Category: News

Last weekend, 8 of us from the brewery, plus one of our trusty barkeeps from the Devonshire Cat (and a couple of our other halves!), took to the streets of Sheffield to take on the challenge of the Run For All 10km road race in order to raise funds for Cavendish Cancer Care.

For many of the team it was our first ever 10km, with some of us never having run before – more about our motivations for taking this on in this blog post.

And so on a chilly Sunday morning, we apprehensively approached the start line, minds on the long 6.8 miles ahead of us but with the surefire knowledge that we were raising money for such a worthwhile cause and that so many people believed in us!

The run itself is a bit of a blur for us all (excluding the giant hill up Hangingwater Road, which I think is firmly entrenched in all of our minds, and thighs, as I type!) but the atmosphere was absolutely incredible. So many Sheffielders lined the streets to cheer on the runners and it was a genuinely inspiring race to be a part of.

Devonshire Cat superstar Tommy was the first of the team to cross the finish line in an amazing 43 minutes, with almost all of us who followed behind achieving a Personal Best. Of course there was a can of Heathen waiting for us all back at base camp once we’d crossed the finish line, which definitely spurred us on over the last (uphill) kilometre!

We’ve raised over £1250 for Cavendish Cancer Care so far and we’re immensely proud to support such a wonderful cause. For any of you who were waiting to see how we’d do before parting with any of your hard earned cash, we are still accepting donations so please head over to bit.ly/teamabbeydale to help us smash our target even further!

A huge thank you to everyone who has supported us. It really does mean a lot!

Cheers,

Carly, Dan, Laura, Toby, Ethna, Jim, Scott, James, Tommy, Steve and Lucy, aka #TeamAbbeydale!

As a team, here at Abbeydale we obviously love our beer. But it’s not always just about beer. We’re also a big group of foodies, with a fair few cocktail lovers thrown in too.

Our recent Salvation release, inspired by the Espresso Martini, seemed the perfect opportunity to blend together loads of the things we love, and it’s fair to say we’ve had an excellent time conducting plenty of important research. Here’s just a few of our favourite suggestions of alternative ways to imbibe your Salvation stout…

Fully loaded burgers with Salvation caramelised onions

Pop a whole can of the stout in a pan with three chopped red onions and a sprinkle of demerara sugar, and let it all sit for 2 hours for the flavours to combine. Then, bring everything to the boil before allowing it to simmer until the consistency becomes akin to a jam.

We served a hearty dollop of our naughty jam atop beef burgers with melted red Leicester, a fried egg, lettuce, mayo, salt and cracked black pepper and accompanied with a couple of hash browns. Deeeelish.

Espresso Martini stout chocolate brownies

Earlier this month we partnered up with Hathersage Social Club to host a four course beer and food pairing dinner, for which Salvation brownies were the final course. The stout was used in the brownie mix itself, with more used to create a sweet syrupy reduction which was drizzled on top. You can’t go wrong with beer brownies!

Blackberry stout jam

The Hedgerow Preserving Company are based just up the road from us in Sheffield and their delicious pickles, jams and chutneys made using locally sourced produced are absolute cupboard staples for many of us at the brewery. They’ve recently created a blackberry jam with the addition of our new Salvation Espresso Martini – a combination which we initially thought of as a little odd but it totally just works. The beer adds a sumptuous richness to the jam which works superbly alongside the sweet tartness of the berries. With a doorstop wedge of toast and some proper butter, a delicious brewery breakfast! (We also got to sample an apple chutney infused with our “You Scratch My Back” smoked scratching stout, absolutely scrumptious with some strong cheddar.)

And of course we couldn’t write a blog post on what to do with an Espresso Martini stout without rustling up an Espresso Martini with it! Shake together 25ml vodka, 25ml coffee liqueur, 50ml strong espresso and a dash of simple sugar syrup. Strain into a glass and top up with Salvation stout.

(We’d also recommend trying this in a bigger glass to allow more space for your stout top!)

If you have created any dishes using our beers, we’d love to hear them! Please drop an email in to [email protected] and we’ll get them on our blog!

Cheers,

Laura

So with only 2 more relaxing Sundays until #TeamAbbeydale take part in the Jane Tomlinson Sheffield 10K I thought I’d share with you why we’re all taking part.

Since I was little Cavendish Cancer Care has always been the charity that I’d pick to fundraise for, having been introduced by a family friend who worked there. To the point of when a dear friend got a charity place in a marathon and asked who should I run it for? Before he’d even finished the sentence I’d said Cavendish. It will now always be a much bigger part of my life, as in 2015 I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Now I’m back fighting fit I want to push the relationship Abbeydale Brewery has with them and give something back.

It is my belief that we need to raise two things to help a charity not only sustain itself, but to grow; money (of course) and awareness. Which brings us nicely on to the below; excerpts from an interview I gave as part of their “How We Help, Stories” feature. Which is going to be published in full on their website, I chose to get involved as I think it’s vital that people are more aware of it, I was lucky that I already was. You get so much information within those first few weeks, I hope that if someone reads my story it registers on different level in some way.

