Year: 2019

What a year it’s been! Over 100 different beers created, and 229 brews of Moonshine alone (that’s almost two million pints of our treasured flagship beer!) have seen us take on 2019 full throttle.

This year has also been all about bringing Heresy to the masses! The launch of our very own lager was definitely one of the biggest moments of 2019 for us. It was the culmination of months of hard work and research whilst we dialled in our processes and got the recipe spot on, time well spent we reckon. It’s clean, crisp and quaffable, just the kind of thing our team like to drink after a busy day in the brewhouse, and it seems to be going down well with you all too!

We’ve welcomed some new faces to Team Abbeydale, with Sam and Mick joining the sales team (and creating Splendour, one of the fastest selling beers of the year!), Lewis coming on board on the production side of things, and the creative mind behind our Brewers Emporium range, James, becoming our official in house designer!

And talking of our staff, the whole team have spent the year honing their senses and quality control techniques as we’ve all had the opportunity to undertake rigorous training and establish our very own sensory panel. This has had a big impact already and we’re seeing ever-improving process and ultimately beer as a result. Our commitment to training our team is something we’re very proud of and we all look forward to building our collective knowledge in the future.

We’ve collaborated with some amazing breweries and organisations, including our new “Greetings From” US series with our friends NoDa and Amor Artis from across the pond. We’ve also hosted Melissa Cole, Siren Craft Brew, Thornbridge Brewery, Hammerton and Lewis Ryan (the artist behind the can labels for no less than 15 of our previous collaborative brews), to name just a few of our highlights. Away from home, our Office Manager Laura took part in a Pink Boots brewday hosted at Cloudwater for International Women’s Day, and our brewers have created beers “away” with Ridgeside, Beer Ink, Orbit and Beatnikz Republic.

It’s been humbling to have been invited back to some superb events around the UK, from Fyne Fest in Scotland to Peakender hosted by our friends at Thornbridge Brewery, not forgetting our most local festival, Indie Beer Feast (which we’ll be back at in March, tickets available here now!). And our Funk Dungeon barrel ageing and souring project was showcased at Carnivale Brettanomyces, one of the leading mixed fermentation beer festivals in the world. More on that in this blog post! And right here in the brewery itself we’ve hosted two events of our very own… the return of our Piss Up in the Brewery being joined by the second Funk Fest celebration.

As well as all this, we had another successful Sunfest held at our lovely pub The Rising Sun, where not only did over 120 beers get supped but over £2500 was raised for charity too. And talking of charity work, we teamed up with our friends at True North Brew Co. to take part in our first Half Pint Marathon which raised hundreds of pounds for Sheffield Mind too. Drink good, do good!

We’re well and truly ready to head into 2020, and can’t wait to find out what the next decade brings for us here at Abbeydale Brewery.

Cheers!

There’s just five weeks to go until the big day itself, but don’t panic, we are here to help with all of your Christmas beery needs! We’re taking our beers and merchandise out on the road to a couple of festive markets over the next few weeks, so please do come and say hello!

First up, find us with our fairy lights, gift ideas and of course plenty of samples at Bakewell Christmas Markets on the 23rd and 24th of November. The Saturday coincides with Bakewell’s Christmas lights switch on (taking place at 4.45pm), plus street food and entertainment on offer throughout the whole weekend, so wonderful festive vibes are absolutely guaranteed!

We’re also really looking forward to having a stall along with loads of other lovely local, independent producers at the Victorian Christmas Market, held at Kelham Island Museum on Saturday 30^th of November (10am to 7pm) and Sunday 1^st of December (10am to 5pm). We loved this event last year and are thrilled to be back… where else can you get your Christmas shopping done and watch the mighty River Don Engine in action at the same time?!

Our online shop is of course up and running throughout too, where you will find all of our cans available to purchase by the six-pack or case – we’ve also got our brand new 440ml gift packs available, plus merchandise, art prints, cookbooks and more! We can deliver to your door or, for those of you local to Sheffield, you can pop in to the brewery itself between 8am and 4pm Monday to Friday to collect your goodies (do please note that we do not have an actual shop here though, so all purchases need to have been made online in advance!). And if you make a purchase in November, you’ll earn an entry into our special prize draw for every tenner spent… more details here!

