Category: News

Now in just it’s second year, Sheffield Beer Week has already firmly established itself as a key part of the events calendar, not just here at Abbeydale but across Sheffield and beyond. Co-ordinated by beer guru Jules Gray, who also runs bottle shop Hop Hideout, Sheffield Beer Week hosts events galore and is a real showcase of the breweries, pubs and other beery venues worth shouting about in our fine city.

Sheffield Beer Week also handily happens to be at the same time as the SIBA (Society of Independent Brewers) Beer X conference and festival, meaning that there are already hundreds if not thousands of beer lovers in the area and plenty of brewery folk around to both lead and attend events.

Here’s a little overview of what we’ve got going on…

Firstly, we’ve made a special collaboration beer in conjunction with beer bloggers Mashtun and Meow (mashtunandmeow.co.uk) and food and beer events duo Karma Citra (@KarmaCitra on twitter). “Wet Yer Whiskers” is a 5.5% unfiltered coffee white stout brewed with oats, lactose and cacao nibs. Look out for it popping up on bars across the city!

On Tuesday 15th March, our Office Manager Laura will be teaming up with Liz Casserly, our wonderful GM down at the Devonshire Cat, for a women’s networking event and tasting session. From 7pm, free entry.

Also on Tuesday 15th March, our Sales Director Dan and the beardiest of our brewers, Jim, will be hosting the online Craft Beer Hour from the Rising Sun on Fulwood Road. Expect tweets about the upcoming celebrations for the brewery’s 20th birthday, including our first foray into bottling. There’ll also be a competition to win a bottle from the very first batch! Join in on twitter using #craftbeerhour between 9 and 10pm, or if you’re in the area pop along and have a pint!

On Saturday afternoon (19th March) Liz at the Devonshire Cat is also hosting a tasting session featuring oodles of our beers, perfect if you haven’t had chance to try our whole range yet.

For more of what’s on during the week, a full list of events is available on the Sheffield Beer Week website, sheffieldbeerweek.co.uk.

Some of the Abbeydale team will be spending time at the Beer X conference (Dan’s even presenting a little speech!), and we’re having a big night out at the festival on the Friday too, so please do come and say hello if you spot us!

Brimstone is a beer that’s been with us for over a decade. An American hopped take on the classic English bitter, it’s become renowned for its robust, well balanced flavour and of course the horny goat-like devil in a pentacle pump clip. It’s a much loved beer here at the brewery and one that our brewers always enjoy creating.

However, there’s recently been a bit of a twist in Brimstone’s tale (or should that be tail?!). Many of you may be aware of the global hop crisis that’s going on at the moment. As a result, it’s becoming harder and harder to get our hands on certain hops. One of those most affected for us is Amarillo, the very backbone of our Brimstone brew. With such a distinctive character, we’ve had to have a major think about whether we want to allow our beloved Brimstone to quietly fade away as the hops diminish, or whether it’s best just to call it a day. Sadly, we’ve reached the difficult decision to lay this particular Beelzebub to rest.

BUT! This isn’t a beast that’s going to die quietly, oh no! The first of our limited edition birthday beers is to be DOUBLE BRIMSTONE… a 7.8% American brown ale, with a mammoth malt grist, outrageous hop quantities and a special new yeast strain.

We’re also thrilled to announce the winner of our competition to design the pump clip for Double Brimstone as Carl Flint. He’s managed to capture the spirit of our beloved beast and suitably soup it up. The “groovy red pentacle shades” really suit him, don’t ya think?! You can find out more about Carl and his work on his website, http://www.carlflint.com/.

In further exciting news, and an absolute first for us here at Abbeydale, we’re going to be releasing a limited run of Double Brimstone in bottles! We’ve decided on 750ml bottles to make them perfect for sharing. Look out for them at select local retailers and our pubs, the Devonshire Cat and the Rising Sun, in the spring.

2016 is going to be a massive year here at the brewery… it’s our 20th birthday! To commemorate this milestone, we’re going to be launching a super special range of super special beers, and we’re looking for an artist (or artists) to help us to reflect this.

This is where you come in! We’re opening up the opportunity to be a part of our celebrations by creating a new side to our brand and having your design featured on pump clips across hundreds of bars and pubs around the country!

