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Advent Calendars!

Tis (nearly) the season, and we’re DELIGHTED to announce that our fantastic Advent Calendars are BACK with a fabulously festive new look, containing 24 beery treats to enjoy in the run up to the big day! Available to pre-order now, it’s the perfect treat for yourself or an excellent way to get to the top of the nice list by gifting it to a fellow Abbeydale fan.

Making The Independent’s Best Beer Advent Calendar lists two years in a row, with consecutive perfect 5* reviews, they are available exclusively from our online shop. Get into the Christmas spirit with a huge range of beers from our extensive selection, from familiar favourites to seasonal specials.

And in response to popular demand, we’re pleased to introduce a gluten free option for 2024 too! (Please note this is a separate item on the online shop, please ensure you have selected the correct box if you would like this item – look for the green one!)

Delivery is included free of charge throughout mainland UK and orders will be dispatched in late November.

Abbey Christmas to all, and to all a good pint!

Cheers!

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Brewer of the Year 2024

We’re incredibly proud to announce that our Funk Dungeon Lead Brewer, Jim Rangeley, has been named the Brewer of the Year at the 2024 Brewers Choice Awards!

Jim is responsible for heading up our mixed fermentation project, as well as being part of the wonderful team that crafts each and every one of our beers. Jim has worked in the beer industry for coming up to a decade, nine years of which have been right here as part of Team Abbeydale. The award, judged by a panel of industry experts, recognises Jim’s talent and passion, as well as his strong sense of values and commitment to progress within not just the Abbeydale team but the wider industry too.

Renowned beer writer and member of the judging panel Melissa Cole said of the award, “What Jim has achieved at Abbeydale is nothing short of excellent. From the Funk Dungeon to churning out great core ranges and being a decent human at the same time, this award is well-deserved.” Tim Sheahan, editor of the Brewers Journal (the industry magazine which organises the awards), added “The level of competition in the ‘Brewer of The Year’ category is always incredibly high and in 2024 this was no different. But the judging panel at The Brewers Choice Awards recognised not only Jim’s ability to produce a wealth of different styles with unerring ease but his commitment to the industry, too.”

Jim was shortlisted alongside Brian from Northern Monk and Alex at Full Circle, and said of the award (in his characteristically humble way) “to have even been shortlisted alongside two other fantastic brewers from the north, both of whom I have great respect for, was a real honour, let alone to have won! I’m privileged to have a job I truly enjoy, working for a company that puts its trust in me, and as part of a brilliant team. This award is for all of us.”

Previous winners of this prestigious award include Burning Sky’s Mark Tranter and Colin Stronge of Lost Cause Brew Co, so Jim is in very excellent company!

You can find out more about our Jim in his Meet the Team blog post here, and head to our online shop if you’d like to snap up one of the few remaining bottles of his recent limited edition Funk Dungeon releases.

(And yes, if you’re wondering, he did immediately have a well-deserved beer out of his engraved tankard prize!)

Congratulations, Jim!

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Gluten free beers

Gluten free beers

Did you know that here at Abbeydale Brewery we produce a wide range of beers which are Gluten Free, including Heathen and Heresy? Read on for an explanation of our processes, how we label these beers, and where you can find all the details you need to make an informed choice.

These beers are not produced without gluten containing ingredients, and do use barley and often wheat and other grains too, as can be clearly seen on the ingredients list of our beers in can. However, we use a gluten reducing enzyme as part of the brewing process – this is a proline specific oligopeptidase enzyme (which you may have heard referred to as Brewers Clarex, Brewers Clarity, or DeHaze) which can reduce the gluten to below the 20ppm threshold required to label a product as gluten free. This means our beers brewed in this way can be safe to drink for many of those amongst us who are sensitive to gluten. This has no effect on the taste of the beer and is not in any way detrimental to the flavour – such a clever little enzyme!

Our beers are regularly tested to check the gluten content at a UKAS accredited laboratory, and we use a lateral flow test prior to packaging by way of double checking the GF status before each and every batch of beer leaves the brewery.

You can always check the Gluten Free status of each of our beers by looking for the logo shown to the left – it is clearly visible on the “Our Beers” page, as well as on our online shop. The permanently available beers of ours which are always produced using a gluten reducing enzyme are Heathen, Heresy, Voyager and Serenity, plus Deception and Black Mass from our heritage range. In addition, many of our specials are also brewed using the enzyme. For our permanently available beers in can, we also clearly display a declaration of the beer as gluten free on the label (look for the logo shown to the left).

For our more unusual recipes and one-off specials, this logo may not appear on the can label itself, as these must be ordered prior to our final lateral flow check which confirms the gluten level is below 20ppm. We will always indicate where a gluten reducing enzyme has been used in the list of ingredients, however we are aware of rare occurrences where the gluten level has remained slightly above the 20ppm threshold in beers with adjunct heavy recipes, for example. We want you to have 100% confidence in our beers, and will always make sure our website and online shop clearly displays the GF logo for all beers which have successfully been evidenced to contain less than 20ppm gluten via lateral flow and/or external laboratory testing to ensure full and complete compliance.

You will not find the logo on the pump clips for our cask and keg beer. This is because, whilst the beers produced as GF are made in the same way no matter what format they’re released in, we cannot guarantee that the beer is being served through a gluten free line, which may affect certain customers (although some pubs and bars may choose to dedicate a line to GF beers). As with our canned beers, our website is a great resource to check which beers have been evidenced to contain lower than 20ppm gluten at the point of package. (Please note, we do not produce all of our beers to a GF recipe and would always advise checking on the website).

