4.5% ABV // On Sale Now
Seven is an important number for us this year.
Our April magazine (#85) marked our 7th birthday, with artist Alison Lambert returning as featured artist, we’ve had almost 7,000 users join the Now Then Discounts App, and an estimated 1,700 people attended the Festival of Debate.
To celebrate all these sevens, this Monday saw the release of our new beer with Abbeydale Brewery, appropriately titled #7. It’s for our 7th birthday, but it’s also Abbeydale’s 7th pale keg beer and it has 7 different types of hops in it.
As it prepares to hit the pubs of Sheffield this week, we had a tour of Abbeydale Brewery to sup the ale in preparation for its release.
Established in 1996, it’s been 19 years since Abbeydale Brewery began making some of our favourite local beers, including bestsellers Moonshine and Deception. We’ve been fortunate enough to have a few drinks made for us in that time, but #7 is the first to feature this many hops.
With it being keg pale ale, it’s different to the taste of a traditional cask ale. It’s unfiltered for a smoother taste. It’s essentially the same product as cask ale, with the addition of gas for that extra fizz.
The ale is a mixture of American and European hops and is a 4.5% ABV blonde craft beer. It’s been described as having instant floral aromas of tangerine and pine with definite tropical mango and guava flavours. There’s also a dry hop kick of Citra, Cascade and Liberty hops towards the end, with a refreshing, crisp lime aftertaste. Most importantly, it’s really tasty.
It’s normally wine that gets attention in its production process, but making beer is just as important, especially in Yorkshire. The New York Times recently named the region as one of the world’s top destinations to visit, purely because of the alcohol
Dan Baxter, Sales Manager and Brewer at Abbeydale Brewery, knows all too well the importance of selecting the right hops. “Anywhere you can grow good grapes for wine, you can grow good hops for beer,” he tells us.
Fortunately, we’re not put through the painstaking effort it takes to brew ale – mixing the hops, boiling and fermenting it, shipping it out – unlike the breweries that make the great ales of the region. We just get to enjoy the fruits of its labour.
Despite this lengthy process, it’s all worth it when the beer tastes good. We can confirm #7 does, so give it a try.
You can find the #7 keg beer across the seven hills of Sheffield when it ships out to pubs this week.
Words: Brady Frost