The briefs are as follows…

1. Our birthday range of beers, starting with Double Brimstone (where we’ll be cranking up the hops and ABV from the original version). For this one, we’d like something which maintains the spirit of the current Brimstone pump clip whilst taking it to a whole new level. There’d also be the opportunity to create special versions of the pump clips for the rest of our core range.

2. An entirely new series… a run of pieces following a theme focused around the Abbeydale Brewery archway.

3.Freestyle category! Anything goes, but we’re looking out for something that fits in with our ethos whilst moving our brand forwards.

You can enter as many ideas as you like for any or all of the above categories. Have a look around on our website for inspiration! Further opportunities to continue working with us may also be available. Winning pieces will be purchased by the brewery, artists retain all rights to the artwork up to this point.

The required dimensions are 127x102mm, allowing an extra 1mm around the edge for bleed, and each pump clip must display the Abbeydale logo (please be aware that this must not be modified), an ABV for the beer and our website, abbeydalebrewery.co.uk.

The deadline for submissions is Wednesday 13th January 2016.

To send in your submissions or for more information, including to request a hi-res version of the logo if required, please email [email protected].

 

Firstly, we recently had our beery pals and Abbeydale neighbours Hop Hideout down at the brewery for the day to make an absolute goliath of a collaboration brew… Marshmallow Meltdown Stout, weighing in at 7% ABV, and chock full of robust flavours including coffee, chocolate and of course marshmallow, making it ideal to sup on whilst gathered round a bonfire at this time of year! The artwork was created by Ben Cooney, a good friend of Hop Hideout’s, and it’s pretty spectacular I’m sure you will all agree. You can read more about the collaboration over on Hop Hideout’s blog: http://www.hophideout.co.uk/blog/2015/9/8/collabortation-brew-day-with-abbeydale. The beer debuted at Steel City Beer Festival in late October and is currently flying out all around Sheffield and beyond, so keep your eyes peeled!

Next up for us was an invitation to host a Tap Takeover and Meet the Brewer event at Sheffield’s Brewdog bar. Our keg range is something we’re incredibly proud of, so it was fantastic to be able to show it off at a venue so well known for its craft beers. Five of our beers were featured, – not only our widely available range, including our core keg, Mosaic American Pale, but a couple of specials too… the only keg of our black IPA, Black Magik, plus a nitrogenated version of the Marshmallow Meltdown Stout (which was served cocktail-style with a couple of mini marshmallows on top!). We made a proper team night out of it and all had a blast chatting away to happy beer drinkers! Big thanks to James and the rest of the Sheffield Brewdog team for having us down.

Look out for more updates and events as we move towards the New Year… 2016 will witness the celebrations of our 20th birthday, so we’ve got oodles of surprises in store!

Earlier this year, our very first signature beer “Bex” was brewed using with a specialist Belgian yeast strain. During the brewing process, we niftily cropped enough yeast to nurture and use for another beer, and so in June our Production Director John decided to brew a 7.0% Belgian style Dubbel. This was then filled into seven of our Burgundy white oak barriques and left to age in our cold store. However, each of these barriques had some different ingredients added in to represent each of the deadly sins… Behold!

Envy – Insatiable desire

Spiked with bourbon oak chips. Aroma of black forest gateaux and a glace cherry flavour. Dominant bourbon finish.

Gluttony – Overindulgence to the point of waste

Spiked with raw cacao nibs and vanilla. Delicate milk chocolate aroma. Rum ‘n’ raisin fudge flavour. Full bodied with a beautifully silky chocolate finish.

Greed – Rapacious desire and pursuit of material possessions

Spiked with fresh orange and ginger. Aromas of orange and hints of clove. Fairly tangy orange, almost cranberry flavour, with ginger fruitcake. 

Lust – Intense and uncontrolled desire

Spiked with fresh raspberries and vanilla. Full-on raspberry aroma and flavour. Schnapps-like warmth at the end.

Pride – Belief that one is essentially better than others

Spiked with fresh ground coffee. Aromas of coffee & sweet walnut. Slight cream soda flavour with dried fig and apricot. Warm, dry finish.

