The Sheffield Food Festival 2013.

Food?

Schmood more like...

             For the purposes of his post, food has to be recognised as both solid and liquid. Mainly liquid. In fact, in terms of the "food" I sampled at the food festival, entirely liquid. Well, its a beer blog after all.

So once again, it was a warm September Saturday, and crowds were gathered in a bustling and noisy Peace Gardens, possibly concealing bottles of White Lightning or cheap sherry, enjoying the sights and smells of the Sheffield food festival. Stalls lined Fargate and Pinstone Street, and at the centre of it all, far more important than any other aspect, was the beer bar of the Sheffield Craft (coughs) Brewers Co-operative.

To get my own unique angle on the event, I was sat in the tent next to it - supporting local small businesses. How very locally engaged of me...

This year the bar features 8 breweries and staff from all of them were working behind the bar through the three days of the festival serving pints and offering advice to punters. The roll call was Abbeydale, Blue Bee, Bradfield, Brew Company, Kelham Island, Sheffield Brewing Co, White Rose and Wood Street breweries. Plenty of "real ale types" from the Sheffield scene were there but crucially, I spotted and overheard a lot of people looking to try real ale as a change or for the first time. In the spirit of the food festival, people were sampling the unusual, and as far as I could see, loving it. At £3.00 a pint regardless of strength, the beer was good value as well.

After a fortnight of tasty Pilcrow the only sensible choice for my first pint was a dark beer - alas we missed Brew Co's Oat Mocha Stout and instead plumped for a couple of pints of Blue Bee Lustin For Stout. This year for the bar they had invested in some rather more sturdy  plastic glasses, meaning grabbing it with any force didn't result in you squirting quarter of a pint of beer over yourself,  and the other bonus was the appearance of seating, which  made this much more like a beer festival bar. Soon myself and Miss N were joined by J9 and Dave, Feasty, Gav, Gary and Clair and Mr P, and set about securing a large table in the sunshine. Cue four hours of enjoyable socialising and drinking.

Back to the beer then, and another couple of pints of Blue Bee Lustin for Stout were purchased, before we switched codes - both of us moving on to pints of the Brew Co Stateside Pale, as recommended by the brewer. As the bar was getting busier, at the same time the sun was getting hotter, but the only damage to the beers was their availability - pale ales were running out left right and centre. That said, the Lustin for Stout went very early on in our session.

Real food lovers (i.e most of the rest of our throng) wandered off at times to sample the likes of curried goat, Nepalese curry and hot roast pork sandwiches at nearby stalls, whilst we manned the table and continued our drinking. Next up were pints of Bradfield Farmers Pale, that being, as I have often mentioned, my favourite Bradfield beer, before we tried pints of the Kelham Island Knight Rider.

Eventually we got to our final festival drinks - a pint each of the Blue Bee Tangled Up IPA, before we headed down to the Rutland with Mr P to worship at the altar of the people's porter. According to the Rutland, who is a person, its the taste of Wee beefy. I am very pleased to assure you that none of my person ended up in the beer...!

So, had I been more sober and less busy am sure I would have checked out other pubs and beery delights - I hear the Beer Central shop proposed to open in the new market on the Moor have a stall, and there are, as I'm sure you know, plenty of pubs in and around the festival serving a range of real ales. The festival is on til this evening and the bar will be open for some of that time - last year I think it closed around 16.00 so you should be OK for an al-fresco pint if you get your skates on...

Cheers!

Wee beefy

Sheffield beers and bars news

Evenin,

     over the last few days, with my well earned break drawing to a a close, I have been out and about at some of my regular haunts, and some less well known, sampling what Sheffield has to offer.

Shakespeares

Thursday saw me meet Brazilian football legend Janinio for a few pints. We started at Shakespeares, where she was on the Timmermans, and I started with ever reliable Deception. It always manages to be a great place for a catch up, with plenty of good beer.

The prime example of which was an excellent collaboration brew from two of my favourite breweries, Revolutions and excellent newcomers Brass Castle. Their dry Cool for Cats stout was one of my beers of the week, and just to make sure, I had a couple of pints of it. Although dry as I said, it had a roasted malt bitterness followed by a satisfying smooth creaminess, which matched my expectations of these two good breweries output.

