Sheffield SU's Beer and Cider festival 2025

 Afternoon, readers

       sadly I don't know which year this was in terms of numbers of Sheffield SU beer festivals previously. I now I went to SU Beer Fest in Sheffield in May 1994 for my first ever beer festival aged 19, so its more than 30 years old....

I would also like to point out that :

it is still on today;

and, crucially, that it is staffed by volunteers - so hopefully no staff received embolisms from spluttering drunkards.......

I arrived about 1415 and saw Mr Ciderman, who told me that they had sold all of yesterdays cider as well as half of today's cider the day before - it seems Friday had been a thirsty day! Am no expert on cider by any stretch but am always impressed to find a large range of ciders, many of which I admit I have never heard of.....

I started on a whole pint of evil filthy Thornbridge - their Day Maker, a 4% session IPA - as I supped,  the sky darkened and broiling clouds of wrath simmered in the air above - but thats just May. It went straight back to bright sunshine afterwards.

Next up I ventured into what seemed like the pitch black chasm of Hades, which was the main cask and keg bar - I couldn't see the pumpclips, less so the sheets of info, so I asked the lass behind the bar what she suggested - she froze - so I opted for a pint of Two by Two on kftc - it was a tasty if surprisingly flavoured pineapple sour - not that sour to be honest, but it was refreshing!

Having now selected Hopworks Ferocious Citra IPA and secured a table, my next visit involved finding out that they didnt think that was available, nor my second suggestion which was Triple Point Flux,  (which was on later) so I opted for a pint of Brol Future Depends, which I paid for - sadly the guy serving that said it had run out and the lass serving me said they couldnt do refunds so I opted for a pint of Pollys Little petal at 5.2% which cost the same. I went next for a pint of Bristol Beer Factory laser Juice which was a delicious and cloudy pale which I supped chatting to a chap called Tyler, who was probably from Leicestershire. I was then told that the Thornbridge DIPA had run out, but I opted to check on my next bar visit.

Sadly it really had, but the Triple Point Flux NEIPA was now available so I went for that before having my next to last which was to risk the Necessary Evil whisky aged stout at 13.5% so I only had a third,  and, I have to say - it was fairly easy drinking for its strength!

By now the luffly Tash and George had arrived to see me, along with Meathill who was working, and we quickly (not for me!) went for food, where it transpired that probably due to the level of University student demand, everything meat was chicken! I had a spicy chicken burger and chips which was very nice, along with my final pint which I think was Neptune Hidden Cove IPA - sadly all I know is it was cloudy!

So in summary - some aspects were misleading and therefore disappointing, and the lack of knowledge of what was available was frustrating, but, I did enjoy everything I tasted and I think that overall the festival was well organised - I don't know how the cider bar will be doing today with reduced stock but I hope all goes well!

Warmest regards

Wee Beefy

Brizzle

Evening all,

     whilst tackling ( and continuing to tackle) the dire horrors of trying to sell the flst of the sadly passed away Wee Fatha, me and Keith, or rather, WB and WK, decided to get a break away. Initially we thought about Glasgow, but with restrictions not clear, we opted instead for Bristol, a place where WK got his MBA degree with wee fatha back in 2019. I was keen to see what was happening down there, and having asked our friends Ray and Jessica from the blogging world, we got advice on where to go, and what to do. Here are some highlights....

The journey down was plagued by standing traffic - although we did surprisingly bump into Roger and Anne and Rachel our uncle, Aunty and cousin, as we took a break at the services. Back on the motorway we were soon in Bristol and despite having taken a wrong turn to find the hotel (and then a  2 mile detour back) we were soon booked in and headed for our first stop.

This was the Cornubia - we both had a pint of locally brewed southern seas hoppy pale ale or similar, and it was hot sat outside. Popping next to the Seven Stars, I had another locally brewed pale and WK a weaker more traditional drop - both sat outside on benches enjoying these. Next was the Bridge on Passage Street - a cracking pub with 2 or 3 cask from the past on. Me and WK were both on a pint of Purity, before I slipped in another half. Marvellous! 

