What a year it has been for this Gibraltar Street ale house! Shakies has taken Kelham Island`s ale trail to the next level and I don`t just mean across the busy A61.
Back in March we visited the 5th festival here and then celebrated the scoop of becoming Sheffield CAMRA`s pub of the year for the first time just 2 months later, in face of stiff local competition. Therefore we made a (Blue?) Bee line for the Autumn Beer Festival as early as possible on the Friday after all the early bard catches the, err, best beers. Having only opened on the Thursday, Shakey had already lost one beer in the shape of Abbeydale`s latest Dr. Morton hit but there was still plenty to go at. 9 locALEs were on offer downstairs plus 22 beers from further afield showcased in the Festival Bar upstairs. We did our best, fuelled by a Shakey sarnie or two.....
Arbor Triple Hop 13 (4.0%) Danny - 7 Mike - 7
Art Baby Anarchist (3.2%) Danny - 7 Mike - 7.5
Art Anarchist Party Bitter (7.2%) Danny - 2 Mike - 4
Hopcraft Bikini Atoll (4.5%) Danny - 6 Mike - 7
New Bristol Beer du Jour (4.6%) Danny - 7.5 Mike - 7
New Bristol Angry Tom IPA (5.9%) Danny - 8 Mike - 7.5
North Riding Screaming Bedlam (4.1%) Danny - 7 Mike - 7.5
Four Thorns Redeye IPA (5.2%) Danny - 7 Mike - 6
Sqark IPA (5.5%) Danny 7.5 Mike 7.5
Lincoln Green ? Chilli, late addition(?) Danny - 8 Mike - 7
were our scores on the doors, carefully calculated using the beer geek guesstimate gauge.
and our favourite was . . . . .
STEEL CITY ALL HALLOWS EVE (5.2%) Danny - 8.5 Mike - 8.5
One of the dearest ales on show (£3.00) but also one of the few locALEs we fancied (Sherry Stout, Honey IPAs - no ta, duck!). All Hallows Eve was right up our street, floating our boat all around the S3 island. Very hoppy, citrus, bitter yet dangerously quaffable. Steel City seem to have gone from strength to strength despite the brew pair being split up (and rehoused!) this year. Although having a duller name than their usual brews, this one is up with Steel City`s best, near to Angel of Death standards in this geek`s opinion.
Another cracking fest at Sheffield`s best pub. Didn`t get any real new find gems (Tiny Rebel were case in point back in March) but still a great selection and nowt wrong with a clear win for the home, Steel City side.
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