery's, from Newport in the Isle of Wight, Wight Gold, a 4.0% pale bitter, very easy to drink. The Hylder Blonde was excellent, allegedly tasting of elderflower, but definitely a fruity taste, grapefruit even, which I'm guessing comes from the hops used.

Then I came home... Cheers!

Part IV - 13th June, the drinking...

I soon came to realise, last Wednesday, that I really do miss Sheffield, certainly the ales, pubs and friends, not necessarily in that order... First to drink at...

The Wellington at Shalesmoor sells great ales, and they have their own brewhouse out the back Little Ale Cart brewery... Absolutely approved of their 4.3% Naworth Castle, pale, hoppy (7 different hops used), fruity, bitter, delicious! I also tried their 4% The Badsworth (6 different hops) and 5% Spion Kop (a mere 5 different hops used). No keg beers here at all, not even the better quality lager they used to sell, just 8 different real ales, only Millstone Baby Git (4%) a regular, and always including at least one dark ale, a stout or mild. Met up with my mate Rob here too, and chatted to Gary (barman) Gee (manager and brewer) and Richard (owner) - I do miss the place!

Rob and I then visited the Fat Cat, also the brewery tap for Kelham Island Brewery. Dave Wickett, the man behind the businesses, sadly died a couple of weeks ago, RIP Dave; but it's still a great pub.  Rob came down here with me and this is where we met up with Jeff and Bob. The Kelham Island Pale Rider is still good!  I tried their 5.5% Wild Rider too, but not as good as the Pale Rider, and apart from the usual Kelham Island ales and regular Landlord, there were 5 other guest beers on sale. Enjoyed one of their excellent pork pies, baked with their own ale in the recipe as well. Had a brief chat to Duncan (the manager), cheers mate!

Round the corner, to the Kelham Island Tavern, and back down to just Jeff and me now; what more can you say about this pub than it won CAMRA's NATIONAL pub of the year 2 years running, the first pub to ever do that, I believe, and Sheffield's pub of the year about 10 years running.  

Shouldn't have done this, as 13 ales on sale, but I drank Dark Star Hophead here, a crackin' ale, and it travels well; only drank it as an experiment - honest!

Before leaving the area we visited Shakespeares, another recently refurbished and reopened pub under new ownership. Still just Jeff and I, and up to 9 ales on sale here. They have one regular, Abbeydale Deception, but today I had Full Moon Brewery's Celestial Blonde, 4.3%, smooth and creamy with a bitter aftertaste, nice one, cheers!

Seasonal Pub - Bath Hotel, Sheffield

The Bath Hotel, Victoria Street in Sheffield has to be the friendliest pub in central Sheffield; also having a carefully restored interior that ensured it finding its way onto CAMRA's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors.

You get a selection of well-kept ales, including regulars Tetley Bitter, Acorn Barnsley Bitter (one of the Barnsley Bitter rehashes) and an ale from Abbeydale, usually Moonshine, plus up to 3 guest ales and continental beers. Reasonably priced pub food is served at lunchtimes during the week; you can get a very strong chilli with baked potato, if your mouth is up to it!

Brian, the landlord, is a gem in himself, forever cheerful, ready to chat with regular customers and visitors alike, providing a great atmosphere. The Bath also has music nights, specialising in the 'blues', I've enjoyed many a night here.

My good friend, and sometime Beermeister advisor (also excellent with advice for single malts), Rick, with Brian, in the part of the bar where customers are often confused with staff. Rick sent this photo to me to make me jealous a while ago. Cheers!