Month: March 2026

Introducing Amass! A convivial new addition to our Funk Dungeon range of mixed fermentation beers, with a focus on community and good cheer.

The first release of Amass is a mixed fermentation heritage saison, aged in English red wine barrels and “wet hopped” during conditioning with freshly picked UK Cascade, grown in our designer James’ Yorkshire garden in the peaceful suburbs of Boston Spa. Light and refreshing with a zesty aroma and notes of oak and marmalade, rounded off in a delicately funky finish. We’ve put this in the yellow region of our special International Goat Unit (IGU) scale, reflecting that the “farmyard” character of this particular funky fellow is apparent without being too overwhelming – a relatively accessible beer with a nicely tart pH of 3.4.

The base beer is constructed using the preferred blend of malt and hops that has come to be known as the house style of the Funk Dungeon, using a hefty dose of heritage malt Plumage Archer alongside our house grain (Maris Otter), wheat, rye and a hint of crystal malt, with a sizeable addition of English grown hops.  A variation of this base beer has formed the core of many of the Funk Dungeon releases over the years.

The difference with Amass is that we’re looking to use ingredients found within and collected by our local community to finish these releases, establishing an ethos of making best use of abundance and celebrating by sharing the rewards reaped from our collective endeavour!

Our designer James started growing his Cascade hops in West Leeds after getting involved with a local brewery’s hop-growing scheme in 2019. Despite moving across the city in the spring of 2023 when the hops had started to regrow after their winter dormancy, he managed to keep them alive with the help of his neighbour who was a professional gardener. In sunny Boston Spa, the hops have gone from strength to strength, doubling their yield each year since – culminating in the 2025 haul making its way into our very first Amass release. Commenting on the process, James said “It’s a really pleasurable experience growing hops – they’re fairly easy to manage and the speed at which they grow means you get to see progress throughout the summer – with numerous green leaves and bines shooting skywards joined later by the hop cones that produce that pleasant aroma. As long as they’re watered, managed and get access to whatever sunlight we are afforded – they make a great addition to a garden of any size. I encourage anyone with an interest in beer to look into growing hops themselves in whatever space they have available.”

Whilst this year’s release of Amass – Green Hop Saison features hops from a single garden, for future releases we hope to introduce a “forage to funk” scheme, in keeping with our pub, The Rising Sun, who operate a “field to fork” initiative whereby local growers can swap their surplus homegrown produce for beer tokens! We plan to offer drop off dates in September at our taproom (COMING SOON!) once the growing season is coming to an end. There’ll be opportunity to pick the hops ready for production with your fellow growers (we’ll provide the refreshments) and an event for the release of the beer with a free drink for hop growers – quality control is very important! The names of all contributors will be added to the bottle label too. So, if you already have hops with a home in your garden, or if you’re feeling inspired by James’ story above, keep your eyes peeled for details of how to get involved in time for this year’s harvest.

Amass is available now in 750ml bottles, both to trade customers and via our own shop (you can pick one up online, or pop into the shop to see us!). Just 5 kegs exist, which are already all spoken for! A couple are saved for some super special secret projects (more on that soon!) but look out for it on keg at the Draughtsman Alehouse, The Selden Arms in Worthing 10-12 April, and at our tap takeover at the King’s Arms in London on April 16^th.

Join us in celebrating the finest of English terroir!

Have you been to our fabulous Fulwood pub, The Rising Sun, recently? It goes without saying that our beautiful S10 retreat is home to a huge selection of Abbeydale beer – but it is also host to a new chapter in pub dining.

We would love to introduce you to Joe Grayson, who we’ve newly welcome aboard the good ship Team Abbeydale. Joe comes with a lofty reputation and a plethora of fresh ideas. Most recently seen as part of the duo at the helm of Frerot in Cambridge Street Collective, Joe is perhaps best known for Juke and Loe – a pair of restaurants that saw some of the most exciting and inspired cooking in Sheffield. Nationally renowned (including being lauded by none other than Jay Raynor!), and known and loved around his home town already, we know how lucky we are to have the mind behind those menus in our local pub kitchen.

Joe’s culinary confidence sings from his dishes, blending well-loved classics with the ingenuity and flair for erudite flavours that Joe has come to be known for. Our Rising Sun dining room has never been more tantalising and we can’t wait to share more developments from pass to plate, shout about the fabulous independent suppliers we’re working with, and relish the spoils of the hard work going into elevating our offering.

Joe’s very own menu has just launched – it’s innovative, exciting and constantly evolving, changing with the seasons and making use of the best of what’s fresh. Head to the Rising Sun’s website to view the current menu and book your table to be delighted by Joe’s delicious dishes for yourself! And in the meantime, it’s over to Joe himself to tell you a little more…

Hiya, Joe! What’s your name and where do you come from?

I’m Joe Grayson, and I’m from Sheffield.

What’s your favourite beer and why?

It’s got to be Daily Bread – I’m not a big fan of light beers, so prefer a bitter. If I can’t find Daily Bread, I enjoy an Acorn’s Barnsley Bitter.

And you’re the chef who’s newly in charge of the kitchen at our pub, the Rising Sun – so moving away from beer a little, what about your favourite cuisine?

It’s not what a lot of chefs would say but I’m going to go for British – there’s a wealth of great ingredients and the seasonality is so diverse. Game season is my favourite time of year.

What’s your favourite dish on the menu?

