Burning Sky

 Evening folk,

       I realise I may have said this previously - whether in a pub, or in previous posts - or both, but I really like Burning Sky Brewery based in Firle in Sussex. Am also aware that I may have mentioned the excellence of owner and head brewer Mark Tranter, previously the Head Brewer at Dark Star brewing, prior to it's consumptoin by a giant National brewery/brewing conglomerate, who previously produced the excellent Revelation. This month I enjoyed 4 Burning Sky beers - all of which I loved. I was going to blog tonight about the brew am on now. But they are all worthy of a nod.

The first I tried was called Snap Decision,  a very enjoyable American Brown Ale possibly in the high 5 or 6 %. Despite my love of pales am not in fact terrifed of brown ale - and when it's brewed by a great brewery am more than willing to try it. It was as perhaps obvious, a very nice drop - missing the oft dour elements of the UK versions of this style.

Next was a can of their Saison Printemps. Probably 6%, and a mix of what may have been aged beers along with traditional saison producing yeast (or, perhaps inevitably, any number of mis remembered ingredients). I have to say that this was fabulous. I know they have done a lot of different styles of saison but I hadn't had any for a while and this proved what I was missing - gorgeous mouthfeel, delightful aftertaste and drinkability. Nothing like it's strength!

I bought two mighty 750ml bottles - their 7% Greengage saison , a mix of greengage fruits along with a special oak aged saison. I treated myself to two glasses of this and quaffed it in about 90 minutes in total. I seem to have thought it featured Kviek yeast but am now certain that is wrong. That aside, this was another ludicrously easy drinking, mildly but effectively sour and bitterly fruited mix of joy in what is in affect a wine bottle.   

Tonight am finishing the second half ot the frankly amazing 9.7% Eldeberry Monolith - described as a long oak aged wild black beer then aged for a further 6 months on local elderberries. It suggests it tastes a bit like an earthy Burgundy. Wow. It's as good as that characteristic suggests. It is immense.

Not that this makes it in anyway hard drinking - am supping it slowly mainly because am writing and setting up the Laptop. It continues to delight. Being the last of the bottle I added the yeast or other adjuncts in the bottom of the bottle and if anything this mnakes it even more drinkable. The Burgundy is definately there in terms of flavour. But mainly it's a fabulous wonderous sup. And pleasingly, for a brew of such depth and strength , the best before date on the bottle is 2031. If I had managed to get hold of another I may well have saved it until new years eve in 2030.

Thankfully, Burning Sky continue to produce a lot more of their wonderful beer experiments along with excellent IPAs and other styles of beer. If you see any I would heartily recommend that you give them a try.

Cheers!

Wee Beefy

Crackers

Greetings,

           as this is my day off work, I have decoded to use my time well. So, what better way than to relate some tales of excellent ales I have tasted recently Well, now I have said that, I can think of numerous better ways, personally, but lets not allow that to distract from this treatise on tasty tipples.

Although it has recently run out - it did Saturday when I tried to buy a half - the excellent Beavertown Holy Hoppin Hell made an appearance on keg at Shakespeares. This time it seemed to be stronger, myself and Doctor Pat remembered it being 8.5% last time, but this time its a whopping 9.5%. Being a that London brewer, and on keg, and 2% above the HSBD mark, it was £6.60 a pint. But given its more than twice the strength of beers half the price in other pubs I don't think that's bad value for money. And you wouldn't have wanted more than a pint. It had a vinous orangey quality with an aroma slightly of sherbet and citrus, and actually, the hops were obscured somewhat by the alcohol. It took me an hour to drink a half on Friday so that gives you a measure of its potency. Despite that, it is still far better than some of the clumsy depthcharge soups of the 1980's and 90's.

Also on the bar is/was the Maori Red from Blue Bee Brewery. Although only 4.8 (or.5, not sure) the beer is packed with flavour and the red element makes it very rounded and easy to drink, with a hoppy bite in the background. Well worth a try since its out and about at present.

The Bath Hotel today should still have on Fraoch from Heather Ales. Sorry - I meant Williams Bros. I say this because I first tasted Fraoch, which a brewery rep told me is pronounced "Frook" in 1994 when I bought a rather nice labelled bottle of it from the Dram Shop in Commonside. It was brewed by Heather Ales, and called Leann Fraoich. Catchy.  It was, I have to say, very much unlike anything I had tried before. I have tried it on cask a few times since, and also been to the brewery in Strathven many years ago to taste their Grozet Gooseberry ale straight from the conditioning tank - well, not straight - i had it in a glass.....

