Month: September 2020

Hi, funky beer friends!

It will come as no surprise to hear that we are sadly not able to hold a Funk Fest event here at the brewery this year. HOWEVER – we don’t want to let the momentum that the festival has built up over the past two years completely fade away, so we’ve come up with a little bit of a plan…

Introducing Funk Fest At Home! Taking place over Halloween weekend (Friday 30^th October – Sunday 1^st November), we’re going to be releasing a selection of extra special beers alongside a small series of online tutored tastings and a virtual brewery tour (so you can see inside the Funk Dungeon itself for the very first time, all from the comfort of your own settee!).

Pre-orders of the boxes launch at 1pm on Monday 5th October and can be purchased exclusively via our online shop. Here’s what you will be able to find inside them…

Attendees of Funk Fest 2019 may remember that during the festival we were lucky enough to brew with London Beer Factory and their mobile coolship. We produced one wort during the brew which was then split into three batches to explore different approaches to fermentation – so as well as the spontaneously inoculated coolship version, there’s also a bretted variety and one which was pitched with our house saison blend. We’re excited to announce that these three same-but-different beers will be released in bottle, exclusively for Funk Fest At Home! We’ll be guiding you through the three beers in an online tasting session too.

Alongside this we’re also launching our collaboration with the incredible Little Earth Project, “Through The Sticks” – a Rosemary & Lemon Lichtenhainer. This beer will be on full release from early November, with festival “attendees” being amongst the first to taste it.

And finally, we’ll have a fully spontaneously fermented Kriek, with 100g/l of sour cherry puree added to a delicious saison-esque base. This one’s another festival exclusive, available in hand filled and individually numbered bottles.

But that’s not all! Funk Fest has always been more than simply an Abbeydale Brewery showcase. We’re really keen to support the wider industry, in keeping with the spirit of the festival and in celebration of the wonderful producers of these styles of beer. And so we’re working together with a number of local bottle shops who will be joining us in shouting about some amazing mixed fermentation and wild beers, ciders and even natural wines in the run up to the festival.

And whilst we can’t all get together at the moment, we’re hopefully planning to support venues to host a mini “Funk Fest Fringe” between 28^th October and 6^th November (obviously keeping a close eye on the ever changing situation), with some small scale events featuring special Funk Dungeon releases or showcasing other mixed ferm producers, so watch this space for more details on that. (And if you’re a venue reading this who’d like to be involved, please get in touch!).

We’re gutted not to have been able to have a Funk Fest event at the brewery, but we hope that our plans will go some way to bridging the gap in a safe and responsible way, and still allow us to keep up the spirit of support, collaboration and funky celebration that Funk Fest is all about.

Cheers!

Fresh Can Friday just got a whole new meaning, as this week we launch our new crowlers! After kicking off with our amazing Lost Souls – Smashwafel Imperial Stout this week, we’ve got another rare beer coming soon for pre-order, so keep your eyes peeled.

Our machine is a Crowler Nation Platinum Pro – an absolutely top of the line machine which we’ve had imported from Wisconsin, America.  We’re very proud of it! It’s essentially a seamer – a machine that seals a can lid onto a can. The operator rinses the can, floods it with CO2 (to keep air out) then fills with tasty beer, puts a lid on and gives it a whizz through the machine for a perfect seal.  Our crowler cans hold 32 US oz (946ml), so we reckon they’re perfect for sharing with a friend.

Crowler machines are hugely popular in American taprooms and bars where people can get superfresh beer at the point of dispense and take it away with them to enjoy at home. We’ve been inspired by so many of our friends across the pond over the years, and whilst we haven’t been able to take a trip in a while we’re excited to bring a little bit of American bar culture to Sheffield to help us make our beers available in more formats and to more people than ever before.

Check out the current selection of crowlers via our online shop (subject to availability, so do keep an eye on there for what’s new!). 

While the beer is best enjoyed fresh (we recommend within a couple of weeks from filling), the crowler can lid is airtight so it should keep well for around 6 weeks if cared for properly. Always store your crowler cans somewhere cool (in the fridge is fine) for best results.

