Hello,
posts have been a bit thin on the ground recently due to my being "busy" AKA not exactly at home. Or particularly sober. The upshot of which is that all sorts of things have happened, which I hope to recap below.
On Thursday I went to the Closed Shop. As mentioned last time out, the pub has reopened after its refurbishment, and as predicted, does indeed have a slightly increased beer range, and as hoped, continues to be rather fab. There are a few last minor issues to overcome, like planning permission for alterations to the beer garden, but overall its much cosier and beerier and looks good.
There are minor concerns based on my two visits thus far, and in the interest of balance (I'm rubbish at hiding bias am afraid) I'll list them here.
Firstly its chuffing warm (and this isn't entirely down to the weather), and also, the standard international spacial tolerance allowance for gaps between tables and fixed seating has been blatantly flouted in an attempt to seat more folks. Not that this is a great problem, not least because the above regulation is something I made up, but it is marginally problematic for big lad. I can, if I like, scare small children and the weak hearted by placing my hernia on the table. Or I can sit elsewhere. I'd rather do neither.......
Still, its ironic to consider that the more time I spend sat in said environment the more it in some way contributes further to spacial issues, since there has been quite a lot of very good beer on. Arriving first (no matter what anyone tried to claim) on Thursday I had a pint of Abbeydale Dr Morton's Angler Management, followed by a Nethergate lager, and several pints of Blue Bee Tangled Up IPA, which true to form, was rather nice. I also think I had a Titanic Plum Porter. In summary, people were very generous and lots of drinks were bought, and I had the pleasure of good company all night. It was ace.
Sunday saw me invited to the Closed Shop for the soft launch of the food service, which starts on Tuesday. The idea (for dumplings like me who don't understand what a soft launch is) was to put on a range of dishes and see how popular they were, what time and place people prefer eating in, and generally how this whole "food" malarkey pans out. Personally I found it all very tasty, and as many others commented, offering free food to everyone on a Sunday is bound to get the punters in. Mr Stephens has not yet but surely would, ask me to point out that food actually has to be purchased under normal trading arrangements. I still would.
The beer range was once again rather good, but I only tried two ales - the Nook Brewhouse Oat Stout was great but once I'd gravitated to Titanic 9 below zero, a fruity 5.9% pale ale, it was that all the way. I'm fairly sure Chala enjoyed her Staropramen, although I couldn't tempt her to a cask beer. It was also good catching up with tree expert Robin, Vickie (this is probably wrong, sorry probably not Vickie) Mister Christopher, and his flat mate Allan.
Leaving Commonside we headed down the road in-between huge downpours to the Dam House. A beautiful walk through Crookes Valley park in hot sunshine ended with 20 minutes sat admiring the view and supping ale. Chala had a half of Wentworth Oyster Stout, and me a pint of Banks and Taylors S.O.D (Shefford Old Dark). I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but two dark beers from a range of two is CHUFFING BRAVE in Sheffield! Luckily I love dark beers....
Our final stop was in the Bath Hotel, where weird new opening hours have been imposed. It used to open at 18.30 maybe 19.00 so we didn't want to arrive early only to find it shut - but had we dallied any longer we'd have not made it in - it seems to shut at 19.30! Unperturbed (well, unaware), I had a pint or few of excellent Mallinsons Topaz and some Chiron whilst Chala had some beer. We weren't really doing research, not that you can tell.
A last mention goes to Shakespeares where I headed after work on Friday. A short session played out in which I was joined by Mister Christopher, and Patrick, from the world of hair. I had a few pints of the excellent new Steel City beer from the cellar, and a half of a Wilson Potter beer (which was excellent) with the word go in it (probably), along with a half of the Arbor Monsoon Saison. Cracking beers and good conversation prevailed as always.
So rounds up some recent slaking and pub related news. Hear's looking forward to a thirsty August ahead.
Cheers
Wee Beefy.
Showing posts with label Dam House. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dam House. Show all posts
Monday, 29 July 2013
Monday, 15 April 2013
Crookes Valley of Beer
Hello,
Over the weekend I undertook a short Crookes Valley area crawl, starting by popping into the Closed Shop. I had set off with the intention of trying out the beer garden with the sudden arrival of spring, but I was by ,myself and it was quite blustery - the thought of nursing a pint in the cold with too much of a gale blowing to be able to read wasn't particularly appetising, so I consoled myself with some beers. The range of brilliant beer was strong, including the SURAS version of Blue Bee Bees Knees, their new beer Shriek!, Wincle Rambler and Revolutions Brew Manifesto.
