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. 😁

Orange Wines!

We were at the Eel & Bear, 28 Waldegrave Street, Hastings TN34 1SJ (facebook) very recently, and which I first wrote about when they opened 8 years ago (blog), well, it's soon to change hands as a business, and good luck to them for their future adventures! 👍 Anyway, someone came in and asked for "orange wine" and which they have, and quite a few different ones too, and which raised my interest as I'd never heard of them. 😯 If you don't already know what they are, orange wines, or skin-contact white wines, are white wines that have a limited time in contact with the skins of the grapes when fermenting, which can bring tannin notes into the taste. For more about orange wines see, for example, wset.global. 

A friend was interested too, so we decided to share a couple of bottles, Nick kindly agreed to put these 2 bottles back for our next mutual visit, many thanks to him. The first we drank was the 12.5% Salamandre from the French vineyard in the heart of the Costieres de Nimes, Chateau de Saint Cyrgues (website), which has 10-day skin contact during fermentation. Made with Grenache Blanc grapes, historically from Spain, but since grown in the Rhone area of France too. I got plenty of fruit in the aroma, citrus, peach and tropical fruits, and you could sense it would be a dry wine. As you can see, yes, orange in colour, with subtle peach, apricot and orange to taste, quite complex, but refreshing and zesty with a dry finish indeed, nice one! 👍

Then we had the 12.0% Nu Litr Orange from 'wine maverick' Valentina Passalaqua, situated in the Gargano National Park in Puglia in Italy (website), and which has a 5-day skin contact. Made mostly with Italian Falanghina grapes (66%), and 20% Chardonnay and 14% Fiano grapes too (skin contact with Falanghina and Fiano only), orange coloured of course, lighter and more subtle than the Salamandre. This had citrus fruit and apricot in the aroma, and subtle flavours of orange/tangerine, peach and apricot, zesty and refreshing, and so easy to drink! 😁

Well, that was a distraction from my ales, more of which to come soon, cheers! 🍻

Pale Ales!

I've written about dark beers so much recently I thought I'd remind readers that I am usually more of a pale dry bitter drinker! 😁 So here are a couple I had very recently, first, from one of my favourite producers of ale, Kent Brewery (website), their 4.5% Belma. Another of their single hop ales, #49 in the series, and unsurprisingly brewed with Belma hops (hopslist) from the Yakima Valley in the USA. A very fruity ale, subtle pineapple and strawberry in the aroma, plus citrus flavours, with tangerine and grapefruit, plenty of body, another excellent ale from Kent! 👍

Second, from Manchester brewery ShinDigger (facebook), their 4.5% Pale, brewed with Amarillo hops (hopslist), also from the Yakima Valley. Significantly different to the Belma, as it's much dryer, and very pale, with orange and grapefruit flavours and a hint of tropical fruits. A lovely dry bitter finish, and I noted "very good" 😉 so must be good. Cheers m'dears! 🍻

July Whiskey of the Month

                                 

An anecdote to start with, the first time I drank Powers whiskey would have been 1995/96, soon after I moved to Sheffield as a postgrad student, at O'Hagan's (once the Raven, and the Hornblower when it was demolished), 12-14 Fitzwilliam Street S1 4JN. Sadly, the pub was knocked down for redevelopment of the area, see above image (Sheffield History).

The purpose of this anecdote explains why I drank Powers Whiskey at O'Hagan's, we drank there and (an aside), after eating their soda bread with Irish Stew, my wife baked her own soda bread for a while, great stuff! The licensees were Irish, from Dublin if my memory serves me well, and the lad told me that Powers was the roughest whiskey they had, not to turn down a challenge, and I wasn't really a whiskey or whisky drinker then, I was surprised how smooth it was, and so started the Irish whiskey drinking phase of my life, and Powers was the stimulus. 😁 

Powers history goes back to 1791 when James Power set up his distillery in Dublin, in 1975 they joined forces with other distilleries to form Irish Distillers, and their whiskeys are now produced at the Midleton Distillery in County Cork (website); oh yes, and their Gold Label has been around since 1886. For July I opened the bottle on the 30th June, and wrote this last night. 😉

I purchased the cheapest of their range to be sure I was drinking the equivalent to 30 years ago, a bottle of Powers Gold Label (website). This is a 40.0% strength, blended whiskey (70% pot still whiskey and 30% grain whiskey). Last night I detected honey with hints of lemon, cinnamon and caramel in the aroma, and similar flavours in the taste, with honey definitely there, but pepper and cloves comes through at the finish too. A very light and easy drinking whiskey indeed, and very enjoyable, sláinte! 👍

Chimay - A bit more Eurostar!