“Carly was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma aged 26; she came to the Cavendish for sessions of reflexology and healing between having treatment and working.

“I was diagnosed in April 2015, I’d found a lump on my collarbone so I had a few tests and they told me I’d get the results in two to three weeks. I’d convinced myself it couldn’t be anything serious, I’d had a cold so I thought it was just a swollen gland, and I thought if it was serious they wouldn’t leave it two weeks.”

 “It didn’t feel real, it’s almost like it happened to me but it doesn’t feel like it happened to me, almost as if I was watching it.”

“It was a bit of a whirlwind, I’m normally one who likes to be prepared and organised but I didn’t google a single thing. I never read any information on chemo because I thought if it happens, it happens and if it doesn’t then it doesn’t need worrying about.

“I already knew of the Cavendish Cancer Care because one of the therapists, Janet, had been a family friend since I was eight years old. We’d been involved and fundraised for them before, so I came to the Cavendish pretty much straight away when my treatment started.

“I had around six months of chemotherapy followed by three weeks of radiotherapy. My sessions at Cavendish were all about me and keeping my body as healthy as possible through this process. You typically think of someone going through chemo as really sick and nauseous but I only got that towards the end of my treatment. The chemo would shake me up and make me feel a bit woozy but because I interspersed it with my sessions at Cavendish I could physically still do things and it helped keep my energy levels up.

“I’d say making the choice to come to Cavendish and continue working were the best things I ever did, they helped me get through it. Coming to Cavendish was so calming and relaxing; it was never an event or made a big deal of.”

 “Sessions at Cavendish helped me clear my head; although I didn’t feel like I needed counselling I knew that it was available to me or my family and friends. I have a very open relationship with my family and friends and we all have a bit of a dark sense of humour, I sometimes think I was a bit too cavalier with some people in terms of humour and my attitude towards it but I got through it the way I got through it.”

 “I don’t think people realise how valuable Cavendish is. I wasn’t picking between Cavendish and somewhere else to go for respite and rejuvenation, it’s invaluable because there’s nothing else like it.”

Back to the run, I actually found it quite painless to get colleagues to sign up and run with me, I mean I did only give them three options; 1) run it, 2) come down and cheer us on/volunteer or 3) donate!! I felt particularly bad when one of our owners, Sue, donated £100, saying well we’re on holiday so that’s options 1 and 2 out! Thank you again Sue, we’ll take lots of photos.

I had only been working at Abbeydale for a couple of months when I started floating the idea around and therefore didn’t know everyone particularly well/they didn’t know my history so it is true testament to their characters that within a couple of days we had a running team of 5. We’re now up to 10 runners, and training has been incredibly tough… We work in brewery for goodness sake, beer is all around us!

It is on that note that I make a donation plea, no matter the amount everything helps. To support 1500 families per year they need to raise £350,000. Whether you’re donating because of the charity or because you know us and like to see us suffer – we don’t care!! You can donate online via http://bit.ly/teamabbeydale or if you’re around on the day we’re most likely to be in The Devonshire Cat with a pint celebrating and would love to see you!

 

Carly

 

Carly Honeycombe

Events Manager // Communications

You may have already noticed that as part of our guest beer line up for Funk Fest 2018, taking place in the brewery itself this weekend (25-26 August) we’ve managed to get our mitts on a keg of something rather special from our friends at Siren Craft Brew down in Finchamstead.

Siren’s Odyssey series varies with each iteration, but each release is designed to showcase the art of blending, comprising of a carefully concocted combination of an array of beers from their barrel ageing project. This has been such an inspiration to us and we hope that our Methuselah series within the Brewers Emporium, given time and as our barrel stock grows, can follow a similar path!

Anyway, onto Odyssey 009. Barrel House Manager Steve of Siren tells us: "It’s designed as a big coffee style barrel-aged beer. It comprises ~45% soured stout in PX Sherry barrels, ~35% stout in bourbon barrels, ~20% saison with brett in red wine barrels. The idea was to find a blend that would suit coffee, with as many coffee attributes as we could include in the base beer. The stouts brought roasted chocolate character, the sour stouts and saison adding fruit and acidity, and the bourbon barrel aged components contributed sweeter tones. We chose a Brazilian coffee which accentuated the sweeter elements and improved the body.

The final blend/beer should be released in the next 2-3 months, so this keg, drawn when we made the blend, probably presents a bit more sweetness than the likely final product. But it’s still great right now!"

If that hasn’t made your mouth water, then we don’t know what will! If this very first keg of Odyssey 009 is something you’d like to try, you can get your hands on a ticket to Funk Fest right here. Please note that this beer is very limited indeed, and whilst we will try our very hardest to ensure that some is available for all three sessions, we do have to point out that once it’s gone, it’s gone!

See you at the bar!