Finally don’t forget, if you’re still looking for the perfect spot for your Christmas party or celebration, our lovely pubs can host you with their carefully curated festive menus. Get in touch with The Rising Sun or The Devonshire Cat for further information and to book!

Can anyone actually BELIEVE that it’s November already?! We like to at least attempt to be a little bit organised here at Abbeydale Brewery, and so we thought we’d make it easy for you to get started on your Christmas shopping via our online shop… and be in with a chance of winning a bumper prize in the meantime!

We’ve put together this hamper full of goodies, which could be yours simply for placing an order throughout the month of November. The contents of the hamper retail at over £65 and include…

• A copy of “The Sheffield Cookbook: Second Helpings” which includes one of our very own recipes!
• A badge set featuring the artwork from six of our collaboration beers
• A stainless steel growler (holds 2L/3.5 pints of tasty beer… if you’re able to collect we’ll even fill this up for you!)
• A stainless steel “Glogg” pint glass
• “Brews of the World” card game, think beery Top Trumps! Features Last Rites, always a good one to have in your hand!
• Plus a selection of 440ml cans

Every £10 spent on abbeydalebrewery.co.uk/shop will earn you one entry into the prize draw (so as an example, a 6-pack of Heresy at £16.50 gets you one entry, or a case at £60 bags you six virtual raffle tickets!).

The winner will be contacted via email in the first week of December and will have one week to claim their prize to ensure we can get it to them before the big day.

Merry shopping!

Back in April this year, those of you who joined us for our second annual “Piss up in the brewery” event may remember a very special one-off beer brewed for the occasion. Our brewer Sam rustled up a rich and boozy imperial stout, infused with maple syrup, cinnamon, and loads and loads of Stroopwafels! The renown of “Smashwafel”, as it was known, quickly spread and it became our most requested beer of the summer.

So we are very excited to announce that we’ve scaled up the recipe and this week are releasing 2019’s Lost Souls imperial stout as a Smashwafel special!

A complex malt base with black malt, crystal, caramalt, Munich (the only addition from the original recipe, just to add another layer of biscuit-y pastry loveliness) and chocolate malt provides a deep and robust body. Comically large bottles of maple syrup, organic cinnamon quills, and of course plenty of actual Stroopwafels themselves were added to the hopback. Our house yeast would have struggled with this beast, so we enlisted the help of some London ESB to work its magic, all the way to our desired 10.6% ABV.

The result is a sumptuous and delectable imperial stout with a balanced bittersweet character, velvety smooth with decadent caramel flavours.

The cask was all spoken for on the first day of sale, but at the time of writing we have plenty of kegs remaining, so get in there quick if you’d like one for your venue! (Gold star if you can spot the little stroopwafel addition to this year’s edition of the artwork!)

Cheers!

Sheffield CAMRA’s 45^th Steel City Beer and Cider Festival kicks off TONIGHT at Kelham Island Museum, and we are very excited to be involved once more as keg bar sponsors!

Running from 5pm this evening until Saturday night, there’s an absolutely huge array of beers on offer, including six beers on cask and seven on keg from ourselves. Coinciding with the sapphire anniversary of the festival, Sheffield CAMRA are also celebrating the 500^th edition of their Beer Matters magazine, so we’ve rustled up a very special one off cask of an 8% IPA for the occasion!

Our full list is as follows…

ON CASK: Very Real Ale DIPA hopped with Galaxy & Nelson Sauvin (8.0%), Dr Morton’s Bag O Nuts pale ale (4.1%), Damnation pale ale (4.5%), Pilgrim pumpkin spiced ale (5.0%), Salvation Cranachan stout (4.5%) and Serenity session IPA with Galaxy & Vic Secret (3.8%).

ON KEG: Heathen American pale ale (4.1%), Wanderer lime & lemongrass saison (5.5%), Raisins to be Fearful Belgian inspired fruited Dubbel (7.0%, collaboration with Torrside Brewery) and Voyager IPA with Mosaic, Cascade & Idaho 7 hops (5.6%).