At the moment I’d say the fish and chips, we get the fish couriered up the day it lands from St. Ives so it’s super fresh. It’s such a classic dish that deserves more than the generic treatment a lot of places give it! We use our very own Heresy lager in the batter, too.

Best place to enjoy a pint?

Brother’s Arms, my local up in Heeley. Snug in the winter, great beer garden in the summer.

Favourite snack to enjoy alongside a beer?

I like a pickled egg, so should everyone else.

When you’re not creating delicious dishes, what do you like to do in your spare time?

Hill walking and generally enjoying the Derbyshire countryside.

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

Elmer Fudd.

Sheffield Beer Week is a city wide celebration of independent beer, and everything that makes this industry in Sheffield so special. Having first taken place in 2015, this year Sheffield Beer Week falls from Monday 9^th to Sunday 15^th March, and shines a spotlight on not just our beer scene but the connection that has to the food, music, community and heritage of our city. So we thought we’d put together a few beer, food and music pairings to get the full sensory experience!

To kick things off, we’d love to introduce you to our Sheffield Beer Week collaboration beer, Synth City! This year, one of the key messages of SBW is focused around celebrating the sonic and synth musical heritage of our hometown, as diverse and unique as our beer scene, and our latest pale ale is inspired by that vivacity. Featuring Krush, Vic Secret and Mosaic hops, it’s hop-forward with flavours that oscillate between notes of pulpy tropical and juicy citrus fruits, which harmonise beautifully with a lightly herbaceous finish. It launched at Indie Beer Feast over the weekend and it’s available NOW in cask, keg and can, including on tap at Hop Hideout, where Sheffield Beer Week organiser Jules can also be found! So who better to suggest a snack and song pairing for this one than Jules herself?! Here are her picks:

 “For a song I’d go for Heaven 17 ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’. With founding members of Heaven 17 coming from a strong Trade Unionist family background in Sheffield, it was a response and warning to what was going on around them at the time. I feel it’s a song as pertinent in meaning when written in 1981 as today. And I’d pair this beer with a packet of Brown Bag Crisps’ Oak Smoked Chilli flavour. They’re small batch cooked, independently family-owned, gluten free crisps. The punch of the Scotch Bonnet chillies and natural smoke hit match the beer’s intensity without overpowering its juicy and intense tropical notes.” Make sure you pop to Hop Hideout in Leah’s Yard to try this combination for yourself!

Next up, we’re thrilled to welcome back an Abbeydale classic – in celebration of our 30^th anniversary, we’ve brought back Vespers for the first time since 2015! A 4.2% English Porter, back from the archives with reimagined artwork as part of our Legacy Series. Full of rich roast coffee and dark fruit notes, it works fantastically as a partner to a cheeseboard. And for a song, we’re choosing something else a little dark and brooding – pop Being Boiled by the Human League on the stereo and tuck in to some creamy blue cheese or a nutty aged Gouda, which contrast deliciously with the malt forward sweetness in Vespers.

This week also sees the launch of our new head chef’s superb new menu at our pub, The Rising Sun – look out for more on that later this week! We’ve paired the lemon and white chocolate cheesecake with a pint of It’s Always Sunny in Shireoaks – a beer we made with the fab Ticking Clock Brew Co just over the border in (yep, you guessed it!) Shireoaks. This Dolcita hopped pale is full of notes of tropical pineapple and juicy peach, with a luscious creamy finish, which compliments a sweet treat very nicely indeed. And moving away from synth but staying with the local theme, who could resist pairing a beer brewed using a hop whose name means “little sweetie” without turning up the volume to a bit of Def Leppard – Pour Some Sugar On Me?! 

For our final suggested pairing, we’re going for Moonshine – preferably a pint of it. The archetypal Sheffield beer, best enjoyed in a local pub, paired with good company. Yeah, we know that’s kinda cheating. We’re going to recommend you stick Common People on, get a bag of ready salted on the go and don’t think about it too much – just enjoy.

Cheers!

Team Abbeydale

Introducing Abbeydale Beerworks – the Abbeydale Brewery Taproom. Coming soon!

Yes, that’s right… after 30 years, we’ve finally found a perfect space for a taproom, just around the corner from the brewery. We’re excited to announce that we will be taking on the lease of the unit which was previously the fantastic Turner’s Bottle Shop, 298 Abbeydale Road. Our hope is for it to be a destination for beer lovers to find our latest brews and small batch specials, as well as a venue for hosting exclusive tasting events. And it’s just 200 steps away from the brewery roller shutters!

Our new space will be called Abbeydale Beerworks, and just like the brewery and our pub the Rising Sun, it’ll be 100% employee owned. We’re now working towards an opening date in early May, which we’re close to announcing – be assured we’ll keep you posted every step of the way!

We really hope we can take the venue forwards with the spirit of community that Rob and Alison so wonderfully instilled in Turner’s, and we can’t wait to play a new part in the neighbourhood that already means so much to us and that we’ve called home for thirty years.

Our onsite shop at the brewery itself is unaffected and will remain open Monday-Friday 9am-5pm, although once Beerworks is open you’ll also be able to get cans and other goodies from there outside of these hours too – opening hours for the taproom will be confirmed closer to the launch.

We’re all incredibly excited about this news, and we can’t wait to welcome you to Abbeydale Beerworks. In the meantime, you can follow our new venue on Facebook and Instagram where we’ll be sharing more of our journey.

Cheers!