The brewery has now moved to Alloa and seems to have quite an impressive marketing machine behind it - and it helpfully tells you what the beer tastes like. If you see their link here there is much info, although personally I think its sweeter and less herbal and floral than previously. Well worth a try on cask either way.

Also at the Bath hotel is a Burning Sky Saison. With one rare exception I have always loved their saisons, and this is another fine example.  Its 6.7% and on keg. Alas the Bath has less freedom on prices than say, Shakespeares, so I recall it being pricey but it is a great refreshing beer that due to being on keg , takes that little bit longer to sup, and a little longer for you to savour.   

The final recent tipple to take the eye, and one which was delivered throughout Sheffield recently is another Sheffield beer from Blue Bee. Ella IPA is made with Australian Ella hops and is an easy drinking, slightly less ascorbicly hoppy 5.0% IPA. They have used Ella before in their Reet Aussie Pale and I have found it really easy to drink. It may not be on now at the Three Tuns where I had several pints, but it will no doubt be in the better Sheffield real ale pubs now.

Hope you all get chance to try some of the above beers soon!

Cheers

Wee Beefy

What I learnt about beer, last year.

Happy new year!

             I was going to write this post on new years eve, as a kind of self justifying look back at my libations and other slaking exploits, and to throw in some observations about beer and its styles, methods of dispense and price. However, alas, beer got in the way (as did iced pavements but that's another story) so tis is a slightly late review of beer.....

Beer styles eh? Tchh. Who'd av um? Dark this, light that, this with wheat, that with lemon, this aged in marmalade casks, dry hopped with enchanted bark. Its a long running ball ache to keep up. Luckily for me, I know what I like, and know what I would like to try.

This year I found out I still really like saison, the beer you can't buy in the Wellington at Shalesmoor. BrewDog bar opened in Sheffield and sold the excellent Fantome saison, in three flavours, at what in terms of price in the shops is good vakue - £10.00 a bottle. What with their ambitious beer range I was quite often found in BrewDog riking a saison. I was also impressed by the Radler from Burning Sky Brewery. Given that Mark Tranter helped me fall in love with saison when he was at Dark Star, he seems to be leading the way once again.

I also found out I like beers from newer breweries. Siren Craft Brew continue to impress, as do Northern Monk, Sonnet 43, Fuggle Bunny here in Sheffield, Squawk, Burning Sky, First Chop brewing, and Weird Beard Brewing. All supplemented by Magic Rock, Kernel, Cromarty, Abbeydale, Blue Bee, Wild, and many more.

Meanwhile, more specifically, I have developed an insatiable desire to drink beer with rye in it. The Ryesing Tides 7.4% IPA was one of my beers of the festival at Shakespeares and noticing rye as an ingredient, mainly in IPA's, is always a good indication I will like it - brewery notwithstanding that is.

Which leads me on to strength. I am sure my difficult year has played a part but I seem to be much fonder of stronger beers now. In the good old days when we all had polio or something, almost all strong beers were dark and incredibly difficult to drink. Now, that is no longer the case, which costs me money, and sometimes consciousness.....I think I was into double figures for nod-offs in 2014!

The number of shops I can get a decent range of interesting UK bottled beers has also increased, I learnt, with Beer Central, Beeches and Hop Hideout being stand out examples. Despite this, and my obvious bias, the beer range at Archer Road Beer Stop remains exceptional.

My final "learning" (?!) is about desire for beer. Different from the types of UK beers when I started drinking 23 years ago, the sheer and vast range of UK beers, real ale, bottled or kegged, is astonishing. The appeal of these products is, perhaps unsurprisingly, increasing. With still over a 100 breweries opening each year and different venues offering a range of high quality, tasty, uncompromising and enjoyable beers, its now very easy to satisfy that, in my case seemingly never-ending, appetite for real ale, and now, keg and bottled offerings.

I'm sure this increase in demand will be mostly maintained in 2015. However, I am wary of the threat to our dwindling number of National Inventory pubs.