My first pint, the Wincle Rambler is a beer I shouldn't like. Its sweet and brown. For some reason it seems very refreshing and though subtle, the hopping is cleverly matched to work with as opposed to against the malts. Normally if I'm rambling (outside physically, as opposed to on here) I covet a pale refreshing beer but Rambler somehow met the requirements of such a beer without pale malt or new world hops to be seen. I had to have two pints just to deal with the surprise.
Up next was a half of the Blue Bee Shriek! an interesting well balanced drink with a robust hoppiness and a biscuity malt that worked really well. Not quite brandishing the monstrous bite of parenthesis, it was still an enjoyable beer. and one which worked better than it did on gravity at Shakespeares - definitely needs a head.
The Manifesto was up next, as was a rather disastrous trip to use the world's slowest jukebox, which instantly loses points for not having Alec Eiffel by Pixies on it, like all good Jukebox's should. Mind you, in competing with the box at the Rutland, few stand a chance. The Manifesto was strangely thick. I know its a strong stout but this was really more heavy than particularly strong tasting. Still, once I'd adjusted to its might I quite liked it and had two pints before wandering onwards.
My next stop was the Star and Garter. Having only been in for the first time in years a few weeks ago I was surprised to hear it had closed. When I noticed the lights on I popped in and found one of the guys from the Hadfield opening night sat at the bar, having just taken it over and reopened it. No No No by Dawn Penn blasted out of the speakers, followed by some fairly chunky dub so I was happy with the music, but not so much with the £2.15 a pint Tetley being £1.35 a half, although I did successfully argue my way down to a more realistic price. Plans are to take suggestions form customers about what they want to see at the pub, which may include the beer range. One to keep an eye on.
My next pub was a new on on me. Literally in the Crookes Valley now, I was in the park of the same name visiting the Dam House. Having had a rather odd possibly even chequered history, I had always been told that it didn't serve real ale, and that the drinks were really expensive. It had never been anything but a restaurant in recent years, to my mind.
Positive coverage arrived last year on Pete Green's blog here, and that pricked my interest. And since it was slightly more sheltered than the Shop it was tempting to put the theory of it being the best beer garden in Sheffield to the test.
The bar is on your right against the back wall as you come in. There is loads of space and light, and there are two large terraces outside on which to take in the rather splendid view. The real vista of note however was the bar - Belhaven IPA, summat else from Greedy King and Kelham Island Pale Rider. I ordered half of that and waited for the punch in the guts. "That's £1.25 please" came the response. Bloody ell! One of the best views in Sheffield and beer at a more than reasonable price! I think I'll be popping in again.
Leaving the Crookes Valley I headed down to the Bath Hotel for a last one, where I had a chat with Ed and a pint (or more) that no-one thought to write down for me. I remember it being rather good. I bet it was stoutish, whatever it was....
My final point concerns the construct of the crawl itself. It seems my claims to have created and marketed (!) the Cobden, Closed Shop, Hallamshire House Springvale and Blake crawl (and other versions, like the one above) were on unsteady ground from the start. Not that mine was a serious claim, and the fact that it's simply a list of similar pubs in a given area, which strictly speaking doesn't all fall in the Crookes Valley, means that apportioning any credit or creative kudos for linking the boozers together would be difficult.
And besides, since my post on February 26th this year the CAMRA have earmarked or embarked on just such a route, it has been written up in the Sheffield Telegraph, and by sheer co-incidence of location I'd be willing to bet that plenty of people had already done it. And the telling revelation came last night - I remembered that the links between the pubs had previously been established, and advertised, by the Closed Shop.
I am continuing to trawl the archive of beer matters on-line but I suspect the ad predates October 2009, which is the oldest copy I could find on the website. As I remember, essentially the Closed Shop marketed itself, one assumes with the Hallamshire House, as part of a beer triangle with the Cobden. Without a copy of the advert I can't work out the 3rd point (it would be a funny shape if that were the Hallamshire House...) but think it may be the Notty House? This was presumably a bid to drum up trade which I suspect was the wish of the Closed Shop rather than the others - both the Hallamshire House and Cobden always advertised in Beer matters through 2010 and 11 (and still do) and have an established trade, so it seemed a strange union. If anyone has a copy of the ad or remembers it please get in touch - knowing my luck it won't even have been a triangle....
Wee Beefy
Over the weekend I undertook a short Crookes Valley area crawl, starting by popping into the Closed Shop. I had set off with the intention of trying out the beer garden with the sudden arrival of spring, but I was by ,myself and it was quite blustery - the thought of nursing a pint in the cold with too much of a gale blowing to be able to read wasn't particularly appetising, so I consoled myself with some beers. The range of brilliant beer was strong, including the SURAS version of Blue Bee Bees Knees, their new beer Shriek!, Wincle Rambler and Revolutions Brew Manifesto.