Cheers

Laura

Funk Fest 2018 kicks off THIS WEEKEND and we are so excited! Tickets are still available while stocks last at bit.ly/funkfest18…

We announced the beers we’ll be pouring from our very own Funk Dungeon project last week (you can refresh your memory by reading this blog post) and alongside them we’ve sourced some incredible beers from all around the country. The sour, barrel aged and mixed fermentation scene in the UK is truly flourishing at the moment, and we’re massively proud to be bringing you this line up.

Bad Seed Brewery, Malton – BA White Wine Saison (6.2%) – A zesty saison with honey and grains of paradise. Aged in barrel for two years with brettanomyces for a distinct Farmhouse character. Funky rather than sour, the white wine barrel gives a clean, sharp fruit note that works perfectly with the Brett strain.

Chorlton Brewing Co., Manchester – Vanilla Sour (4.0%) – Light, smooth, fruity sour pale ale with vanilla.

Elgoods Brewery, Wisbech – Coolship Dark (5.0%) – Spontaneous fermentation is initiated on Elgoods’ unique double coolships. A long period of fermentation and maturation in special tanks enables naturally occurring wild yeasts, combined with oak, to create its sharp fruity flavour. A true sour English Ale. 

Fyne Ales, Cairndow, Scotland – Origins Expedition (5.6%) – A hybrid of old world and new world IPAs – an Amarillo and Citra base beer was matured for 12 months in clean oak barrels before blending with a small portion of soured wheat beer to give a clean, lactic finish.

Fyne Ales, Cairndow, Scotland – Sour Friends: Passionfruit (4.0%) – Sour Friends is Fyne Ales’ series celebrating tart, refreshing beers loaded with flavour; this passionfruit edition is brimming with tropical fruit notes and has a vibrant, sour citrus finish.

The Kernel Brewery, London – Biere de Garde: Galaxy (5.6%) – Burgundy aged mixed fermentation saison aged for 10-12 months, before being dry hopped with Galaxy. Light lemony refreshment, with tannins, brett spice and earthiness.  Dry finish.

Landlocked Brewery, Alfreton – Lemon and Lime Saison (5.5%) – Fruity and complex citrus saison. This one is our only guest cask of the festival!

Little Earth Project, Sudbury – BA Rhubarb Saison (6.7%) – A balanced display of rhubarb acidity, coupled with a soft brett touch and a warming whisky presence.

Lost Industry Brewing, Sheffield – White Wine Bretted Peach Sour (6.0%) – Sour ale aged for 8 months on peaches with Brettanomyces in Bordeaux Barrels.

Magic Rock Brewing, Huddersfield – Yuzango (4.7%) – Fresh and vibrant yuzu and mango gose.

One Mile End Brewery, London – Morello Cherry Gose (4.2%) – Delicate and fresh sour-mash gose conditioned on beautiful Morello cherries to add a bright spritz of tartness.

Redchurch Brewery, London – Sour Lager (3.8%) – Does what it says on the keg! With a light hopping and a smooth mouthfeel.

Siren Craft Brew, Finchamstead – Odyssey 009 (8.7%) – We are VERY lucky to have got hold of a keg of this! The newest release from Siren’s Barrel Aged Odyssey series, this is a blend of 80% stout and 20% saison (plus some coffee), giving it a rich and dark profile with a hint of zing on the palate.

Steel City Brewing, Sheffield – Episode 1: The Phunky Menace (9.0%) – Collaboration with Emperor’s Brewery & Neepsend Brew Co. Second runnings of an Imperial Chocolate Stout, soured overnight, then fermented with a saison yeast and aged six months in a Bordeaux Red Wine Barrel with Abbeydale Funk Dungeon mixed brett culture.

Thornbridge Brewery, Bakewell – Florida Weisse (4.5%) – Hazy raspberry sour. Super fruity and very refreshing.

Thornbridge Brewery, Bakewell – Days of Creation (7.0%) – Sour red ale aged in oak and fermented with raspberries.

Wilderness Brewery, Newtown, Wales – Abbaye Brett (6.0%) – Bretted Belgian pale with a restrained Brett character and a subtle Mandarina Bavaria dry hop.

Wilderness Brewery, Newtown, Wales – American Farmhouse (6.4%) – Mixed fermentation saison, very lightly dry hopped with Citra & Ekuanot. Moderately funky.

Woodman’s Wild Ale, Cornwall – Alexanderplatz (3.5%) – Berlinerweisse with Alexanders (a coastal wild plant similar to Angelica). We’d also recommend you check out Woodman’s crowdfunding campaign here!

Woodman’s Wild Ale, Cornwall – Hoochy Boochy (2.5%) – Kombucha with subtle herbal aromas of fennel and nettle, top notes of blackberries and a whiff of Citra from dry hopping. On the palate there’s a complex array of sourness, fresh acidity and fruitiness with a light, sparkling finish.

We hope to see you this weekend… we have a goooood feeling about it!

Grab your tickets at bit.ly/funkfest18 if you’d like to join us!

