Sheffield Revisited - Day Two: Matchday!

Monday and Tuesday nights I slept very well, staying B&B at The Hillsborough Hotel, 54-58 Langsett Road S6 2UB (0114 2322100 - I believe a new website will be set up soon, but they do have a facebook page). Good to see Brigitte and Tom brightening up the place again, and they did have to clean it up big time when they took it over! Coincidentally, I remember that when I first met Tom he was the manager here.      

Great breakfast, all locally sourced, as I say regularly elsewhere, a good breakfast needs a quality sausage, and here was a very good breakfast sausage from local butchers, Crawshaws, at Hillsborough, so far so good. Of course, great bacon too, and the eggs come direct from a friend's smallholding, beans and tomato, and an enormous pot of tea too, I was sated! I was bought a drink by Tom at lunchtime, after a couple of hours wandering around the centre of Sheffield, cheers Tom, but I shall mention the ales at the Hillsborough Hotel later in this blog. 

I then wandered up to The Blake Hotel (0114 2339336 - facebook page), where I met up with another friend I hadn't seen since I met up with him and his lass when he came down to visit Lewes, Will. We tried 4 halfs here, all in good nick, as they should be, the owner of the establishment being long-time publican, and ex-brewer at Kelham Island too, James Birkett, who also has the Sheaf View, and is looking to acquire the Bottom Welly, the Wellington at Shalesmoor (nee Cask & Cutler). 

We drank 2 ales from local brewery, Neepsend (twitter), which James has shares in, their Blonde (4%), an easy-drinking ale that dries out nicely at the finish, and IPA (5%), labelled a "New World IPA", consequently, you can guess the type of hops used; pale, very dry and bitter! Also, from West Yorkshire brewer Partners (website) Triple Hop (4.2%), with Willamette, Cascade and Cluster the 3 hops, pale, very subtle taste of toffee and malt, and from Warrington, 4Ts Brewery (website) IPA (4.6%), using American and Australian hops, hints of peach and citrus in the taste, with a strange dry aftertaste, couldn't figure it out... 4 decent ales.

I then went into the centre of town to visit my favourite Sheffield restaurant for lunch, Mama's and Leonies (website), where I knew 2 of the chefs there, 2 of the waiting staff, and the 2 owners! Not a lot has changed since I first started eating here in the 1990s. I had arranged to meet up with ex-colleague and good friend, Debra, who turned up straight from work, always great to meet up...  

... and always great to eat their excellent Warm Chicken & Bacon Salad, of which, I always order sans croutons, and either a glass, or carafe, of the house red wine, just a glass this time though, a long day still ahead. Debs was jealous, of course, and vowed to have the same as me next time, looking forward to it already! 

Conservatory at the Hillsborough Hotel

Back to the Hillsborough Hotel, for pre and post match drinks, where they have up to 8 different ales, served from handpumps. Ales included, but not tried this time, their regular Acorn Barnsley Bitter (3.8% - brewery website), Colchester Metropolis (3.9% - brewery website), and one of my locals, Dark Star American Pale Ale (4.7% - brewery website), an excellent ale I have sung the praises of many times before! I met up with many people for both sessions, including the lads we'd met at the Fat Cat the previous evening, Noel, Ian, Phil, Dave, Mike, and many others, including the landlords, Tom and Brigitte, of course!

 The ales were in great form, and I want to mention 3 in particular, meeting my love of dry and hoppy pale ales, first, from the excellent local brewery, Blue Bee (website) Chinook Pale (4.2% - they also had their 4.8% Tempest Stout), no need to tell you which hops were used in the Chinook! Very pale, citrus fruit flavour and refreshingly dry aftertaste, I loved it! Also from Sheffield's The Tapped Brew Co (website) MOJO Crystal Pale Ale (3.6%), dry hopped with Mosaic and Citra, a wonderful refreshing dry pale bitter, and from further afield in North Yorkshire, Bad Seed (website) Calypso Pale Ale (4.5%), I'm guessing Calypso hops used for this 'American Pale Ale' type beer, nice and dry, with a hint of grapefruit, and I got 'wheat' in the flavour too.