A bit of a wander followed - down to the quays and Hotwells and along a disused railway track and through a gap in the fence to the fabulous Orchard pub. Here I had a pint of Arbor IPA from the cask, along with a pint of Otter 4 Paws and a half of delicious cider - Hecks, possibly, but only a half. This was a truly fabulous pub, and from here we went to the Merchants Arms at Hotwells. My beers in here are sadly a little unclear - but the pork pie and mustard was much appreciated! A short walk away we went to the wonderful Myrtle Tree - still selling Bass from the cask, so I had a pint and WK a half, before we finished at the Bag of Nails.

I had heard plenty, including from WK, that it certainly smelled of cats, and worse. To be fair there were only 3 cats in when we arrived and no smells - as it was busy we went upstairs - I think I had a pint of Wickwar, but am not entirely sure. The beer was flat and delicious - am going to blame that half of cider for my rant on the walk back to the hotel...

Next day we walked up St Michael's Hill towards the park where the Bristol Comedy Garden was being held. Arriving 55  minutes before it started we queued for about 20 minutes to get in but once sat down there was a bag of goodies and snacks and in the end the gig went quite quickly. Highlight for me was probably Rachel Parris - assuming that is her name - and also later on seeing Rosie Jones in the Highbury Vaults.

We took a quick walk to the Clifton Suspension Bridge and crossed it both ways, before following google maps through the back roads to come out at the Highbury Vaults. Here we met up with Rosie in the beer garden and also the lovely dog that her chums had brought along. A cracking pint of St Austell Proper Job for me, although sadly WK once again had to download an app just to order beer.

Next we sat accross the road at Beerd and enjoyed the dark lager from Lost and Grounded, and a Lost and Grounded pale - both were on excellent form. We then walked down a side road to come out at the Kingsdown Vaults, a cracking pub with a range of real ales on, of which I had a pint of Butcombe - according to the glass! From here we took a walk to Cotham Porter Stores where I had a pint of the excellent Wickwar B.o.B - just like I remembered it.

A short walk down hill and we found ourselves at the marvelous Hare on the Hill. On my last visit this was a Bath Ales pub but now was a  fabulous free house with a grteat range of beers on both keg and cask. Highlights included a beer brewed there, and one each from Good chemistry and Anspatch and Hobday. We could have stayed for many more but were quite hungry as well as a trifle refreshed.

Walking into town we stopped off at a Greek deli for some dolmades and chips before finishing on some frankly ludicrous beers in BrewDog near the hotel. A truly cracking day!

Our next to last day included a walk from the hotel underneath the Clifton suspension bridge to Pill. There are about 4 pubs in the village but we turned up at 1400 - and none opened on a Monday until 1600! After buying scran we hopped in a taxi back to the hotel. 

A quick wander back to King Street brought us to Small Bar - here WK sadly had to download his 5th different app to order and pay for beer - to be fair to them, as they pointed out, they would love to be back in a situation where customers could simply see what was available and ask based on that. I had two thirds of Good Chemistry Jam sesh a fruited pale, followed by 2 thirds of a pale ale which had a name. Soon we were up the hill and steps to Zero Degrees where I had two pints of their Parallax Effect at 5.9%  and Keith included a half of heir Mango ale, before walked down to Steak of the Art for some Bristol Beer Factory and two marvelous meals!

Our penultimate stop was at Beer Emporium where I finished on a pint of super cloudy Electric Bear gluten free pale ale at 4.2%. Our final stop was in the mighty joy of the Left Handed Giant brewery tap. I started on a strong IPA at about 7%, two pints of, before we had two finishers - one imperial stout which was about 10% and one called woodlands or similar which was 11% - really really enjoyable, although, it absolutely destroyed us. And is no way related to my spending £35 on three take out bottles from their aged beer collection...

I realise that we missed a good few of the pubs we really wanted to see -  one behind the town halll and in the market place, possibly called the vines inn? Along with the Wiper and True and Moor brewery taps (although these may have been a way away) along with the Grain Barge. Despite this - I have to say that Bristol was a joyous place to visit, and there are loads of reasons for us to pop back and enjoy them and other places again!

