The 4th Sheffield RUFC Beer & Cider Festival

afternooned

       I'm coming to the end of my three weeks off now, back to the unseemly drag of generating pay on Monday, but I have finished off my celebrations and relaxation with a trip to the Abbeydale Rugby Club beer festival.

I arrived after 17.00, a bit later than planned, due to some classic First Group incompetence - no 97 or 98's for over half an hour - then 3 came at once. Luckily, some time was saved by now knowing the correct bus stop to get off at. It was interesting to note that this year the SRUFC had excelled themselves by having ABSOLUTELY no signs whatsoever about where the festival was, or even its existence. It was only because I'd been before that I had any inkling where to go.

I'm not really sure I understand the idea of "enticing" new visitors by being invisible, but it seemed busy, if not as much as it could be, although far fewer of the customers seemed to be from outside the family of the Rugby and Sports club.

It was also smaller than last year, with a slightly reduced range, but as promised, the prices remained the same, which is an admirable achievement, and it cost precisely nothing to get in. Tickets were 4 halves at £1.25 which were marked off as you went through. A brilliantly simple procedure that required no tills, and importantly, no confusion or small change. And the volunteer staff behind the bar were cheerful and helpful throughout, as they were last year.

Old Stock Ale - inspirational

I started on a half of the Dancing Duck Dark Drake, which I had really enjoyed at the Exeter Arms on my last two visits. It didn't disappoint, and dark beers were to be the signature of my drinks for the night. Next, I finally got to try the excellent Abbeydale Old Stock. Not as brown as I was expecting, with a slightly amber colour, and some tremendous malt, caramel and spirit alcohol flavours that reminded me, as it should have, of a good quality aged beer. Unfortunately, at 6.9%, this was my only taster - I intended to remain compus-mentus for the event as far as was possible.

Next up was the Elland Nettlethrasher, a beer that has come through more brewery name incarnations than I care to remember (I seem to recall the first was as Eastwoods, along with Ecky Thump - anyone concur?). It was a decent enough bitter, with some hoppiness, maybe requiring a tad more.

Men. Talking about stuff.

I also tried a Blue Bee Rugbee Rugbee Rugbee, launched at the festival last year, and which was ironically a drink that a third of was spilt down me by some rugby players forming a scrum in the tiny bar tent. Thanks nobheads. A good tasting beer though, and one of a brace that I had before settling on my beer of the night - the other being the tasty Spire Chesterfield Best Bitter.

Said offering was the excellent Raw Dark Peak Stout. Without the usual Black Mass to slowly remove me from proceedings I opted for a sensible strength (4.5%) dark beer to finish on - I think I had 3 fantastic pints in all. A cracking way to round off my drinking, until the next time...

Thanks to Blue Bee Rich, the authoress K E Page from the world of writing, Geoff, Wee Keefy, Carlos, Half Pint, Lauren and finally my fellow Dark Star attired tweeter T_i_B, from the world of the Internet, for their company and chat during my enjoyable 5 hour stint. I even made it out for the bus in perfect time and was home for a much needed feed before midnight.

Roll on the 5th event, hopefully, for first time punters sakes, with some signage...

Cheers!


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

Wee Beefy's beer bites and Blue Bee Brewery too

Hello

another rapid fire round-up following my epic trip round the mid counties of England (and two in Wales ) with Mr P, Davefromtshop and Wee Fatha, ending a frenetic (but enjoyable August of trips away.

Blue Bee Brewery launch new beer - Rugbee Rugbee Rugbee!

I was lucky enough to be present and taking snaps for the launch of Blue Bee Brewery's new beer Rugbee Rugbee Rugbee. ( see http://twitter.com/#!/bluebeebrewery ) The launch took place at the excellent and now annual Abbeydale Sports Club/Shefield RUFC beer festival on the side of the pitch at the club, near Dore Station.

The club (with able assistance from Sarah Louise Morton) organised a troop of volunteer bar staff, some home made samosas and curry from a local restaurant along with the assembly of an impressive list of beers and ciders to tempt customers to the free festival where all beers were £2.50 a pint, regardless of strength.

Among the beers on sale was Blue Bee's new 4.8% beer Rugbee Rugbee Rugbee. This beer was launched at the festival, and brewed to coincide with the Rugby world cup being held in New Zealand, and brewed using Pacific Jade hops.

I started with a pint of the Blue Bee Nectar Pale by way of a comparison, and found the Rugbee had just as much hoppy bite, and a little more body than the pale, presumable because its a stronger brew. Along with some other fantastic ale this was a beer I tried a few pints of, along with (not in order) the excellent Boggart Rum Porter, Raw Anubis Porter, Spire Twist and Stout, Steel City Brewing Raw Steel IPA, Leadmill Rapture, and Thornbridge Summer ale (not all pints!). Sensibly my last beer of the night, was Thornbridge Geminus, a fearsomely hoppy 8.5% bed coaxer that meant despite heading to Dave's for a last one, I instead swiftly ended up in a taxi unable to recall the way home....

