Month: November 2023

We’ve got two different varieties of our deliciously thirst-quenching Sparkling Hop Water available at the moment – choose from the clean and crisp grape-esque character of the Nelson Sauvin infused version, or go gently tropical with the Mosaic hopped variety. Both spritzy, zesty, relaxing and refreshing.

Whilst they’re a fantastic non-alcoholic option in their own right, they also work brilliantly as a mixer! We’ve tried switching it instead of our usual tonic water in a classic G&T, which was delicious (we particularly recommend the Mosaic version with a garnish of pink grapefruit), but we reckoned we could get even more creative and come up with something special – especially with the festive season well and truly in full swing!

So, we’ve handed over to the experts here and asked for a cocktail recommendation from the marvellous Cynthia at Locksley Distilling. Cynthia and the team REALLY know their stuff when it comes to flavour (we hugely recommend the monthly cocktail nights held at the distillery just down the road from us in Portland Works, Sheffield), so we were excited to get their thoughts on our Sparkling Hop Water. Here’s what Cynthia had to say…

“When we first tasted Abbeydale Brewery’s Sparkling Hop Water, our thoughts immediately turned to cocktails. The flavour is refreshing on its own, so we thought it would be the perfect mixer for one of our cocktails. The lovely herbal notes work incredibly well with our Raspberry and Cardamom gin. We tasked Elliott (gin school host and brand ambassador) with coming up with a cocktail and we think he nailed it!”

Abbeydale Raspberry Spritz

Ingredients (makes 1 cocktail):

• 40ml Locksley Distilling Real Raspberry and Cardamom Gin (available from their website here)
• 25-30ml simple syrup
• 20ml lime juice
• Sparkling Hop Water (Nelson Sauvin)
• Cucumber
• Mint

Method:

Muddle the mint and the cucumber along with the syrup and lime juice and add to a crystal rocks glass. Add a handful of ice cubes. Pour in your gin and give it a good stir, then top up with Sparkling Hop Water to taste. Enjoy!

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Have you tried our Sparkling Hop Water as a mixer to your favourite tipple? We’d love to hear of your experiments! We’re off to try a whisky highball next…

Cheers!

Team Abbeydale

CHRISTMAS IS COMING! We’ve got a huge range of cans to choose from to fill your fridge ready for the festive season, as well as some ace gift ideas – and for the first time you can visit us to stock up! Read on to find out more…

If you’re looking for a beery surprise for that special someone, try our beautiful gift boxes! Each features 3 beers and a glass, perfect for a Secret Santa present. There’s a great selection, from “pale and hoppy” to “dark and malty”, to suit every palate.

Our super limited edition 750ml bottles are ideal ways to celebrate – as well as our Old Ale Vintage 2023 (which we hugely recommend as a perfect Christmas dinner pairing!), coming very soon we also have the next two special releases from our acclaimed Funk Dungeon mixed fermentation project – look out for a BA Cider Lees Saison created in collaboration with DuckChicken Cider, and an Olicana hopped Farmhouse Ale. (PS – you can select gift boxes for these too!)

In other gifting news, we’ve got plenty of lovely merchandise available, including our brand new Moonshine mugs! Take your pick from glassware and other goodies to make your home bar feel more like the real deal, to t-shirts, snuggly hoodies, and cosy hats.

We can deliver to your door nationwide or, for those of you local to Sheffield, you can also choose to pop in to the brewery to collect your beery treats.

In addition, we’re excited to announce our pop-up shop, so for the first time you can come and visit us at the brewery (Aizlewood Road, Sheffield, S8 0YX) for a little browse and pick up a case of Moonshine for your Christmas party in person! Our opening hours will be as follows:

• 12-6 Wednesday 6^th – Friday 8th December
• 12-4 Saturday 9th December
• 12-6 Wednesday 13^th – Friday 15^th December
• 12-4 Saturday 16th December
• 12-6 Wednesday 20^th & Thursday 21^st December
• 12-4 Friday 22^nd December
• 12-4 Saturday 23rd December

Please note – This is a special amendment to our licence, so outside of these hours we can only offer collection of online shop orders which have been made in advance. We’re also open for collections of pre-ordered items from 2pm-5pm on Mondays and Tuesdays as usual, in addition to the times listed above.

Our pop-up shop will be card only, and we won’t be selling individual cans (please visit one of our fantastic beer shop customers for those!) but will have plenty of 6-packs, gift packs and cases of beer ready as well as casks for parties and all the marvellous gift ideas above.

Christmas is the season of giving, so we’d also like to give a shout out to our Charity of the Year, Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust. As well as having some great gift ideas themselves (their 2024 calendar would make a wonderful present for any nature fan!), you could make a longer lasting contribution to protecting the future of our local wildlife via their Ughill Farm appeal. Well worth taking a look at.

And don’t forget, if you’re still looking for the perfect spot for a Christmas get together, our lovely pub would love you to try out their delicious seasonal menu, which launches on November 30th! Get in touch with The Rising Sun for further information and to book.

Support local, support independent, enjoy the pub and most of all, Abbey Christmas!

Cheers,

Team Abbeydale x

For the next in our blog series where we get to know Team Abbeydale a little better, we’re shining the spotlight on Edd, our Online Sales Manager! It’s his busiest time of the year right now getting all your Advent Calendars and Christmas beers ready, so we thought it’d be nice for you to learn a bit more about the gift guru behind the boxes (sorry, Santa, we reckon Edd wins this round).