On my way back, although I was travelling bog standard class, my sister-in-law, who, coincidentally, was travelling on the same Eurostar train, was travelling at the posh end, as her journey was work-related. This proved beneficial for me, as she could bring a guest through with her at Bruxelles-Midi, and the delights of the Eurostar Premier Lounge (website), although I did get through passport control faster than her. 😉 I was very happy to spend more time with her, of course, and her work paid for the taxi to the station too, many thanks. So, what did we get in here? To start with there was only a few travellers, this was the Sunday 11.56 Eurostar to St Pancras, and we could help ourselves to food and drinks, well, I had a wee nibble, and... 

To the beer, it would have been rude to refuse a free Belgian beer, and from the Trappist Scourmont Abbey in Hainaut, Chimay (website), I drank their Chimay Rouge or Premiere, a 7.0% dubbel or brune beer, their oldest beer, first brewed (not this particular bottle) in 1862. They usually use traditional hops like Tettnanger (hopslist), Hallertau (hopslist) and Styrian Golding (hopslist), and primarily use Hersbrucker hops (hopslist), but the combination used for this particular bottle is anyone's guess! Subtle stoned fruits, orange and malt in the aroma, sweet with hints of fruits, malt and toffee to taste, with a dry finish, lighter than I thought it would be, and very good! I claimed a bottle for the train, but had no bottle opener, so as you can see from the image above, I drank the second bottle at home, cheers! 😁

I had arrived a few days earlier on an early train, paying the small mark up fee to Eurostar Plus, consequently, I had breakfast and a bigger more comfortable single seat. However, not for my return journey, which I mostly spent in the cafe/buffet bar. As you can see, I had the All-day meal deal (£14), which was fairly substantial. 👍 Bye for now, or au revoir! ✋

In the Lounge Beforehand

Brussels June 2026

We started off in the first bar I ever drank in on my first visit to Belgium many years ago, the 120 years old La Terrasse, Avenue des Celtes 1, Etterbeek, 1040 Brussels (website). Here we both drank Duvel, from the Brouwerij Duvel Moortgat, or Duvel Moorgat Brewery, a Flemish family brewery founded in 1871 by Jan-Leonard Moortgat, and now run by the 4th generation of Moortgats (website). A combination of yeasts from a Scottish ale (McEwan's Scotch Ale, very popular in Belgium at the end of WW1) was extracted and used by Moortgat's sons to help create a lighter ale, which, legend has it, was called a 'real devil' or Duvel, meaning Devil. Duvel (8.5%) is a multi award winning pale golden ale (my description), or Strong Blond ale (their description), with lots of body and flavour, and a subtle bitterness, it is very good indeed. 👍

On our way into the city centre, a couple of days later, we had a brief look around and drank a coffee at the Comic Art Museum, Rue des Sables 20, 1000 Brussels. a glorious Art Nouveau building designed by Victor Horta in 1905, originally a department store, becoming the museum in 1989 (website). We then passed La Monnaie (above - website), the national opera house, where my niece sings. Also, this is where the Belgian Revolution first erupted in 1830. In 1815 Belgium had become the Southern Netherlands following the Congress of Vienna (Britannica). The Belgian bourgeoisie began to tire of King William I of the Netherlands, and now he had forbidden the presentation of Daniel Auber's opera La Muette de Portici at La Monnaie. 

The opera portrayed what the King considered to be a potentially inflammatory story of nationhood, courage and freedom, and he must have foreseen what would happen. The opera had been banned since the 3rd of August, but was performed anyway on the 25th of August 1830, and the words did incite the audience to riot, many rushed to leave the theatre and take to the streets, where they were soon joined by members of the working class; there were other contributory factors, of course, including unemployment and a harvest failure. By the 4th of October 1830 independence from the Netherlands was declared, and a week later the Dutch forces retreated from Belgium. ✊

We carried on to our luncheon destination, Le Cirio, Beursstraat 18, 1000 Brussels (website), next to the old Belgian Stock Exhange, La Bourse (Brussels), a long-time favourite for Dan and I. Le Cirio was originally an Italian Delicatessen founded by Francesco Cirio in 1886, and the present interior was redesigned by Henri Coosemans in 1909 in the style of an Art Nouveau Italian cafe. As you can see from the image below, great lighting and decoration within. Oh yes, and we ate here too, Croque Monsieur this time, always very good grub indeed! 😋