The festival was very busy especially with the crowds enjoying the band, Mahogany Newt, and runs for three days until, well, possibly 18 minutes ago, depending on when they close. Definitely a date to make in your diary for next year.

Forum Cafe Bar

A recent visit saw the beer range down to one, not that this is a venue renowned for its real ale or anything, but the surprise was the choice of beer. Springhead Olivers Army (see http://www.springhead.co.uk/olivers-army) is a ruby beer with strong malt notes that is somewhere between a bitter and a brown ale. I reckonm, if you are only to have one real ale on, this is either an edgy but confident idea, or a risky gamble. The beer was very quaffable but it was a hot day and I was dreaming of a pale ale all the way there.

Otherwise though, no real changes, with cocktails and wines still taking centre stage (and some decent continental draught). My only gripe - table service - sort it out!

Drinks seem to spend upwards of 10 minutes on the bar when they are busy, going warm or worse still, going nowhere - after waiting 15 minutes they then told me that they didn't have the product I ordered after all. A badly executed good plan am afraid....

York, beer from the shire.

Over the bank holiday weekend I was in sunny (and torrential rainy ) York, the capital of our county (that's right, its not chuffin Leeds) and beholder of an excellent range of pubs. Primarily this was a weekend away for me and Chala so tricky excursions to pubs on the outskirts was out of the question, we just wandered around and went in those we found, mostly.

On day one we holed up for an hour in the excellent Pivni near Newgate market and Swinegate. This fabulous old building has a wonderfully quirky tiled floor downstairs, some disconcertingly warped wood upstairs, and a beer to suit all tastes on the bar. In addition to an unusual selection of continental draught, and 77 lager in keg from BrewDog, there were 4 or 5 real ales on the bar.

I tried a pint of a low gravity Salamander Brewing Co beer which may have been their Axolotl but i concede I don't remember, as well as a half of the BrewDog (cask) Alice Porter, which was fantastic. Its a shame we didn't have more time to stick around, but on our way out later we stopped at a typically rammed Maltings, to sample a pint of Dow bridge mild, and half a Kirkstall Pale, both of which were very suppable.

On the Sunday we got to the Blue Bell at just gone midday to be puzzled that they had hired the front bar out for a private party - that's half of the pub! We did however get a seat in the back and enjoyed a Roosters Yankee, which is a beer I haven't had for a while, and Chala had to settle for coke as the Erdinger was all gone.

Later on we finally found the York brewery Yorkshire Terrier pub on Stonegate - not because its necessarily difficult to find, but because Chala had imagined it was accessed from the shambles. This excellent little pub has 4 separate drinking areas and a range of about 7 real ales. I had a very quaffable pint of the York Yorkshire Terrier, which unless am mistaken, seems to have lost a little hoppiness over the years ? Come on the York Brewery, terriers have bite!

Further up Stonegate is the excellent but real ale free Evil Eye lounge, an uber cool cocktail and tapas bar with a range of good bottled beers and a 4 page menu of cocktails and slammers for those who like the harder stuff. As well as trying some truly unwise and quaffable drinks, like a few B52's for yours truly, I also had a refreshing bottle of Schlenkerla Rauchbier. York bottled beers are also available, and there is a specialist off licence at the front. Well worth a look if in York...

Our penultimate pub stop was new to me, the Brigantes bar, a real ale pub similar in style to the Harlequin in good old Sheff, serving a range of about 8 real ales and once again some continental draught. I tried a half of the Kostritzer Schwarzbier from Germany which was a delicious if unusual find, along with pints of York Guzzler and a Brew Company IPA that tasted very faintly, but enjoyably, of oranges.

We did have a real ale with our meal - a half of Sharps Doom Bar at All bar One, a beer now starting to taste more and more malty and less like something I would choose to drink, but ABO only has one pump.

On Monday we somehow contrived to visit no real ale pubs, but with time to spare at the station made the mistake of visiting the coopers Bar. 6 Handpumps, all turned round and having sold 3 beers, Grim King IPA and Abbot, and Theakstons best. Not a continental lager in sight (not even a Kronenburg wheat or similar) and nowt more inspiring in bottle than Newky Brown. In the end, if only to fill in time, I opted for a tonic water and Chala a coke. That really was as food as the place got!

All in all (despite the lack of a decent station bar) York is a magnet for lovers of real ale and pubs, not forgetting of course my absence from the Golden Ball, Swan, 3 Legged Mare, Last Drop Inn, Fleece, Three Cranes and Rook and Gaskill to name but a few.

That's all the beer news I have for now, not withstanding that I have more Scottish cask ale travels to tell of, and our trip round the shires of England and Wales.

Take care and thirst no more

Wee Beefy