Funk Fest is just two weekends away! So we thought it was about time to let you know what’s being released from our Funk Dungeon project especially for the occasion…

Brett Force Trauma (5.0%) – Bretted Mosaic American Pale Ale which began life as our core keg beer Heathen. With the addition of our house brett mothership the residual fermentable sugars have been fully fermented out, creating carbonation as well as amping up the ABV. Floral hoppy aroma balanced by an earthy brett character on the palate. **First Pour**

Brett Tangerine (7.3%) – The very last keg of the very first Funk Dungeon release. Heaps of orange character provided by orange peel and a Citra dry hop. Barrel fermented initially with Sacchromyces Bruxellensis Trois, with Brett Lambicus added for 6 months. Super dry with an FG of 1000.67.

Chorlton Blend (7.2%) – A blend of three beers from our barrel store carefully selected jointly by myself and Chorlton brewer James, plus Chorlton’s culture and 36kg of raspberries. **Limited edition cask**

Creeping Brett (4.7%) – Collaboration with Yeastie Boys as part of their 10^th birthday celebrations. At its heart this is a weizen, with the addition of spelt in the grist providing a little more complexity. Fermented with our house brett blend plus Lacto Plantarum and Lacto Brevis to create a pleasant lemony acidity bolstered with additions of lemon verbena and lemongrass. **First Pour**

Dry Hopped Imperial Saison (8.7%) – 25% DIPA, 75% aged saison, 100% fun. **First Pour**

Encantada (BA) (7.1%) – An aged Gruit, flavoured with mugwort, yarrow, juniper and heather flowers. It has then been aged in a 3rd fill French oak cask. Brewed originally in Feb 2017, this beer has spent 10 months in wood and a further 7 months in keg, conditioning and maturing along the way to provide huge complexity.

Forest Fruits (BA) (5.8%) – Collaboration with Coventry based Twisted Barrel. A barrel fermented release of our fruited rye beer aged in American Oak, the barrel’s second use in the brewery. Fermented on redcurrants, blackcurrants and chuckleberries to create a spicy fruit beer that sings with soft oak.

Imperial Brett Saison (9.5%) – Barrel finished bretted saison. A high fermentation temperature has created pepper and herbal phenols, coupled with liquorice and star anise additions for a fragrant sweet spice.

Rye Sourdough (4.8%) – Created in conjunction with our friends and neighbours Forge Bakehouse, who are based just 100m from the doors of the brewery. Made using some of their leftover rye bread and fermented in wood with their sourdough starter culture. **Festival Exclusive**

Solera Salted Pineapple Sour (5.8%) – Mixed Fermentation Sour flavoured with salt cured pineapple and the first of our rolling special releases from the Funk Dungeon. A kettle soured barrel aged beer, blended back a little with fresh IPA to balance out the acidity and wood character.

Spilt Milk (3.9%) – Bourbon barrel aged bretted milk stout with a subtle hint of coffee and a creamy mouthfeel.

Unbeliever 6 (5.2%) – Sour IPA with heaps of fresh lemons and limes then dry hopped with Citra, Columbus and Mosaic. Wonderfully refreshing.

In addition, we’ve rustled up a gooseberry lemonade and a sour blackcurrant soda which will both also be available on keg. And Moonshine and Heathen will be pouring direct from the tank to refresh the palate in between all those funky little beasts!

Keep your eyes peeled over the next week or so as we’ll be revealing the beer list for our guest taps very soon too…

Hope to see you on August 25^th-26^th right here in the brewery… advance tickets are still available online via bit.ly/funkfest18.

Cheers!

Jim Rangeley

Lead Brewer – Funk Dungeon Project

*Please note we cannot guarantee availability of all of these beers at all times during the weekend as they are almost all single casks or kegs. Strictly while stocks last!

We’re massively proud and excited to announce that our beloved flagship beer Moonshine has won the bronze award in the Golden Ales category of this year’s Champion Beer of Britain competition!

Although Moonshine has won many awards over the 22 years of our history, including Champion Beer of Yorkshire 2012, this is the first time we’ve received an award on a national scale. We were also nominated for Champion Beer of Britain last year, so to get third place in our category this year is a great step up.

Moonshine was one of our first beers we ever produced all the way back in 1996, and it’s now regarded as something of a Sheffield icon. Equating to just over half of our output, it’s well and truly right at the heart of what we do as a brewery, and to see it receiving recognition nationwide really does warm the cockles!

The CAMRA Champion Beer of Britain award is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious real ale competitions in the world. The build up to the awards lasts for almost a year, with the final judging rounds held at GBBF (the Great British Beer Festival) – the UK’s largest real ale festival. Anyone visiting the festival at Olympia in London this weekend can find our award-winning Moonshine on Bar B2, and of course it’s widely available around Sheffield and beyond too!

Mine’s a pint… cheers!

