Sheffield Visit Part 1 - Kelham Island

I visited both of these pubs, around the corner from each other in the Kelham Island area (Welcome to Sheffield), twice when I very recently was in Sheffield, on my own, and with friends Jeff and Lindsay the second time, hence 2 different drinks at each. First, the Kelham Island Tavern, or KIT, many of us still use the term KitCat when going to drink at the Fat Cat (below) as well as the KIT. The Kelham Island Tavern, 62 Russell Street S3 8RW (instagram), built in the 1830s, was a derelict building when Trevor and Lewis took it over, they then refurbished and reopened it in 2002. It became the best real ale pub in the country, indeed, they won the National CAMRA Pub of the Year in 2008 and 2009, and have won many other awards since. Although now retired, I believe Trevor still owns the property, but now the licensee is Josh, and still winning awards, including being the current CAMRA Sheffield Pub of the Year, congratulations! 👍

You will notice I drank 2 of the Blue Bee ales (website) there, indeed, Josh also works with another friend of mine, Peter the Brewer, at the brewery, busy lads, the two businesses are closely related, and the KIT is effectively the Blue Bee Brewery Tap. So, first visit I drank their 90th version of the 4.3% American Five Hop (#90), always brewed with Columbus hops (hopslist) as the bittering hop, and for this edition Citra (hopslist), Strata (Indie Hops), Dolcita (Yakima Chief) and Ekuanot (Yakima Chief). Another excellent balance of hop varieties used, pale dry, subtle fruits, with a dry finish, quality again, and at just £4.00 a pint, cheers! 😁

Served on both visits to the KIT by the friendly barkeep Alex, and not to forget that the KIT uses oversized lined glasses, so you always receive a full 20 fluid ounces pint, nice one! The evening before I had been drinking with Peter the Brewer who recommended I try his recently brewed 3.9% Motueka Nectaron Pale, brewed with New Zealand hops Motueka (hopslist) and Nectaron (Charles Faram). Another pale golden wonder, with hints of tropical and citrus flavours, with a dry bitter finish, nice one, cheers for the recommendation Pete! 👍

They sell a dozen ales here, in addition to those 2, also from Blue Bee was their 4.0% Bessemer Blonde and 4.3% Parkwood Porter. Other cask ales available on the day were the 4.3% Abbeydale Moonshine (website) and 3.8% Acorn Brewery Barnsley Bitter (website), both regular ales I believe. Also, 3.4% Left Handed Giant Dark Mild (website), 4.3% Pictish Brewing Alchemists Ale (website), 4.3% Abbeydale Sunsprite Rose (website), 4.5% Verdant Brewing (website) Future You (superbawines), 4.7% Red Willow Idaho 7 The Dank (website) and 5.5% Elusive Brewing Final Boss (Stage 1) Simcoe (website). 

To The Fat Cat (website), 23 Alma Street S3 8SA, and people who know me or have read previous blogs, will know that when I was a post-grad student I worked at the associated Kelham Island Brewery. The pub was an original in Sheffield, and virtually throughout the country, when it was bought as the Alma in 1981 by Dave Wickett and his colleague Bruce to provide an alternative to the big brewers, providing an outlet for independent brewers. After separating their business interests, Dave continued with the pub and set up a microbrewery in a shed behind the pub. A bigger brewery was built in 1990, where I worked 1999/2002, and seen behind and to the right of the pub in the photograph above. Sadly, the brewery is no longer in use, but more recently, a group of lads bought the name and are brewing separately at Thornbridge Brewery (website), and I can confirm their ales have improved significantly recently.

Anyway, what did I drink in the Cat? My solo visit saw me drink, from solar-powered Twisted Oak Brewery in North Somerset (website), their 4.2% Creation, brewed with Mosaic (hopslist) and Simcoe (hopslist) hops. This is a U.S. style pale ale with hints of tropical fruits in the aroma and taste, but with citrus fruits more dominant, and with a refreshing dry bitter finish, very pleasant.

I drank outside in their garden, this was the view from my seat, and the original Kelham Island Brewery used to be in the small shed you can just see part of to my left, how did the brewers cope in it?!? 😓 I stayed in the shade and enjoyed the Creation, ambience and butterflies. 🌺

When I returned with the lads, I drank, from West Yorkshire brewery Tigertops (website), their 4.5% Godiva, a 'Fresh Hop IPA' (an alternative name for Green Hop, so I'm guessing this was brewed quite a while ago) and brewed, well I never, with Godiva hops, a variety developed in England (Charles Faram). A more subtle mixture of tropical and citrus flavours in the aroma and taste, pale, dry and bitter, and not bad at all, cheers! 🍻

More Sheffield pubs and ales coming very soon in Part 2. 😁

Iron Pier Beer in Cans; A Chore to Sample!

