a swift one - Beer gardens of sunny delight in Sheffield
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The good weather has driven me outdoors and into the beer garden.
I thought the heat wave called for a spot of ale fresco drinking in some of Sheffield's city centre hostelries.
It's a thing the city does rather well. You don't necessarily need a sweeping rural view, just a sun trap in the heart of town.
My template was to keep out of the Kelham quarter, so as to bring you something a bit different. But I wasn't entirely successful.
I started out the Fat Cat's newish sister pub, The Tap and Tankard, across from the City Hall.
It is on Cambridge Street, down the side of John Lewis. I forget what it was before or what it looked like. So I went in without any preconceived ideas.
Inside it was a little dark, but neatly laid out. One thing I noticed straight away was the music. Not something I'm used to hearing at its sibling's pub apart from Tramlines or special events.
I'm not against music in real ale pubs, in fact I rather like it, but it was just something I picked up on.
The bar presented four Kelham Beers, three regulars and a special. On the other half of the bar were four guests, from which I chose Bad Seed Brewery's Boadicea Pale Ale (4.5%) from among Thornbridge Jaipur, Rudgate (Innovation Ales) Milk Stout and Exit 33's Calypso Pale Ale Ale.
I wandered through the bar and into the beer garden, which I was told had some old brewing memorabilia.
I was greeted by a number of old brewery signs and pub names. The beer garden was the usual whitewashed bricks catching the sun affair, which was just what I was after.
I'd set myself a half-pint limit in each pub so as to cover more ground, so it was soon time to head to The Red Deer, off West Street and Mappin Street.
Now, I have a family connection with this pub. It was my dad's local when he worked over the road. He once arranged a conference where people came from all over. I'm not sure what he made of it when people from Russia told him the best bit about the conference was the after party at The Red Deer.
But I've not done too much drinking in my dad's old favourite, so I thought it was about time to put that right.
I ordered half of Blue Bee's Rational (4.3%). This brewery can do no wrong in my eyes. The beer was a dark red hue but very hoppy. A piece on the Sheffield CAMRA website reveals it has "a full flavoured malty body and bags of hop flavours from a combination of Cascade, Citra and Columbus hops".
I took my half into the beer garden where I hoped to catch sight of its famous neighbours: the peregrine falcon family who live a street away on St George's Church. But despite them being on a clutch of eggs, I had no joy.
My path led me next to the University Arms on Brook Hill. It has an actual garden for a beer garden. But I chose to sit in the conservatory where a nice breeze was wafting through. My beer choice here was Welbeck Abbey's Henrietta Grande golden ale (4%) but it was close run thing with Acorn's Eggcracker bitter following a taster of each.
My intention was to round off this outdoor drinking session by catching a bus from the Botanical Gardens to The Rutland Arms, close to the station.
But fate stepped in when a Kelham Island bound bus rolled up. It dropped me off outside Shakespeares, which has a large beer garden. My steady-away non Kelham session was thrown further into disarray when I spotted North Riding and Five Towns' collaboration brew OAP DIPA, which weighs in at 9.6%. It was the sequel to the mighty 300, which was popular at The Star and elsewhere last year.
I'd tried the sequel only in a bottle form and it was a beauty. But on draught it went into a different dimension.
After a hazy look at the old beer posters in the pub's beer garden, it was time to finish off in The Kelham Island Tavern, which I'd just heard that day was Sheffield CAMRA's pub of the year again. In fact it won for the eleventh time.
The pub is also well known for its beer garden, which I think has garnered plenty of awards too. I congratualted Trevor the landlord and asked what he would recommend to toast their latest success. He suggested Atom Rare Earth (5.5%). This pale turned out to be one of the best beers I've had so far this year, along with OAP DIPA and Blue Bee's Left to Right.
I seldom revisit a beer but I broke the rules with this one and had it again while perched on a bench with arguably the finest view in beer.
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