July 2026. Sheffield.
When we moved to Sheffield during the second lockdown I thought there might be a protracted period of stabilisastion in the pub scene (ugh), but 2021-23 saw plenty of new openings to distract us from the Kelham Island usual suspects.
Heist came first, 30 keg taps, a shuffle board and an unusual dispense method normally used on plushies;
It’s still here 5 years later, and seems to go through bursts of being busy, often when the after-work parties come, tempted by the “Flight of EVERYTHING” deal.
I hadn’t visited for a couple of years, and it wasn’t just the £14.70 pints of Imperial Stout that account for that.
But it was too warm for cask; I fancied something cool and murky and 6.2%, so Arbor’s Nashoba fits the bill.
Although their own brewery seems a bit quiet they’ve gone full mid-range craft, if that makes sense, the sort of stuff you pay £8 a pint for in a Thornbridge bar.
In another local craft place the local Hi-Vis blokes had debated weirdness. “If you’re not weird, there’s probably something wrong with you”. Heist isn’t very Hi-Vis, or weird, but it did play Moon Duo.
And the latest street food (hurrah !) franchise did serve up a hopefully diet-compliant burger with brisket* lunch which was expertly matched with peach and apricot Pastel de Nata sour.
And you thought I only drank Bass.
retiredmartin 
I’m not sure about “too warm for cask”.
Newport’s Pheasant, Bull and Bladder, Beacon Hotel, Weston’s Woolpack – Saturday.
Great Western, Beacon Hotel, Brewood’s Swan – today.
All cask pints drinking well.
More like too warm for stopping at home.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had two halves in the Sun in Coniston this evening that were too cold – Lancaster Amber and Fell Crag – both “modern” bitters that should have been 11 celcius or thereabouts, but were probably around 7 degrees instead. Probably because of insufficient throughput in a chilled python.
The landlord was pouring pint after pint of Madri and Stella, and my two halves of cask were the only non-lagers poured in the time I was there. He had a very good line for a customer who asked if Madri was Spanish. He said it had never been anywhere near Spain and was like “Carling in a Flamenco dress”.
LikeLiked by 3 people
It’s your job to tell them they’re an undeducated philistine, then.
LikeLike
If memory serves me correctly, Moon Duo was a Ripley Johnson side project from his day job with Wooden Shjips, whose version of “O Tannenbaum” is a perennial Christmas favourite in the Komakino household.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are correct, and spelt Shjips correctly.
No sign of them in many years.
LikeLike
Yesterday I spent a very hot afternoon walking down the Lea Navigation in East London. An excellent, wonderfully cool pint of London Pride just after opening time at the perennially old-school Anchor and Hope in Clapton (best Pride in London), and a warm, vinegary pint of Plateau at the Beer Merchants’ Tap in Hackney Wick, which looks a bit like the place in your picture above.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There’s a lesson there, AP !
LikeLike
Marston’s deliverers are leaving casks of Brains in the sun – or something – so it has to go back en masse again, just like last summer…
LikeLiked by 1 person