And also on keg, from the Funk Dungeon: Hop Bretta Vic Secret (3.9%), Red Wine BA Gruit (7.1%) and Slam Dunk Da Funk fruited dark sour (5.3%)

Do check out the festival website for copies of the full beer lists as there’s so much to try, we can’t wait to get stuck in. The website also has all the information you need about session times and entrance prices.

Other highlights of the weekend include an IPA tasting with the legendary beer writer Roger Protz at 8.30 tonight (ticketed event, click here for details), some excellent live music including local band Kingfisher Blue at 6pm on Friday night and Sunfest favourites the Loxley Silver Band on Saturday afternoon, and our friends at Seven Hills WI will be supplementing the tasty selection of food stalls with their homemade cakes to raise money for their charity of the year on Saturday too.

Please also cross your fingers for us in the Champion Beer of Sheffield awards which take place at the festival this evening! There’ll be quite a few of us from the brewery down there this evening so do come and say hello if you spot us!

Cheers!

Our charity beer has officially now all SOLD OUT  and we are delighted to be able to announce the total monies raised at Sunfest this year!

First up – our JBMF collaboration brew – Blue Skies – an easy drinking pale, hopped with Mount Hood named after one of James’ passions, Sky Diving, and it’s gone down a treat with pubs as far afield as Liverpool, Coventry and Cheshire (with plenty being supped in Sheffield too of course!). 10p from every pint sold will be donated straight to the charity – a grand total of £806.40.

In addition, James’ family and friends were a valuable presence over Sunfest and they raised an amazing £1096 during the festival, from a combination of cake, pork pie and sausage roll sales (hands up if you’re still dreaming about those!). Adding in your very generous beer tokens and spare change from the weekend gives us a total of £2286.20!

Some kind words from the family; 

"All of us involved in the James Brownhill Memorial Fund (JBMF), which was founded after James was killed in a climbing accident on Mont Blanc in 2011, would sincerely like to thank Abbeydale brewery for "adopting" the JBMF as their charity for the Sunfest festival in the summer of 2019 where we ran the "Munchies" stall selling homemade cakes, buns and sausage rolls.

The timing of the invitation was perfect as the JBMF is reaching the desired target of funds in order to run the JBMF for 22 3/4 years, James’ age, and offering bursaries to provide a week’s course for leadership skills in winter alpine climbing conditions.

So the substantial funds we raised has provided the vast majority of the remaining monies required. The funds came from a mixture of sales on the "Munchies" stall, donations and the generous scheme whereby 10p is donated to the JBMF by Abbeydale brewery for every pint of the festival beer (Blue Skies) sold. We even had the honour of naming the beer and the name came from one of James’ other pastimes which was Skydiving.

We have always been welcomed by the brewery and been given every opportunity to be part of the festival in order to keep James’ name and spirit alive."  

Whirlow Hall Farm raised £600 after all costs, to go straight to their charity, Whirlow Hall Farm Trust.

Last but by no means least, the ever popular Rain Rescue dog show raised £57.55 on the Sunday of Sunfest, and there were lots of waggy tails on the day, so another success.

A huge thank you to all of you who joined us for Sunfest, donated your beer tickets, munched on a hog roast sandwich or a sausage roll, or paraded your pooch in the dog show. And also of course to all of our customers who have had Blue Skies on their bars in recent weeks.

Created in collaboration with the marvellous Melissa Cole, a renowned beer and food writer, it seemed only right that we jointly developed a recipe for a beer inspired by food! And so we’re pleased to introduce you to Slam Dunk Da Funk, a Persian inspired dark sour, fermented with kefir and infused with black limes, aromatic dried apricots, and heady sumac spice. Barrel aged for 6 months in our Funk Dungeon, it’s fragrant and full of flavour with a tingle of acidity on the tongue. Quaffable solo, or the perfect accompaniment to Middle Eastern inspired cuisine. We’ve rustled up a lamb tagine as some inspiration (see recipe below), but do feel free to experiment and of course don’t forget to let us know what you create!

If you’d like to try the beer for yourself, it’s available on our online shop right here!