Sloth – Failure to utilise one’s talents and gifts

Spiked with vanilla and an extra dose of molasses. Oak smoke aroma with Rioja notes. Very more-ish sweet sherry flavour with subtle vanilla.

Wrath – Self destructive rage

Spiked with coriander seed. Fresh coriander aroma. Slight spicy cracked pepper flavour with fruit and nut pudding coming through on the finish. 

As well as this, we’re also releasing an unadulterated version of the Dubbel base beer. Being free from Sin, this one is simply Heavenly!

Who will try them all?! There are only 5 firkins of each Sin, so keep your eyes peeled!

As we are less than a week to go until CatFest, we have the following beers that will feature in the festival!

Abbeydale – Elgar (dry hopped charity cask)  – 4.2% 
Abbeydale – Black MagiK – 6.3% 
Crystal Black – Pearl – 5.0%
Dancing Duck – Dark Drake – 4.5% 
Driftwood Spars – Forest Blonde – 4.3%
Driftwood Spars – Lou’s Brew – 5.0% 
Exit 33 – Riverside Pale – 4.2%
Fernandes – Challenger – 4.1% 
Fixed Wheel – Blackheath Stout – 5.0%
Grain – 3.1.6 – 3.9% 
Magpie – Huginn – 5.6%
Merlin’s Micro – Morgana – 4.1% 
North Riding – Bramling Gold – 3.8%
Ossett – Best of British – 4.5% 
Ossett – Stocks Endevor – 4% 
Pictish – Crusader – 4.1% 
Rat – Ratworst – 4.8% 
Raw – Bramling X – 3.6% 

Revolutions – Cocker – 3.9%

Revolutions – Amnesiac IPA – 6.0% 
Sentinel – UK IPA – 6.5%  
Townhouse – Bramling Cross 4.0%
Walls – Northallerton Dark  – 4.4% 
Wold Top – Headland Red – 4.3%

*Please be aware the list may be subject to change, but this is how we intend to start the festival.

**All proceeds from the dry-hopped Elgar will be donated to Blind Veterans UK.

The recent trends in the beer world and the exponential rise in the UK craft brewing movement have resulted in a hugely increased influx of New World hops, with their promise of exotic aromas and tropical flavours often meaning that our more traditional hops fade a little into the background.

Well, here at Abbeydale we’re on a bit of a mission to rekindle the love for the humble British hop! We’re lucky to live in a country that takes great pride in its brewing heritage, with traditions that have spanned centuries continuing to this day (growing hops for a flavour addition to beer, rather than simply a preservative, first became popular in the seventeenth century). Our ways of growing hops are amongst the most cost effective and environmentally friendly in the world, with our mild climate and even rainfall throughout the year providing the perfect terroir for hops with delicate yet tantalisingly complex aromas.

The hop harvest for 2015 is now well underway, and continues throughout September and into early October. There are currently 28 commercially available varieties of British hops (more than double the number available less than 20 years ago) with a recent emphasis on intensifying hop flavour, to react to the changing taste buds of the beer drinker.

This year, Charles Faram hop merchants have reached their 150th anniversary. To partake in some of the celebrations, four of our brewery team headed down to the beautiful Stocks Farm in Worcestershire, where hops have been grown for over two hundred years… enough of them to make 46 million pints of beer! The farm is owned by the Capper family, who have decades of hop growing experience between them. Ali Capper also sits on the board of the British Hop Association (see www.britishhops.org.uk for more information) as well as chairing the Wye hops breeding programme, meaning there’s also something new and experimental being nurtured at the farm.

