Month: March 2021

With pubs allowed to re-open their outdoor spaces and re-commence takeaway of alcohol from Monday 12^th April (albeit with a number of conditions to fulfil), we thought it would be helpful to issue an update for our lovely trade customers – we’ve really missed you, and we’re ready and waiting to help you through the next part of the roadmap into the new normal.

You may be aware that we haven’t ceased brewing at any point over the past year – although we have of course been quieter, and with many of our brews headed straight into can, we are now increasing production and are getting plenty of fresh beer ready to deliver to you in time for the proposed opening date. We aim to have all of our core beers in stock in cask (including 18s, for those of you who prefer these) as well as a good selection of keg products for you to choose from. Plus we’ve got a huge variety of cans (including of course our familiar flagship Moonshine!) if you’re looking to introduce or expand a takeaway facility for your customers.

Like our business has, we are very aware that your business is likely to be thinking on its feet and making changes to what was once the “usual”. We understand that you may have different operating times and stricter policies, so please let us know if your delivery requirements have changed and we will do our very best to accommodate these. From our perspective, we will be doing our best to keep the regular delivery days you are used to (get in touch if you need a little reminder), and our drivers will of course be adhering to social distancing and strict hygiene measures themselves.

Just in case you are not already aware, we have a provisional order system which new and existing customers alike are very welcome to make use of. This secures your beer for you but with no obligation for you to take it. So if you are planning to re-open on the 12th, let us know and we can reserve your stock – but don’t worry if  you experience any delays, we will happily keep it safe in our cold store until you are ready to receive it. (Of course, this also applies to those of you who will be staying closed under step 2 and are waiting until step 3 or later too).

We hope you are all safe and well – we are here to help, so do get in touch if you have any questions. Our office has been a little quieter than usual with some staff on furlough, however we are now staffing up and bringing the team back. Please be aware that your usual contact may be working flexibly with some time spent working from home, but you can reach us by email or you’re more than welcome to speak to anyone within the team, any time. We are ready and waiting to take your call.

This week, 8^th-14^th March, is Sheffield Beer Week. Usually, the whole city would be buzzing with events and special beer releases – and although it isn’t possible in the same way this year, festival organiser Jules is still putting on a virtual celebration and encouraging us all to come together to share our memories.

The very first Sheffield Beer Week took place in 2015, and we were very excited to get involved. We invited Rat Brewery over to collaborate with us to brew Big Foot, a Red Rye IPA which was one of our earliest keg beers, and held a cask vs keg event at Shakespeare’s. Now it might be the fact that six years have passed since then, or perhaps because of course lots of sampling had to occur in order to make an executive decision on which was best, but none of us can remember whether cask or keg won!

In 2016, the year of our twentieth birthday, we teamed up with (then Sheffield based) beery events duo Karma Citra and beer bloggers Mashtun and Meow to create Wet Yer Whiskers, a 5.5% white stout, as well as hosting the online #CraftBeerHour to talk about our anniversary plans, and joining in a celebration of women in the beer industry along with the team at the Devonshire Cat.

2017 was a huge year for us, as during Sheffield Beer Week we launched our Brewers Emporium range! We can’t quite believe it’s been four years since Heathen officially became part of our core offering, and the rest of the range has come so far with close to 100 beers being released under the Brewers Emporium “banner” since then. We also had a very special reunion day in the brewhouse in 2017, as we welcomed back three brewers who’d previously worked at Abbeydale to create Four Degrees of Separation, one of our very first beers to go into can and also one of the biggest IPAs we’d ever made at the time, making use of our extensive hop store.

We went historical for 2018, teaming up with beer historian Ron Pattinson and Sheffield Beer Week’s Jules to revive a heritage recipe, 1868. And the Rutland Arms hosted one of our all time favourite events – a boozy brunch beer and food pairing, where we made three different small batch beers exclusively for the occasion (AND blended one into a special Bloody Mary!), each paired with a delicious vegan dish. Amongst the beers we created was a Bucks Fizz QIPA (quarter IPA), which we made just a single keg at the time, but we’re excited to share that this is one of the beers planned in for our 25^th anniversary celebrations this summer, and we’ll be making a full batch of it! Finally, along with Jules, we headed into the peaks to create “Stepping Stones” with Thornbridge Brewery, our first "away" collaboration for Sheffield Beer Week. 

For 2019, we welcomed the wonderful Melissa Cole to create a Belgian Inspired pale ale. Melissa also worked with us to curate a beer and food paired menu to celebrate the launch of her book “The Beer Kitchen”, which we held at the Devonshire Cat (decadent chocolate mousse with kriek cranberries, paired with Methuselah BA stout, was a definite highlight!)

And finally for Sheffield Beer Week 2020, we made what turned out to be our last collaboration before lockdown swept the nation – working with Out & About and The Queer Brewing Project to brew “Not Just A Phase”. We’re excited to announce that we’ll soon be teaming up again to brew a Grapefruit Radler – an idea which came into being during post brewday beers last February!

We’ll be participating in the virtual launch event for this year’s Sheffield Beer Week over on the dedicated Instagram page from 6pm this evening (Monday 8^th March), so please join us there. And share your memories by using #SheffBeerWeek on Twitter and Instagram throughout the week!