Dada

Later we escaped to a different type of quiet in Dada, witnessing a stellar staffing line up of Emily, Steph and James. On the bar, once again, was the excellent Saltaire Cascadian Black which once more I had several pints of, although I also had a half of the Schlenkerla Rauchbier so that Janinio could try it, and which she seemed to quite like.

To my initial annoyance there was a "band" playing a mainly acoustic set later on, but I didn't mind too much as it gave me chance to take some pictures whilst enjoying the beer.

Cold Lazarus

I was back in again on Friday after the food fest bar had closed. This time the band was on over a few hours so there was less chance to chat at the bar, i.e. none. However, the band were very good (pictured above) and I managed to secure a decent spot to take pics and enjoy more Cascadian Black and a bit too much Schlenkerla. I still much prefer a quiet Tuesday or Wednesday but my late night visit made a nice change.

Sheffield Tap

I was in briefly Friday afternoon to meet Fluffy for a quick pint before he headed off to Manchester, to, amongst other things, find some despairingly poor pubs near Piccadilly. At the Tap it was Ilkley in the main, both the Sunny Republic and the Kirkstall Three Swords went off whilst I was there. I had two pints of the delicious Ilkley Dark, plus a rather odd cloudy half of their Dinner Ale, which states on the pumpclip is brewed to an original 1884 recipe.

It was nice to sit outside in the sun drinking dark beer, and also a good opportunity to try more of the Ilkley offerings on cask, which you very rarely seem to see.

The Sheffield Brewers Co-operative Craft Marquee, Sheffield food fest, Saturday.

On the premise of meeting some folks from the world of the Internet, and of course to warn up (literally) for the beer festival later, I was in  a packed Peace Gardens around 14.00. There were queues at the bar for most of the time I was there, and the combination of crowds, stalls and delicious Sheffield real ales proved quite a draw, especially with the warm sunshine.

This time I was back on the Blue Bee Glitterati, and chatting to Andy from the brewery. I also had halves of Welbeck West Australian (and a pint as well) and their Red Feather. Alas, the only dark beer, Kelham Island Back to Black, ran out as I was buying Andy a pint. Doh!

One of the good things about this visit was that it afforded me the chance to study the festival programme, albeit mainly to assess what I was about to or had already missed, and also to unexpectedly bump into quite a few people - Fluffy was there, because his Mum got married in the Town Hall (so I am on a wedding pic!) as was Lou, and despite missing Redpola, I spotted Badpandabeers and MissieCindz from the world of Twitter. Real people eh? Donchajussluvvum?

It was also nice to see some more brewers behind the bar, although there were a lot there Saturday who'd done a shift Friday as well. Well done to them for finding the time to put in the hours behind the bar.

Some, but not all, of Sheffield's brewing nobility

Alas this dreamy sun-kissed drinking could not last, and I had to leave for the beer festival, but I can safely say that I have seen enough from this years Sheffield Food Festival to warrant a much more involved visit next year. Lets hope the breweries bar makes a return appearance as well.

That's all the news I have for now, stay thirsty and all the best

Wee Beefy.

Sheffield Food Festival 2012 - its a beer thing...

Morning,

    its true that in fact, the Sheffield Food Festival 2012 (not the Sheffieled, as I typed yesterday whilst hungover!) is still on, throughout today and into Sunday, but I don't have time to wait for all that to happen! This is hot news so I'm going to throw it out there early....

So, this is my first year visiting the food festival. I never really heard about it before, perhaps because if its about the same time each year am usually on holiday or thinking about Sheffield beer festival, a far beery-er and potentially finer event, I'm sure you'll agree.

This year, I understand in contrast to previous years, the main draw is a Sheffield Breweries Co-operative Craft Beer Marquee, in a tent in the Peace Gardens. Now its important to get ones sniggering out of the way early on,  at the hilariously ironic concept of freely available alcohol in the Peace Gardens, which of course unlike the rest of the week, its not being drunk from green plastic bottles by outdoor lager enthusiasts. Oh no, this comes in, albeit plastic, glasses, and is served by the brewers themselves. What's not to love?