The vast majority of beers labelled as gluten free that you see on bars and shelves of pubs and bottle shops around the country will have been produced in a similar way to that described above (so you will still see grains such as barley clearly highlighted as allergens in our ingredients lists).

Whilst there are gluten free beers available that have been brewed with no gluten containing ingredients, these are few and far between. The reason for this is that gluten free grains generally do not hold the same characteristics as those more commonly used in brewing, and so a wider change of process and a huge amount of investment would be needed for us to be able to utilise grains such as rice and sorghum effectively on a large scale. At the moment, this isn’t a direction we are in a position to take, so we have looked at other ways that we can make our beers as accessible to as many people (over the age of 18 of course!) as possible. We are aware that this isn’t a one-solution-fits-all scenario, but we hope to provide sufficient information to let you, the drinker, make an informed decision about our beers, and therefore hopefully enable more of you to enjoy them!

We hope this system helps to reassure you that we are taking the utmost care to ensure the safety of our customers, alongside of course offering a great range of flavourful beers that are accessible to as many of our drinkers as possible. We’re keen to ensure that you are fully informed about the processes our beer undergoes before it reaches the glass – as part of this, we’re also more than happy to answer any questions you may have, and are very willing to take feedback on board if there’s anything you think we could communicate more clearly, so please get in touch (you can email us at [email protected]) if you have any suggestions or think there is anything we are missing.

Cheers!

Team Abbeydale

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Meet the Team

Next in our series of introducing you to our team, here’s our Ops Director Toby to continue spreading the gospel of well kept cask and the benefits of mild!

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

Toby Grattidge, and I’m from a little village called Tarleton, between Southport and Preston

What is your role at Abbeydale Brewery?

Operations Director – basically anything financey, spreadsheety or businessy.  As well as being on the beer tasting panel. Smiley face.

What’s your favourite beer style and why?

As anyone who follows our social knows, I’m a founding member of the ABMAS (editor’s note, that’ll be the Abbeydale Brewery Mild Appreciation Society!).  Also love a well balanced West Coast IPA, and something low ABV but really well hopped – session NEIPAs really.  Plus any good cask in a pub over a Sunday Roast, preferably with an open fire. Also can’t not mention Last Rites – absolutely iconic beer.

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

The beer and the people.  Abbeydale were my favourite brewery long before I worked here, and it’s so refreshing working with people who love what they do.  We also get to make whatever beer the staff want to – I even got my Mild this year.

Best place to enjoy a pint?

Favourite pub in the world, I could probably narrow it down to about 100 if I tried hard, but I’ll name check the Rising Sun Fulwood (my last local) and the Waggon and Horses in Millhouses (my current local).  It’s entirely possible my first criteria when moving somewhere is a good ale pub.

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

The Coronation in Southport, favourite haunt in my college days. Recently closed, which was so sad.

Favourite snack to enjoy alongside a beer?

A handmade pork pie, Wateralls in the Moor Market do a great one.  Had Pate de Campagne in France recently too and that was great.

Outside of beer, what do you get up to?

Often found playing or coaching football, enjoy a good history book, and spending time with my kids. If I ever get the time I’ll take up making charcuterie.

Who’s your hero?

Anthony Bourdain, if you don’t know, find out.

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

Peter Griffin.

If you’d like to find out more about Toby’s journey into beer, particularly in terms of cask ale and his top tips for looking after it, head to this piece here!

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Nelson Pale

We’ve got a new collaboration available now!

You may remember that back in autumn 2023, we were privileged to be invited to take part in Collabageddon, a wonderful celebration of our beery community organised by Elusive Brewing. And for our “away” leg, we were paired up with absolute lager masters Utopian, visiting their state-of-the-art brewery near Exeter to be guided through our first ever decoction mash, creating a magnificent (if we do say so ourselves) Nelson Sauvin single hopped lager.

Well, we’re excited to say that we have now got the “home” leg under our belts too! In a reflection of what we brewed together last year, we decided to stick with the same ABV and hop, and go for the style we’re best known for here at Abbeydale Brewery, just as we did by creating a lager at Utopian’s place.

And so, we’re thrilled to introduce Nelson Pale, a 5.2% single hopped pale ale which features the glorious Nelson Sauvin hop in whole cone, T90 and Cryo form. Using the same hop in three ways enabled us to make full use of our brewkit, including our traditional hopback where the hop flowers were infused into the beer – a heritage technique that was pretty novel for team Utopian!

The brewday also just so happened to fall on the 16th August, our brewery birthday! So we decided having Jeremy, Ben and Richard from Team Utopian with us was the perfect way to celebrate and declared collaboration day our birthday party. The night before we were able to show them the sights of Sheffield, with the Bath Hotel being a fantastic venue for pints and the Crucible causing much excitement as a tourist attraction!

And as for the beer itself – bold and hop forward, expect tropical fruit, citrus and hints of elderflower on the nose, followed by a smooth body and a crisp, clean bitter finish. It’s also vegan friendly and gluten free, and is available in cask, keg and can (including from our online shop).

Thanks again to Andy from Elusive for pairing us up with Utopian and demonstrating the spirit of collaboration that’s so important to our industry – it’s a privilege to have made such excellent new pals (and two beautiful beers) as a result.

Cheers!

  • About Us

    A true Sheffield institution founded in 1996, Abbeydale Brewery blends heritage and tradition with creativity and innovation, showcasing these values across an unparalleled range of beers.

    Abbeydale Brewery brochure

  • Contact Us

    Abbeydale Brewery Ltd
    Unit 8, Aizlewood Road
    Sheffield
    S8 0YX
    Telephone: 0114 281 2712
    Email: [email protected]

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