Year: 2019

The second in our current series of collaborations with good friends from across the pond, Greetings from Charlotte is the culmination of a journey which began with a week spent at the incredible NoDa Brewing, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Our brewers Jamie and Christie were lucky enough to head out there last year, and we were massively excited to welcome them back to brew with us in Sheffield just a few weeks ago.

NoDa co-owners Todd Ford and Chad Henderson made the trip across the Atlantic along with Production Manager Matt Virgil. The beer we have created, “Greetings from Charlotte” is a Breakfast Cereal IPA, a new angle on the New England style, with a South Eastern US twang and an English twist, inspired by NoDa’s popular “True Grit” IPA. Chad is a scientific brewer who starts at a theory to get to a recipe, and his desire to get into the nitty gritty of hops, proteins, and yeast was definitely something for us to learn from. We used torrefied maize (the closest things to cornflakes we’ve ever added to a beer), oats and oat milk, coupled with Galaxy, Vic Secret and Citra Cryo, to create a hazy hopbomb with a smooth mouthfeel and a crisp finish.

We caught up Todd and Chad over a pint after the brewday to learn a little more about the company, their ethos, and their community…

Todd and Chad met when both were homebrewers attending the same club almost a decade ago, “having fun and expression with beer, not a business”, as the craft beer scene started to really take off in the States. More lenient laws were beginning to increase the possibilities of brewing, causing a booming interest in the trade country-wide. In North Carolina, things were slower to get started, with just one beer (a fairly traditional German style lager) brewed in Charlotte at the time. Charlotte is the largest city in North Carolina, and Todd and Chad began to question why there were no local options available.

Todd and his wife Suzie, also a co-owner of the business, wanted a change and the opportunity to work together, and to bring a local beer option to their beloved hometown. And so the Fords “put their lives on the line”, using their retirement fund to start the business. “We were at a time of our lives where we felt able to go for it… our kids were in or through college and we knew we could dedicate the time and effort required to build the business from the ground up”.

Since the inception of NoDa 8 years ago, the beer scene has exploded in Charlotte – they were the second brewery to start up in a town which now boasts over 50 breweries. But Todd says that “what has kept us at the forefront is a unique balance of quality products and the development of exciting, approachable, flavourful brands that offer a twist on the familiar”. By challenging assumptions to keep excitement and a high variety alongside quality and consistency, NoDa certainly set a high precedent for creativity and diversity. There’s now a thriving brewery community in Charlotte, coupled with a healthy level of competition, which as Chad states means that “our beer now is better than it’s ever been… we have to keep up with that rising tide”.

The driving force behind Chad’s recipes is an overall ambition to “create, inspire, educate and challenge. I want our beers to straddle the box of comfort… inside the box gets boring, and stepping too far away means you can make something so obscure as to become too challenging, but stepping 1 foot either side of familiarity means you can find a balance and have something for people to relate to”.

It was an award for their Coco Loco porter at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in 2013, followed by a Gold award in the American IPA category in 2014 (a category usually dominated by breweries from Colorado), which Todd credits with making NoDa a household name in the American craft beer world. Following on from this, they were able to open their second production facility, which houses a 60 BBL plant and still has room to grow. The 15 BBL original kit is now used for their limited release brews as well as their barrel ageing and souring project. More GABF awards have followed, covering many different beer styles including their spiced beer (the beer that Chad credits with getting him his first date with his now wife!), the mojito inspired NoDajito sour, and Gordgeous pumpkin beer.

NoDa are proud to have a tap room in the art district of Charlotte which emphasises their love for and commitment to their community. They have a crowd of loyal taproom regulars and (similar to how we like to work here) take care to embrace their local area – they showcase local artists, and arrange an array of different charity events, with Monday night fundraisers taking place every single week. Even the furniture is made from repurposed wood, from the building’s former life as a vinegar factory.

As the “old boys” in North Carolina, but still the ones known for pushing the boundaries and staying ahead of the curve, we can see many similarities between NoDa and ourselves here at Abbeydale. As Todd puts it, “we have to learn a lot as fast as we can and then implement it as hard as we can… but everything we do, we do it with love”. A sentiment that’s as true in Sheffield as it is in Charlotte, almost 4000 miles away.

“Greetings from Charlotte” is out now in cask, keg and 440ml can.

Cheers!

We are excited to announce that we are today launching Heathen in 440ml cans, sitting proudly alongside our brand new lager Heresy at the forefront of our Brewers Emporium range.

Heathen has been our most popular beer in can for the past two years, and in response to customer feedback we’ve decided that more of it to love (and fewer trips to the fridge!) can only be a good thing! 

Both are available now by the 6 pack or case via our online shop.

The rest of the range will soon be making the transition to 440ml cans too, so do keep your eyes peeled for news on all of our upcoming releases!

It’s just one week to go until the thirteenth annual Sunfest beer festival kicks off at our lovely pub the Rising Sun! The team have been working hard to rustle up a cracker of a beer list for you, so read on and draw up your wish list!