I read on Dimpled Mug's blog today that the exceptional Red Lion at Ampney St Peter in Gloucestershire was shut after the death of the landlord. This is tragic and very sad news and brings into sharp focus another aspect of drinking beer in the UK - where we do so. Last time I visited, with closing time fast approaching, I went to get another pint with a good third in my glass on the table. "You've already got some" said the landlord. I agreed, but assured him I wouldn't dawdle, to be met with the response "You can have one in the wood then" meaning he would bring it over once I had finished my current one, but it would remain in the barrel until then.

I think any post about beer should include the places we drink it in and the traditions and peculiarities that are attached to those places. I hope therefore, that in 2015 we don't see any more historic unspoilt pubs close, and maybe some reopen - but I have little faith that will happen.

Whatever does, I wish you a prosperous and thirst quenching year ahead, with lovely beer in lovely venues that suit your needs.

Cheers!

Wee Beefy

Two different beer festivals

Hello,

        after "Dryvember" (coughs) was a relative failure, I have striven to make up for the at least expected lack of bowze in December. Hence, unsurprisingly, I have had little time to remain sober. Sorry, to write. My review of a beer festival a month and slightly over a month ago therefore appears now. Soz un all.....

The New Inn at Cropton is famous for having two breweries - or, at least, two brewing companies based there. Cropton Brewery is the longer established outfit and produces mainly cask ales and bottles. The new fella is The Great Yorkshire Brewery, who produce cask and keg with potentially more emphasis on keg, as well as bottles. For 20 odd years now the New Inn has held a beer festival to not only promote its wares, but also treat pub=goers to a wider range of UK real ales and to provide camping and live music.

Last year as you may recall the weekend of the Cropton beer festival, starting on the 22nd November, was when Wee Fatha was rushed into hospital so we didn't go. This year, although Jambon and Jo pulled out late on, me and Wee Keefy decided to travel oop North as a kind of pilgrimage to WF - we even rang him Saturday morning, to receive a ten minute moan about his Doctors - so we knew he was well.

Arriving around Midday we got parked behind the pub and set up camp in the field opposite. By 13.00 we were in the marquee drinking.  I started with a half of Hopcraft "whose been sleeping in my brain" and we had other beers from Banks and Taylors and Gyle 59. If I have a criticism of Cropton festival, and its a small one, its that you, as well as the staff don;t know where the beers are, or indeed which ones are on. And the names on the signs are often wrong. But hey, that's a minor issue. It makes things more fun....

After 2 pints we went for a walk in the village, along a muddy track and then back as we lost track of the path, before returning to the tent after seeing the sun for 20 minutes break through the heavy fog, to eat dinner before returning to the festival. It was far busier now and we got sat near the food area and started trying beers, more from Gyle 59 and Moor, invluding So Hop and Dark Alliance, and chatting to persons from bike clubs and Sheffield band Kingfisher Blue. We also ate, and the food was lovely, and went for a walk in the black fog to find "phone signal" - we failed. On returning we eventually moved into the pool room and I began my 3rd of 5 pints of the Art Brew Double IPA at 7.2% - and a bargain £3.20 a pint.

This is a great festival with a good and varied range of ales, decent food, and, if you are still "young" enough to like camping, fantastic free accommodation! We both hope to be returning next year.

The next week was Shakespeares 2014 Autumn beer festival. Having acquired funds me and Tash went Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed the range of beers, perhaps excepting the odd Wild beer co ones which were um....odd?

One of the great things about Shakespeares festivals of late was the availability of good quality and well priced keg beers from small UK and other breweries - a highlight of which included Radler from Burning Sky, a distinct lemony ale with lost of subtle hops to unsweeten it, as well as an excellent IPA from Kernel.

Alas, in th intervening month since the festival I have contrived to mis-file all my copies of the beer list. Luckily, my erstwhile drinking companions Mike and Danny write their own beer blog, so I have borrowed some details of the beers they tried to fill out my own piece. I haven't asked their permission, but assume they don't mind....

So, the beers I tried definitely, were:

Five Towns V2 Schneider Dunkel
Weird beard K**ntish Town
Loch Lomond Simcoe
Moor Dark Alliance
Brewsmith Oatmeal Stout
Waen Avalanche Pale
George Wright Yorkshire Brown Ale
Siren Ryseing Tides IPA
Arbor NZ Amber
Siren Calypso
Bridestones/Steel City Brewing So Craft It Hurts (vanilla aged stout)
Kernel Pale ale Citra Mosaic
To Ol Fuck Art this is religion (barrel aged double)

Beers of the festival were the Burning Sky New Gods Radler, the Waen Avalanche and my most drunk favourite, the Siren Ryseing Tides, a "tidy" 7.4% pal ale that drank like a far lower strength ale, but was packed with complimentary rye and tangy hops.