Many new brewery's ales tasted, which I loved, and good B&B too, cheers Tom and Brigitte, I'll be back!  

Scottish Beer Festival in Sheffield this weekend!

From today, until Sunday, the Hillsborough Hotel, Langsett Road, Sheffield, is holding a 'Scottish' Beer Festival. Now, I am well aware that every day in Sheffield is a potential beer festival, with so many excellent real ale houses and local microbreweries, but this is featuring many Scottish ales soon after Burns Night, and no doubt something to do with Tom the landlord too!  

Hillsborough Hotel

There are numerous ales available, including the Swannay Orkney IPA (4.8%), brewed with Styrian Goldings hops, pale, citrus fruity and refreshing (website), also the stronger 'ruby red' Loch Lomond Kessog (5.2%), brewed with Northern Brewer and Willamette hops, (Willamette well used by a certain Sheffield brewer I used to work for as well!) with a dark-red fruity and dark chocolate flavour (website). 

From Fallen Brewing, is their even stronger 5.4% Grapevine (website), amongst others, and brewed with FIVE different hops, Magnum, Pacifica, Galaxy, Kohatu and Citra (one of my favourite hops!), creating a fusion of fruity flavours, grapefruit and tangerine citrus mixed with 'tropical' mango and pineapple, finishing with a nice dry bitterness... 

       

Not finally, but finally from me for now, is the Pilot Beer Blønd (4%, website), brewed with Galaxy and Amarillo hops, citrus flavours with a hint of spice, and deliberately unfined, so naturally a wee bit cloudy... and, of course, many more ales too!

Well, I can't make it there for this festival, sadly, but would be grateful for any feedback, either here, or on my facebook page, concerning the ales available please, from anyone who does visit, cheers, and enjoy!    

The Hillsborough Hotel - Fit for Business, indeed!

Further to my blog of 2 weeks ago, I can confirm that Tom and Brigitte have well and truly got the show on the road again at The Hillsborough Hotel, 54-58 Langsett Road, Sheffield S6 2UB (Tel: 0114 232 2100 - Twitter link). This was a pub I worked at whilst at university in Sheffield, but under an owner many times removed now. It is an away fan 'friendly' pub, with B&B (6 bedrooms), good locally sourced freshly cooked food, and just 2 tram stops away from Sheffield Wednesday's ground, and easy enough to get to Sheffield United from here by tram or bus too.  

Having cleaned up and refurbished the cellar since taking over, Tom and Brigitte have 6 regularly changing, well conditioned, real ales served from handpump. There is an emphasis on promoting local ales, but they sell ales from further afield too. Today, they have some excellent local ales, from Sheffield and Yorkshire; ie the hoppy citrus flavoured 4.5% Exit 33 Hop Monster (website), 4.0% Wentworth WPA (website), 4.2% White Rose White Dragon, and the 4.3% Great Heck Voodoo Mild (website). From further afield, 4.0% Charnwood Vixen (website), and from Cornwall, the excellent stronger tasting hoppy bitter, the 5.7% Black Flag White Cross IPA (website). 

I look forward to my next visit to Sheffield, cheers!    

Hillsborough Hotel, Sheffield

A little birdie recently told me that the Hillsborough Hotel (Top Wellie) in Sheffield had closed, so it was great to hear from Tom Delaney that he and Brigitte have now taken over the licence there. To quote Tom, "after 10 years away they are returning to take over the reins at this well known hostelry. Unfortunately the brewery is no longer part of the set up, but the take is to try, at some point, to reinstate it. Brig and Tom would like to take the opportunity to welcome customers old and new to the Hillsborough!"

Good luck to them from Steve the Beermeister!