TheNoiseThatWeMade

Sheffield is a spectacular place to live if you love your beer – heaps of characterful pubs with good quality and great ranges plus abundant first-rate local breweries. Every day in Sheffield is a beer festival!  Hop Hideout frontage An emerging and growing beer shop scene has now sprung up - Hop Hideout opened in November on Abbeydale Road (next to The Broadfield pub). Housed within a thriving independent shop community at Vintedge , an arcade of vintage clothes, furniture, records (King Biscuit Time), Electric Candlelight Café and Purdy’s sixties styled salon. Focusing on a handpicked selection of beer from UK independent breweries from Yorkshire and beyond with rotating stock to keep up with the new beer.  Saltaire goodies Staples like Kelham , Bradfield and Thornbridge alongside Magic Rock , Buxton and Ilkley breweries sit on the shelves. London and Manchester are healthily represented by – The Kernel , Partizan , Weird Beard , Marble ,

During the darker months when you spend time shuffling around in layers of clothing trying to keep warm whilst leaving the house when it's dark and returning when it's still dark I usually have an urge to drink dark, strong, spicy, robust ales. Imperial stouts, Belgian strong ales, barley wines, black IPAs, porters and stouts are usually the beers on my winter check-list. As December draws closer Brewerys pull out all the stops and jump into the festive spirit often using ingredients associated with Christmas (think pine needles or nutmeg) and choosing associated festive namesakes. It's nice to indulge but often I dip into Christmas beers as most do based on name then dip out again driven by the urge for darker and warming brews.  Abbeydale Brewery  it has to be said do a good job and have a bit of a laugh at the same time - fair play I say; "If you don't drink it, a penguin dies" apparently (would have liked some more dark beers though!). Check o

Never one to say no to a beer (call it a weak point) I'd been interested in trying Box Steam brews since I'd seen their traditional bitter - Tunnel Vision nestling on the shelf at Sheffield's blues and booze mega emporium Rhythm &  Booze .  Founded in 2004 down in Wiltshire this family owned microbrewery brew all their beers using a steam-heated copper vat. Shame it's not in my locale as I'd love to have a tour round this kit.  The engineering feats of Isambard Kingdom Brunel have inspired many of their beers' names - including the two above.  Funnel Blower the 4.5% dark beer out of the pair seems to be inspired from one of Isambard's large scale ships, the  Great Eastern, which set sail in 1859. An iron five funnel steam powered ship with a capacity to carry 4,000 people.     Funnel  Blower  was labelled as a dark vanilla porter at 4.5%. A traditional looking ale (historical reference, trains, erm say no more) with a tempt

John Wright from River Cottage posted his Mulled Cider recipe recently... so just sharing this one: To make enough to serve 4, pour 1 litre still cider into a saucepan and add a glass of  good apple juice if you like.  Add 6 cloves and 4 cinnamon sticks, cover and bring slowly  to the boil with the lid in place.  As soon as it starts to simmer turn off the heat and add 200ml sloe gin (optional, but  highly recommended) and 1 or 2 sliced oranges.  Taste, and add a little honey or sugar if  you want.  Serve straight away.

Go read...... WAX POETICS "Janelle Monáe  eschews the prosaic biographical trappings in favor of the science fiction of alter-ego android Cindi Mayweather, believing that robots represent an  otherness . She is seemingly at odds with current R&B radio, yet she was signed by Diddy and has found crossover success.  Jody Watley  did not want to be an industry puppet. She broke free, joined forces with like-minded superfreak André Cymone, and established herself as an artist who took control of all aspects of her public persona from songwriting to style.  Todd Rundgren  embraced all styles. Butterfly-wing eyelashes and feather boas. Rock and roll and rhythm and blues. And he often did everything by himself. Songwriting, playing all the instruments, engineering. He even produced other outcasts like the New York Dolls, and went on to influence countless modern misfits.  Souls of Mischief  busted out of Oakland with their own style. Surrounded by gritty streets and street pla

        The Reader : Sally Mastin, Proprietor at Vintedge , 444 Abbeydale Road. Why is this ‘Your Local’?   “The bar staff are friendly and it’s a great place to take the kids. I’m looking forward to Christmas there again as last year they had reindeer and played old Christmas films. The pork pie and piccalilli with a pint is a winner too.”     Favourite tipple: Belgian fruit beer like Lindemans Kriek 3.5% The Local:   A thriving pub since the mid 1890s when dairy farmer Albert Twigg built the Broadfield Hotel as it stands today. Re-opened by Forum Café Bars Ltd in December 2011; adding to their ever-growing portfolio of bars and pubs taking pride in serving quality food and drink. With a strong beer emphasis having nine hand pulls including their individual house ale First Blonde (using Maris Otter malt and Cascade and Willamette hops) cuckooed down at Welbeck Abbey Brewery . Local hard to find pico brewery On The Edge count ‘The Broady’ at their local a

