Winter Pub Crawl

Exposed’s Winter Tipples and Cosy Pubs Crawl

There’s nothing better than catching up with friends and enjoying a beer over Christmas and New Year, even if you find its most nights of the week in the run up to the main event of wearing a paper hat and burning a medieval plum pudding or wearing a paper hat and accidentally burning your plums whilst standing on a candlelit table swaying to Big Ben’s countdown. Finding a cosy pub with snug rooms, wood burning fires and friendly faces coupled with winter beery tipples helps battle the dark cold nights and that bout of seasonally affected disorder. It’s a proven fact!

Sheffield beer bloggers Wee Beefy and Jules Gray decided to head out around a selection of Abbeydale and Woodseats’ pubs to share the cosy comforts and beer selections they had to offer to see Exposed readers through those dark nights.

The Broadfield

Pub: Our starting point for the pub crawl, The Broadfield reopened at the end of 2011 as part of the Forum pub chain's estate. With a distinctive blue glazed brick frontage and the original Tennant Bros. pub sign revealed, the Broadfield certainly stands out as you travel up Abbeydale Road. Inside the quality continues, with train style compartments on the right hand side and unique lighting that marks out areas of Sheffield on a train map. The main drinking area fills up quickly and this night was no exception, but the room boasts plenty of large tables to accommodate groups. There is a very long horseshoe bar with the numerous hand pumps on all sides, and on the right of the pub is the cosier area aside for dining, with plenty of intimate tables for two including some located in the small bay windows. Outside is a large beer garden which catches the sun.

Beer: The Broady’s house beers are cuckoo brewed down at Welbeck Abbey and offer a reliable pint. The house black IPA badged under The True North Brew Co moniker was a roasted delicately hopped combination (5.9%). An emerging beer style black IPAs use dark malts to provide a roasted background and usually a heavy hopped IPA nature with a high alcohol level content. This black IPA had a light body like a porter with a delicate hoppy nature allowing for easy suppin’ and was a good start to the night. The Broadfield has 5 hand pulls of cask ales in addition to American and UK key-keg beers plus a hefty world bottled beer selection.

Mount Pleasant

Pub: Just down Derbyshire Lane from Graves Park this compact pub has just two small rooms, the smallest being the bar on the right as you enter. The Mount Pleasant is a friendly locals’ boozer serving a house bitter and up to four guest ales. According to the Sheffield history website the pub was first licensed in 1937, and this former Tetley’s pub has a traditional lounge which probably hasn't changed much since the 1950's. It is Cask Marque accredited and hosts meetings for local groups and usually holds at least one beer festival each year. Alas there wasn't one this year, but they usually take place in June and are advertised in the S8 magazine and in Sheffield Camra’s Beer Matters.

Beer:  On arrival the wintery dark beer fixation went out the window and a pint of Newark based brewery Milestone’s Fletchers ale (5.2%) was ordered. It’s not a bad idea to go from light to dark it can reset your palate allowing you get more out of your chosen change in beer style. Fletchers ale was a golden pale ale that was refreshing and had a grapefruit tinge with a slight sweetness in flavour. It was an agreeable break from the dark roasted full bodied beers on the winter beery crawl.

Cross Scythes

Pub: A brisk walk down Derbyshire Lane brings you to the top of Scarsdale and The Cross Scythes. Another former Tetley’s pub (the Prince of Wales sandwiched between the two was a Wards house, to provide choice!) the Scythes is significantly larger than the Mount Pleasant. Opened in 1825 it was originally part of a row of cottages on both sides, now standing alone set back from the road (significantly re-built in the 30s). Inside there are three large rooms, a lounge with a real fire on your left, a games room with lots of dark wood on your right (including table billiards and a darts board) and a central bar room which leads to a function room at the back. Food is served and the pub hosts regular live music, and is now serving Thornbridge beers and a guest – the beer range has been transformed, with the pub having previously given up on selling cask ale all together. The pub was quite busy when we arrived, which is testimony to its appeal – since it was absolutely siling it down outside when we got there.

Beer: First beer of choice was Thornbridge Pollards, a creamy coffee milk stout at 5%. A smooth second pint and akin to a cuddle with a big knitted woolly Christmas jumper. Milk stouts contain additional lactose giving a creamy body and mouthfeel and with the coffee inclusion a pleasing aroma. Third beer of the night was Redwillow’s Smokeless. Based in Macclesfield Toby Mackenzie began commercially brewing in 2010 after numerous home brewing explorations. Smokeless at 5.7% was a smoked dark mahogany coloured porter with a hint of heat on the palate from the chipotles Toby infuses into the beer. A warming winter tipple ideal for a dark chilly evening’s drinking.  

White Lion

Pub: A death defying slippery clamber down the hill onto Chesterfield road brought us to what appears to be the oldest pub of the night, The White Lion. This Tetley’s Heritage Inn, which is Grade II listed, also opened in 1825 but retains numerous original and ornate internal fixtures, leading to its inclusion on the regional inventory of historic pub interiors. Described as a historic pub interior of importance in Yorkshire, it’s easy to see why. The White Lion features two small snugs including the excellent front bar, and the pub has five rooms in all including a traditional smoke room and a tiny snug which has just enough space for a couple of tables and seating for about 8. The pub has extensive Gilmour’s Windsor Ales leaded and coloured glass windows, including one where the "N" in Windsor is the wrong way round. Live bands play regularly in the modern back room and the pub is reputedly haunted, being the subject of paranormal investigations in recent years.

Beer: Acorn Brewery’s Gorlovka is an Imperial Stout at 6% and is a dark beast of a beer with deep roasted malts, hints of chocolate and liquorice and a smooth mouthfeel. Barnsley where Acorn Brewery is based has named this beer after the Ukrainian town it’s twinned with. Imperial stouts would have been strong porters in origin and were brewed for the export market (and survive the journey). This Acorn beer was a slick black on pour and with complex burnt intense coffee notes a moreish beer; a little lower in abv than the usual Imperial stout but just as multifaceted in flavours and aromas.

The Sheaf View

Pub: Our final stop is just a short wander (or stumble) from the White Lion. The Sheaf View was once one of a handful of Marston’s Brewery pubs in Sheffield and much enlarged since being taken over by James Birkett. On my only visit in its Marston’s guise in 1995, the bar was on your right as you entered through the door in the front corner of the pub which is still where you enter now. The single real ale then was Marston’s Bitter – whereas now you are spoilt for choice. Still a traditional boozer like the Mount Pleasant and White Lion, but free of any tie, the Sheaf View is a proper drinker’s pub which gets exceptionally busy at weekends and in the evenings – so we were lucky to get a seat! Featuring plenty of light wood and white walls along with some excellent original beer and cigarette posters the pub manages to be bright and airy while remaining traditional, and comprises three drinking areas. There is a long room as you enter and a larger area which houses the bar, and then there is a small room to the left along with outside seating on some decking at the back. The Sheaf View is the perfect place to end a crawl of pubs selling local real ales on a stormy winter’s night!

Beer: Pennine Brewery Co from Batley Black Fell 5.1% had a rich chocolate and sweet molasses and a crisp bitterness of hop. This porter had notes of caramel on the aroma and a light body. Pennine Brewery Co is a small Yorkshire brewery, 18 barrels based in Dewsbury, which started up in January 2012. With ten core beers in their portfolio the Black Fell is their lighter bodied mahogany porter impeccably brewed with balanced roasted notes.     

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