Here Dan drank Hoegaarden Grand Cru (8.5%), described further down at Le Perroquet, and I drank Duvel, also 8.5%, described above when imbibed at La Terrasse. My apologies that we drank some old dependable beers more than once, but that's life. I do like trying new beers, as more regular readers will realise, and I also like to enjoy good beers again and again, it's a hard life, but someone has to put in the research and make sure others stay up to scratch. 😉

Next is one of the most interesting bars you may ever enter, La Fleur en Papier Dore, Rue des Alexiens 55, 1000 Brussels (website), 'the flower made from gold foil.' This really is an 'arts' bar, created by the poet and gallery owner Gerard van Bruaene, and visited over the years by artists and musicians, such as the Surrealists, like Rene Magritte, and singer and actor Jacques Brel, who did like his bars! Bits and pieces here and there, much unmatched furniture, and pictures and all sorts adorning the walls, and pleasantly laid back, I love this bar, and why I return. 😍

Not an enormous choice of beers here, but their local tripel, which I drank of course, from the Brussels brewery Brasserie de la Senne (website), is their 8.0% Tripel Verschueren (Tripel Verschu). As you can see from the photograph, the beer is pretty natural, very suitable for vegans, golden, slightly citrussy and fruity, with a dry bitter finish. Sorry, but the hops used are pretty difficult to find out, but I'd be surprised if the blend used doesn't include Styrian Golding and Saaz hops, I've asked before, but if you know, please let me know, cheers! 👍

Walking back, if you've followed using a map, this blog follows a pretty circular wandering, we visited a new bar for me, Le Perroquet, Rue Watteeu 31, 1000 Brussels (facebook). Another Art Nouveau style interior with stained glass panels, where sitting inside was quite relaxing as the majority of customers were sitting outside, breathing in the fumes. 😉

Here Dan drank, from Hoegaarden (website), their 8.5% Grand Cru, a spicy wheat beer, which has developed since the monks of Hoegaarden started brewing there in the 15th century. Hoegaarden suggest that their early wheat beers were extremely sour, and the monks began experimenting with orange peel and coriander, which certainly comes through in the taste, together with forest fruits, peach and pear, and slightly malty. An interesting mix of wheat beer and Tripel, with spicy undertones, and pretty good too.

I drank Westmalle Tripel (9.5%), probably my favourite Belgian beer. 😁Brewed with Tettnanger (hopslist), Saaz (hopslist) and Styrian Golding (hopslist) hops, a golden ale with a subtle fruity flavour, and a dry bitter refreshing finish, quality! Westmalle Tripel is a 'trappist' ale, the brewery established at the trappist Westmalle Abbey since 1836 (website), and gradually updated over the years. Although the monks no longer brew the beers themselves, they remain in overall charge of the brewery, ensuring tradition is upkept and pure ingredients used, including from their own water supply, 100% barley malt, hops, and yeast from their own culture.

Another bar we've visited many times, near to where Dan used to live, and not far from where their current, temporary now sadly, abode is, Brasserie Le Petit Paris, Rue Charles Degroux 2, 1040 Etterbeek (website). Nestled over a small roundabout, with great memories of food and drinking here, including one late evening many years ago when it was raining, we were sitting outside under the extended cover, listening to the pitter patter of the rain, no-one else outside, watching the late evening world go by, sigh... This time Dan drank Westmalle Tripel (9.5%), description above, and he also provided bottles of Westmalle Tripel at the flat, cheers Dan! 😁 

I drank, from the Trappistes Rochefort series (website), Rochefort 8 (9.2%) aka "The Speciale." Brewing had started at the 13th century Abbey of Notre-Dame  St-Remy by 1595, the monks worked on farming and mining beforehand. During the revolutionary period from 1789, the monks fled from French troops, and they returned 100 years later. Because of looting and the destruction of their church, they built a new church and brewery and, as farming failed to meet the monastery's full financial needs, they supplemented their income by selling their beers. Moving on to the 20th century and Rochefort 8, first brewed in 1955, originally for the Christmas season. The aroma is dark fruits with a hint of cloves like a fruit cake, the colour is a dark tawny, and the flavours appropriately include a BIG fruity taste, with dark and dried fruits, and a very subtle toasted bread and malt, ending with a dry finish, it's pretty darn good! 😋

And the view from the balcony of my sister-in-law's flat in Brussels on my morning of departure, I came here on Eurostar and came back to London/England on Eurostar, then by 2 other trains home. I did drink a beer I wouldn't usually drink in the posh people's lounge before catching the Eurostar back, but that's another story. "Au revoir Bruxelles!" ✋

Namur Visit

I had never been to Namur before, indeed, I have visited Brussels many many times, and have visited Flemish towns/cities, such as Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp and Leuven before too. So my brother Dan recommended we visit Namur for the day from Brussels (more of in another blog to be written very soon), Namur, the capital of Wallonia (Visit Wallonia) is a short train journey from Brussels. Our first stop was the tourist office (website), as I always like to get myself a wee map of places I visit so I can work out where I'm going. The tourist office is very close to the Sambre, which is a tributary of the Meuse, and conjoins just a few hundred metres further away.

