We should be sitting outside Triple Point enjoying a couple of bevvies in the sunshine, but unfortunately coronavirus had other ideas! How have the last few months been for you guys?
It’s hard to complain because compared to many others we’ve been blessed. However, it’s been a challenge. We were very much focused on draught beer, both in our brewery bar and other pubs around Sheffield, so when all of these had to shut down due to Covid-19 our sales almost totally dried up. As a new business we hadn’t built up any sort of reserves, so at that point it was very hard to see how we could survive. We just had to try everything we could think of to get our beer out. And hope!
Overnight, quite literally, we turned the brewery bar into a shop and started to sell Fresh-Beer-In-A-Box and we got fantastic support. Initially from locals, but then also from people further afield. We even had people offering to buy vouchers now that they could cash in later, which we declined because we weren’t sure we’d still be around to repay them. But all this support really kept us going. Then we worked out how to get beer to people’s homes, improved our packaging and are now offering delivery nationwide as well as getting beer to Sheffielders super quickly via City Grab! We have also done a hell of a lot of canning and more recently we have added 5L Mini Kegs to our range, which are more robust for shipping and enable us to make the beers a little “livelier”. We are now experimenting with putting our lagers into min-kegs.
Thankfully we can still get a taste of the good stuff via the City Grab app. Can you tell us a bit about what you’re offering?
At least 3 of our fresh cask beers – straight from the tank into 5L mini-casks and hopefully very soon also a choice of lagers and keg beers filled straight into 5L mini-kegs. Also, a range of cans, including some great mixed packs for those who like a bit of variety. And on the theme of variety, we are also offering some bundles including Lilley’s cider (including mango) in Bag in Box and bottles, so check these out before heading off to socially distanced mini gathering!
Any particularly exciting brews you could recommend?
Yes, many! Our Gold and Cryo ales and our Helles and Zatec lagers are all fantastic for a summer evening. We can’t miss a chance to shout about our Champion Beer of Sheffield, Debut IPA (available in mini-casks) and we are very excited by the advance tastings we’ve had of its “big-brother” X2 which is about to be released. The X2 is quite literally Debut * 2, with double the hops and an increased ABV. In my view, this might be the best beer we have done thus far. But I will let all of you decide that. We’ve also got 2 other new beers that are about to be released. A hazy Neipa called Dyad and new world Belgian Tripel. A new and stronger lager is also on its way.
What are the plans looking like for the bar itself over the next few months? Will you be looking at reopening with social distancing measures perhaps?
As soon as we can safely and legally open, we will. We’ve spent a lot of time working out the safest and best way to open and we have been tending our beer garden! Fortunately we’re blessed with a lot of space at Triple Point and with the help of Richard at the Dorothy Pax, we’ve procured loads of extra outside seating. Twisted Burger are back open and able to supply you all with banging burgers to go with your Triple Point beers. We’ve got loads of new beers, loads of socially distant seating, and a cracking food offer, we just can’t wait to welcome Sheffield back to Triple Point!
