At Abbeydale Brewery, our locality is very important to us, and we are lucky enough to have a wonderful community around us. This beer is made in collaboration with our neighbours and friends Birdhouse Tea Company, using a bespoke blend created especially for this beer. Close

Pat Morton, Brewmaster and a great lover of cricket, commissioned The Temperamental Artist to knock up a new label.

"Think Village Green, and church bells.." he instructed. "A nice rural theme," he continued, absently stepping forward to an imaginary crease to fend an imaginary ball way over to the imaginary onside boundary in the brewery typing pool...

The Temperamental Artist fidgeted as the Famous Cricketer before him explained, in outline, exactly what he wanted.

"What do you think?"

"What? Umm..? Oh.. er.. yes.. er... I've got it, me."

He picked up a crayon from out of his bag, grabbed the open diary and began sketching all over the first weekend in July.

"OK.. Look at this. Didn't you say something about balls bouncing off a crease? I've got this great idea - it's like this.. and this.. "

"GOOD GRIEF! - NO!" shouted the brewer, ripping the page from the diary and shredding it into thousands of unrecoverable pieces. "You'll get us all busted!"

The artist stood uncomprehending as even more words whistled over his head.

"I want ... think 'playing the game.' Give me flannel. I want a load of balls, but most of all, something typically reminiscent of the Old Country. Put the whole emphasis on... bats.. B_a_t_s - not that," he gestured, shuddering. towards the flames licking the waste basket. "Bats. Can you handle it?"

The Temperamental Artist nodded blankly, scratching the side of his neck with the spanner he'd just been using there.

"Bats? Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. I can picture it now... the lush green, the leathery sound.. soaring through the air... "

The Temperamental Artist shuffled off, baffled but.. confidentused.

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Non Stick - Really, it isn't!

And neither a stone, nor balloon full of air not flesh, fish nor fowl - not anything there and surely not metal, absolutely no doubt that it's not in this list, 'cos I left it out. Its shape is determined by what it is in so it might be quite short, or tall, thick or thin.

But if you ask nicely, and money you pass you'll find it conforms to the shape of a glass. Not much of a riddle, you'll have to agree for the answer is simple and easy to see. Not solid nor gaseous, it's the other it's clear Doctor Morton's Non Stick - a very liquidy beer.

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This is consistently Abbeydale''s biggest selling beer.

First brewed in 1996 it was designed as a premium pale bitter to show drinkers of a very big and old-established brewery's offering just what a beer could taste like... After a bit of name-calling and throwing of stones, it had no trouble in establishing a reputation as the genuine Sheffield Gold Beer. It is now available as a regular beer at a number of outlets in and around Sheffield.

It was an immediate hit - the very first batch won the "Beer of The festival" prize at Sheffield Beer Festival.

The name isn't eccesiastical, but it's such a good name and such a lovely image, we couldn't resist. And why should we, we make the rules and we don't like rules.

Shine on...

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Owing to the success of Deception back in 2008 and 2009 as a seasonal special, we decided to bring the beer on as a regular in place of Matins 3.6%.

Bringing on a new regular beer in itself comes with other obstacles, such as ensuring the constant supply of good quality hops. In 2010, the brewers of Britain were all trying to get their hands on these New Zealand Nelson Sauvin hops causing a national shortage! However, we were fortunate enough to get in there first. 

The sales of Deception continued to increase so much so we even had to ration the beer - I think that speaks for itself! In subsequent years, Deception has continued to grow in popularity and is now a regular beer in a number of pubs locally. We work hard to make sure we secure the hops to keep up with the success of this beer.

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Abbeydale Brewery brews a range of beers throughout the seasons, and demand for Absolution constantly increases as time goes on, season in and season out.

The first brew was in August 1996 and the beer was showcased at the Derbyshire Three Stags Heads (see our pubs section) Three firkins were delivered and upon return of the delivery vehicle to the brewery, a plaintive phonecall from the recipient landlord, "Customers in desperate need of Absolution" meant a trip back out again with more.

Winner of many awards, Absolution is a perennial favourite. We're proud of it and we drink it at home.

The image on the label features the ubiquitous abbey and a rainbow, painstakingly created with the digital airbrush without any filters.

"Dammit Jim I'm an artist not a technician."

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A mix of dark malts and a secret combination of hops result in complex flavours. Liquorice to start, then coffee and bitter chocolate with a warm alcoholic finish. Robust, full-bodied and black as sin. A true beast of a brew.

The Abbeydale Brewery produces yet another best seller for the cognoscenti. The beer was very deliberately brewed to have an alcohol content of 6.66%. The triple six number should be familiar enough to all bible scholars, watchers of The Omen and anyone who ever read a diabolical horror story as being the phone number of the Beast of the Apocalypse.

The Pope always has a pint of this whenever he drops in at our local. Leastways he claims he's the Pope. Last Thursday, in Sainsbury's, shopping for Cognac, he assured us he was Napoleon.

The baleful candle image and foreground were painted entirely on screen using a virtual airbrush, working against a transparent background. Then the image of the ruin was assembled on the dark background and the composite dropped in behind the candle and consolidated into one image before being retouched and lettered.

A session on Black Mass should always be followed by a plea for the barman to give Absolution.

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When we took over The Rising Sun in Fulwood in December 2005, the only cask beer on offer was John Smith's.

The regulars who stayed with the pub when we took it over were mainly very conservative John Smith's drinkers and so we decided to keep the beer on. However, it really rankled Patrick that someone else's beer (from a large brewery) and not ours, was the biggest selling beer in his pub!

Over the course of the first year, some regulars converted to Brimstone and a few to the range of guest beers. We even had a couple who became Moonshine or Absolution drinkers, but still John Smith's continued to sell, an ale which was expensive for us to buy. So, we set out to change things!

We asked John Smith's drinkers what they liked about it and got them to try Brimstone (our nearest substitute) and tell us why they didn't like that. We got in bitters from other good breweries and gave them free samples and asked their views. Eventually we built up a pretty good idea of what they would like and Pat set out to brew our version of a classic English bitter to suit the tastes of the Rising Sun regulars. Ivan the artist then came up with the name and the artwork and voila, Daily Bread was born.

About half the John Smith's drinkers converted to Daily Bread, one went elsewhere and the other half converted to ... Brimstone! Customers eh?

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