Cheers

Wee Beefy

The Bath, a bash and the Ship.

Now then,

     A friend's birthday meant I was out and about around West Street on a Saturday night, which although I did the same for Wee Keefy's birthday a few weeks ago, is still a rarity for me. As it turned out, an unplanned turn of events meant I also ended up having another enjoyable session in a fantastic pub.

I met Fluff at the Bath Hotel for a few warm up pints. It was nice to bump in to Steff fir the first time in a a while and when Fluff arrived just as I was buying my beer it was the start of a night of good timings and fortuitous outcomes. We both had pints of Bristol Beer Factory Seven, a surprisingly refreshing copper coloured beer with a lot of quite heavy but perfectly balanced malts in the mix. We sat in the main room, struggling to hear ourselves over the loudest blokes in the world, supping and talking beer.

We also had time for a pint each of the Hawkshead Brodies Prime.I only tried this once before, at the Sheffield Tap, on the day that Brodie Clark resigned. Who he you may ask? Well, its not that important, but noteworthy that in the clamour to discover who he really was when he hit the headlines, I found that top of the first page of search results on Google, was his entry on the ".....is a c*nt" website! Clearly a top bloke....

The beer, luckily, shares none of his attributed or alleged characteristics, being a full flavoured dark brew with a pleasing hoppy edge, that set us on our way nicely.

Next we caught up with the throng in the Frog and Parrot. Its always been an odd pub for me, its certainly conveniently placed, always rammed, but has never really seemed to make much of an effort on beers, although back in the mid noughties I did find them selling a pint of Itchen Valley Fagans from a range of about five. Things seem to have fallen off a bit since then (possibly due to it being owned by Greedy King?).

There were 4 beers on, 3 Greedy King and a guest, which promptly went off (Kelham Island Pride of Sheffield) when I ordered it, so I ordered me and Fluff pints of Twisted Wheel ( a"guest" no less) which was a Greedy King-ish beer with lemon in it. Not too bad actually, especially given the other options of weakened OSH and their IPA.

We stayed for another in here with the birthday girl, Miss Wish, with some decent music playing and a procession of trips to the beer garden for the smokers, whilst me and Fluff caught up with friends in the group. Alas the parties diverged at this point with the revelers, wearing a variety of excellent apparel, headed for the Green Room. Me and Fluff bade our farewell and headed to the Ship at Shalesmoor.

I hadn't actually planned to do this so it was a pleasant surprise, and when we got there it was packed. Considering, as I've mentioned before, there really aren't any local clientele  it was impressive just how busy the pub was. One thing I have noticed before is that I am usually one of the youngest customers - and since Fluff is slightly older than me that didn't change this time!

On the bar were the usual 3 real ales, Kelham Pale Rider, Abbeydale Moonshine and Welbeck Ernest George. I wasn't sure I'd had that one before, and being a fan of Welbeck beer I opted for a pint of that. A fantastic well rounded quaffable dark beer was what I found. And once we got a table, it was clear that we would be in for the rest of the night.

Unusually I stuck with the same beer - there seemed no point changing when the Welbeck was so damned good. Fluff was likely on the same, Col on Pale Rider, and Sue on lager. A few good tunes came on the juke box (which I had only previously admired for its retro qualities, instead of attempting to use it) and we relaxed (some more), talked and soaked up the atmosphere.

Its true to say that there are a dwindling number of pubs like the Ship. A long standing landlord, a good deal with a Pubco (actually, to be fair, its Greedy King that he has some sort of tie in with, not sure on the details though...) a dedicated troupe of regulars, pool and other pub games teams, 1970's furnishings abound, inexpensive well kept real ale is on sale and its probably, in terms of Sheffield, the epitome of a "proper pub".

Fitting then that we should have been in for a proper session  drinking great beer, before stumbling outside to clamber in a beer chariot home. You don't get many nights that just remain great from the start, but this was one of them. Thanks to my companions as well for making it a good night all round.

If you haven't made it in yet, I strongly suggest you make the effort to visit the Ship.

