December 2024. Sheffield.
Due to a bout of man flu acquired standing in the cold watching non-league football this next pub may well be my last of 2024, meaning I’m up to date and can bring you post on my American lesbian music highlights of the year.
Back in Sheffield after our thrilling Miners Welfare derby out in Attercliffe the focus turned to giving Duncan his GBG tick at Vocation and finding Dr John an Imperial Stout.
By this stage the notes had long dried up so it’s lucky that Untappd records our visits for posterity, a lovely Spruce It Up saison to end the night.
Except it wasn’t the end of the night, oh no.
I thought Brew Dog were persona non grata these days, but the pub tickers still seem keen to complete the set. My own relationship probably peaked a decade ago when they briefly relaunched cask (notably through that 2.8% Edge and a sighting of Alice Porter in Brescia), though Hazy Jane was quite impressive on launch.
But since then, empty bars, overpriced Punk, scandal after scandal, and dull beer line-ups.
But look !
Sours, imperial stouts and a mead. We filled our boots in an otherwise empty city centre bar.
Duncan thought that snacking cheese was a good idea.
Look, give me the Old Shoe or the Kelham Island Tavern or the Crow any time,
but I really enjoyed that half an hour. It’s not all doom and gloom in Brew Dog land.
Oh, except it is.
retiredmartin 
It’s incredible to think that when I moved (back) to Manc in 2012 in the heady Stone Roses reunion months, and amidst the Euros, that the Brewdog bar was new and edgy.
Port St Beer House was barely months old.
I’d been to Leeds North Bar’s “American beerfest” only a year or two earlier in bewilderment about what I was to find. What a time to be alive to see the emergence of hoppy beers in UK! (Of course I knew Jaipur before 2012, but Punk rebroke the mould). £5/half in North Bar for the first time on some Californian DIPA. It’s still a memorable wow moment for me with beer.
I’d still rather have an early days 5a.m. Saint than Punk though
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“Every dog has its day”
DOnninGton – twentieth century
brewDOG – early twenty-first century
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Mighty impressed you managed to squeeze three posts from our Friday night. I double checked when I got home as thought Vocation wasn’t a new tick – did it when it was the Old House. However the Grapes, which I hadn’t ticked, was new and hasn’t been in the Guide for over 20 years. A fine night!
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