INGREDIENTS – serves 4 hungry bellies, or 6 slightly more restrained individuals

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 120C (use an oven thermometer to check you have the right temperature) and warm a heavy metal casserole through on the hob on a medium-high heat. Once the casserole is hot, add a good glug of oil, and give it a minute before you start to brown your lamb.

Meanwhile, mix the flour, salt, cinnamon, 2tbsp of the ras-el-hanout and the lime powder in a large bowl, add meat and toss to coat, before browning off in batches in the casserole dish – don’t overcrowd the pan! Transfer the browned meat to a large, clean bowl.

Once all the meat is browned, drop the heat to very low and take the pan off the heat for a couple of minutes, before returning and gently frying off the onions and peppers for at least 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Then add the garlic for another few minutes, stirring a bit more often, followed by the cumin, ½ tsp sumac, ginger, remaining 1tbsp of ras-el-hanout and coriander stalk for another 5 minutes or so, stirring frequently.

Add the meat back to the pan and combine with the spiced onion mix, then add the apricots and stock making sure the meat is covered (add a little water if necessary), put the lid on and cook in the oven for 3.5-4.5 hours.

For the last 20 minutes of cooking, first check the meat is tender, then stir in the chickpeas and butter beans – you can add a little more water if it seems a little dry.

As you remove the pot from the oven, stir in the rest of the sumac, lemon/lime zest and juice, check for seasoning and adjust accordingly, then garnish with the coriander leaves and spring onions. Serve at the table in the casserole with a steaming pile of fluffy buttered couscous or bulgur wheat. Scatter over the pomegranate seeds (and the feta, if you choose to add this) for a final flourish.

Funk Fest 2019 is ONE WEEK (and a day) AWAY! After announcing our house Funk Dungeon project beers which will be pouring in this blog post last week, it’s now time to confirm all the ridiculously tasty treats we’ve rustled up from all around the country (plus one all the way from Ireland!). Rennies at the ready…

Atom Brewery – The God Particle (6.0%) – Collaboration with Abbeydale Brewery. Juicy Kveik IPA.

Black Metal Brewery – Bretted Kvassphemy (6.0%) – Collaboration with Steel City. Black kvass (traditional Russian fermented beverage!). *Festival exclusive*

Castling’s Heath Cottage – Organic Cider (8.0%) – Organic wild cider from Little Earth Project brewer Tom’s dad! Simply pressed apple juice left to age and ferment in barrel. Dry yet refreshing.

Chorlton Brewing Co. – Brett Saison (6.0%) – Mixed fermentation saison, dry hopped with Hallertau Blanc.

Chorlton Brewing Co. – Keller Brett Sour (5.7%) – Kellerbier-style unfiltered sour lager refermented on Brettanomyces.

Cloudwater Brew Co. – Foeder Du Haut (7.0%) – Collaboration with De Gard. Complex foeder aged sour.

Fierce Beer – Farmhouse Grape (7.3%) – Collaboration with Yeastie Boys. Grape ale from the all new Fierce by Nature range.

Fyne Ales – Sour Friends: On the Beach (4.5%) – Cocktail inspired kettle sour with orange, peach and cranberry.

Fyne Ales: Origins – Beams (5.7%) – Collaboration with Duration Brewery. Rustic barrel aged saison. *First pour*

Mills Brewing – Draw Together (8.0%) – A blend of a three different barrel fermented beers – a Bordeaux red rye sour, a cider saison and a White Burgundy strong ale. *Bottles only*

Little Earth Project – Organic Harvest 2017 (6.7%) – Funky saison, brewed with organic fresh hops in September 2017.

London Beer Factory – Pointless Innocence (7.2%) – Collaboration with Brew By Numbers. IPA loaded with strawberry, Madagascan vanilla beans and lactose. Dry hopped with Cashmere and Mosaic, then blended with 3 barrels of 9 month old sour blonde beer.

Lost Industry Brewing – Mojito Sour (5.4%) – Cocktail inspired kettle sour with bucketloads of fresh mint and lime.

Orbit Beers – WLS033 (4.3%) – Collaboration with Abbeydale Brewery. Born through a meeting of minds at Indie Beer Feast and a holiday discovering desserts in Thailand, inspiring a kettle sour reminiscent of Thai mango & coconut sticky rice. 