We’re also excited to announce that this year’s festival (running from Thursday 11th to Sunday 14th July) marks the official launch of Heresy lager. An Abbeydale lager has been a long time in the making (we’ve been saving the name for it since the 1990s!) so we can’t wait to get it out there. Please join us and help to welcome Heresy as the newest member of our Brewers’ Emporium family!

 

CASK

House Beers – Abbeydale Brewery, Sheffield:

Blue Skies (4.3%) – *First pour* Special festival beer with 10p a pint donated to the James Brownhill Memorial Fund.  Easy drinking pale hopped with Mount Hood.

Bob’s Your Dunkel (7.0%) – *Festival exclusive* Imperial-ish wheat beer

Bretted Dry-Hopped Sour (5.5%) – *From the Funk Dungeon – One off cask* Lemon and lime sour, well hopped and finished with Brett

Cryo Huckster (6.0%) – *Collaboration with Peddler Market* – Cryo-hopped NEIPA

Forge (6.0%) – *Collaboration with Forge Bakehouse* – Ancient grain IPA

Last Rites (11.0%) – Full-bodied barley wine

Raisins to be Fearful (7.0%) – *Collaboration with Torrside Brewery* Smoked Belgian Dubbel with raisins and apricots

Reaper #4 (4.8%) – Grapefruit infused wheat beer

Rise and Shine (4.3%) – *Festival exclusive* Dry hopped pale with coffee

Serenity #9 (3.8%) – Session IPA with Citra & Sabro hops

Unbeliever #8.1 (4.0% ) – *One off cask* Mango & lychee kettle sour

Unbeliever #8.2 (4.4% ) – *One off cask* Raspberry & vanilla Berliner Weisse

Whoopsies (10.2%) – *Festival exclusive* Donut Imperial IPA         

 

Guest cask

Acorn Brewery, Barnsley – Summer (4.1%) – Wheat beer

Anthology Brewing, Leeds – New Zealand Pale Ale (4.0%) – Session pale with Rakau and Jester hops

Arbor Ales, Bristol – Mosaic (4.0%) – Single hopped session pale

Atom Beers, Hull – Blonde (4.0%) – Crisp session pale

Bad Seed Brewery, Malton – Rustic Charm (6.3%) – Farmhouse IPA

Bakers Dozen Brewing, Stamford:

The Turk (5.5%) – Turkish Delight Porter

Magic Potion #17 (3.8%) – Amarillo & Chinook hopped pale

Beat Brewery, Stourbridge – Skaburst (4.0%) – Farmhouse ale

Black Iris, Nottingham – Chasing the Sun (6.5%) – Juicy IPA with Citra, Amarillo and Motueka

Blackjack Brewery, Manchester – The Pokies (3.6%) – Session American pale

Box Social Brewing, Newcastle – Blood Eagle (4.2%) – Mosaic and Simcoe pale

Brass Castle Brewery, Malton – Eclipse (5.7%) – Black IPA

Brew York, York:

Tonkoko (4.3%) – Chocolate and tonka bean milk stout

Turtle Peach (4.4%) – Hoppy pale ale with peaches

Brewsters Brewing, Grantham – Lupi Lin (4.5%) – Golden Mosaic and Simcoe ale

Bristol Beer Factory, Bristol – Fortitude (4.0%) – Amber ale

Castle Rock Brewery, Nottingham – SIPAv2 (4.5%) – Session IPA with Galena, Citra, Simcoe and Loral hops

Crafty Monkey Brewing Company, Hartlepool – Moneypenny EPA (4.0%) – Traditional English pale

Crosspool Ale Makers Society, Crosspool – Delph House (7.0%) – DDH IPA

Don Valley Brewery, Mexborough – Kiss the Sky (4.0%) – Woodstock inspired pale

Fernandes Brewery, Wakefield – Blue Lady (3.8%) – Golden session ale named after the legend of the Ghost of Heath Hall

Fixed Wheel Brewery, Blackheath – Manx Missile (4.4%)  – Hoppy rye ale

Flagship Beer, Liverpool – Vandal (4.2%) – Easy drinking pale from the microbrewery at the excellent Ship & Mitre pub

Foolhardy Ales, Stockport – Run Riot (4.6%) – Peanut butter milk stout

Good Chemistry Brewing, Bristol – Natural Selection (4.0%) – American pale ale with Simcoe and Ekuanot hops

Great Yorkshire Brewery, Cropton – Yorkshire Golden (4.2%) – Refreshing golden beer

Half Moon Brewery, York – That Old Chestnut (4.7%) – *Collaboration with Raven Hill Brewery* Classic chestnut coloured bitter

Harbour Brewing Co., Lanivet, Cornwall – Daymer (3.7%) – Pale ale with Saaz, Celeia, Mosaic & Citra hops

Kirkstall Brewery, Leeds – Inman & Howgate (3.6%) *Collaboration with Vocation Brewery* Light session pale named after the 2 head brewers who created it