Relish glowing 'Meat & Liquor' 'Relish Beer' - that hits the nail on the tiny circular steely head (and some tasty ribs to complement). Let me expand a little on these two words 'relish beer'. It was a cold, wet and windy mid week night as I headed up Ecclesall Road on a mission to see if I could recognise the newly refurbished BrewKitchen namesake venue - Relish . On approach it was in the same spot I remembered from over a year since last visit (great food but dizzying chalk boards suddenly made your appetite disappear) however two new brightly lit words stood out ‘Meat & Liquor’. An appealing yet tried and tested combination even in Sheffield translation – food and booze. Relish’s rejig shadows the subsequent wave of craft US beers and Ameri-meat-acana flowing back into the UK. From the likes of barbecue festival Grillstock , in Bristol, London and Manchester over the summer melding Brooklyn beers and heavy smoked racks upon racks of meat t

        There are different schools of thought around the subject of cuckoo brewing and I’m firmly on the fence, with a pint in hand. Surely it should just be about good tasting beer? Now I understand the importance of the ingredients and the provenance of a beer as key deciding factors in a drinker’s choice. But if you found out that the brewer didn’t use his own kit (or blimey, hasn’t a commercial kit at all) a purchase declining factor?    In brewing terms this behind the scenes camaraderie is an appealing part to the industry for me. If one brewer has space and a shared sensibility it’s logical to hire out this excess capacity to another like-minded brewer. Often this is a mutually beneficial relationship; enabling entry to the brewing game for a new start up for instance. Perhaps the sense of freedom from the day to day running of a production facility enables a brewer more room to concentrate on developing, experimenting and honing their beery ideas?    

      The Reader : Dave Szwejkowski, Brewer and Finance Director at Steel City Brewing Why is this ‘Your Local’?   “Best range of British beers in Sheffield covering every style as well as interesting foreign beers. They have an outstanding range of whiskeys too, all at good Yorkshire prices.”     Favourite tipple: Whatever is the hoppiest beer! All Hallows Eve, a pale and hoppy from Steel City Brewing (our new brew out in November).     The Local:    Shakespeares was refurbished in July 2011 back to its former Georgian coaching inn glory, after some 18 months closed. The pub’s recent crowning as Sheffield CAMRA’s pub of the year has cemented its reputation for abundant good beer offerings. Positioned on Gibraltar Street, gateway to the notorious Kelham Island beer trail, the 18 taps split across cask and keg keep passing visitors and regulars exceedingly pleased. Add in a 1am licence on Fridays and Saturdays, a 1950s 7” vinyl jukebox (it’s fr

    ***Slept on this for a little while....well 28 days! However the exhibition's on till March so you've plenty of time to go see***     "Beeraphilistic at Common and Port Street Beer House - Thursday 3 October 2013 to March 2014 Beeraphilistic - bi-rA-fill,isz-tick. The love and passionate yearning to collect, by any means, otherwise worthless pieces of beer and brewery paraphernalia or 'Breweriana', for example, labels, beer mats, bottle caps, pump clips, bottles, cans, mirrors, bottles openers, bar towels, promotional accessories. Common are proud to present to you a collection of items from right across the pantheon of brewing, lovingly curated to illustrate the history and cultural significance of our national beverage. These pieces have been contributed by several collections throughout the country and will be on display as a part of a national tour of these artefacts. We hope to illuminate the past, present and future of beer and, g

    One to look out for and worth a visit to the area: the Bollington Walking Festival from 19-27 th October. Combining beautiful scenery and beer what more do you need. The town also welcomes walkers with open arms - it's part of the Walkers are Welcome national network - so no tuts as you stroll around and you're guaranteed well maintained pathways. Bollington itself has a good number of pubs (featuring in the CAMRA real ale guide 2014) such as The Vale Inn  which is home to Bollington Brewing Co. and The Poachers where Happy Valley Brewery provides lots of beer to.   For more info on events take a look at the link below:   * Beer Celebration Walk     Visit www.cheshirepeakdistrict.com for more information.   http://www.bollingtonbrewing.co.uk http://www.happyvalleybrewery.co.uk

    Sheffield has over 12 microbreweries servicing the city, that’s more than Birmingham which has twice the size of population. Maybe it shows good Yorkshire folk are a little bit obsessed by beer. Not to mention a wealth of outstanding microbreweries only a short train ride away (and great for a day trip once you start to explore further afield) including Acorn in Barnsley, Thornbridge in Bakewell and Buxton Brewery in its namesake town.   There’s a tangible beer explosion going on in Yorkshire and Sheffield is a strong contender for the city of beer crown. You only have to look at the recent Camra Champion Beer of Britain for affirmation – Yorkshire brewery Elland took the ‘Champion Beer’ crown this year with their drinkable dark beast of a porter 1872. Kelham Island Brewery is often cited as one of Sheffield’s microbrewing forerunners, beginning brewing back in 1990, and it’s no surprise they’ve inspired younger craft breweries along the way such as the innov