retiredmartin

July 2026. Sheffield.

Back in Sheffield from a cruelly curtailed Cask Camino (CCCC), a man’s thoughts turn to tomato gose.

I constantly read how exciting (ugh) the UK beer scene (ugh) is these days, how folk who drink Bass are to be ridiculed etc etc. But can you be a proper country without a brewer of alcoholic gazpacho ? I think not.

ChatGPT* confirmed my worst fears;

Interestingly, two of those beer shops are in Sheffield (and that’s not personalised information, I’m letting ChatGPT think I’m still in Cambridge).

We don’t drink at home, bar Mrs RM occasional pint of Malbec with Crispy Beef, so I rarely visit the specialist offies. But I was sad to see the closure of longstanding Beer Central mentioned by Chat GPT.

During lockdown Jules from Hop Hideout provided a vital home delivery service, and she has some very insightful things to say about the viability of bars like hers in the gorgeous Leah’s Yard.

At times there can seem to be a lot of pubby trade in Sheffield and Manchester and London, but it’s the fixed cost that kill thriving businesses.

So you should visit the perfectly formed Hop Hideout. For the welcome, and the really great beer** from all over the world,

and some of jars of authentic German mustard I bought because….it was there.

Jules graciously gave me some time to consider the lack of interesting gose (which I now know how to pronounce) and I’m convinced there’s a gap in the UK market.

*_{Note how polite I am to ChatGPT. It will eat me last when AI takes over the world.}

** _{Colbier from Bootle, Neptune from Maghull. A north Liverpool takeover}