My first pint, the Wincle Rambler is a beer I shouldn't like. Its sweet and brown. For some reason it seems very refreshing and though subtle, the hopping is cleverly matched to work with as opposed to against the malts. Normally if I'm rambling (outside physically, as opposed to on here) I covet a pale refreshing beer but Rambler somehow met the requirements of such a beer without pale malt or new world hops to be seen. I had to have two pints just to deal with the surprise.
Up next was a half of the Blue Bee Shriek! an interesting well balanced drink with a robust hoppiness and a biscuity malt that worked really well. Not quite brandishing the monstrous bite of parenthesis, it was still an enjoyable beer. and one which worked better than it did on gravity at Shakespeares - definitely needs a head.
The Manifesto was up next, as was a rather disastrous trip to use the world's slowest jukebox, which instantly loses points for not having Alec Eiffel by Pixies on it, like all good Jukebox's should. Mind you, in competing with the box at the Rutland, few stand a chance. The Manifesto was strangely thick. I know its a strong stout but this was really more heavy than particularly strong tasting. Still, once I'd adjusted to its might I quite liked it and had two pints before wandering onwards.
My next stop was the Star and Garter. Having only been in for the first time in years a few weeks ago I was surprised to hear it had closed. When I noticed the lights on I popped in and found one of the guys from the Hadfield opening night sat at the bar, having just taken it over and reopened it. No No No by Dawn Penn blasted out of the speakers, followed by some fairly chunky dub so I was happy with the music, but not so much with the £2.15 a pint Tetley being £1.35 a half, although I did successfully argue my way down to a more realistic price. Plans are to take suggestions form customers about what they want to see at the pub, which may include the beer range. One to keep an eye on.
My next pub was a new on on me. Literally in the Crookes Valley now, I was in the park of the same name visiting the Dam House. Having had a rather odd possibly even chequered history, I had always been told that it didn't serve real ale, and that the drinks were really expensive. It had never been anything but a restaurant in recent years, to my mind.
Positive coverage arrived last year on Pete Green's blog here, and that pricked my interest. And since it was slightly more sheltered than the Shop it was tempting to put the theory of it being the best beer garden in Sheffield to the test.
The bar is on your right against the back wall as you come in. There is loads of space and light, and there are two large terraces outside on which to take in the rather splendid view. The real vista of note however was the bar - Belhaven IPA, summat else from Greedy King and Kelham Island Pale Rider. I ordered half of that and waited for the punch in the guts. "That's £1.25 please" came the response. Bloody ell! One of the best views in Sheffield and beer at a more than reasonable price! I think I'll be popping in again.
Leaving the Crookes Valley I headed down to the Bath Hotel for a last one, where I had a chat with Ed and a pint (or more) that no-one thought to write down for me. I remember it being rather good. I bet it was stoutish, whatever it was....
My final point concerns the construct of the crawl itself. It seems my claims to have created and marketed (!) the Cobden, Closed Shop, Hallamshire House Springvale and Blake crawl (and other versions, like the one above) were on unsteady ground from the start. Not that mine was a serious claim, and the fact that it's simply a list of similar pubs in a given area, which strictly speaking doesn't all fall in the Crookes Valley, means that apportioning any credit or creative kudos for linking the boozers together would be difficult.
And besides, since my post on February 26th this year the CAMRA have earmarked or embarked on just such a route, it has been written up in the Sheffield Telegraph, and by sheer co-incidence of location I'd be willing to bet that plenty of people had already done it. And the telling revelation came last night - I remembered that the links between the pubs had previously been established, and advertised, by the Closed Shop.
I am continuing to trawl the archive of beer matters on-line but I suspect the ad predates October 2009, which is the oldest copy I could find on the website. As I remember, essentially the Closed Shop marketed itself, one assumes with the Hallamshire House, as part of a beer triangle with the Cobden. Without a copy of the advert I can't work out the 3rd point (it would be a funny shape if that were the Hallamshire House...) but think it may be the Notty House? This was presumably a bid to drum up trade which I suspect was the wish of the Closed Shop rather than the others - both the Hallamshire House and Cobden always advertised in Beer matters through 2010 and 11 (and still do) and have an established trade, so it seemed a strange union. If anyone has a copy of the ad or remembers it please get in touch - knowing my luck it won't even have been a triangle....
Wee Beefy
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