Plans are brewing for a new museum celebrating the city’s beer heritage and the wider history of the UK’s pubs and breweries. Co-founder George Brown spoke to Exposed about the project and how the public can help shape it.
Sheffield has long had a reputation for its beer scene, with a rich brewing history and an enviable collection of independent breweries and pubs. There are now plans underway to give that heritage a permanent home, with a group of local beer enthusiasts looking to establish a dedicated beer museum in the city.
The Sheffield Beer Museum project is the brainchild of four friends who, after discovering a surprising gap in the UK’s museum offering, decided to do something about it.
“It essentially all came from a few beer lovers wanting to visit a beer museum in the UK,” explains director George Brown. “There are so many abroad, but there isn’t one here. The National Brewery Centre in Burton-upon-Trent shut down a few years ago, and while some breweries have their own visitor centres, there’s nothing dedicated to beer and brewing heritage across the UK. It seemed like an obvious thing to do in Sheffield.”
The group has spent the past two years developing the idea, establishing a community interest company and speaking with organisations including Museum Development North and Collections Trust to understand what bringing such a project to life would involve.
Having worked largely behind the scenes until now, the team has now launched a public consultation to gauge interest and find out what people would like to see.
“We want it to be community-driven,” says George. “We’ve sent a survey out to landlords, breweries and the public to see what they want from it. That’s still on our website now and we’ll use that feedback to help decide what direction to take.”
The consultation will run until December, after which the team hopes to organise an event sharing the findings, alongside stories from the brewing community and opportunities for potential sponsors to get involved.
The next step would be a series of pop-up exhibitions in pubs, museums or vacant spaces, provisionally planned for mid-2027. These would help demonstrate the concept and build support before the team seeks funding and finds a permanent home, hopefully towards the end of 2027 with a view to opening in 2028.
Although Sheffield will naturally provide the starting point, George says the ambition stretches to sharing hop-heavy stories beyond the city.
“We definitely want to look at Sheffield’s breweries and pubs, but also recognise the national history. There’s a gap in the UK for something like this, and eventually we’d love it to become the Sheffield National Beer Museum.”
For the museum’s proposed exhibitions, he envisages interactive displays charting the locations of Sheffield’s former pubs, examining how brewing influenced the development of towns and cities, and exploring the social and political significance of pub communities.
“Our little tagline is ‘there’s more to beer than drinking’, and we want everything we do to revolve around that,” says George.
That said, you can naturally expect an on-site bar to complete the experience.
Interestingly, none of the founders come from a professional brewing background. George and fellow director Steve work in IT, while another member of the team works in the legal sector. What does unite them is a shared passion for good beer, its history and Sheffield itself.
“We’re not claiming to be experts,” he admits. “We’re hoping to be the glue that brings all the experts together to launch it.”
All the founders are keen to develop the project carefully rather than rush what could be a huge addition to the city’s cultural offering. In the meantime, they hope to make appearances at a number of beer events over the winter while encouraging local residents and businesses to get in touch with their ideas.
Anyone interested in helping shape the museum can complete the public consultation at sheffieldbeermuseum.co.uk, where they can also join the mailing list. Updates are available through the project’s Instagram account, @sheffieldbeermuseum.