A brewers dozen. Minus 3.

The beer tent features , according to the website link here and as seen with my own eyes, beers from nine Sheffield breweries, and there are tutored beer tastings and information about the ingredients and processes used.

For reasons of pedantry its important to set straight a few anomalies here. For instance, Welbeck Abbey brewery, no matter how generous your interpretation, isn't in Sheffield. Its also worth noting that the Sheffield food fest website described the tent as a marque, not a marquee, and also that erstwhile Sheffield brewing giants On The Edge Brewery, Little Ale Cart and Steel City Brewing weren't represented. But lets not get tangled up in facts. As regular readers will know, I rarely let them encroach on my writing...

Last night there was Rich from Blue Bee, Dan from Abbeydale, Pete from the Brew Company, Mick (I didn't speak to this gentleman, so hopefully someone identified him correctly) from Kelham Island, and Alison from the new Wood Street Brewery. All but Rich were behind the bar, on which there were a selection of ingredients, some instantly familiar and some less so, for smelling, and I assume tasting, although I wasn't tempted to try.

Dave can sense crystal malt and fuggles nearby...

The crystal malt interested me straight away (indeed, I did spot Dave U, above, from Steel City Brewing, and I reckon it was the presence of crystal malt on the bar that forbid his and Steel City Brewing's involvement) and I quickly identified that smell. Sorry, that's not very professional. I mean, aroma. For ease of recognition, Pete had brewed a beer (with a red label, I didn't have the heart to tell him I couldn't read the bugger) which I tried, and it did, indeed, taste of the caramelly, slightly sweet crystal I had in front of me. He explained to me about the different colour of malts, and how the roasting process caramelises the malt, lending, I think, that distinct flavour.

The sample of fuggles hops was less obvious. Not as much aroma by a long way, as with the maris otter, which reminded me very faintly of biscuits, and without an obvious single varietal example on offer, it was very difficult to translate the aroma into a beer flavour. On the other hand, just one whiff of the dried citra hops told me straight away that I was back drinking the matchless Brodies Citra. A powerful pungent aroma which just said refreshment.

Speaking of which, whilst at the bar of course, it would have been rude not to have had some beer. I started with a half of the Yellow Wood IPA from Wood Street, which was OK, but lacked the hoppiness I and it, craved, as well as two excellent pints of the Blue bee Glitterati. It was nice to taste it again in the sobering environment of the festival - I describe it thus because somebody turned up in a short sleeved shirt. It was chuffing perishing.

I finished on a half of Back to Black from Kelham Island. It was just about the only dark beer on (I understand suppliers were encouraged to only supply pale beer, which is presumably down to Sheffielders love of pale beers, but not exactly complimentary about the scope of our collective palates) and went down a treat. Alas, it did nothing to warm me up.....

Unfortunately, planning has not been my forte of late so I hadn't considered that in fact the bar may close quite early. That being 20.00. And this, after having arrived at 17.00 to find most of the food stalls winding down for the day (although I did get an excellent sausage butty from the Whirlow Hall Farm BBQ, and not a bad price at £2.50, which couldn't be said of the absurd costs in some of the more exotic stalls) proved to be my undoing. I did manage 2 hours schmoozing with brewing nobility, but I really will have to pop back again today en route to the Abbeydale Rugby Club beer festival. There are still a lot of stalls and products that I fancy trying.

So, that's all the gen I have on the Sheffield Food festival 2012 for now, more precisely the all important beer tent! Many thanks to the brewers I met for their advice and company, and beers. (and apologies to any foodies reading this, I concede I didn't really go into the whole "food" aspect of the festival very much...or at all)

In conclusion, with the weather promising to warm up today I think the peace gardens will be an enjoyable venue for a pint this afternoon, maybe to accompany some fresh hot food. I'd warmly recommend a visit. And don't forget the Abbeydale RUFC beer festival...

Cheers!

Wee Beefy