Sheffield Beer Week director, Jules Gray (left), welcomes Norwich City of Ale’s Dawn Leeder and Phil Cutter to the city
Sheffield Beer Week will return next year, from March 11 to 17, celebrating diversity and inclusion in beer at venues around the city.
Additional strands for 2019, on top of the core beer and food, community, and heritage, sees a continued celebration of women working in the beer industry, building on this to cover diversity and inclusion in beer.
There will be a brewsters’ tap takeover collaboration with Norwich-based organisers Fem.Ale and award-winning beer shop Hop Hideout.
The People’s Photography Trail will build on the success of last year’s photography exhibition trail across multiple venues, with a broader focus on people in the beer industry and beer lovers, tackling the lack of visual representation of the diverse range of people who work in and drink beer.
Sheffield Beer Week will be working closely with photographers Nicci Peet (follow her project on niccipeet.co.uk/women-in-beer) and Mark Newton (his Beer Yorkshire project) to produce this ‘photography meets beer trail’ around the city.
There will be a continued celebration of the Norwich City of Ale partnership and active exploration of the greener side of Sheffield — The Outdoor City, with walking, running and cycling events. Taking part will be local historian, Sheffield CAMRA pub heritage officer, and beer writer, Dave Pickersgill, with his popular Sheffield Pub Heritage Walk, plus a Mikkeller Running Club event.
On Friday, March 8, to kick off the week, Sheffield’s craft beer festival, Indie Beer Feast launches (and grows to two days in 2019). It is a celebration of great independent craft beer in the iconic Abbeydale Picture House, with brewery bars and street food. The beer festival champions and supports The Everyone Welcome initiative.
Strong brewery line-up
Breweries getting involved include Neepsend, Kelham Island, Thornbridge and Abbeydale locally, as well as national and international breweries, such as Wander Beyond, Wild Card Brewery and Mikkeller.
New Sheffield brewery, Saint Mars of the Desert, will be hosting its first Sheffield Beer Week event, adding to the vibrancy of the Sheffield beer scene.
Sheffield Beer Week director, Jules Gray, said: “Sheffield Beer Weekwouldn’t be what it is without those involved. It shows the unity and community of the Sheffield and global beer scene.
“Beer tourism is a crucial cog to Sheffield’s continued success and positive economic growth. The city is not only attracting engaged and inquisitive tourists to the area for beer, outdoor sports and creative arts, but also new beer-focused businesses to locate here.
“The beer week really adds vibrancy to the city, boosts the local economy and keeps the high street buzzing with good beer chatter.”
Northern capital of cool
With beer tourism alive and kicking in Sheffield, the city’s beer reputation was solidified with research after 2016’s University of Sheffield commissioned its Beer Report, written by Pete Brown.
It is great to see traction building in Sheffield’s beer scene with recent mentions of the city in The Guardian’s Top 50 UK Pubs, featuring Shakepeares, and The Times article, Sheffield: the northern capital of cool.
• To find out more about Sheffield Beer Week, visit the website
