Making the best of it

My regular July visit to England for work this year was Sheffield, which should have been excellent news from the beer perspective. The South Yorkshire city last hosted the conference in 2016 and I enjoyed the extensive exploring I got to do in my spare hours. Alas, the event is now a day shorter, and the venue was a little bit out of the centre, so no such epics were possible this time round. I did, however, manage to make it over to Kelham Island for a couple of swift beers there.

I wasn't a fan of the Kelham Island Tavern the first time I visited. The beer selection is excellent, but it has always been uncomfortably loud and crowded, and so it was again. I took my pint of Left Handed Giant's Dark Mild out to the alley that passes as a beer garden and sulked through it there. It added an extra layer of disappointment to the experience, looking good -- a clear dark garnet -- but tasting quite plain. Sweet cereal is the bulk of it, like honeyed porridge, and then an off-kilter tang of cork oak. Though only 3.4% ABV, it's quite heavy and took me a while to get through. There was no sign of the coffee roast I look for in mild, nor any dark fruit. A little chocolate arrived towards the end, but not enough to redeem the beer for me. I wasn't staying for another.

Happily, one only has to go around the corner to find a much better pub experience at The Fat Cat. It was a warm Thursday afternoon and there was a sizeable crowd out in the beer garden, leaving me with the lounge bar almost to myself. Why not start with the house beer?

Since the adjacent Kelham Island brewery closed in 2022, that's brewed elsewhere in Sheffield by Neepsend. Fat Cat House Ale is a big 5.2% ABV, making it the strongest beer they had on cask that day. To my palate it's very much a northern bitter: golden coloured with a waxy, zesty bitterness. The strength adds a sweetness, resulting in a kind of dessertish lemon cheesecake effect with a dusting of sherbet. While it's clean, it's chewy as well, and rewards slow sipping. Again, I don't know that I'd be on for a session on it, but it's no cheaply-made and boring house beer. The conscientious high quality fits the pub well.

Next, I was intrigued by the pumpclip for Ponte Carlo or Bust, described as a liquorice stout, by Chin Chin, a Yorkshire brewery I hadn't heard of. It turned out to be just as interesting as suggested. Though only 4.6% ABV, it has lots going on in the taste. A light toasty roast and some mild caramel is provided by the base beer and then there's a strange but delicious savoury herbal side, reminding me of Fisherman's Friend lozenges. I assume this is from the liquorice and, if so, it's the raw, unprocessed and unsweetened sort, not the candy. It's all very balanced and complementary and not the brash novelty I had been expecting. I can't imagine why they thought it would work, but it does, beautifully.

I was about to head off again when I noticed there was a black IPA on, which naturally meant staying for another half. This is Human Menagerie by Wensleydale brewery. It arrived from the cask looking nitrokegged, with a smooth and even off-white head. They've used Citra and Simcoe to great effect, bringing sharp resins and crisp red cabbage first, before the coffee roast of the dark beer takes over. Delicious, and hitting the points of the style exactly how I like them. Of course, the Americans do these bigger and brasher, which is enjoyable in its own way, but I think there's also a place for a little English subtlety in black IPA too, and this performed extremely well for a beer that's only 4.2% ABV.

That was me done there, but on the way back I noticed a micropub, called Two & Six, in the typically micropub setting of a row of shops. It's one of the more normal pub-like ones, with a proper bar and taps, selling both cask and keg on draught. I chose Rakau Pale by Blackedge Brewing of Lancashire. This is another lightweight, being only 3.9% ABV, but still has plenty of punch, delivering tartly bitter lime first, and then smoother, sweeter, lemon meringue pie afterwards. A typically Kiwi grassy bitterness builds alongside as it goes, but at no point do any of the flavours tread on each others' toes or make the beer difficult. It's all very well integrated, balanced, and above all classy. New Zealand's hops are as at home in low-strength English cask ale as they are in lagers and IPAs.

I do love a legacy bitter, and the hotel bar had one: Stones Bitter, a Victorian brand from Sheffield, these days brewed by Molson Coors and nitrokegged. I wasn't expecting much from it but it's actually quite pleasant. Smooth, of course, but with some actual flavour: floral and perfumey. There's a dry base behind this, so it doesn't taste gloopy or sticky. It's inoffensive, bordering on decent, and that's plenty for me where nitro bitter is concerned.

I left Sheffield, of course, via The Sheffield Tap in the railway station. Here the selection included another mild: Dark Masquerade, by Half Moon Brewery. This 3.4% ABV offering was far more to my taste than the earlier one, being loaded with rich milk chocolate flavours, all creamy and crumbly like a Cadbury Flake. No roast, or anything much by way of complexity, but it made up for it in richness. Simple and fabulous.

A beer from the in-house brewery was only polite, so my fast last glass was Tapped Brew Toha, a pale ale which was also only 3.4% ABV. This is very much a bitter before anything else, being dry and punchy, with a full texture that's almost creamy. It's designed first and foremost for drinking. Which isn't to say it's bland. The hops (Nelson Sauvin and Nectaron) have given it plenty of character, including a Germanic bite of freshly picked spinach and a twist of lime bitterness. One might have thought there would be more fruit on offer from those two varieties, but I'm not complaining. I haven't always got along with Tapped's beers but this one suited me fine.

Time didn't allow for a cheeky half on the way through Manchester so my next, and final, beer was at the airport. Seven Bro7hers is based in Salford and has one tap at Terminal 1's Bar MCR, which is otherwise AB InBev dominated. I had a pint of that: Easy IPA. This, 4.7% ABV on keg, is a good example of what other breweries might call a session IPA. Indeed, it has much in common with Ireland's own Little Fawn, being pale yellow and very slightly hazy, smelling of melon and lychee. The flavour doesn't quite live up to that promise, being a little grainy and somewhat savoury. It's still good, especially when trying to unwind in a busy airport departures area on a warm summer's day.

Then I went home. I'm not quite done with Sheffield yet, however, and next I'll tell you about the brewery I visited.