kirkyb

People are really going to hate me for saying this, but it's just another example of Sheffield not embracing something a little different. The Hop in Wakefield does well. The one in Leeds is usually busy. The York offering is popular. Yet the one in Sheffield was better than all the others and well located, but just couldn't get the customers in as a beer bar. Despite the old manager really trying is hardest with the 'Green Hop' festivals. So sold half it's operation to a group of BBQ enthusiasts who were both too expensive and not as good as they thought they were. From then on it was always doomed.

 

I remember the good old days when you could take a walk from the Bath, thru to Anchorage, the Hop, Dev Cat and Brewdog - maybe even a stop in the Old House and Wick before heading onto Dada. Sad to think that was only two years ago and no longer possible. Yet a new beer bar opens up in Leeds every month. What is wrong with this place?

I couldn't agree with you more there used to be a brilliant route with great pubs and a varied selection of beers.

Hope and Anchor was doomed from the start as when it was the Anchorage it's bar offering was what brought people in, clearly the Anchorage wasn't doing well but to remove its main positive was a mistake. The Wick has also gone a bit westward as the last time we went in the had ran out of most things and half the cocktails couldn't be made and the beer was non existent.

The Hop should have worked but the beer could be inconsistent and as you say the food wasn't as good as other places.

How Brewdog survives is beyond me as it gets worse and worse.

Dada got greedy moving away from guest beers to overpriced Thornbridge beers that you get cheaper at The Bath

The Bath is a great pub but as they don't have a large selection most of which is standard Thornbridge it is a bit isolated.

In general Sheffield seems to have taken a nose dive, The Head of Steam is so inconsistent it's unreal and they've got rid of the BBQ food which was decent.

I've not been in The Rutland in ages after a few bad experiences with food, poor beers and staff which is a shame as it was always my favourite place in Sheffield.

The Shakey just seems to be a shadow of its former self and the new place across the road doesn't seem to offer enough.

As you say Leeds, Manchester even Nottingham can support some really decent places but we can't.

I'll be there from about 4 until about 7 tomorrow and then Saturday afternoon as well

Of course not. Stella is expensive because it has to pay for the hype. KBS is over £7 a bottle cos it's quite simply one of the best beers ever made. But of course you wouldn't know because you've never tried it have you?

£6 or £7 that's not proper craft beer, unless I need to remortgage my house or sell my left kidney I'm not interested. Anything less than £20 a bottle is for peasants! In all seriousness.......I sometimes choose to pay an eye watering amount for a beer not because I'm a snob or look down my nose or I'm trying to be cool or trendy but because I love beer. Buying beer, drinking beer, researching beer, talking about beer is my passion. I welcome anywhere that's going to support my hobby and provide me with another outlet for new, exciting and exceptional beers. Those people who don't like beers like this can go to one of the many run of the mill average pubs in Sheffield. I just hope more people who are like minded visit The Boardwalk when it opens and makes it a success so that it doesn't have to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

Chris and Kate are both great people and know there stuff so I'm really hoping that this is a success. I'm really excited about it reopening, in my opinion the Shakey has lost a bit of its sparkle since he left.

Won't go in the tap anymore and it's got nothing to do with price that doesn't matter to me. What does is that every keg beer I've had in there recently regardless of style, brewery or ABV has had this metallic taste. I don't mind paying high prices for something special but when it's off it's a no go. Lots of the bottles in there are way past their best as well.

Are you suggesting that the 2 dozen micro breweries in Sheffield brew using anything but the best quality ingredients? I know a few folk who operate these local breweries and they use nothing else.

Thornbridge won Britain's best beer a couple of times and so did Kelham Island. You don't do that by using the sweepings up. Our local brewers have won countless awards for the quality of their beers. When Sentinel have won a couple of best in show awards I might start to take them seriously. For now the majority seem to be reporting nothing out of the ordinary other than stupid prices. I don't think CAMRA give an award for most expensive beer. Just the best ones.

