Commercial, Chapeltown, Queens 60th Jubilee beer festival

Good afternoon,

    its not all gallivanting about in North East Derbyshire, there are beer festivals to be found in Sheffield as well. On Friday afternoon I was invited to the Commercial at Chapeltown for their beer festival. This one had obviously slipped under  my radar somehow, but Mr Robbery, Ally and Malc were off out so I decided to join them for a few. The festival started on Thursday and runs through until Tuesday if you fancy popping down.

Getting there has always been a bit of a spoiler for me - I was thinking only last week about how it was years since I'd last been, and then immediately started to remember how much of a ball ache journey it was. Mind you, I should have considered all the options. You can catch the First bus 75 from Sheffield, which stops a ten minute walk away from the pub, or the train (also stops at Meadowhall, and much much quicker) or the 265 from Waingate which actually stops across the road, so its not so bad. And to my surprise, I got there in less than 40 minutes from town.

The Commercial is on the right as you walk up Station road from the railway bridge, and retains a traditional layout of separate rooms inside. The entrance corridor leads straight to the bar, with a narrow corridor running its length, with doors at the end for the loos. On the right is an archway into a lounge room, with another entrance further up, and there is also a games room on the far left past the loos. This also leads to the very tiny bar snug, which is a great place to end up in on a cold night, or indeed any other time of year. Last time I was in it was festooned with hundreds of pumpclips.

Being the festival weekend the pub was packed at 18.00 on a Friday and stayed busy for the whole of the three hours I was in. There were 40 beers on over the whole festival, along with 6 real ciders - in fact, some probably haven't been on yet with two days to go. I bought 6 different beers, but this included 3 pints of the excellent West Coast Brewing Riptide Black IPA, surprisingly light in alcohol for a beer of this style, but very drinkable, hoppy and refreshing.

The other beers I tried were :

8 Sail Jubilation, 4.0%

Kelham Island Hoppy and Glorious, 5.0%

Oakwell Dark Mild, 3.4%

Pennine Street Party IPA, 4.8%

York Legacy, 4.0%

And I had tasters of :

TSA Red Bush Raspberry Ale, 4.8%

Durham Redemption, 10.0%

Caledonian Coffee Porter, 4.3%

Talking of some of the above, its probably a good idea not to buy a pint of Redemption, let alone a half, but Ally had two halves I think - I would have been asleep! As it was I left around 21.00 in full working order, to head back into town and the Sheffield Tap, more of which to come tomorrow.

There are other beers still to come like I said, and its a shame I can't get back again because there were a couple I really wanted to try. Along with the excellent food, which looked very tempting. Theres more details at the pub's website here including a list of beers on the bar. The Commercial is a great place for a drink if you are in the area. Highly recommended.

Wee Beefy