We’ve now (pretty much*) finalised our brewery line up and can confirm that during Funk Fest 2018, Saturday 25^th-Sunday 26^th August, we will be pouring beers from…

Bad Seed Brewery (Malton)

Black Lodge (Liverpool) 

Chorlton Brewing (Manchester) 

Elgoods Brewery (Wisbech)

Fyne Ales – Origins Brewing (Glen Fyne, Scotland) 

The Kernel (London)

Landlocked Brewery (Derbyshire)

Little Earth Project (Suffolk) 

Lost Industry Brewing (Sheffield)

Magic Rock Brewing (Huddersfield)

One Mile End Brewery (London)

Redchurch Brewery (London)

Siren Craft Brew (Wokingham)

Steel City Brewing (Sheffield) // Emperor’s Brewery collaboration

Thornbridge Brewery (Derbyshire) 

Twisted Barrel Ale (Coventry) 

Wilderness Brewery (Newtown, Wales)

Woodman’s Wild Ale (Cornwall) 

Yeastie Boys UK (London) 

PLUS of course plenty of releases from our very own Funk Dungeon Project!

*Please note this is subject to our Funk Dungeon brewer Jim getting overexcited and adding a couple of extra special treats over the next few weeks…

Like the sound of it? Click here to get your tickets now!

Read on for a little more on some of the extra special beers we’ve got up our sleeves…

We can now announce that our collaboration with Yeastie Boys, described in all its bretty glory in this blog post finally has a name! Creeping Brett is developing beautifully into a clean and lightly tart beer with a temptingly lemony character and just a burst of eccentricity, and we can’t wait to debut it jointly at Funk Fest and Yeastie X. It also now has a face, courtesy of the incredible local artist Lewy (see more of Lewy’s work on his website)… feast your eyes on THIS!

Next up – we’ve had a working relationship with our pals over at Chorlton Brewing Co for a while, having learned from their expertise and even using a little of their Sour Power for one of our Unbeliever releases last year. We have bumped into them at events throughout the country and beyond including at Amsterdam’s amazing Carnivale Brettanomyces, which was a key inspiration behind this event.  And so, we decided to use some of our sour beer and some of Chorlton’s culture to create a unique blend of aged beer especially for Funk Fest. Having tasted our way through around 20 existing Funk Dungeon beers (what an arduous day that was), Chorlton’s brewer James and our Jim decided on a final selection of 3 barrels… two saisons (one a mixed fermentation beer currently resting in third fill oak, the other the same base beer but a little more simplistic, and aged in red wine) plus a pale base beer fermented using an experimental Abbey Yeast which we are trialling for Lallemand, which is currently being aged in a first fill whisky cask. This combination gives a distinct yet gentle woodiness which balances well overall with a great brettanomyces character, but also had space overall for a little fruit addition. We thought the tartness of raspberries would bring that certain je ne sais quoi to the party, so 36kg was added to 580l of beer. A single firkin of this blend will be available during the weekend, with the rest of this very limited release being available shortly after.

And finally for now, there’ll be a new collaboration quietly fermenting away in the heart of the brewery whilst we party around it. You should have spotted the wonderful Fyne Ales – Origins Brewing on our lineup, and not only will they be bringing along something special to imbibe over the course of the weekend, but we’re delighted to announce that they’re going to be brewing with us as well. Without giving too much away at this stage, we plan to take our shared ethos of creating distinctive and adventurous beers combined with Fyne’s strong emphasis on locality and a sense of place to create something influenced by both of our surroundings. Watch this space!

Tickets are available online now.

Cheers!

Let’s just get this out of the way before I begin… Yeastie Boys’ XeRRex is my number 1 beer. Made with 100% peated malt it’s also one of the most obnoxious and bonkers beers possible. And I love it. Yeastie Boys are well known for their dynamic and avant garde approach to brewing and the prospect of working with them as our first Funk Dungeon collaboration blew me away. Having hit it off straight away with Yeastie Boys brewer JK when we first met a few months ago, where we chatted about our joint love of mixed fermentation beers (both in the drinking and the production of them), it seemed the best course of action would be to brew one together.

Our goal was a little loose from the start, but we knew we wanted to create something along the lines of an weizen base beer which we planned to ferment using mixed cultures, and we had a 27 hectolitre brewlength to play around with. So, on the face of it, the brew was pretty simple. Obviously that meant we had to go ahead and complicate matters.

The main fun began a week before collaboration day with preparing our Brett and Lacto house pitch. We were keen to investigate the fermentation characteristics of bio-transformation between Brettanomyces and Sacchromyces. So we needed a really healthy and active Brett pitch, due to its renown for slow primary fermentation, to ensure it was in full swing ready to interact with the ale yeast.

Our house Brett blend is comprised of upwards of 12 yeasts that we can use for both primary and secondary fermentation, making it perfect for this beer as we were aiming for a vigorous primary fermentation and a slow conditioning period. To get enough Brett we had to step up our pitch from 40l to around 250l to ensure the growth was healthy. So we used the first runnings off the main wort stream from a couple of brews prior to the collaboration day to collect the 250l required. At this stage, we added a quick, clean Lacto Plantarum pitch and Lacto Brevis to provide a pleasant lemony acidity to match with the herb additions we were going to be using in the collaboration brew.  Over the propagation period we saw an active fermentation that was more attenuative than we had anticipated. In 5 days we saw a drop in gravity from 1050 down to 1006 with a drop in pH from 4.95 to 3.30, resulting in a very clean lemony Lacto tang in the flavour, which was very promising for the character of the eventual brew.

