Hop Hideout's Tenth Birthday Celebrations, Whit Whoo!

Hop Hideout 10th Birthday Beer Collab  

It’s a real pinch me moment to share our tenth birthday beer collaboration news with you all. When Jules first moved back to Sheffield, around 2011, and before Hop Hideout started in 2013, this brewery was our go-to sup and ten years later still is! So we’re thrilled to announce this #collab with the wonderful folks @thornbridge From delicious cask Jaipur to phenomenal collaboration beers with the likes of @sierranevada (Twin Peak ) and @odellbrewing (Pond Hopper) to their thoughtful, intensely flavoursome and skilful barrel-aged range whether it’s Days of Creation Flemish-inspired sour ales or their imperial stout series Necessary Evil. Or the way they brew timelessly quenchable lagers with such finesse. 

To brew a beer at #Thornbridge for Hop Hideout’s celebrations is honestly a dream come true and feels a very full circle moment to complete this decade! 

The #brewday starts tomorrow, so we’ll be sharing more about the collaboration then. Unfortunately Jules can’t make the morning due to family commitments, but we know it’s in good hands with the brew team. Jules will be heading up to check in on the beer and possibly do some packaging instead, whit whoo! So don’t worry we will still try to do our part in this beer ;)

One bit Jules will certainly be helping with is the drinking We’ll be launching and ‘first pouring’ the beer on tap our birthday weekend from Friday 10th November. Tickets are also available for our official birthday bash Saturday 11th November with a 2/3 pour of the beer (plus quiz entry) in with the price, £8pp. It’s family and doggie friendly here at the #foodhall too

Hope to see you then, if not before, and raise a big glass of good times with you all. Huge thanks for your support and custom over the years. And a big thank you to Thornbridge too.  

Small Business Success Sees Sheffield Indie Beer Shop Hop Hideout Collaborate To Celebrate 9 Years

At a time when we're hearing the hardships many small businesses face, it's also a good time to reflect on those who continue to survive and thrive. As one of a handful of 100% female owned beer shops in the UK, Jules Gray has from the very start championed women brewers and breweries as a passionate core ethos of Hop Hideout. She knows and values how much visibility counts in making the beer world a broader, diverse and ultimately more rounder and improved place to be for those in it and providing her customers with outstanding beers to enjoy. After a two year challenging period over the Covid-19 pandemic, Jules stated,

”I wanted to celebrate women that really light up the beer scene, who I not only look up to, but who provide so much positivity and inspiration to the whole beer community.”

This November Hop Hideout will celebrate their 9th anniversary as an independent beer shop and tasting room, releasing their beer collaboration, a flapjack stout, brewed at Wild Card Brewery with Crafty Beer Girls. From Friday 11th November they'll be pouring Wild Card Brewery beers as part of a tap takeover including their special birthday collaboration release with Crafty Beer Girls and the brewery.

On Saturday 12th November, they’ll be hosting a relaxed celebration tasting with Jaega from Wild Card and Crafty Beer Girls organisers in attendance. Everyone welcome, tickets are £10pp and include 3 beer pours plus extras, full details and to purchase head to the link for their online shop:

https://www.hophideout.co.uk/event-tickets/birthday-bonanza

On Sunday 13th November they’ll be hosting a free and fun family social. As a new parent Jules knows how much of a challenge it can be to find a welcoming social space that’s easily accessible and with baby changing.

She continued,

”I'm absolutely delighted Jaega Wise of Wild Card Brewery and Natasha and Natalya of Crafty Beer Girls agreed to this collaboration. Jaega is a phenomenal technical brewer, having just released her first brewing book and presents on national shows such as the BBC Food Programme. The Crafty Beer Girls is a beer community safe space created for women and non-binary folks to come together in their enjoyment of beer. Co-organised by two passionate and brilliant women Natasha and Natalya. Through the pandemic I turned to this group for support and really valued their virtual meet-ups.”

The celebrations will continue at Wild Card Brewery's new pub in Walthamstow, London - The Tavern On The Hill on Thursday 17th November with a Crafty Beer Girls London meet-up.

L to R: Natasha (Crafty Beer Girls co-founder), Jules Gray (Hop Hideout), Manuela (Crafty Beer Girls member), Jaega Wise (head brewer Wild Card Brewery)

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Hop Hideout owner: Jules Gray. For interview requests please contact Jules: hophideout@gmail.com

Hop Hideout beer shop started in November 2013 in the Abbeydale area of Sheffield. In 2015 they moved into a bigger cafe location focusing on drink in and take home as a beer shop and tasting room. One of the first 'drink in' beer shops in the UK. In 2019 they moved into a new city centre location at foodhall Kommune. Jules is also the organiser of Sheffield Beer Week, a city-wide beer celebration in her home city of Sheffield. First held in 2015 - now coming into its 9th year in 2023. In addition to running Indie Beer Feast, Sheffield's independent craft beer focused festival, started in 2018.