Runaway Brewery – Shandy Panache: Sour Crush (2.4%) – Collaboration with Steep Soda. Citrus sour blended 60 / 40 with pineapple crush soda.

Siren Craft Brew – Stock Ale B. Clauss (9.0%) – Collaboration with Wiper&True. Name and tasting note to be confirmed… it’s a very new release, we’ve got the sneak preview! *First pour*

Torrside Brewery – Easily Bothered by Persistence (4.6%) – Collaboration with Abbeydale Brewery. Pale ale fermented with Brett Bruxellensis.

Wide Street Brewing – Still Voices (4.2%) – Easy-going sessionable sour. Dry, refreshing and hopped with El Dorado and Amarillo. *First UK pour*

Wilderness Brewery – Farmhouse Sour (5.5%) – Farmhouse pale, fermented with a mixed culture of saison yeast, Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus. Lightly funky, lightly sour, refreshing.           

Yonder Brewing & Blending – Raspberry Gose (4.0%) – Tart and fruity gose with raspberries.

Tickets are still available at bit.ly/funkfest19 so grab one while you can! Your ticket includes entry to the festival, a limited edition drinking vessel, and a palate cleansing half pint of either our flagship Moonshine pale ale or Heresy lager to reset the tastebuds in between all those tasty funky brews!

We hope to see you next weekend… cheers!

With just a fortnight to go until Funk Fest 2019 kicks off, the beer list has well and truly taken shape and some very special brews have started to emerge from the Dungeon! Here’s your house beer list for this year’s festival…

Don’t Call Me Weiss (5.2%) – Traditionally fermented Berliner Weisse with strains of Sacchromyces (including a hybrid strain originally used in wine production) and Brettanomyces. Light, juicy, sour. *Launching at the Crow on Thursday 29^th August as part of the Funk Fest Fringe*

Wanderer (5.5%) – Kaffir lime and lemongrass saison, delicately perfumed with a pleasing sweetness. Fermented with our house saison blend which gives a refreshing spicy character and a dry finish.

Methuselah – Brett Reserve (12%) – Big and fruity imperial stout with a light acidity which balances the hefty malt backbone. Packs a punch after 18 months in barrel. *First pour*

Cow TIPA (12%) – Sour, barrel aged, bretted triple IPA fermented with the addition of Riesling grape must, before being dry hopped in barrel with Galaxy, Nelson Sauvin and Centennial. *Launching at Shakespeares on Saturday 31st August as part of the Funk Fest Fringe*

Logan’s Run (6.0%) – Single barrel pale ale base, fermented on cider lees with the addition of a whole allotment of locally sourced loganberries (thanks to Rising Sun regular Les!) *Festival exclusive*

Greetings from Fort Mill (3.8%) – Collaboration with Amor Artis from South Carolina. Refreshing grisette infused with yarrow and orange peel.

Slam Dunk Da Funk (5.3%) – Collaboration with beer writer Melissa Cole. Barrel aged Persian dark sour fermented with kefir, with the addition of black limes, apricots and sumac spice in the barrel. *First pour*

SauPoint (5.5%) – Collaboration with Colin Stronge and Sir Robin of Locksley gin. Complex sour beer with apricots, aged in an ex-ex-Sauternes, ex-Old Tom Navy Strength gin cask. *First pour*

Unbeliever (4.4%) – Raspberry and Vanilla Berliner Weisse. Tart and fruity kettle sour with a soft acidity and a creamy finish.

Sow The Seeds (5.5%) – Collaboration with Siren Craft Brew, 1/2. Bretted Farmhouse IPA with Simcoe and Mosaic hops. A pleasant ever developing funk is coming to the fore on this one after a few months in keg. *Final pour – last ever keg*

Reap A Harvest (7.5%) – Collaboration with Siren Craft Brew, 2/2. Barrel aged saison style beer, taken from the first runnings of Sow the Seeds, infused with blueberries, blackberries, gooseberries and chuckleberries. *First pour*

Ryes From the Grave (7.2%) – We’ve waited 18 months for this beer to be ready, but we reckon it was worth it. A blend of three beers aged in a mix of American Oak and French ex-red wine barrels, given a final fermentation with cherries and blackcurrants. You can read more about this one here.