So on collaboration day itself we welcomed JK and Charlie to Sheffield and got to work. The grist was comprised of roughly equal parts malted barley, wheat and torrified spelt. We were hoping for a higher starting gravity than we got – we think this is because the spelt in the grist yielded such a small amount of sugar, probably due to it having a large crush, so the potential sugar is trapped and difficult to access for an iso-thermal mash. It was the first time we’ve brewed with spelt, so this is all part of the constant learning curve that is the life of a brewer.

We chose to add spelt as it’s known for contributing a lemony character, which we felt would work well with the Lacto in the brew. To enhance this further we chose to use lemon verbena and lemongrass in lieu of hops, meaning the hop back became more of a herb-back for the day.

We then transferred the Bretty wort from the IBC used for propagation into the fermenter, and started collecting the herb-infused wort brewed that day on top of it. 

Once all the new wort was safely in the fermenter and mixed in with the living Brett culture, we pitched the Sacchromyces. We opted to use a Munich yeast from Lallemand, a classic German wheat beer strain known for its massive banana and clove notes. Munich has a big character which we’re very familiar with, meaning we’d be able to continue to pick out this character and how it changes based on interaction with the Brett. We wanted this yeast to be secondary to the Brett, letting the Brett have a little head start, so opted not to rehydrate as well as underpitch, this way stressing the yeast and giving it a better environment in which to create all the well known esters we know from a classic wheat beer.

We had collected slightly warmer than normal at around 22C and then let the fermenter free rise to 24.5C. This was to encourage the Lacto to play it’s part on the full brew. As well as this, the fact we’d chosen not to use hops meant the Lacto was uninhibited by hop presence and could start working happily on lowering the pH.

Fermentation went smoothly and within four days from starting at 1041 was down to 1008, with the pH falling from 4.95 to 3.35. We dropped the temp of the tank to 11C to sediment some of the Munich yeast, as it’s far more flocculent than the Brett, then let the temperature free rise again to around 15C to encourage the Brett to continue acting upon the beer via secondary fermentation and long conditioning. The beer is now safely stored in conditioning tank where we expect it to remain for around another month, and we also have a little more squirelled away in wood for extended ageing.

We plan to co-launch the beer at two very special events over this coming August Bank Holiday, Yeastie Boys’ 10^th birthday party in London, where we’re one of 10 breweries who have collaborated them, and our very own Funk Fest held right here in the brewery itself! So get yourself along to one of these for the first taste of our as-yet-unnamed bretted sour spelt weizen. We can’t wait to see how it develops!

Cheers!

Jim Rangeley

Funk Dungeon Lead Brewer

Funk Fest tickets are available here and more details about Yeastie Boys X are here.

 

With one week to go, the car park closed and the beer tent ready to go up, here is your official Sunfest 2018 beer list! With 72 casks and 31 kegs we hope we’ve covered all bases and there’s a beer for everyone. Expect plenty of sessionable pales for summer quaffing, alongside some weird and wonderful (occasionally bordering on outrageous) specials! Read on, and see you at the bar…

Cask List:

Abbeydale Brewery, Sheffield:

Brewbell Wood (4.1%) – Our charity collaboration for this year! Pale and hoppy. 10p from every pint goes straight to Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice

Birdhouse Tea Beer (4.2%) – Jasmine and hibiscus infused pinkish pale

Black Lurcher (7.0%) – Strong stout

Citrus Saison (VG) (7.2%) – *Festival exclusive* *Funk Dungeon release*

Deliverance 2 (VG) (9.0%) – DIPA

Don’t Go Bacon My Heart (7.1%) – Bacon and ice cream porter (Collaboration with Ass Clown Brewing)

Mangoes Into A Beer Tent (5.6%) – *Festival exclusive*, cryo-hopped mango pale

Piracy (4.3%) – Classic pale ale

Salvation 9 (VG) (7.0%) – Espresso martini stout

Tramlines (VG) (3.8%) – Session IPA brewed in celebration of the tenth year of Tramlines

Voyager 10 (VG) (5.6%) – IPA

Wanderer 3 (VG) (4.5%) – Bergamot and grapefruit pale

Acorn Brewery, Barnsley – Itchycoo Dark (4.5%) – Hoppy dark ale

Aire Heads Brewery, Goole – Airelequin (3.5%) – Amber session ale

All Day Brewing, Salle, Norfolk – Norfolk Green Hop Saaz (VG) (4.5%) – Kolsch style ale

