Blue Bee Brewery & Sheffield Micro Brewing

It's been a few months now since I moved to Sheffield and I'm finally dedicating a post in sheer not worthiness to the beer scene in this South Yorkshire city. Now depending who I spoke to about the reasons for my move I'd got into the habit of repeating 2, firstly it has the highest ratio of trees to people of any city in Europe (I like my countryside OK!) and secondly it has over 10 micro breweries, in comparison to a city like Birmingham which had 3 on my last count (I like beer OK!).

On one of my very first beery trips round town I visited the Rutland Arms & tasted Blue Bee's Nectar Pale Ale. I'd never heard or seen the brewery before & my curiosity got the hold of me after enjoying the hoppy pale ale. Blue Bee is a fairly recent addition (2010) to Sheffield's swelling micro brewing population and in a good way no doubt. Rich the head brewer (it's a one man band really at the moment, so he covers most jobs) had put his fair stint in at well known local brewery Abbeydale (Moonshine is one of the most supped ales in the city I reckon) before deciding to go into production himself. He kindly let me join him up at his brewery for the day where I unknowingly said I'd help out with odd jobs. Rich's passion for the process & the ingredients really flowed & his drive for a familiar thread through Blue Bee beers was evident as he talked in depth about bittering his beers with specific hops. After moving casks, taking a few cask swaps from Raw brewery who popped in for a visit & washing casks, I'd finally earned my sampling session.

Straight from the cask I enjoyed the Bees Knees Bitter at 4 per cent, for the aroma Mt. Hood hops are used & it's bittered with Galena hops; the end result a black bitter with an easy drinking porter feel.

1 down 10 to go..........Abbeydale, Kelham Island, The Sheffield Brewery Company, Bradfield, Steel City Brewing, Crown Brewery, The Brew Company, On the Edge, White Rose Brewery, Thornbridge (yes I'm including as they've got some lovely pubs in Sheffield, I know the brewery's in Bakewell, my decision is final).  

Cheers to Rich.

Looking forward to the limited beer you're producing with Pete Mckee on the artwork!







http://www.bluebeebrewery.co.uk/w/doku.php?id=beers
http://www.petemckee.com/