Little Black Dog Beer Co., Carlton – NEIPA (5.1%) – Hazy, hopfilled NEIPA

Liverpool Organic Brewery, Liverpool – Liverpool IPA (5.7%) – Hoppy pale

Loxley Brewery, Sheffield – Wisewood 7 (4.4%) – Five-hop pale

Magic Rock Brewing Co., Huddersfield:

Ringmaster (3.9%) – US hopped pale

High Wire (5.5%) – West Coast style pale

Magpie Brewery, Nottingham – Hoppily Ever After (3.8%) – Refreshing pale

Mission Creep Beers, Cuckoo Brewers – Temple (3.8%) – Session pale with Chinook hops

Moor Beer, Bristol – Radiance (5.0%) – Crisp and hoppy blonde ale

Neptune Brewery, Liverpool – Loreli (3.5%) – Summery pale with Mandarina Bavaria & Huell Melon hops

North Riding Brewery, Scarborough – Styrian Dragon (4.5%) – Single hopped pale

Pig & Porter, Tunbridge Wells – All These Vibes (5.3%) – Pale ale with oats and wheat

Rat Brewery, Huddersfield – Poirat (4.8%) – Belgian blonde ale

Revolutions Brewing, Castleford – Swoon (4.5%) – Chocolate fudge milk stout

Ridgeside Brewing Co., Leeds – Albion (4.5%) – Pale ale with Ernest hops

Riverhead Brewery, Marsden – Blueberry Pale (4.0%) – Pale ale with stacks of real blueberries

Rooster’s Brewing Co, Knaresborough – Gridiron (4.9%) – Dry-hopped American red ale

Sheffield Brewery, Sheffield – Get Thi’sen Outdooerz (4.0%) – Easy drinking session beer designed for outdoor drinking!

Shiny Brewing, Derby – Moa (3.9%) – NZ hopped pale

Silver Brewhouse, Staveley – Funky Summer (4.0%) – New world session IPA

Siren Craft Brew, Reading – Broken Dream (6.0%) – Breakfast stout, 2018 Champion Beer of Britain

Steel City Brewing, Sheffield – Åsane (6.7%) – Cherrywood-smoked rauch braggot

Team Toxic, Cuckoo Brewers – Milkshake Pale Ale (5.2%) – Milkshake pale with lactose

Thornbridge Brewery, Bakewell – Melba (5.2%) – Peach infused IPA

Torrside Brewing, New Mills – Margin of Error (4.8%) – “Traditional” English bitter, with loads of American hops!

True North Brew Co., Sheffield – DDH Pale (4.3%)    

Turning Point Brew Co., Kirkbymoorside – Off The Grid (6.2%) – *One off cask* Ultra pale hazy IPA with Simcoe, Cascade and Chinook

Vocation Brewery, Hebden Bridge – Jack of All Trades (3.8%) – *Collaboration with Blackjack Brewery* Citra and Enigma hopped pale

Waen Brewery, Llanidloes – Pamplemousse Grapefruit (4.2%) – Fruity, dry hopped pale with grapefruit juice

Welbeck Abbey Brewery, Worksop – Sleeping Beauty (5.3%) – A honey-sweet IPA with Beata hops

Wild Beer Co., Shepton Mallet – Bibble (4.2%) – Oat pale with Mosaic hops

Wilde Child Brewing Co., Leeds – Wheel of Fortune (4.7%) – Heavily hopped and hazy pale with Summit, Eureka & Simcoe

Wiper & True, Bristol – Kaleidoscope (4.2%) – A tri-hopped golden ale

 

KEG

House Beers – Abbeydale Brewery, Sheffield :

Birdhouse (4.2%) – *Collaboration with Birdhouse Tea Co* Jasmine, green tea, summer fruits and hibiscus pinkish pale

Brett Force Trauma (5.0%) – *From the Funk Dungeon* Bretted pale ale with Mosaic

Greetings from Fort Mill (3.8%) – *Collaboration with Amor Artis, South Carolina* Orange peel and yarrow Grisette

Heathen (4.1%) – Mosaic hopped American Pale Ale

Heresy (4.5%) – Clean and crisp lager. Officially launching at the festival!

Keggy Bread (3.8%) – *Festival exclusive* Our Daily Bread best bitter served for one time only ON KEG! Fuggles, yum yum.

Lil Boochie (Low alc) – *Festival exclusive* Hopped Kombucha

Maize-Balls (6.2%) *Festival exclusive* Maize IPA with fresh blood oranges

Methuselah (Rum BA) (10.5%) – *From the Funk Dungeon* Barrel aged imperial stout.

