Sheffield Real Ale Crawl – 5.7.07...

Sheffield Real Ale Crawl – 5.7.07

After the River Don caused so much damage in Sheffield, I heard some of the real ale pubs we love were trying to get ale back on, so I decided to catch the train to Sheffield to do a crawl and give them my support.

As I was early, I called in the Wetherspoons first, the Bankers Draft, and had Acorn Northern Pride. It was not in a good condition, so I continued on the tram to the Cask and Cutler, but was a little early so walked down to the Fat Cat. It was open, and had real ale from casks on the bar and the passage. I selected a couple and read the humorously written laminated story of the flood propped on the pumps along with pictures while drinking my beer. I chose Thornbridge Brock, and bottled Phoenix Navvy to take home for later. The cellar still had work to be done on it, but they had rescued a fish from the river and called it Nemo. Another couple came in, and I left and walked down to the Kelham Island Tavern.

The Kelham had not opened yet as it was still suffering damage, but expected to be back in business in a couple of weeks.

I got hopelessly lost trying to get to the Harlequin, but ended up going via town to get there. It was open serving bottled beer only, again due to cellar damage. Expected to have beer on stillage upstairs, but as so few customers around till the ale trail back in business, had decided it was worth it yet. Expected to be back in business in 2 weeks.

I went on to the Riverside and although it is right beside the river it had escaped due to being on higher ground than the Harlequin. I had Howard Town Melandra, which I took outside on the balcony and bottled for later.

I walked down to the Gardners Rest and sadly found this wonderful pub wrecked by the floods. The pub furniture was stacked outside on the pavement and it is still not known (19.7.07) if or when it will reopen. I called good luck through to Eddie behind the bar, and went onto the bridge to look down on the river that had caused all this havoc.

I walked up to the Infirmary tram stop, then up the hill to a new pub for me, the Moon. It had an array of guests alongside their regular Abbeydale beers – 10 pumps in all. They deserve to get onto the trail, as the beers were great. I had Slaters bitter and bottled Rudgate 793, Abbeydale Daily Bread and Foxfield Extra Dry Stout.

I caught the tram to go down to New Barracks, and had a brilliantly hot Chilli for lunch while drinking Burton Bridge Risky Mack. I bottled Lancaster Duchy and B & T SOD.

Up the hill and a tramstop away was the Hillsborough. I drank Red Rose L & Y Aleway, and bottled Milton Dr Oh and E & S Elland 7 by 7. This was the first pub on route that I seen any beer tickers in. Most had been extremely quiet.

My final pub for the day was the Cask and Cutlet where I drank Glentworth Summer Rains and bottled Foxfield Timeriffic. I had a chat with the barman and the only other customer in there before catching the tram back to the station with a very heavy bag of beer that I enjoyed with my husband on the Friday night. It had been a quiet day for me, but I had enjoyed it, and felt that I had given my support to those struggling to get back on track.