Sheffield: Kelham Island & 2 Wellies!

My recent trip to Sheffield, to visit friends, pubs and Bramall Lane, saw me stay B&B at the excellent Hillsborough Hotel (website), Langsett Road S6 2UB; always an excellent breakfast and food lunchtimes and evenings, friendly welcome, great ales and clean comfortable room with en suite bathroom (6 rooms available). Ths used to be called the Wellington (Duke of Wellington, a good history of the pub on its website), and because there were two Wellingtons along the road from each other, this is still affectionately called the "Top Wellie" by locals. Currently, the pub doesn't open on Mondays, though B&B is available every night.

Hillsborough Hotel Bar

Now I wasn't great at taking notes for all the two days I visited, but will share what I did take down. At the Hillsborough Hotel there are 7 real ales available, mostly from local breweries, and one real cider, Westons Rosie's Pig (4.8% - website). As my first evening here was a Monday, I disappeared to the "Bottom Wellie" for my first drink after booking in, but drank at the Hillsborough on the Tuesday, that is, two ales both from Tollgate Brewery (website), Derbyshire. First, I drank their 4.5% Ashby Pale, a pale golden ale with hints of citrus in the aroma and taste, a slightly nutty flavour with a dry bitter finish. Then I drank their stronger Spark IPA (5.6%), a little bit darker than I expected, a pale copper colour, again slightly nutty flavour and hints of citrus from American hops, though they didn't say which hops...

So, my first drink in Sheffield was at The Wellington, the "Bottom Wellie" (facebook page), 1 Henry Street S3 7EQ, the brewery tap of Neepsend Brewery (website), indeed, James the owner, who I saw the next day, has two other pubs where you can get their ales too, The Blake Hotel and The Sheaf View (see website). I'd arranged to see my old mate Jeff here, and we met outside as we arrived at the same time, good bloke...

The Wellington Bar

On the Monday I drank the Phoenix Brewery West Coast IPA (4.6% - website), a pale golden ale, not particularly fruity as one expects from many of these ales nowadays, but very hoppy, dry and bitter. On the Tuesday I did return, as I've already alluded to, and chatted to James and others (always going to see people I know in all the pubs in this blog!). Now, I didn't make any notes, but I believe I drank a couple of Neepsend ales, probably the 4% Blonde and 3.8% Lacuna, and I always enjoy their 5.5% Simcoe IPA, which I may well have had actually, sorry...

Jeff and I then wandered off to Shakespeares (website), Gibraltar Street S3 8UB, another fine ale house in the vicinity. Jeff, another mate Lindsay, and I used to come here quite a bit together in the past, but Lindsay and I no longer live in Sheffield, and it's closed down and since re-opened again in 2011, though Lindsay was here with me last year, though sans Jeff!

Shakespeares Bar

9 ales here (and plenty of whiskies, see their website) including their regular Sheffield ale Abbeydale Deception (4.1%), a lovely pale bitter brewed with Nelson Sauvin hops, with a fruity aroma and grapefruit citrus flavour. I also drank Bolton brewpub Hogarths (facebook page) Pug Ugly (4.4%), which was very pale, very dry, and very bitter, with a hint of malt in the aroma.

We still had a wee bit of time before the time we had arranged to meet another pal, Will, so we wandered to nearby Kelham Island and visited the Fat Cat (website), Alma Street S3 8SA, as seen in the photograph above with their own Kelham Island Brewery (website) to the right of the pub (where I worked part-time whilst a research student at the University of Sheffield).

Fat Cat Bar

Strangely, I didn't see anyone I knew here, but there was their weekly quiz going on and it was rammed full of students! I denied myself drinking their own ale as I've been drinking plenty of their ales elsewhere, and went for one that sounded very interesting, the Westgate Mandarina Rucker (4%), one for the 6 Nations Rugby. This was labelled as an 'amber' colour, though it looked a pale rusty brown colour to me with an aroma of smoked grain, no citrus whatever, tasted like a smoked bitter ale, I wondered if they had connected up the correct ale?!?

Anyway, we wandered round the corner to to the Kelham Island Tavern (website), Russell Street S3 8RW, which has twice won CAMRA National Pub of the Year, and is the reigning CAMRA Sheffield Pub of the Year and CAMRA Yorkshire Pub of the Year. Will was waiting for us, I saw the landlords Trevor and Lewis over both days, also good chat with Jim Mac when Jeff and Will had both gone. On Tuesday I met the friendly barmaid in the photograph below (who also works at the community-owned pub, the Gardeners Rest), I believe she's called Juliette, but I didn't make a note of her name so I may be wrong, and I also met a customer called Steve who works on the railways and had visited the Dolphin Inn in Hastings with his wife last November, he loved the food and ales down there!

Kelham Island Tavern Bar

Ales? They have 13 real ales on, and I had a few over the two days, but I enjoyed drinking two Sheffield Blue Bee Brewery (website) ales, including the 3.5% Land of the Long White Cloud, a pale golden session bitter; this is a pale golden ale, brewed with Motueka, Rakau and Waimea pale hops, well fermented out producing a very dry bitter finish. I particularly liked their Triple Hop (4.3%) brewed with Citra, Mosaic and Ekuanot hops, as you'd expect, more body and big fruity aroma, with marmalade and grapefruit in the taste, lovely dry finish and bitter, I noted "Great" so I think I liked it, and I returned to it too, more than once...

And a trip to Sheffield for me has to include a meal at Mama's and Leonies (website) just down the road from the Crucible at 111-115 Norfolk Street S1 2JE, somewhere I've been eating at since the last millenium, though I knew only one member of staff working this shift! Many have moved on, but I did see Jess again with her boyfriend at the final pub listed below later in the day. A year ago when I visited, she was the first person I saw when I walked through the door and she immediately said "We were just talking about you and whether you'd be visiting!" Friendly staff like Jess and great value Italian food, but I nearly always go for...

... the Warm Chicken & Bacon Salad Bowl (above), but without the croutons, a great bowlful, I'm never disappointed, and I love sitting at the bar watching the food being prepared and talking to staff, and they obviously love that too! 😉

My last stop before Bramall Lane, and first after the match, was at the Rutland Arms (website), Brown Street S1 2BS. I'd arranged to meet a bunch of Blades fans beforehand, Bob et al, people I've known for years and drank a few pints with, not to mention visiting elsewhere with Sheffield FC and Sheffield Eagles (rugby league) and a long weekend trip to Ireland to celebrate Bob's 40th, and also another mate Phil and his family (Phil and his son were sitting in the Blades end). So, excellent time, however, I didn't make any notes, so no idea what I drank here, sorry, but...

I did meet Peter, another long-standing friend (we still follow each other on twitter), and he is now PR, or salesman, or accounts manager or something, for Blue Bee Brewery, there you go! Maybe I drank something of theirs? 😉

Anyway, a great time was had, shame we lost the football match though, cheers!