Wee Beefy

Single Pub Of Contact

Afternoon,

    I'm noticing a bit of a trend to my drinking patterns lately. Not just obvious markers such as "to excess" and "recklessly" but more subtle patterns are emerging. I seem to be finding myself wanting to stay put once I get to a good pub.

This isn't exactly a groundbreaking outlook of course, but one of the things that has happened as a result of this blog is that I sometimes visit quite a few pubs in one "session" so that I have stuff to report. It's not like the blog owns me - because I enjoy tasting different beers, and soaking up different atmospheres in venues. And also, the walking between pubs probably does me good.

However over the last week the concept of a session, in its traditional sense of staying in one pub, has become more prominent. Staying put is the new crawl. I think it may catch on, much like other recent inventions, such as the wheel....

If you want to try out my new hobby,  you will need the following:
A : a good pub
B : a few good beers to choose from
C : some money
D : plenty of time

Last night I followed the above recipe with some success, as below...

I was heading to the Closed Shop and was meeting Wee Keefy for a few drinks. I knew he was only coming out for a couple, after which he'd likely be off home so I planned to wander down to the Uni Arms or the Bath afterwards. There was an exemplary range of beer on again at the Shop, and it was really busy when I arrived at about half 7. I got a grammatically accurate pork pie and a pint of the excellent Dancing Duck Dark Drake and awaited the arrival of the brother of mine.

The Dark Drake was on excellent form so when he arrived, and, as everyone does, went to the upper part of the bar to look at the beers on the top two pumps instead of reading the sign, I recommended it to him, and got another pint for myself. In the end he had a half of Robinsons Unicorn and half a Drake. We were soon ensconced with good beers surrounded by people enjoying good beers. This is a heady and largely irresistible cocktail.

I had half of the Welbeck Dark Horse next (two dark beers out of 6 - spoilt!) and half a blue Bee Tangled Up IPA, as did WK, and we continued chatting. At some point Father O-matic arrived with Pete Green from the world of writing. It transpired he was having some sort of birthday so once WK had sloped off home like a good lad I joined the party and spent a very agreeable few hours talking beer and pubs and, erm, other things. I also accidentally had numerous pints of Tangled Up IPA. I think this made me sleepy.

Alas the throng departed around 23.00 and I had to find the cash for another half to last me until I had to leave for the night bus. I'd been sat in the Closed Shop for about 4 hours and enjoyed every minute of it. And to be honest, once I was in, I never gave the idea of moving on a second thought.

A similar thing happened on Friday, although for reasons of mastication I did venture on from pub number one in the end. I'd headed for Shakespeares after work with Mr Howard from the world of music, and we sat in the beer garden, in defiance of common sense,  enjoying the echoes of sunlight that were imprinted on the scene from earlier. We were both on pints of the rather smashing Raw Mount Adam, a zingily hoppy, fruity, pale beer cramming in loads of flavour at 3.6%.

We were soon joined by Steve who went for old reliable Deception  whilst I had another Raw. As our conversation turned to that Woman the atmosphere became more charged and passionate and it was only right that my next pint was of Steel City Brewing Metal Fatigue, with just the right amount of bitterness to represent the feelings of the brewers toward the subject figure, and just enough hops to make its drinking  enjoyable and valedictory at the same time. A very good beer.

More Raw followed but alas Dave and Stave were off to get smashed on Buckfast and play gin rummy (have I remembered this right?!) so I stopped for a last one before heading on to eat. That last beer was a pint of the strong Arbor and Bristol beer factory English IPA, a surprisingly soupy but not unenjoyable concoction that may have been brewed with British hops.

My final and thus non session stop off was in the Bath Hotel, where I had one of their legendary hot roast pork sarnies, a half of Raw Pacific Gem and a pint of the Bristol Beer Factory Bitter Californian. There's been plenty of Brizzle stuff up in Sheffield lately and quite frankly that can only be a good thing.

So it seems that I have used the above recipe to end up in two cracking pubs drinking great  beer. Although, having left to go to the Bath, I think I've not completely nailed this new hobby. Here's to my getting plenty more practice at staying in pubs for a long time.....


Wee Beefy