Sheffield Beer Week 2026

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