Brewday at Crown Brewery, Sheffield

A quick blog to say how much I enjoyed Tuesdays brewday with Stuart from the Crown Brewery. If you're not aware, the Crown brewery is situated underneath the Hillsborough Hotel on Langsett Road in Sheffield, its a 4 barrel capacity set up and Stuart Ross is the one man dynamo that keeps the brewery ticking. Nothing amazingly out of the ordinary there you might think but Stu continually and consistently knocks out beer that is far from ordinary.

Unlike many breweries who excel at one particular style, (ie pale and hoppy) Stu makes a broad range of regular and one off brews which always seem very well crafted, flavourful and true to style.

Pale Ale, Blonde Ale, Mild, Stout, Porter, Damson Porter, Wheat Beer, Wheat Stout, IPA's, and Smoked Rauchbier are all beers he's produced which have been well received in the past couple of years. Obviously many breweries turn their hands to different beer styles regularly with varying results but Stu seems to nail the styles he attempts first time more often than not which has to be down to more than luck.

More recently he brewed a massive 11.5% DIPA collaboration beer with Stefano Cossi from Thornbridge, which saw them both putting in a 17 hour stint in the Crown brewery to get the beer brewed (this beer will hopefully be available to buy on myBrewerytap later in the year).

It was really interesting to watch Stu brewing through the course of the day, he's very comfortable at work in the brewery, knows what works and what doesn't, never rushing or flapping. I guess to a large degree this efficiency and control is because he's very accustomed to his breweries processes and nuances and understands them inside out. He's an experienced brewer having previously worked for two other award winning local breweries Kelham Island and Acorn, but experience aside he's clearly a natural brewer if such a thing exists.

Seeing different brewers at work is great from my perspective (with an eye on a possible future in brewing myself) and its really valuable for me to get different viewpoints and advice on all aspects of the process. Its interesting that what works for some brewers doesn't work for another.

Stu has been very supportive of myBrewerytap, we set up the business with breweries like Crown in mind, I'm particularly happy that he's pleased with the service our site offers the brewery and we've been really happy to help give his great beers the wider audience they deserve.

You can find Crowns beers on the bar at The Hillsborough Hotel, Sheffield every day of the week and as Crowns reputation grows, at more pubs and beer festivals up and down the country.

Crowns bottled beers are available direct from the brewery via myBrewerytap here.
Follow the Crown Brewery's blog here