Animal Brewing, Oxford – Hop-kitty IPA (3.9%) – Hoppy pale ale

Arbor Ales, Bristol – Mosaic Pale (GF) (4.0%) – Gluten free pale

Ashover Brewery, Clay Cross – Elderflower (4.0%) – Pale infused with freshly picked elderflowers

Bad Seed Brewery, Malton – Code Blue (VG) (5.0%) – Blueberry witbier (Collaboration with the Rook & Gaskill pub)

Baker’s Dozen Brewing Co., Stamford:

Magic Potion #10 (VG) (3.8%) – Single hopped Amarillo pale

System of a Brown (VG) (4.1%) – American brown ale

Beer Ink Brew Co., Huddersfield – Peppa Peach (4.9%) – Peach & pink peppercorn saison

Bexar County Brewery, Peterborough – Burn The Lines (VG) (4.2%) – Beetroot gose

Blackjack Beers, Manchester – King of the Car Park (4.5%) – Belgian style pale (Collaboration with Framework Brewery)

Black Lodge Brewing, Liverpool – Taking Liberties (4.9%) – Raspberry and lactose pale

Blue Bee Brewery, Sheffield – Enigma 500 (5.5%) – Single hopped pale, Blue Bee’s 500^th brew!

Box Social Brewing, Newcastle – West Coast Pale (5.0%) – Bitter and juicy pale

Brew York, York – Nuba (VG) (6.6%) – Vermont IPA

Burning Sky Brewery, Firle, East Sussex – Plateau (3.5%) – Zesty, refreshing session beer

Electric Bear Brewing Co., Bath – Werrrd (4.2%) – Crisp and dry NZ pale

Fernandes Brewery, Wakefield – Mandarin (4.5%) – Straw coloured beer with hints of tangerine

Five Towns Brewery, Wakefield – Always Crashing in the Same Car (8.6%) – Rhubarb infused Belgian Tripel

Fixed Wheel Brewery, Birmingham – N+1 (4.7%) – Juicy session IPA

Flagship Beer, Liverpool – Jar (VG) (4.7%) – Sessionable porter

Grain Brewery, Harleston, Norfolk – Slate (6.0%) – Complex smoked porter

Great Heck Brewery, Goole – Zeus (4.5%) – Peppery golden ale

Half Moon Brewery, York – Oat to Joy (6.2%) – Robust oatmeal stout

Harbour Brewing Co., Bodmin, Cornwall – Little Wave (3.1%) – Fruity session IPA

Hopcraft Brewing, Pontyclun, Wales:

Bumper to Bumper (VG) (4.8%) – Spring gorse pale

See With Your Eyes…  (5.0%) – Blueberry cheesecake pale

Hopjacker Brewery, Dronfield – Roobarb and Custard (VG) (6.0%) – Oatmeal pale with rhubarb and vanilla

Imperial Club & Brewery, Mexborough – Stout wi Nowt Tekkn Owt (VG) (6.0%) – Classic, full bodied stout

Kelham Island, Sheffield – Kingston (4.2%) – Sweet ginger stout

Lost Industry Brewing, Sheffield – Cinnamon Mochachino Stout (6.3%) – Milk stout with coffee, cinnamon and cacao nibs

Loxley Brewery, Sheffield – Wisewood Two (4.3%) – Balanced golden ale

Mallinsons Brewing Co., Huddersfield – Pilsner Centennial (3.8%) – Single hopped beer with Pilsner malt

Mile Tree Brewery, Wisbech, Cambs – Meadowgold (3.8%) – Summery session ale

Milk Street Brewery, Frome, Somerset – Morello Bordello (5.2%) – Cherry porter

Moncada Brewery, London – Ruby Rye (5.2%) – Robust ruby ale

Neptune Brewery, Liverpool – Shifting Sands (4.3%) – Hoppy session IPA

North Riding Brewery, Scarborough – Pale Ale v10 (4.5%) – Pale and hoppy

On the Edge Brewery, Sheffield – Klinkhammer (5.0%) – Dry hopped strong pale

Ossett Brewery, Ossett – Ambrosia (5.5%) – American style IPA

Rat Brewery, Huddersfield – Frat Cocktail (4.0%) – Raspberry and mint pale

Raw Brewing Co., Chesterfield – Kiwi Donkey (VG) (5.0%) – New Zealand hopped NEIPA

Redwillow Brewery, Macclesfield – Wreckless (4.8%) – Balanced hoppy pale

Revolutions Brewing, Castleford – Everybody Wants to Rule the World (4.5%) – Blonde ale

Riverhead Brewery, Huddersfield – Happy Valley (4.0%) – Pale and hoppy

Rock Mill Brewery, New Mills – Back to the Future (4.0%) – Classic ruby bitter

Steel City Brewing, Sheffield – MAHIBUDDHNZNEIPA (6.0%) – *Festival exclusive* Mango and apricot hazy IPA

Thornbridge Brewery, Bakewell, Derbyshire – Strawberry Lucaria (4.5%) – Strawberry ice cream porter