We arrived at Stocks Farm on a typically British gloomy day to be greeted by the Faram’s team and ten casks of beer, including a couple of Faram’s own creations and newly crowned Champion Beer of Britain, Tiny Rebel Brew Co’s Cwtch. After a few samples (all in the name of research of course), a good bit of networking with some fellow brewery folk, and announcements relating to this year’s hop harvest worldwide, we headed off around the farm to learn more about how this intriguing crop is grown and harvested. We firstly wandered through the low trellis hedgerow hops, including Endeavour, which are generally easier to pick but have lower yields. The tall hops in the next field we reached are more difficult to maintain, but are well known for their aromatic qualities – Jester, a relatively new hop variety, was my favourite, with vibrant citrus notes. You could certainly tell the harvest was in full swing during our visit, with the chugging of harvesters to be heard and the air full of enticing heady aromas from the fresh hops on the plants. Next stop was the picking machine, which is absolutely enormous – filling an entire barn with a maze of what look almost like conveyor belts, designed to gently slope upwards which separates the cones from the leaves (the cones roll downhill much more easily, meaning they come away from the more stubborn leaves!). Once separated, the hops are ready to be dried in the kiln, before being subsequently cooled to allow the remaining moisture to distribute throughout the cone. After around 24 hours, they are ready to be vacuum packed and sent to the brewers, to be used in the creation of any number of delicious beers!

From Thursday 1st to Sunday 4th of October, the inaugural Catfest at the Devonshire Cat will be showcasing 24 beers brewed using British hops, including two of our own specials, one of which is a one-off dry hopped cask. These dates also coincide with Cask Ale Week, so there’s even more reason to “hop” on board and raise a glass to our magnificent brewing heritage!

Cheers,

Laura

Come along to Catfest 2015 Beer Festival and support a local military charity

Sheffield based brewery Abbeydale have partnered with Blind Veterans UK to host a four day Beer Festival at The Devonshire Cat in Wellington Street this autumn.

The festival, Catfest 2015, will be a fantastic four day event of live music, beer tasting and delicious food from Thursday 1st – Sunday 4th October 2015.

Abbeydale Brewery are partnering with local military charity Blind Veterans UK to hold this, their first beer festival at The Devonshire Cat, 49 Wellington Street Sheffield. The festival coincides with Cask Ale Week and all proceeds from one special cask will be donated to Blind Veterans UK.

The beer festival will feature 24 specially selected cask beers all of which contain British hops.  With the breweries featuring coming from near and far, there will surely be something to suit everyone’s taste. 

On the four day event there is a chance to meet the Brewers, listen to live music and eat amazing food with the usual excellent menu featuring all locally-sourced (and, as far as possible, locally produced) produce.

Dan Baxter, Director at Abbeydale Brewery, says: “It’s going to be a great weekend all kicking off with a special quiz with the winning team getting a firkin of delicious Abbeydale Ale!

“We’re all thrilled to be raising money for Blind Veterans UK, they’re an amazing charity with a training and rehabilitation centre right here in Sheffield.

“So don’t forget to come down, have a great time, and raise money for a brilliant charity.”

Blind Veterans UK (formerly St Dunstan’s) was founded in 1915 and the charity’s initial purpose was to help and support soldiers blinded in World War I. But the organisation has gone on to support more than 35,000 blind veterans and their families, spanning World War II to recent conflicts including Iraq and Afghanistan.

For 100 years, the charity has been providing vital free training, rehabilitation, equipment and emotional support to blind and vision impaired veterans no matter when they served or how they lost their sight.

Andrea Hudson, Blind Veterans UK’s Regional Fundraiser, says: “This is a very special year for the charity as its 100 years since we were founded and the 10th anniversary of our Sheffield centre.

“All the money raised will go to supporting blind and vision-impaired veterans discover a life beyond sight loss.”

You can find out more information about the festival and tickets by emailing [email protected] or at devonshirecat.co.uk. 

You can find out more information about Blind Veterans UK at blindveterans.org.uk.

 

For all media enquiries please contact:

Mark Wheeler – PR Officer

E: [email protected]

T: 020 7616 7980

M: 07894 930352

Blind Veterans UK

12-14 Harcourt Street

London      

W1H 4HD

 

Notes to Editors

 

Blind Veterans UK

Blind Veterans UK (formerly St Dunstan’s) is a national charity that believes that no-one who has served our country should have to battle blindness alone. Founded in 1915, the charity provides blind and vision impaired ex-Service men and women with lifelong support including welfare support, rehabilitation, training, residential and respite care.

 

Find out more at: blindveterans.org.uk, follow us on Facebook at: facebook.com/blindveteransuk and on Twitter at: twitter.com/blindveterans.