Passion Fruit Lager (4.5%)  – *Festival exclusive* Lager infused with passionfruits

RITA (6.0%) – *Collaboration with Thornbridge Brewery* Black IPA #BIPAcomeback

Serenity #9 (3.8%) – Session IPA with Citra & Sabro hops

Unbeliever #8.2 (4.4%)- Raspberry & Vanilla Berliner Weisse

Voyager #17 (5.6%) – Citra, Cascade & Centennial IPA

 

Guest keg

Arbor Ales, Bristol – Space Hardware (6.6%) – NEIPA with Ekuanot, Galaxy, Mosaic and Simcoe hops

Atom Beers, Hull – The God Particle (6.0%) – *Collaboration with Abbeydale Brewery* Kveik IPA

Booch & Brew, Manchester – Ginger Kombucha (Low alc) – Kombucha brewed with ginger and lemon

Box Social Brewing, Newcastle – A Certain Shade of Green (6.0%) – Potent and punchy Citra IPA

Brew York, York – Empress Tonkoko (10.6%) – Tonka bean and coconut chocolate imperial stout

Gibberish, Liverpool – Chocolate Chilli Stodge Stout (6.0%) – Sumptuous chocolate stout with a hint of spice

Gipsy Hill Brewing Co., London – Swamper (3.5%) – Session New England pale

Kernel Brewery, London – Foeder Beer (5.0%) – Mixed fermentation Belgian-esque pale

Orbit Beers, London – Tzatziki Sour (4.3%) – Mint and cucumber Berliner weisse

Ridgeside Brewing Co., Leeds – Equator (5.6%) – Pineapple & grapefruit IPA

Steel City Brewing, Sheffield – Hammer Brew (7.2%) – NZ sour brut IPA with peach. One of only 2 kegs!

St Mars of the Desert, Sheffield – Endless Toil (4.0%) – *Collaboration with Hop Hideout* Orange zest pale ale.

Torrside Brewing, New Mills – Take My Bones Away (5.5%) – *Collaboration with Black Iris Brewery* Fresh and summery IPA

Track Brewery, Manchester – Out of Sight (9.0%) – Cryo-hopped DIPA with oats   

Wander Beyond Brewing, Manchester – Smoking Cinders (7.0%) – Campfire porter

Wilde Child Brewing Co., Leeds – Flow Rider (4.9%) – Key lime cheesecake sour

Wiper & True, Bristol – Citra & Rye (4.8%) – Full bodied amber ale

 

Sunfest runs at the Rising Sun (471 Fulwood Road, Sheffield S10 3QA) from noon on Thursday 11^th July until Sunday 14^th July. It is free entry and family (and doggy!) friendly. Please get in touch at [email protected] if you have any questions… we hope to see you there!

A four day festival held across fourteen different venues in Amsterdam, Carnivale Brettanomyces is one of the leading mixed fermentation beer festivals in the world. A vibrant, warm, entertaining weekend showcasing by invitation over sixty of the best international producers of this style, the city is overrun with like minded brewers and enthusiasts sharing knowledge, ideas, and of course, plenty of beers. And this year, the eighth Carnivale, Abbeydale Brewery’s Funk Dungeon project was invited to be among them.

And so Funk Dungeon Lead Brewer Jim, along with fellow bretthead colleague (and wife) Comms Manager Laura, headed across the North Sea on a rickety plane to join in the celebrations. The festival itself aims to educate and inform the audience about the awesome spectrum of beers which can be brewed with less common yeast and bacteria, from tart and zesty fruited sours to dry as a bone funky saisons and everything in between.

The main purpose of our trip was to host a “Meet & Bleat” at the wonderful In De Wildeman bar, complete with a Yorkshire Ploughmans inspired lunch pairing created by Wilde Chutney. The selection at In De Wildeman usually focuses on Dutch and Belgian beers, with a good presence of British beers over the festival weekend too. This meant we were able to sample plenty of stunning brews from the local area as well as those from names more familiar to us including Cloudwater, Fyne Ales and Brewdog Overworks. Our award-winning Wild Plum Ale and Sow the Seeds Farmhouse IPA were pouring and we took along some pre-release goodies and limited editions to share from bottle, including a red wine barrel aged gruit… particularly delicious alongside a Kriek pickled egg! A big thank you to all those who popped along to say hello and try our beers, and to Simon and the In De Wildeman team for being impeccable hosts who treated our beer with the utmost care and attention.

Other highlights of the festival for us included the Homebrewers’ Market, where we met with our new friends Wide Street Brewing from Ireland, who we are happy to confirm will be sending some of their tasty beer over to or very own Funk Fest this September! We sampled their delicious brett saison as well as a huge variety of highly accomplished brews from other small operations, a particular favourite being a umeboshi plum sour saison from California’s Fox Tale Fermentation Project.

We attended a fantastic talk on Berliner Weiss, where Benedict Koch of Wilder Wald and Ulrike Genz of SchneeEule (the only producer of authentic traditional style Berliner Weiss in Berlin!) shared their vast knowledge – look out for a beer of our own inspired by this coming soon-ish…!

And an afternoon spent at Foeders Bar was an absolute treat. If you’re planning a trip to Amsterdam, make sure you get this on your to-visit list… it’s the sort of bar where you’re instantly welcomed as a friend, and the keg line up is frankly astonishing. You might be able to spot owner Yuri by his newly acquired Funk Dungeon tshirt, too!