Hop Bretta: Vic Secret (3.9%) – Single hopped sessionable bretted beer, designed to have a light funk and be an accessible introduction to this style of beer. *On cask*

—

Next week we’ll be sharing details of the extra special tasting events happening over the course of the weekend, closely followed by releasing the line up of the incredible guest beers we’ve sourced especially for the festival.

If you haven’t got your tickets for Funk Fest yet, head to bit.ly/funkfest19 to grab one now! Don’t forget your ticket includes a festival glass and a palate cleansing beer to soothe the tastebuds mid-sour-session!

Hope to see you at one of our fringe events (you can also catch us at Hop Hideout on Friday 30^th August, where they’ve secured the last ever kegs of our award winning Wild Plum Ale and Chorlton Raspberry Blend) and of course over the weekend of 7^th and 8^th September!

Cheers!

Ryes from the Grave is the first of an ambitious series of beers released from our Funk Dungeon barrel ageing and souring programme. Each of these is to have their own distinct identity and will be intended to showcase both the diversity of the beers resting quietly in our cellars, and the skill involved in meticulously blending them together. While we are still at the behest of Brettanomyces and its ability to ferment all the sugars we let it feed upon, we are confident that we are definitely at a point where we can really be proud of the time and effort put into these beers. 

This beer is an expression of the history of the barrel project. It’s made up of beers which hold some of our earliest work with yeasts and bacteria and their relationship over time with neutral oak, to some of our more recent barrel acquisitions which exhibit additional flavour characteristics that work hand in hand with our yeasts.

So what came first, the beer or the name?! That is a very good question, and one that none of us can quite remember the answer to. Either way, the base beer designed to be the backbone to the final blend (and making up about a third of it) contains a high quantity of Crystal Rye, chosen as it provides a tasty residual sweetness coupled with a spicy edge that amplifies the fruit content of the beer.

This base beer was fermented with our house sour saison yeast blend, with added sour cherries and blackcurrant puree. Primary fermentation took around two weeks, after which the beer was racked into freshly emptied barrels. The barrels themselves are now on their fourth fill, so provide a neutral oak character with a gentle hint of vanilla tannin. We left this to rest for four months before completing the blend for the final beer.

We then used a mixture of beers from older oak stock, to really enhance the complexity found within the final blend, using beer which was initially put into barrel between early 2017 and mid 2018. In this way, we feel that the final beer best represents the development of our programme and helps to show the burgeoning history which can now begin to be found within it.

The main component of the beer (about half of the final product) is a saison which has spent time in ex-red wine barrels. This was chosen as it adds a fruity tannic quality and a brett character, but overall wasn’t particularly acidic. In order to reach the desired level of acidity, a small amount of a low pH imperial saison was blended in, which also helps to round out and amplify the cherry and blackcurrant notes without being overbearingly acetic. Finally, a small addition of a more simple and straightforward cleaner beer brewed with a hybrid yeast was added which helped to bring everything together, as our Funk Dungeon Lead Brewer Jim puts it “that was the seasoning for the rest of the blend”.

This beer has come about as the result of a long testing process, where a number of different options and beers blended at varying quantities were shared with the whole team to allow the final outcome to be a true collaborative process. This beer, while it shows the influence of some of the classic Belgian styles and more contemporary US sours, also highlights that we are brewing, fermenting and blending our beers our way, with the intention of producing modern beer that is still steeped in tradition.

The beer itself a deceptively easy drinking 7.2% sour, refreshing and rounded yet blisteringly dry on the finish, with a high level of fruit acidity and a funky twang on the palate. Kudos to designer James Murphy on the stunning artwork too.

Ryes from the Grave is just one of the thirty lines we’ll have available at Funk Fest this September 7^th and 8^th, head to bit.ly/funkfest19 to grab your tickets! We hope that you can get hold of this beer (it’s available right here on our online shop) and enjoy it as much as we enjoyed working on it, and keep an eye out in the near future for the next beers from the dungeon.