CAMRA awarding the best ones? Oh the irony........the campaign for rubbish ale likes to award decidedly average beers, pubs and breweries. If Sentinel are producing average beer and charging a high price it won't survive but that has nothing to do with whether CAMRA approve or not that's down to people making their own judgment.

Was going to head in but looked on their FB page as saw that they had loads of average beers that I can get elsewhere without venturing to the suspect end of West Street. Gave it a miss and went to the Shakey instead which is even more of trek but is worth the effort due the beer selection.

Does The Beer Engine fit your requirements? (Yes, my mate runs it before anyone mentions I plug it a lot).

I absolutely love The Beer Engine the food is amazing and great value the menu changing each week is genius. The beer selection is good as well and it has a great atmosphere. I just think that HOS will be more central and may have a slightly bigger beer selection but The Beer Engine is still outstanding

I think this is what Sheffield needs and will tick a lot of boxes for a lot of people. It will serve a good range or cask, keg and bottles so will keep the craft beer crew happy as well as the CAMRA crew at the same time. The prices are better than Brewdog and it is in a good location with a decent amount of space as well as doing food. It hopefully will take elements from other good venues and roll it into one. Brewdog has a good range but is expensive and doesn't do keg, the Shakey offers good beer at a good price but doesn't do food and isn't central.

Good idea, great location, wrong company running it. As it will be mainly Ossett and Rat beers what has amazing potential will end up being disappointing. If there was more scope for a wide range of beers and maybe more towards the craft end (yes I know this will cause arguments) then it would draw more customers

Andy I think you will find that it's actually only 3 pints and food for £40 which isn't great value. Especially when it's not even proper Oktoberfest beer, they are serving 5% German lager and Oktoberfest beers tend to be at least 6%.

Not so sure that there is much overlap between clientele of the KIT & Broadfield......nevermind Brewdog.

I know quite a few people who drink in all 3 on a regular basis it's not just the beards and guts crew that drink in The Tavern.

Unfortunately it's a bit of a bad weekend for them with Brewdog having a Ballast Point tap takeover and the Broadfield having a beer festival. Yes they aren't everyone's cup of tea in terms of venues/companies and price but the beer selection wins hands down.

It's not Forum Kirk; it's the other Mr Sheffield Beer.

I'm really confused who are we talking about

I can see why Forum Cafe Bars might want a palce at Kelham Island but this just doesn't seem the right venue. It's a bit out of the way, I could see them with something a bit more trendy right in the heart near craft and dough but not there

Oh dear, really? Did you see if there was a decent bottle range?

No I don't think there was anything a bit of a shame as they could have appealed to all markets

Don't suppose they have kept any of the crast keg lines? Or any nice bottles? Being a wine bar I don't suppose they will have cask... but I know many a wine bar that caters for the discrening beer lover too...

Estrella and Kirin are the only beers on tap.

Went in on Saturday night, very nice inside and way more appealing than before.

It has a good range of gin and wine as well as snacks and small plates that sound interesting.

The thing that it might struggle with is price, it's not the cheapest of places and as we know Sheffied folk tend to vote with their wallets.

I will go again but not for more than 1 or 2 drinks and not regularly.

CAMRA is growing rapidly...

 

obviously I wouldn't be so cynical as to say this is mostly down to people signing up at beer festivals while 'refreshed' and tempted by McSpoons vouchers...

So are UKIP which means they must be a great political party!

But I agree McSpoons vouchers are a great incentive for people who aren't in the know and clearly are the same people who vote for said so called "best pubs"

What an absolute joke.

If I was in charge of CAMRA I would be doing everything within my powers to try and turn around an organisation that is losing credibility and relevance every day.

This is just another example of CAMRA being totally out of touch with reality and flogging a dead horse. "It's real ale so it's got to be good"

Instead of championing good beer from good breweries served in good pubs regardless of it being cask, keg or bottle they are promoting mediocrity (again).