Twitter/IG: @ HopHideout / @SheffBeerWeek / @ IndieBeerFeast

Website: www.hophideout.co.uk / http://indiebeerfeast.co.uk/ /http://sheffieldbeerweek.co.uk/

Wild Card Brewery make award-winning seasonal beer and serve it in their E17 taproom and all over the country. www.wildcardbrewery.co.uk

Crafty Beer Girls, a group for women (inclusive of all, including non-binary and transgender) who work in, enjoy or support the beer industry. www.instagram.com/crafty_beer_girls

Good Jules Hunting

Can’t quite believe being included on this Good Beer Hunting 2021 list. An absolute honour, especially considering the amazing folks on there. I’ve put the link below. Please go discover and support. From the UK alone there’s Jaega Wise, Charlotte Cook, Jay Patel, Burum Collective and Ruvani de Silva. Plus many folks around the world I’ve heard of, read/seen their work, listened to and admire. Thanks Adrian Tierney-Jones for nominating me. This one’s for the Sheffield beer community and everyone making the beer world a welcoming/safe place for ALL Hop Hideout Beer Shop, Indie Beer Feast, Sheffield Beer Week and Indie Beer Shop Day UK

Much of the irony in all the additional work I’ve done this year in the beer world, is that personally I’ve drunk very little. Being 4 weeks off giving birth has added another dimension to everything I’ve navigated throughout. My hope/goal is to build and stay vigilant over creating an equal place for all, with opportunity, kindness and respect.

Read the piece here:

https://www.goodbeerhunting.com/signifiers-2021/2021/12/15/jules-gray

Celebrate The Endless Toil, Send Beer!

It’s been a few months since we last updated our blog and a lot has happened since then! We’re now nearly 3 months into the new opening of Hop Hideout at food hall Kommune, in Sheffield city centre. Not sure where the time has flown to, but it’s been a bit of a whirlwind (good). Now that we’re getting a little more settled, we’ve started to organise more events and exciting collabs. Whit whoo….

First up, Thursday June 20th, is our beer collaboration launch celebrating Tom J Newell’s latest art exhibition at The Viewing Room gallery space at Kommune entitled Endless Toil. We’ve collaborated with local hotly-tipped Sheffield brewery Saint Mars of the Desert and Tom to brew up an orangey summer ale, a perfect sup’ to help you ease the endless toil and see the beauty in life’s drudgery. Read more about Saint Mars and their intriguing beer journey over at Food & Wine - HERE. We first discovered their beers a number of years ago under their Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project brewing moniker. One of the beers we bought on holiday - Field Mouse’s Farewell was inspired by a little field mouse found in their Yorkshire home (they’ve lived back and forth between American and the UK; and Martha is from Yorkshire. Just to add more intrigue to their story!). An apt beer connection as we now find ourselves sharing our lives in the same beery city of Sheffield.

Tom’s used inspiration from his exhibition pieces to bring four designs to life on the can labels:

1. Forget Me-Not

2. Plenty More Fish

3. Swan Song

4. Pass The Torch

The Endless Toil exhibition covers a series of his new paintings and prints celebrating the suffering of our everyday existence, embracing the struggle, and finding beauty in life’s relentless drudgery.

A 1300 litre orangey brew meant plenty of naval oranges were needed and Martha from Saint Mars spent a good few hours peeling and juicing [insert hearty round of applause].

With a sizeable addition of Centennial hops in the koelschip (a tasty bit of kit usually seen in spontaneous ale brewing such as Belgian lambic or German lager brewing for resting beer to reduce DMS). Saint Mars use their bespoke built koelschip currently to rest the beer and boost the flavours. In this collab beer there’s ‘‘Super Cascade’’ Centennial hop addition layered with candied peel and zest of orange. The beer was then dry-hopped with bags of Amarillo. The base malt has wheat, barley and oats - accentuating the smooth mouthfeel. The hop varieties chosen add more tropical/orange notes hinting at a ‘New England’ style reference point alongside the American yeast strain.

We hope you enjoy our beer and embrace the Endless Toil…..

The exhibition runs from June 20th through till July 20th. To keep the celebrations bubblin’ throughout the month we’ll be hosting the Sheffield Chapter Mikkeller Running Club route on Sat 6th July from the exhibition to Saint Mars via the scenic Five Weirs route AND releasing a limited Tom J Newell designed glass on Saturday July 20th. You can find more details on our Facebook events page - HERE.

Hopulist Magazine Visits Hop Hideout

New beer magazine Hopulist kindly visited Hop Hideout a few weeks ago to chat beer and find out more about our Sheffield story. Head online to catch up on issue five - link below. 

'The Hideout For Everybody' awwwwww cheers folks! 

https://www.hopulist.com/