OK, not really a chore, more like a 'calling' 😉 but I had these 3 cans of beers from Iron Pier Brewery in Kent (website) to report back on. Silly me, I forgot to take photographs with them in a glass or three, but sensible enough to keep the empty cans (photograph above).😏

Even though I have no images of these beers in a glass to share, I do have fond memories of drinking a couple of dark 'barrel aged' ales from Iron Pier Brewery in the past, up at The Tower pub above St Leonards in Bohemia, for example this 9.0% Speyside Whisky barrel aged Imperial Stout (blog), which was absolutely gorgeous, cheers Louisa!😁

But back to the cans, and a wee bit less luxurious stout, their Cast Iron Stout (4.7%), based on a Victorian recipe, and brewed with 7 different malts. The roasted malts producing chocolate and hints of coffee in the taste, slightly sweet to start with, but with a dry finish. The colour is very dark and the beer opaque, but to me this was what a stout should be like, plenty of body, smooth and warm, with roasted malt taste, very nice; see this blog explaining my thoughts on stout.👌

Second, their Rosherville Red (4.8%), a "hoppy red rye" ale brewed with Citra, Ekuanot, Bullion and Mosaic hops, and malted barley, wheat and rye. This is like a 'souped up' red APA, but with a more packed fruitiness including, not just grapefruit and citrus, but forest fruits and dark red fruits too, no doubt heavily influenced by the Bullion hops! A big fruity aroma and taste, with the red fruits dominating at the end, indeed, not bad at all.👍

And, knowing my preferences in taste, I was looking forward to the pale hoppy one, their 4.2% Session IPA, brewed with Citra, Denali (Sultana), Columbus and Amarillo hops, producing what you would expect... An abundance of citrus and forest fruits in the aroma and taste, an American style IPA, indeed, an APA, with a dry fruity finish too, again, not bad at all, cheers! 👍

For more information about hops, see the hopslist website.

Cask Ale Week 19-29 September 2024

How I missed he beginning of this 'festival' I do not know, but know I do now 😉 Cask Ale Week 2024 has begun, and runs for another week until next Sunday the 29th of September (website). This is a week organised to celebrate cask ale, so is essentially British, cask ale being lauded as "Britain's national drink." Although I only found out yesterday, I did partake in a few pints...

We started off at The Crown & Sceptre, 57 Melina Road, London W12 9HY (website), where an ale from the Welsh brewery Tiny Rebel (website) was imbibed by us both, but only by me continuously, it being a Fullers pub... 😏 Anyway, Tiny Rebel Park Life is a crystal clear 4.2% pale golden session bitter, brewed with Cascade (hopslist), Citra (hopslist) and Ekuanot (Yakima Valley Hops) hops, regular readers will appreciate these hops aroused my interest! My notes say 'very easy to drink' which it was, the subtle citrus and pine proved they hadn't gone over the top with the hops, and with a gentle bitter finish, I could have drunk this all day! 👍

On our way back to the South Coast we had a brief period in-between trains at Clapham Junction, so took the break to drop into The Falcon, a Nicholson's pub (website) at 2 St John's Hill, London SW11 1RU. The Falcon is on the corner at Clapham Junction of Falcon Road and, at the bottom of St John's Hill, with Lavender Hill going up the other way, pretty much a landmark. The building is Grade II listed, and was built in 1887, although a pub had been on the site for at least another 150 years. It used to have the longest continuous bar in the country, a claim supported by the Guinness Book of Records previously. But they've done some weird thing around the back where customers can stand behind what was the bar?!? For the sake of a few more standing customers I don't see the point! Now they can no longer make the claim. 😕

Nicholson's get ales brewed for them, and this one was brewed by the 'organic' Stroud Brewery in Gloucestershire (website) in celebration of Organic September (Soil Association). Gaia is named after the Greek Goddess of the Earth, Gaia/Gaea (Britannica), and is a 4.2% 'organic pale ale' that we chose from the 5 ales on offer (they used to have 10 available from handpumps not so long ago). Apologies, but I cannot discover which specific hops were used, but I did find out that Gaia is brewed with 'old and new world hops.' A bit darker and with more body than the Park Life, slightly spicy with citrus and tropical flavours and aroma, with a dry bitter finish, not bad at all, cheers! 🍻

For further information about this collaboration I suggest a good read at the Stroud Times.