Both these festivals were excellent but really quite different. The main thing linking em, however, was hard work and dedication by the venues involved, and absolutely cracking real ale and keg beer. Looking forward to the next ones.

Cheers!

Wee Beefy

Independent Manchester Beer Covention 2014

Hello,

     last week I was very chuffed to be invited to the Indy Man Beer Con as a member of the press. I know! Me? I just write a blog now and again. However, these uncertainties did not prevent me from accepting the tickets....

Having never been before I made sure I got there as quickly as I could and stayed as late as I could on my ticket. Here is what I found.

The festival is held in a stunning location, the Victoria Baths on Hathersage Road in Chorlton On Medlock. You may have seen this venue on the Restoration programme on that there telly a while ago. Sufice to say, as a lover of ornate architecture and tiling, I was as excited about seeing the venue as tasting the beer!

A short taxi ride deposited me outside and straight away there were tiles. Many, many, many tiles. There was also a room with beers and food and people in it. This made me feel surprisingly thirsty all of a sudden and I had the Burning Sky Saison L'autumne on keg, using my white beer tokens, marking the beer off on the programme with my Camden pencil. Assumedly they aren't copyright claiming that....

I sat down briefly to assess the beers on offer and concluded that there must be other rooms. There was. I headed next to the Green Room, awash with fabulous green tile work and two bars, one selling overseas beers at a higher cost, and one with two handumps and keg fonts from the Port Street Beer House. I had the Indy Man Brewhouse Pale and a half on cask and it was bloody excellent. I was, now, officially a very happy punter.

Off next to the Turkish Baths which is where Beavertown were hanging out. Here I had their Qyelle, a dry hopped saison on keg. This was an interesting and very enjoyable beer, but I wanted a good ole fashioned cask ale next so headed through more magnificent tiling and stairways to room  1, where I had a Squawk Bean Brothers coffee porter at 7.0%, which in line with all the beer so fat, and indeed thereafter, was excellent.

I moved onto the other rooms for a while, went outside to look at the Brewdog bar, and up above room 3 where there were old doors awaiting fixing and brilliant sunlight through the glass roof. I then got sat in room 2 with an American Couple and tried some beers with them, including Against The Grain Citra Ass Down, a 6.7% keg beer, Hawkshead Green Juniper and hemp double IPA at 7% and Wiper and True Triptych Pale ale on cask at 4.9%. I also chatted with the brewer for a while, which to be fair, everyone else seemed to be doing.

I soon met up with Jules and Will from Hop Hideout off license in Sheffield and we started making our way round and through some of the other beers on offer. I also splashed out a large amount of money on a hot dog, as the beer was taking effect having started supping at 11.30. Its fair to say that I lose track at this point of the order of ales tried, but I did reliably tick my programme, so the others I tried were :

Lovibonds 69 IPA (keg) 6.9%
Arbor Indy Girl (Keg) 9%
Rooie Dop Back to Black (Keg) 8.6%
Burning Sky Aurora (Cask) 5.5%
Northern Monk New World Pale (cask)
Kernel Pale Ale Columbus (Keg) 4.8%
Alechemy Monumental - 1 yr aged Octomore (Keg) 11.5%

As you can see i tried a lot of kegs, but mainly the kegs were serving the stronger beers on offer. I think overall there may have been more kegs but as I said already, there were no bad beers that I tried. The issue of serving beers in 3rds came up at previous festivals but to be honest I never really noticed. That said, it was never mentioned to me, which is a bit slack, and it did mean that the beers were on the whole very expensive - not so bad for the kegs but not good value for the cask offerings.

Overall however this was my first and a very enjoyable beer festival in an exemplary setting which sold some cracking beers. The atmosphere was good, the food smelled amazing and once again, I must mention that I didn't try a bad beer from the 12 or so I had. Here, potentially, are some photos I took as well.

Lets hope the beer quality at the last two festivals I have attended recently can be matched at Kelham Island in a fortnight...

Cheers!

Wee Beefy

More goldener pints

Hello.

          last year, or rather at the end of the last year before last, I "went mad" and completed my list of the Golden Pints of 2012. My first foray was notable for my having not paid $4.95 to Google to increase my image storage limit so I didn't have a logo. And this year is no different. They can keep their lousy storage limits....