Three Blind Mice Brewery, Ely – Little Boo (VG) (4.6%) – Cryo-hopped pale

Top Rope Brewing, Liverpool – Turning Heel (5.1%) *Cask exclusive* Dry hopped hibiscus saison (Collaboration with Turning Point Brew Co)

Torrside Brewing, New Mills:

Bothered By Persistence (3.8%) – Well-hopped pale (Collaboration with Abbeydale Brewery)

Space Cadet (5.8%) – Dank red IPA

Totally Brewed, Nottingham – Monkey Gone To Heaven (6.0%) – Banana and coconut cream ale (Collaboration with Hopcraft Brewing and Waen Brewery)

Turning Point Brew Co., York – Vision Quest (VG) (7.0%) – Bold IPA

Twisted Barrel Ale Brewery, Coventry:         

Table Beer (VG) (2.7%) – *Cask exclusive* Dry hopped sessionable pale (Collaboration with Ridgeside Brewery)

Oblivion (VG) (5.0%) – Export India porter

Vale of Glamorgan Brewery, Barry, Wales – Speakeasy (4.6%) – American IPA

Weird Beard Brew Co., London – Fade to Black (VG) (6.5%) – Black IPA

Wild Beer Co., Shepton Mallet, Somerset – River of Darkness (3.9%) – Smoked dark beer with maple syrup and chillies

 

Keg List:

Abbeydale Brewery, Sheffield:            

BA American Brown (VG) (9.0%) – *Funk Dungeon release* Barrel aged brown ale with Brettanomyces

Elvish for Friend (VG) (5.5%) – *Festival exclusive* Melon IPA

Heathen (4.1%) – American pale ale

Imperial Brett Saison (VG) (9.5%) – *Funk Dungeon release* Liquorice and anise farmhouse saison with Brettanomyces

Kid Ryenamite (VG) (6.5%) – Rye Baltic porter (Collaboration with Alphabet Brew Co)

Last Rites (11.0%) – Barley Wine

Lost Souls (VG) (10.0%) – Russian Imperial stout

Lost Souls – Bourbon Barrel Aged (VG) (10.0%) – Russian Imperial stout aged in bourbon for 6 months

Nelson Sauvin DIPA (VG) (9.0%) – Double IPA (Collaboration with Vibrant Forest)

Serenity 3 (VG) (3.8%) – Session IPA

Unbeliever 6 (VG) (5.2%) – Dry hopped sour IPA

Voyager 10 (VG) (5.6%) – IPA

Alphabet Brewing, Manchester – Juice Springsteen (VG) (4.5%) – Tropical IPA

Anspach & Hobday, London – The Sour Dry Hop (4.9%) – Dry hopped Berliner Weisse

Bexar County Brewery, Peterborough – Death of Tomorrow (3.6%) – Dark and stormy inspired brown ale with kombucha (Collaboration with Abbeydale Brewery)

Brew By Numbers, London – 07|07 Witbier Orange (VG) (4.5%) – Orange juice and zest infused wit

Cloudwater Brew Co., Manchester – Helles Tettnanger (4.8%) – Light, crisp Helles style lager

Fierce Beer, Aberdeen – Café Racer (6.5%) – Coffee and vanilla porter

Fourpure Brewing Co., London – Juicebox (5.9%) – Citrus IPA

Hanging Bat Brew Co., Edinburgh – All Bucked Up (9.0%) – *Festival exclusive* – the only chance to try this outside the brew pub! Blackberry and Buckfast imperial Baltic porter (Collaboration with Abbeydale Brewery)

HopJacker Brewery, Dronfield – Flaven (VG) (4.0%) – Elderflower and lemon pale

The Kernel Brewery, London – Biere de Saison – Damson (4.4%) – Saison blend with 350g/l of damsons

Loka Polly, Mold, Wales – Kaffir Lime Leaf Saison (VG) (6.1%) – Fragrant, floral saison

Cervesa Lo Vilot, Lleida, Spain – La Repera (4.5%) – Lactobacillus and pear pale (Collaboration with Black Jack Beers)

Mad Hatter Brewing Co., Liverpool – Jammy Dodger (6.0%) – Raspberry, oat and lactose pale

Odyssey Brew Co., Herefordshire – Show Me A Hero (VG) (7.0%) – Citra IPA

The Runaway Brewery, Manchester – Shandy Penache (2.7%) – Gose blended with kaffir lime lemonade (Collaboration with Steep Soda)

Thornbridge Brewery, Bakewell, Derbyshire – Loket (5.0%) – Czech style Pilsner

Torrside Brewery, New Mills – Bury Me In Smoke (5.5%) – Smoked American brown ale (Collaboration with Black Iris Brewery)

Wild Beer Co., Evercreech, Somerset – Tori’s Secret (4.8%) – Golden session IPA

Wiper & True, Bristol – Kaleidoscope (4.2%) – Refreshing pale ale

*Sunfest takes place at the Rising Sun Inn, Fulwood Road, from the 5th to the 8th of July*

Cheers!

Laura, on behalf of Team Abbeydale