Cans of Abbeydale beer are also currently available in can at renowned beer shop De BeerKoning, right in the centre of Amsterdam.

Overall, it was wonderful to stroll the streets of Amsterdam and find excitement and enthusiasm for sour and mixed fermentation beer around every corner. We loved spending time with friends old and new from around the globe and learning so much as we did so.

All of this incredible experience has really got us into gear for our Funk Fest, to be held at the brewery on Saturday 7^th and Sunday 8^th September. Whilst our festival will be on a much smaller scale than Carnivale, we truly hope to retain some of the fierce enthusiasm and spirit of community that the festival oozes from every Bretty pore.

Tickets are available now via Party for the People, and if you’re a homebrewer don’t forget to check out our competition which is running during the Sunday session of the festival to be in with a chance to brew a beer destined for the Dungeon itself!

Cheers!

A couple of weeks ago we had the absolute honour of welcoming Travis and Khara Tolson from Amor Artis Brewing to Sheffield – all the way from Fort Mill in South Carolina. The Tolson team, which also includes Travis’ brother Steve, have a rich pedigree when it comes to brewing and a wonderful outlook on the industry which we at Abbeydale definitely share, so we were overjoyed to have the opportunity to create a beer in collaboration with them.

The brewery taproom in Fort Mill, the hometown of Travis and Steve, is designed to be a true community hub – warm and welcoming, family friendly, and the kind of place where you’re encouraged to meet your neighbour for a beer as well as talk to somebody you’ve never spoken to before. Opening in the town they grew up in meant that the community were already familiar with the Tolson brothers, so they’ve always had a loyal neighbourhood following and it’s evident that so much of what they do is inspired by their locality, something which has a really strong impact on us here too.

Husband and wife team Travis and Khara met in 2008, when Khara was in the military – the Coastguards, to be precise. Her work took them firstly to upstate New York, where Travis began to engage with the thriving homebrewing community there. When Khara was later stationed in Alaska, Travis decided to look for work relating to one of his two main passions – bikes, or beer. Upon discovering that the local cycle shop wasn’t hiring, he found work initially as a bartender at Kodiak Brewery, which was expanding at the time, and so he was steadily able to work his way up through the ranks and learn to brew.

After leaving Alaska, Travis and Khara moved closer to home and to Asheville, North Carolina, where Travis began working at a little brewpub called Wicked Weed. Within six months he had taken on the head brewer position there, and as well as brewing all of the beers sold in the pub (around one million pints per year), Travis was responsible for creating the sour base for what was to grow into a world famous sour programme.

As well as this, the time at Wicked Weed taught Travis the business of running a business, and so in 2017, along with Khara and Steve, the plan for Amor Artis was born. The family eventually got the keys to their facility in October of that year, and already had the kit and licence ready to go. Having been contract brewing since May 2017, by the time the brewpub opened on January 26^th 2018, true barrel aged beer was already ready to pour, a real statement of intent for what was to come from this fantastic project. 78 different beer styles were released in the first year of trading, and already this year another 20 have followed. The Amor Artis crew has stayed the same since day 1 – as Khara puts it, “the brewery feels empty when one person is missing from the puzzle”.

Amor Artis’ output emphasises fresh, local ingredients, and has a true seasonality to it. They use only whole fruit from Springs Farm, just half a mile down the road from the brewery, which provides them with strawberries, peaches, cucumbers and melon. The Greenway, also within arms reach of the brewery, provides 2100 acres of protected land rich with ingredients suitable for foraging, where they can source the fruit for beers such as their astonishingly good Blackberry Sour (Khara’s favourite) amidst a whole range of other tasty morsels. All beers brewed with foraged ingredients raise money for the Greenway, with a dollar for each pint sold going to the organisation.

Travis declares his favourite beer to make to be a sour – as he describes it, “you get to really make a beer when you brew a sour. In an IPA, it’s the yeast and the hops which do all the hard work, but in a sour you get to really create something, for someone”.

Having visited their taproom on a trip to North and South Carolina last year and tasting those creations, we were keen to get Travis over here to collaborate, and the feeling was mutual to gain some expertise and knowledge from us around cask beer and real ale. Sharing experiences is such a huge part of beer drinking as well as beer making – Travis told us how regulars to their taproom have moved on from drinking their IPAs and pale ales to trying all their new and innovative releases, borne of a trust for the passion and craft of the product, with customer engagement and loyalty being hugely important for the team, as it is for us here at Abbeydale.

And so, you may be wondering just what we’ve rustled up between us! Greetings from Fort Mill is a 3.8% Grisette, the first beer of such style we’ve made here at Abbeydale. The beer was brewed with wheat, oats, rice and Munich malt which provide an interesting biscuity backbone to work with. We added orange peel, yarrow and Cardinal hops, and fermented using our ever evolving house saison yeast blend. Expect a light and refreshing beer that’s just perfect in the early summer sun, with a delicate citrus oiliness, herbal honey notes from the yarrow and a spicy finish.