Cheers!

Our entire range of flagship beers, previously only available in cask, have now all made the move into can!

With Moonshine having being launched in can back in May, our team have been working hard to enable our other core beers to do the same… Absolution, Daily Bread (which has since won Regional Gold and National Bronze Best Bitter in smallpack, at the SIBA Digital Beer Awards) and Deception all followed, and today we’re very excited to announce that Black Mass completes the line up!

First brewed in 1996, Black Mass is a generously hopped 6.66% dark ruby ale with a complex base which includes chocolate malts, black malts and roasted barley. Flavours reminiscent of bitter chocolate, fruitcake and raisins, with beautiful aromas of dark chocolate, coffee and burnt toast. It’s a beast of a brew!

We’re thrilled to be able to offer our most longstanding beers in a way that can be drunk at home, as well as enjoyed in the pub. For all five, the recipes are exactly the same as for the cask ales we know and love, with just a few tweaks to the process ensuring the beer reaches you just as we intend.

We’ve always preferred canning as a method of presenting beer to bottling, as we believe they allow for a much higher quality finished product, as they are light proof and there is less chance of extraneous air leaking in. Cans are lightweight, transport more easily than glass, and recycle well. It also means there is no chance of broken glass contamination in the brewery which is important for us as we operate in a small space (as those of you who have joined us at one of our events here in the past will know!).

We were fortunate to take delivery of our own canning line back in April, which meant we have been able to get much more beer into can than ever before. It was always our plan to release our core beers in this format, but with recent circumstances meaning cans have become a bigger part of what we do over the past few months, our plans were brought forwards a little. We can’t promise they’ll all be permanently available in can, as cask will remain the primary format for these beers – and we’re firmly dedicated to supporting and supplying our loyal pub customers again (they’re the reason we’ve got to this stage, after all!). But please be assured that we will continue to strive to offer as many of our beers in as many delicious ways as we possibly can.

You can get your hands on our gorgeous cans, including super fresh Black Mass, via our online shop.

Our entire range of flagship beers, previously only available in cask, have now all made the move into can!

With Moonshine having being launched in can back in May, our team have been working hard to enable our other core beers to do the same… Absolution, Daily Bread (which has since won Regional Gold and National Bronze Best Bitter in smallpack, at the SIBA Digital Beer Awards) and Deception all followed, and today we’re very excited to announce that Black Mass completes the line up!

First brewed in 1996, Black Mass is a generously hopped 6.66% dark ruby ale with a complex base which includes chocolate malts, black malts and roasted barley. Flavours reminiscent of bitter chocolate, fruitcake and raisins, with beautiful aromas of dark chocolate, coffee and burnt toast. It’s a beast of a brew!

We’re thrilled to be able to offer our most longstanding beers in a way that can be drunk at home, as well as enjoyed in the pub. For all five, the recipes are exactly the same as for the cask ales we know and love, with just a few tweaks to the process ensuring the beer reaches you just as we intend.

We’ve always preferred canning as a method of presenting beer to bottling, as we believe they allow for a much higher quality finished product, as they are light proof and there is less chance of extraneous air leaking in. Cans are lightweight, transport more easily than glass, and recycle well. It also means there is no chance of broken glass contamination in the brewery which is important for us as we operate in a small space (as those of you who have joined us at one of our events here in the past will know!).

We were fortunate to take delivery of our own canning line back in April, which meant we have been able to get much more beer into can than ever before. It was always our plan to release our core beers in this format, but with recent circumstances meaning cans have become a bigger part of what we do over the past few months, our plans were brought forwards a little. We can’t promise they’ll all be permanently available in can, as cask will remain the primary format for these beers – and we’re firmly dedicated to supporting and supplying our loyal pub customers again (they’re the reason we’ve got to this stage, after all!). But please be assured that we will continue to strive to offer as many of our beers in as many delicious ways as we possibly can.

You can get your hands on our gorgeous cans, including super fresh Black Mass, via our online shop.