To be honest I shouldn't really get upset because at this rate CAMRA are going to completely destroy themselves and lose the little credibility they have left. Hopefully a proper organisation can take their place who actually care about good beer.

I have to say I hate Leeds with a passion but went for a day out about a month back and was very impressed.

Tapped Leeds had a massive range of beers on Cask, Keg, their own tank beers and in bottle. To say it's the same company as the Sheffield Tap the selection made the Tap look like it's ugly odd cousin.

Brewdog Leeds although much smaller and less taps and fridge space blew Brewdog Sheffield out of the water in terms of keg and bottle selection. A great example of this was their 1st birthday which I was so looking forward to. I kept tweeting to ask what beers they would have on and got no reply, when I went in and saw bog standard Thornbridge beers I was gutted. They have also had some questionable tap takeovers.....Ilkley is a great example some of the beers from this are still kick around like a bad smell.

Friends of Ham was just amazing, beers, wine, sherry and food were all superb. Lots of interesting beers across the range including PX aged Bearded Lady.

North Bar was ok but I think we came across an off day.

There are other places we didn't visit but the general theme was good beers from good breweries doing something a little different.

Sheffield has The Rutland and The Shakespeare but even then it's the bottles and Kegs that save them as although they do have some great cask beers on there is also some ok stuff a lot of the time. Brewdog used to do it for me but that has gone seriously off the boil. Would some places like in Leeds work in Sheffield? I'm not sure.

Rutland Arms Siren Craft night is the one event I will definitely be at!

 

Part of me is considering the CAMRGB crawl. Simply because I would be able to meet up with a few people I normally only talk to on Twitter. Even though I'm not actually a fan of CAMRGB's happy-clappy approach to beer.

I used to follow him on Twitter but he kept giving Sheffield Star style reviews to most of the beers he posted. There is only so many overly positive reviews you can read about average beer before you decide enough is enough. It's also why I stopped following Perfect Pint as I'd had enough of retweeted pictures of bottles of spitfire with captions such as my weekend sorted!

Brewers have to DONATE the beer to the festival. Sadly, almost by definition the brewers who interest us most are ones who can least afford to give it away...

So they get the beer for free from brewers and charge to get in and it's rammed......this is almost an A4e type business venture.

Yeah, it does sound good. Who`s organising the beer week? I`m unsure about SIBA. List looks solid but it`s expensive and the reviews I heard about last year were mixed at best.

The problem with the beer list is it makes me yawn.............yes it's extensive and covers a wide range of styles and abv but nothing excites me. Lots of average beers from average breweries.

Why have such an extensive beer list but have nothing standout. Yes I know it's SIBA but in terms of my favorite breweries not many are represented or if they are they are providing 1 average, safe beer.

I might as well go to The Shakey or The Rutland or Brewdog. Better range of beers in a better surroundings, not rammed and better served.

It's part of the Student Union. It used to be called something else when I was there. Nowadays as an oldie I feel odd venturing anywhere near my youthful stamping grounds.

 

 

I'll get me cocoa

 

(Thornbridge Wonderland Cocoa)

I was more interested in the fact that they had Jack Hammer. What the other interesting beers did they have? They currently have Jack Hammer and Libertine at £2.10 a bottle in some Tesco stores (other supermarkets are also available)

Yeah I know a couple of people who ordered a case from the brewery and were happy to sell on individual bottles for £4.50. Went in the Bath on Saturday and they had sold out on keg but couldn't keep pace with demand in bottles - at £8.50 a pop! Almost every table seemed to have at least one bottle of it. I tried some of my mates and didn't think it was as good as on keg if I'm honest. But that could be either because it wasn't very cold (cellar temp - they had run out in the fridge) or because I'd just had Brewdog Jackhammer in the Interval Cafe Bar.

 

That was a new one on me BTW - did anyone else know they had really good beer at really good prices?

Please tell me more about the interval?