Available in cask, keg and can (with artwork by James Murphy) from Monday 20th May!

A huge thank you to Travis, Khara, and the whole Amor Artis team for coming all the way to our humble hometown to share their passion and knowledge with us.

Cheers!

Next in our experimental IPA series we have teamed up with our good pals and Abbeydale Road neighbours Forge Bakehouse to create a recipe which celebrates our joint ancient heritage… that of the humble grain. Introducing Forge IPA!

We’ve been working with Forge Bakehouse since their opening in late 2012 – their festive mince pies feature our Daily Bread bitter, they’ve hosted a beer and food pairing evening where every single dish featured one of our brews, and their Caramalt Sourdough made with malt from our brewery as well as our Kid Ryenamite Baltic Porter won Runner-Up in its category at the World Bread Awards 2018. Of course our team here are regular customers on our lunch breaks too!

To create Forge IPA, we’ve gone back to the very roots of both brewing and baking and made use of the oldest known variety of grain. Einkorn is the most primitive of wheats, and was first grown over 5,000 years ago. It has never been modified by man and has a considerable advantage over modern wheat varieties in both flavour and nutrition. The gluten in einkorn is in a different form to modern wheats and is easier to digest. We’ve also added rye for a spicy finish – rye is similarly considered an ancient grain and benefits from the same sort of flavour and nutritional benefits as einkorn. 

To complete the grist, there’s plenty of our trusty Low Colour Maris Otter pale ale malt in there (by far our most used malt), torrefied rice which allows a gentle lightness in the final product, and torrefied oats which have given that silky mouthfeel without the heavier “milkshake” vibe that using rolled oats provides.

Amarillo, Citra and Simcoe hops and of course our inimitable house yeast complete the recipe.

In grain-ception news, the talented team at Forge have used a blend of flours and whole grains matching those used during the brewing process (with the exception of rice), as well as some of the beer itself, to create a delicious loaf. The use of einkorn and rye (in milled, whole grain and malted forms) gives a deeper flavour and much improved nutritional content. These are blended with high extraction and extra strong white flours to improve crumb structure and texture. Hydration is at 90% and total fermentation takes around 18 hours. Works deliciously with a can of Forge IPA!

To the early risers and magicians making your daily bread… this one’s for you!

*Forge IPA is available now in cask, keg and can (you can grab a six pack from our online shop!). Trade customers please contact us via [email protected] if you are interested in stocking us.

For this year’s Funk Fest, we wanted to add something a little bit different and a little extra to the Sunday session of the festival. And so we will be running a funky home brew competition, with an amazing range of beery treats to be won… the overall prize being to brew your beer to a commercial brew length here at Abbeydale Brewery with Lead Brewer of the Funk Dungeon project, Jim Rangeley!

We will be looking for beers using alternative yeast strains such as Kveik, Brett, mixed fermentation beers, with Lactobacillus alongside the primary yeast, or maybe even full spontaneous! This is up to you.

We are encouraging everyone who wants to to get involved no matter their skill level or equipment size, full grain, brew in bag, or extract brewing. Fruited beers, gruits, braggots and so on all welcome. As long as it fits into one of the categories outlined below then we are happy!

To enter, please send your name, the category/categories you would like to enter and a brief descriptor of the beer(s) you will be entering to [email protected].

All entrants will receive one guestlist place to Funk Fest Sunday 8^th September, which will be the day of judging. We would then ask that you bring the beers you have submitted along with you to the festival where they will be collected upon arrival (please contact us if you would prefer to make other arrangements).

All email entries must be received by 2^nd September 2019.

We will need at least 1.5l of bottled beer clearly labelled with your details and the category that you wish to enter as well as adjuncts, ABV and style. 

As the overall winning beer will be brewed on a commercial scale we will need all the brew information, ingredients/brewhouse process/ fermentation schedule, as this will form part of the decision for overall winner. This can be submitted separately to the bottle but it must be clearly linked with the bottle submissions. (Of course, this will only be used for beer judging purposes and to help us to jointly formulate the full recipe with you should you win. It will remain entirely your intellectual property!)

Maximum of one submission per category and three submissions in total.

There will be prizes per category, but the final winner of the competition will be the beer judged overall to be the best on the day with consideration taken for the one that is most commercially viable for our production brewhouse.

The Categories: 

Kettle Soured Beer – Soured with a Lactobacillus strain of your choosing, then pasteurised before primary fermentation with Saccharomyces or Brettanomyces. 

Brett Beer – Fully fermented with Brett strains, or primary with Sacch then finished with Brett in secondary/ bottling, but no bacteria, just yeasts.

Mixed Fermentation Sour Beer – Co-fermented with multiple strains of yeast and bacteria. Feel free to ferment in a vessel of your choice, including in wood or with chips. Acidity is important for this category.

Saison – Highly attenuated, could be mixed fermentation, could be single strain, could be spiced/hopped/ fruited… or none of the above! Lack of a lot of acidity is important here.

If you have any questions please send us an email to [email protected] or tweet @abbeydalefunk.

