Abbeydale plans taproom at brewery in Sheffield

04 September 2019

Sheffield-based Abbeydale has submitted plans for a taproom at its brewery in the Antiques Quarter of the city.

The company has applied to the city council for the change of use of part of its site in Aizlewood Road. Abbeydale plans to develop a taproom that would also host tasting sessions.

The founder Patrick and Sue Morton said in a supporting statement accompanying the application, "We founded Abbeydale Brewery in 1996 in a unit in Aizlewood Road and the business remains there today. The brewery now produces and sells about 250 brewers’ barrels (over 72,000 pints) per week. About 80% of this is “real ale” in cask (over half of which is our flagship brand, Moonshine), and this is an area of the business which continues to grow steadily. The other 20% of our production is keg and canned beer, and it is this sector which is growing most quickly. The brewery has now grown to occupy five of the units in the complex and grown from a one-man business to employing 25 people at Aizlewood Road, plus staffing in 2 pubs (The Rising Sun in Nether Green and The Devonshire Cat on Wellington Street, Sheffield city centre), which provide 13 full time salaried positions plus a number of additional part time staff, many of whom have been with us for some years, as well as some more itinerant students. We acquired the most recent 2 units at Aizlewood Road in November 2018, including for the first time a frontage onto Aizlewood Road. This has allowed the business to expand and we have employed a new sales person and someone in the marketing and events area. We expect to employ a further 2 or 3 staff in the Brewery in the next 18 months, 2 in production and 1 in logistics. The Aizlewood Road frontage means that for the first time we have premises which can allow us to open a small tasting room on site, and we are looking at using a modest portion of our space there to create our own craft beer tasting room. This model is very popular throughout the US as well as for many breweries across the UK, including some other small Sheffield based craft breweries. Most of the breweries nationally that we would regard as our direct comparators have such a facility. A tasting room would enable our customers to sample our products at the brewery itself and talk to our knowledgeable members of staff, all of which we know helps to build brand loyalty, as well as giving us the ability to host special events such as beer launches and small festivals. We anticipate that during the working day, the venue would serve as a meeting place for the brewery staff and visitors. In the evenings and at weekends we would open to the public and host public and some small private events. We would expect such a venue to create initially 1 full time job and a number of part-time staff and we would expect this to grow. To have a brewery tap / tasting room would greatly enhance our reputation and ability to build our reputation locally and nationally, as well as provide a site which can truly embody our core company values."

"Tt is our view that this development will attract people from out of Sheffield and the Region, potentially even from outside the country, with beer tourism becoming ever more popular over the past decade or so."

They concluded: "Overall, we feel that the development of a tasting room and events space would be greatly of benefit not just for ourselves as a business but for the local area as a whole. Over time, if successful, then more jobs would be created, probably from increasing the production of specialist beers and organising more events. We would expect it to attract local people – there is already a lively scene around the Broadfield Hotel and Picture House Social and now Barrow Boy and Dead Donkey (all of whom are our customers and stock some of our products) and we could add another dimension to these outlets with our more specialised offering, alongside the freshest Moonshine in the city, which has been a great favourite at brewery events! We would expect to drive tourism into Sheffield (particularly during the daytime at weekends) and enhance our reputation as a progressive business creating quality products both within and for our local area."

Use of part of brewery (Use Class B1c) as a bar (Use Class A4)
Abbeydale Brewery Units 3 And 8 And 13 Aizlewood Road Sheffield S8 0YX
Ref. No: 19/03187/CHU | Received: Fri 30 Aug 2019 | Validated: Fri 30 Aug 2019 | Status: Awaiting decision