Anyway, having experienced almost incalculable pleasure in compiling a list of things which were good, I felt I should perhaps have a stab at it again. So I have :

Best UK cask beer - um. Is this a top twenty? God this is difficult! How does one choose? Am thinking somewhere between the bestest, and the most often tried, with a sprinkling of consistency. Revolutions Demo unfined(imfiltered) was a beauty, Thornbridge Melba was high up there, and most Mallinsons should feature but for outright consistent brilliance Anarchy Brew Co Sublime Chaos gets my vote. Just delicious.

Best UK keg beer - well, this has to be a tie between Magic Rock Human Cannonball and Thornbridge Halcyon. Possibly the ball edged it.

Best UK bottled or canned beer - Thornbridge/Dark Star EDIT - sorry, it was Brooklyn! Alliance 2007. And any of the different reserves. All were impeccable.

Best Overseas draught beer - Anchor Old Foghorn. A very very complex and powerful strong ale without raspberry, fir-cones or mace in it.

Best Overseas bottled or canned beer - Santorini Crazy Donkey IPA. Mind you, it bloody wants to be at that price.... (see here for a review of all 3 donkey beers)

Best Collaboration brew - Steel City Brewing/North Riding CC. Alas, not a beer dedicated to the gentle pursuits of county cricket, but a far ruder acronym. Lots and lots of very complimentary citrus hops combine to make this a very quaffable strong pale ale which I had far too much of.

Best Overall beer - that is Burning Sky Saison. The only way of improving on Dark Star's excellent saison from 2012 was...to have the brewer leave and set up his own brewery and brew an even better saison.

Best branding, pumpclips or label - Magic Rock, mainly because thy have a lot of material, but if it were bottle labels alone then I think Beavertown and Weird Beard Brew Co both have brilliant designs.

Best UK Brewery - Aaah. Another top 20. I'm going to say Art Brew, just because everything they brew is ace.

Best Overseas brewery - having become enlightened and joined the saison appreciation society (and continuing to be a member even though I'm supposed to like sour and gose) I'd suggest Brasserie Fantome.

Best new brewery - Burning Sky. Not just because of their saison.

Pub/bar of the year - Shakespeares ale and cider house, Gibraltar street, Sheffield. My home from home which just so happens to feature a magnificent clock, an impeccable range of whiskies, great staff and an excellent range of beer - not to mention order in curry from across the road.

Best new pub/bar - The Closed Shop Commonside - I know it was already a pub but it has no connection in terms of qualities, with it's previous incarnation.

Beer festival of the year - SIBA Beerex. Especially for Unpro and Katedave. Hugs....

Supermarket of the year - can I say Booths even though I've never shopped there? Otherwise it would have to be Waitrose, beer wise.

Independent retailer of the year -  a bloody strong field in Sheffield, impartiality means I shouldn't nominate my former employer - but I will, if only because I haven't (apart from buying two bottles on launch day) sampled the three newcomers yet. So its Archer Road Beer Stop. Go there!

Best beer book/magazine - I rarely read beer books but this year I am in the process of reading Pete Brown's Three Sheets To The Wind - however, since I haven't finished it, I perhaps ought to give the award to Doghouse magazine....

Best beer blog or website - Dimpled Mug. More nepotism, since Mr M is a friend of mine, but I never miss any pics he posts on his pub photo blog.

Simon Johnson award for best beer twitterer - Can he win his own award?

Best brewery website/social media - it is rare that I actually like reading a brewery website - since most of them are out of date misleading or written in poor English. However, I like the Revolutions Brew Co one for having useful info on,like what their beers are called, and Kelham Island's for the same reason.

Food and beer pairing of the year - Blue Monkey Marmoset with Moroccan chicken and saffron casserole. I just made that up.

NEW CATEGORY ALERT !
Next beer fad - OK, its got to be a popular continental style, possibly with a twist, or an obscure one which only a handful of beer geeks will have tried, having paid £15,000.00 to travel to the other side of the world to sample it. So...I dunno. Black gueze. Lemon mai bock. Unfiltered cask rauchbier (actually, that sounds lovely!)

So, that's it. That is what rocked my world in 2013. Lets hope 2014 can bring a similar cavalcade of quality cask and keg, and that I'll be struggling to single out winners in most of the categories once again in 12 months time.