We look forward to receiving your entries!

Yes, yes, we know we’ve only just finished tidying up after last weekend’s Piss Up in the Brewery, but we had such a great time welcoming you all to our home that we just couldn’t wait any longer to get cracking on the plans for this year’s Funk Fest!

We’ve moved the date away from the bank holiday following feedback from last year’s event, so are excited to announce that Funk Fest this year will be on 7th-8^th September.

Expect a full line up of mixed fermentation and sour beer showcasing a multitude of amazing producers in this area as well as plenty from our very own Funk Dungeon barrel project, served across keg and cask. Of course we’ll have the ubiquitous Moonshine available too as that perfect palate cleanser!

Music and street food will be on offer too, which we intend to be in keeping with our funky fermented theme.

We’re also planning on running a homebrew competition during the Sunday session, with the prize being the opportunity to brew a commercial brew length version of your beer with our Funk Dungeon Lead Brewer Jim Rangeley… more details are now available here.

If you get in there quick, the first 50 tickets to each session are available at a special early bird price of £5, which includes your festival drinking vessel.

Tickets are available from bit.ly/funkfest19 now!

It’s just over one week to go until our Piss Up in The Brewery event on April 6^th and 7^th… so we thought it was high time to share our beer list with you!

CASK BAR – All Abbeydale Brewery beers

Belgian Inspired Pale – 4.5% – **Collaboration with Melissa Cole** Belgian inspired pale ale with orange zest.

Brimstone – 3.9% – Amarillo hopped American Brown Ale, making a welcome return to our cask roster!

Encantada – 7.1% – The very last cask of our inimitable gruit!

Scott’s Broth – 5.8% – **Festival exclusive** Earl Grey tea and lemon infused pale ale.

Tutti Fruitti – 6.5% – **Festival exclusive** Vegan oat milk stout with berries, dark fruits and spices.

We Need to Talk – 4.4% – **Collaboration with Festival of Debate** Willamette hopped pale ale.

 

KEG BAR – Abbeydale Brewery

12 Noon – 6.5% – **Collaboration with Wilde Child Brewery, Leeds** A crisp and clean West Coast style IPA, heavily hopped with Ekuanot, Amarillo and Eureka for a vibrant and fruity character packed with notes of papaya, orange and grapefruit.

Din Dins – 7.5% – **Festival exclusive** A Mosaic, Cascade, Citra, Ekuanot, Simcoe and Loral cryo-hopped powerhouse of an IPA!

Grafter – 5.8% – **Collaboration with the Devonshire Cat** DDH IPA packed with outrageous quantities of Sorachi Ace, Enigma & Vic Secret.

Heathen – 4.1% – Wonderfully refreshing pale session beer showcasing the marvellous Mosaic hops from America. Bursting with tropical fruit flavours and a pleasant citrus bitterness.

Heretic #1 – 4.5% –  The first batch of our lager! Clean and crisp, refreshing and super drinkable.

Last Rites – 11.0% – Dry hopped barley wine. Superbly strong with a boozy aroma of caramel & fresh citrus. Smooth & robust with warming alcohol, lots of toffee, candied peel & dried citrus fruits.

Lil Boochie – <1% – **Festival exclusive** Hop Boocha – a fermented tea brewed with Citra and Mosaic hops.

Salvation – 5.4% – Breakfast stout with a robust backbone, and a hint of smoked malt for added complexity. Coffee from Sheffield based roastery Cafeology gives an intensity to the aroma alongside layers of bittersweet flavour. The most important beverage of the day?

Stroopwafel Stout – 10.0% – **Festival exclusive** Imperial stout brewed with maple syrup, vanilla, and one whole stroopwafel per litre!

Unbeliever – 4.9% – Sour beer inspired by the classic Pina Colada cocktail, with pineapple, toasted coconut and Sorachi Ace hops to provide a totally tropical sensation!

Voyager – 5.6% – **First pour** Our first cryo-hopped Voyager IPA! With Ekuanot, Simcoe and Mosaic.

Wanderer – 4.5% – Citra and Cascade hopped IPA, with fresh watermelon and dried hibiscus flowers adding a burst of juiciness, a delicate hint of tartness and a super refreshing finish.

From the Funk Dungeon:

Hop Bretta: El Dorado – 3.7% – An accessible bretted beer, using our house brett blend and single hopped with El Dorado.

Laid To Rest – 6.5% – **Collaboration with Fyne Ales, Scotland** Oak aged mixed fermentation pale, conditioned on dried apples for two months in ex-Speyside whisky butts for a rounded yet tart beer full of orchard notes.

Sow the Seeds – 5.5% – **Collaboration with Siren Craft Brew** Delicately bretted farmhouse IPA hopped with Mosaic and Simcoe. Notes of fruit and pine which harmonise beautifully with our house brett blend.

Wild Plum – 6.5% – A blend of three beers, with the oldest rested on plums from Heeley City Farm and finished with a touch of vanilla. Fermented with a combination of house and wild yeasts including those from the skins of the plums themselves. Slightly tart with a complex aroma.