We decided to find somewhere to look at the map and drink a coffee near the tourist office, and we found the Taverne Le Prince Baudouin, Rue de Marchovelette 15 (facebook), opposite La Bourse. A right friendly locals bar, neat and tidy, and the most choice for what to add to a coffee I've ever had, served up with the black coffee were milk, cream, whipped cream and a wee biscuit, which, as Dan doesn't like them particularly, I consequently had 2 biscuits. 😁

After some sight-seeing and touring the area (Namur's not so big), and working out where we would be drinking later, we settled on eating at La Taverne Alsacienne, Place Marche aux Legumes 11, 5000 Namur, (facebook)  in the first photograph above, which specialises in cuisine from the Alsace region of France. We had 2 different versions of their speciality Flammekueche, a bit like thin crusted pizzas made with flat bread, with a very decent salad, and delicious! 😋

As you can see above, we both drank the 8.4% Karmeliet Tripel (website), brewed with Styrian Golding hops (hopslist), at the Brouwerij Bosteels in the village of Buggenhout in East Flanders; the brewery was founded in 1791 (website). A golden ale, a wee bit sweeter than Westmalle (more soon), plenty of fruit and body, hints of vanilla and citrus, pretty good! 👍

I was pretty disappointed by two of the bars I was intending to visit, earlier we had tried La Cuve a Biere (facebook), but even though it was a Friday, it wasn't opening until late afternoon, and La Chapitre (above - facebook) was meant to be open by 14.00, but it still wasn't open at 15.00! If I return it will have to be at a weekend, or stay there overnight. 😞

So, a wee bit frustrated, we ended up in Barnabeer, Rue de Bruxelles 39, 5000 Namur (website), which we knew was open at 14.00 because we had passed by earlier, I told you Namur isn't a huge place. 😉 Indeed, Barnabeer is open from 14.00 every day of the week (open until 01.00 Monday to Thursday and until 02.00 on Fridays and Saturdays); it remains closed all day on Sundays. Who knows what the craic is Sundays in Namur, I'll not be finding out methinks. 😒

Barnabeer is quite roomy inside, with a large outside area too, indeed, when we were there all the action appeared to be outside, mostly younger folk going out there, but some older folk too. It had the feeling of an old bank to me, but I cannot discover the original purpose of the building, it is certainly impressive. They have an impressive beer list too, with over 300 different beers available, as you can gather from the image including the bar above, about 45 beer fonts!

The staff are very friendly and informative, and we decided to have bottled beers from 2 local-ish breweries, interestingly, rather than having glasses for each different beer, as is usual in Belgian bars, they serve all beers up in their own glasses, as you can see from this image. Floreffe Tripel (8.0%), an Abbey Style blonde beer has been brewed by Lefebvre in Quenast since 1983 (website). Specific hops used are kept secret, but include a combination of European and English hops, certainly producing an easy drinking beer, with a slightly spicy finish, nice one. 

Floreffe Abbey was originally founded in 1121, with a brewery set up in the abbey during the 13th century, the abbey was abandoned by the monks at the end of the 18th century following the French Revolution. Their brewery was restored in 1960 and brewing was run there by Het Anker (website) until 1983. Maredsous Abbey is a much newer abbey founded by Benedictine monks in 1872, with brewing not starting until 1947; since 1963 Duvel Moortgat (website) began brewing their beers under licence until 2023, when the Maredsous Microbrewery was created in collaboration with Duvel Moortgat (website).

So, to my favourite beverage of the trip, Maredsous Tripel (10.0%), brewed using Styrian Golding (hopslist) and Saaz (hopslist) hops. Maredsous Tripel is a golden-orange-amber colour with a gentle malty aroma and flavour with hints of banana, orange and apple, and spicy cloves and coriander to finish. Sweet at first, but with a bitterness coming through very soon to balance the overall taste, quite rich, and very good indeed! 👍

This photograph was taken on the train on the way to Namur, looks as though it could be in English, but is in French, as this was the train destined for Luxembourg from Brussels. On reaching Namur, the city centre is just 10-15 minutes walk due south from Namur railway station.

So, my next blog should be about Brussels, cheers for now folks! 😁