Cheers!

Wee Beefy

Crookes Ale House joins Crookes Valley Crawl

Hello,

     yesterday I was meeting up with Carlos for our Christmas drink. My initial plan was to meet him at Toyne Towers and then whisk him away to the Closed Shop, but as you may have heard already there was a new kid in town. A pop up ale house was opening on Crookes at 12.30. It would have been rude not to have gone, so I started there.

The Crookes Ale House is part pub, part market research exercise to see if there is enough of a call for opening a micro pub in Sheffield, most likely in the Crookes or Walkley area. Personally I think Crookes has fared pretty well having only lost two pubs (assuming you count Matlock Road as Crookes) in the last 20 years whereas as Walkley as been somewhat decimated. So that suggests Walkley maybe in more need of such a venue. That said, I'd prefer a micro pub in Handsworth. Where I live. Irrespective of any research or potential for "success". But I digress...

The Crookes Ale House is at 170 Crookes Road near the Ball and is housed in the former Mr Ben's fancy dress ship. It has an eye catching pink frontage with a large window showing the name Crookes Ale House so that you know its a pub. It has a yellow painted interior with a tiny bar at the back where three casks are stillaged, and tables set out across the front part of the shop. There were three real ales on, Sheffield Brewing Co Porter, First Gold and Magic Rock Ringmaster NZ, which I am reliably informed is the new name for their Curious pale ale. All real ales are £2.50 a pint and mulled cider, which I understand has "other ingredients" in it, is £3.00 a mug. There are a small range of bottles including Ampleforth Abbey Belgian ale and Franziskaner,along with Brooklyn and Budvar Dark lager.

Alas this is not a permanent fixture on the crawl but it is an enjoyable addition. Two and a half pints of eminently quaffable Ringmaster were supped, and, in an event that I'm welling up just thinking about, I can report that I was the FIRST CUSTOMER to use the toilet.

This, is journalism, ladies and gentleman. Journalism at its most raw. Defined by firsts...

Up the road and down Sackville and the Jennel you come to the Cobden View. Arriving at about 15.00 on a Friday there was absolutely no-one in - so me and Carlos set about playing pool, the lack of customers affording us the kind of time two rusty players need to complete a few games whilst lacking the requisite skill to bring them to a close. In the end, as Carlos noted, pool won. To accompany our potting I had a pint of the Sheffield Brew Co First Gold and Carlos some Stella in a glass egg cup. And having got settled and realised they took card payments, we stopped for another - more egg lager for Carlos and a delicious pint of Bradfield Belgian Blue for me.

Out onto School road the crawl took on a familiar look and we arrived at The Closed Shop in need of food. Alas their card machine was broken so it was only ever going to be chip butties - but they are rather fab in the shop. To accompany the nosh I had a reckless but delicious pint of the excellent Acorn Gorlovka, and noticing that we'd done nothing but sup Carlos sensibly invested in another chip butty. It was quiet in the shop but the days between Boxing Day and New Years Eve are a puzzling enigma where no-one seems to want to venture out and you can't expect to take much.

Across the road the Hallamshire House had the Thornbridge Kacho rum porter on so it was a given that I would have that. Sat in the main room we were soon joined by some of my colleagues from work but had already decided we needed a walk to sober up. The Kacho was very tasty but a little more rummy that I had hoped for but was nevertheless enjoyable.

We decided against going to the Blake only because it was nowhere near a bus home for either of us, and our early start was contributing to our feeling a trifle refreshed. So we walked down past Shamesbury's who have now opened their "vital" new supermarket at the expense of the Hadfield pub,  in a frankly embarrassing charade where the pubco pretended that after having received an offer from the supermarket, they were ever going to do anything but sell the pub off.

Onto West Street we headed for the Bath Hotel where there was, given this was our last stop, a frustratingly good range of beers to be had. Burning Sky Aurora, as recommended by Mr Ed, was indeed rather brilliant, but had I had more time I could easily have supped a pint of their Saison. Also available, on cask, was an aged Thornbridge Raven (note it wasn't wild raven...) which I had to have a half of. Both beers were in excellent nick and it was just a shame that my mind was wandering to thoughts of home and cheese on toast.

As well as being a great catch up with Carlos this was an enjoyable take on the Crookes Valley Crawl and it will be interesting to see what the research at the Crookes Ale House tells them about the potential for opening a micro pub permanently in the area. Does Sheffield need a micro pub? Why not. Could it be sighted in Crookes or Walkley. No. It needs to be in Handsworth like I said...