 

KEG BAR – Guest beers

Brew York (York) – Skoda War – 11.5% – **Collaboration with Two Tribes** A cherry and tonka bean infused Belgian Quad.

ORA Brewing (Modena, Italy) – Balsamic – 6.0% – Milk stout brewed with barrel aged balsamic vinegar from Modena.

Ridgeside Brewery (Leeds) – Crack the Skye – 6.0% – A spicy rye IPA brewed with Chinook and Amarillo hops.

Siren Craft Brew (Reading) – Mind On My Honey – 10.2% – **Collaboration with Superstition Meadery** Expect a heavy honey aroma, big creamy mouthfeel,  depth of flavour of Morita and Hatch chillis (from Arizona) and a gorgeous roasty base.

Thornbridge Brewery (Bakewell) – Heartland – 4.9% – English cellar beer, a modern take on a traditional style, brewed using Thornbridge’s house cask ale yeast… but served on keg!

Torrside Brewery (New Mills) – Vapour of Reason – 5.5% – **Collaboration with Elusive Brewing** Torrside are on a mission to bring back the BIPA! Using tonnes of Simcoe, Citra, Centennial and Warrior hops.

Wild Card Brewery (London) – Queen of Diamonds – 5.0% – A continually hopped IPA. Hops are added continuously throughout the boil, developing a complex citrus flavour and fresh bitter edge.

Wilde Child Brewery (Leeds) – Opaque Reality – 5.9% – Mango and passionfruit milkshake IPA, with bags of Galaxy and Citra hops, and a decent hit of real fruits.

 

(Please note that these beers may not all be pouring at once and are strictly subject to availability!)

Hope to see you next weekend – tickets are still available via Party for the People, and include not only your entry but also a bespoke stainless steel pint pot and your first pint of Moonshine fresh from the tank to fill it!

Cheers!

We are very excited to announce that for the first time in our 23 year history, we are introducing a lager to our core range of permanently available beers. Welcome Heresy!

We have been thinking about brewing a lager for many a year (some of you may remember our lagered Moonshine, Full Moon, that we released for our 20^th birthday back in 2016), but to brew one regularly and consistently on the kit we had in the past was somewhat of a pipe dream. However, with recent investment in our facilities in terms of tanks and glycol chilling upgrades, we now have the ability to control temperature throughout the fermentation, condition and lagering process, widening our horizons and meaning that we can finally unleash an Abbeydale lager upon the world. We’ve always had the name Heresy in our back pocket, and brewery owners Pat and Sue were insistent that we needed to save it for our lager, and we’re so happy that finally the name has a beer to belong to!

The lager itself is clean and crisp, similar to a continental style, with good carbonation and a fresh and floral aroma. Sessionable, with a slight sweetness and low bitterness, perfect for quaffing on a few pints. The strain of Sacchromyces Pastorianus (lager yeast) we use is derived from a German lager yeast. It is neutral in flavour and therefore great for our target end product of a clean, easy drinking beer with a clear and bright presence in the glass.

We initially intended to run a number of trial recipes whilst we dial in our process, similar to how we brought our American Pale Ale Heathen into being (Heathen beginning life as the catchily named Pale Ale #6). However with the very first batch now ready for kegging, we have come to the decision that we’re very nearly there with the recipe – getting things right first time around isn’t generally quite how we do things here at Abbeydale, so this has come as a bit of a surprise to us all! We feel this is definitely testament to the investment in terms of time as well as new kit that we have all put into making sure our lager is just what we wanted it to be.

Heresy will sit happily alongside Heathen in our Brewers Emporium range, and we love the design our artist James Murphy has given it. As our sales head honcho Dan Baxter puts it, “it’s about offering something we produce to absolutely everyone. From a well established core range for regular cask drinkers. To brand new weekly specials for the thrill seekers, cold refreshing heavily hopped hazy keg beers (again both core & weekly specials), small pack, VF & GF beers. Now we have another string to our bow in a smashable lager!”

The first trial batches (called Heretic, a temporary name to reflect that it isn’t quite the finalised recipe) will initially be sent just to our own two pubs, the Devonshire Cat and the Rising Sun, and a small number of other long standing customers, whilst we continue our learning and brewer training and can be confident in achieving the consistency of quality that we always strive for. We would like to use this trial period to ask for feedback from you, our drinking public, so please do get yourself down to the pub and try a pint! You can email us at [email protected], comment on this blog post, or get in touch via any of our social media platforms if you have any thoughts you would like to share.

It’s been a long time coming, with the recipe development taking place over months (if not years!) whilst we have been undergoing extensive research and taking advice from our peers in the industry. The team is hugely excited that this is all now finally reaching fruition, and we can’t wait for you to try our Heresy!

If you’re a trade customer and are interested in stocking our lager, please contact [email protected].

*As of late 2019, cans of our Heresy lager are also available, via our online shop as well as from independent retailers. Let us know if you need assistance hunting down a stockist in your area!