First up, the basics! What’s your name and where do you come from?

Hello! My name’s Edd, and I’m originally from Kendal, in Cumbria, though I’ve lived in Sheffield for 14 years now!

What is your role at Abbeydale Brewery?

That’s not as simple a question to answer as you might think… ostensibly I run the online shop, but I’m also part of the marketing team, I’m occasionally needed to go out and do deliveries, and I’m part of the sales team so get to hit the road meeting our customers. I also order our merchandise and other bits and bobs for the business. (Editor: so this means he’s the mastermind behind the Moonshine mugs – click here to get yours!)

What’s your favourite beer and why?  

My favourite beer style is easier than favourite beer, it’s a proper, hop forward, West Coast IPA.  Around 7%, golden in colour with a clean yeast profile and packed with the classic US hops which first made me fall in love with beer.  If I had to put a name to it, it’d probably be Sierra Nevada Torpedo

What’s your favourite thing about working at Abbeydale Brewery?

I’m being paid to talk to people about beer for a living, and, please don’t tell anyone, but I would probably be doing that for free otherwise anyway.

Best place to enjoy a pint?

I worked in pubs for years, and the best pint you can ever have is the one you have at the end of a really busy night with the people you work with, after getting all the customers out!

Where did you have your first (legal!) pint?

The Masons Arms, Kendal.  It was a grotty back street boozer at the time, but my friends and I adopted it as our local, mainly because the jukebox had a decent selection and the pool table was cheap. 

Fries: Bacon or Scampi?

Scampi, obviously, though my dogs Digby (previous winner of the Sunfest Dog Show) and Kipper tend to prefer bacon, so I have to go for both (Ah, the old surf and turf! – Editor’s note)

When you’re not chatting about beer, what do you get up to?

I love to cook, and I’m in the process of building a wood fired pizza oven from scratch in my back garden.  I’m going to need to eat an awful lot of pizza to make it a worthwhile investment, but that’s a cross I’m willing to bear.

And finally… If you were a cartoon character, who would it be?

I think in everyone’s heart of hearts they’d love to say Bugs Bunny, but I do worry I’m more Goofy!

Ale as old as time… 

Here at Abbeydale Brewery, we’ve never really followed trends, bought into “hype” or gone along with what’s popular, preferring instead to quietly steer our own course and, quite simply, to brew the types of beer we want to drink.  So, rather than a thick, chewy, triple chocolate vanilla ice cream bourbon biscuit pastry IPA, whilst the craft beer world clamours for the freshest, most progressive and boundary pushing beers, we’ve produced… an old ale. 

Old ale is a style that’s been in existence since hops started being added into beer. Like Abbeydale Brewery, it’s never gone out of fashion – largely because it was never really in fashion in the first place. 

The history of old ale begins around 400 years ago. Hops had just been introduced into the brewing lexicon of England – they’d been used in continental Europe since around the 9^th century, but prior to the 1600’s as a country we were happy with using yarrow, heather, mugwort and other such adjuncts. Hops however, had several advantages – they were cheaper, grew relatively easily, and rendered beer much more stable. The extended shelf life which hops gave to beer meant that beer could be stored for long periods and aged, meaning that flavours would be allowed to develop over time, mellowing and melding to create something unique. 

The beer would be brewed to a high gravity to achieve a high alcohol content, and stored in large casks or vats, emerging from these vessels as “stock”, “stale” or “old” – flat and entirely lacking in carbonation.  This would then be blended with “mild” or fresh beer before being served – the intense, oaky flavour of the old ale being rounded and enlivened by the addition of the more recently brewed, unaged beer. 

The 2023 Vintage of our Old Ale has taken inspiration from this history, and has been brewed to 8.0% ABV, lightly oaked and aged for four months to mellow into a clean, silky smooth and sensuous beer. A gently rounded hop bitterness gives way to a complex malt bill that will allow flavours to develop through cellar ageing for years to come.  At the time of bottling, creamy vanillin flavours and notes of chestnuts are evident, alongside a subtle oaky spiciness which lingers in the finish with a gentle warmth. The perfect drink to sip beside a fireside on a cold winter night, or to act as a delectable accompaniment to a richly flavoured dish such as roast beef or lamb (dare we go so far to suggest it as the ideal pairing for your Christmas dinner?!) 

The artwork, created by our designer James Murphy, pays homage to our history, featuring an illustration of Beauchief Abbey, the old ruins of which inspired our brewery logo. The map in the background shows the location of the brewery, and dates from the early 20^th century. And under the vintage you will see a leaf from one of the trees that can be found in the ancient woodland of Ladies’ Spring and Park Bank woods which surround the abbey grounds – for 2023, a Sessile Oak leaf has been selected. 

The release is limited to 750ml bottles designed for savouring and sharing, with a tiny number of kegs and casks available to trade (pre-orders now being taken!) – one pin is already destined to grace the bar at our very own pub, the Rising Sun. The remainder of the batch will continue to quietly rest, ready to be blended back and form part of next year’s vintage. This is an exciting next step into our ageing programme, which we hope will sit beautifully alongside our more regularly available beers in years to come.

The beer is available now, including individual bottles from our online shop. We can’t wait to see how this beer develops over time, and we hope you will join us on this journey.

Cheers,

Team Abbeydale