For now though, its a great starting point on  a crawl that throws up a handful of traditional pubs with a varied range of real ales along the way.

Cheers!

Wee Beefy.

The good and the bad on the weekend of the mad

Hello,

         against my better judgement and infused with a decent amount of surprise I found myself out on black Friday and Twaturday. I hadn't planned to do either, mot properly anyway. However, much like I "definitely" wasn't going out last Christmas Eve (I was in DAda for 3 hours) I seemed to inexorably gravitate to the pub - and in doing so waded through the sea of crapulent chaos that somewhat inevitably raged around it.

I'll start with the good stuff. I was hoping to meet a refreshed Miss N in some undecided venue after a visit to the hospital but found she was orf home to recover, so ended up meeting Wee Keefy and his mates for some pints in the Dog and Partridge. 

Slowly getting back to the kind of melee of punters that used to define any Christmas or New Year trip to the Dog, the pub is winning back drinkers who drifted away in the dark days when real ale disappeared and the developers got interested. A good range of local and further afield micro brewery guests along with Black Sheep are available, and the first beer I tried was the Okells St Nick. A pint of which was bought for me by Connor, who I'm not sure if I should describe as the landlord or manager (along with Sarah, who knows her bloggers....), to replace a tired half of some Cross Bay I'd had a few weeks ago. I said then on being offered a replacement that unfortunately I hadn't time for a replacement half on that occasion, so this was a pleasant surprise.

Wee Keefy and Mr Pre-wash were in residence along with other of WK's colleagues and we got sat down to continue making a dent in the real ale . Halves of Blackjack Ginger Stout and Tring Moongazer followed - I had been on the latter at the Three Tuns earlier. The stout was impressive if sightly overpowering and he Moongazer was a very enjoyable drop. So much so that further pints of it followed, and I should point out in the interests of honest and fair reporting, that I didn't pay for many of them, along with a whole pint of the fearsome but impressive stout. 

As well as focusing on real ales, the Dog aims to be more of a locals pub, a move that quite apart from the geographical separation, would show it to be different from the throngs of West Street boozers that are as homely as a cactus settee. I can see a few more trips will be called for over the coming months to test out this claim...

The other plus point was my unexpected Saturday sojourn. Having been out for a cracking meal at the Sportsman at Crosspool we had repaired with Miss N to Wee Keefy's for some entertainment. At the Sportsman, beer of choice was Top of the Hops (which I thought was a Great Yorkshire Brewery beer?) but would, had it come on an hour earlier, have been Fullers and Steel City Steel. When I asked when it would come on the manager said "its still a bit cloudy" which elicited a wry smile and the word over-hopping from myself...

Later, having been persuaded to go out "just for one" we needed up in the maelstrom which is the Bee Hive with WK, Miss N, Carlos, Alison, Paddy, Jambon, Half Pint and Jack, and after an epic struggle made it to the bar to buy a pint of Bee Hive bitter, AKA Bees Knees. Despite this not being exactly my favourite venue I stayed for another, mainly because WK very kindly paid for it - after, it was suggested that we went for a pint in the Bath Hotel. So it was settled. The night was not yet finished...

Thornbridge Pollards was on the bar along with a few other tempting treats but as soon as I spotted the Burning Sky Saison I knew it was a no-brainer. It was going to be an enjoyable but rather expensive end to the night. We were probably in the pub for three hours, catching up and sharing great company and supping, in mine and Miss N's case, copious quantities of saison. This was a fantastic night with good friends which may even have got me into the Christmas spirit.

Alas there are two sides to black weekend or whatever its called. And so as not to ruin the joyous tales before it, I'll summarize the downside in a few lines :

A fight outside at least two pubs and inside one.

The already widely reported but no less horrendous damage to the last remaining full size Wards window at Shakespeares.

And  a pint of 5.9% beer costing £4.60 at the Sheffield Tap, coupled with my not having looked at the price (or been warned of it) before asking for it. Not attributable to any particular event of course, just an unpleasant surprise for customers enjoying finishing their weekend with a couple of drinks.

Humph.

Anyway, there is a lot coming up over the next week or two so hopefully I can finally finish work for the year and get some blogging done, but in the event that I don't make to the keyboard, then I would like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas.

Cheers!

Wee Beefy