SUFC International Bar

Sheffield United 2 v Gillingham 1

Saturday 27 September

Twitter @ball_sup

Crikey what a game.  Lots of instinctive saves from The Gills keeper. Few off the line. At least one off the woodwork. Great strike to put Gillingham ahead. Then an 87th minute equaliser for United. Then, 10 minutes later, the winner. Yep. Read that again. A 97th minute winner.

The new International Bar was launched today at Beautiful DownTown Bramall Lane.  I approached that with some trepidation. Firstly, I’d been in the best Supporters Club Bar in football at Orient in the week. That is clearly a free-of-tie place which can source the beer from where they want. Secondly, Sheffield United are tied to Greene King.  In classic football will eat itself style - Greene King are our Pouring Partners.

Essentially, the new bar is a big refurb of part of the old John Street Stand executive area.  A good few years ago, I used to be a Season Ticket member up there in the John Street Executive.  The physical side of it, the rooms, the seats, the view, etc were OK.  It was practical & functional if a little fraying at the edges.  But, the catering & bar side of it was becoming a joke.  That was one of the main reasons I ditched my membership. 

No cask beer. Fizzy everything. Casual staff who had no idea about working a bar.  I was once called up by the catering company asking for feedback.  I gave them all 3 barrels.  Fair play to them. They arranged for bottles of London Pride & Deuchars to be made available in the bar.  I promised that over a season me & my mates would pile into them all.

That lasted about 2 games. I turned up. No bottles. I was told no one was buying them, so they’d been taken off.  From memory, the keg was Worthington CreamFlow at the time. It is my go to story of the only “actually couldn’t drink it” beer I’ve ever had.

Anyway here we go. Relaunch refurb. STILL NO cask ale. Greene King IPA on keg & some usual suspects. They've got 3 Greene King "craft" bottles. East Coast IPA at 4%. Yardbird Pale Ale at 4%. Noble Lager at 5%.

To be honest, that was a bit better than I expected. As an opening day promo I was given a bottle of East Coast IPA free. Cheers. But, under cross examination, those are not currently for sale. Adam, one of the management team, said it'd depend on price & demand. That is fair enough.

I'll have to see how that maps out. Nothing for me here without those bottles.

Look, I understand the dynamics. An awful lot of custom in a very short space of time (few hours before kick-off, half-time & a few beers at full-time). Infrequently, with games every fortnight.  It is not the ideal situation for keeping & serving cask ale.  But, you can sell  bottles. And keg beer doesn’t have to be just John Smiths & Fosters & ilk.

And, other football clubs manage a good turnover of Guest Cask (see Orient). And ALL the reports suggest that it is Cask Ale sales which lead increasing revenues. (See Cask Report by Pete Brown).

The physical side of the bar is good. Through the glass view of the pitch. TV screens showing sport. Clean & practical furniture. Bright & open. It's a good use of space & is family friendly. I hope (and I'm sure) it'll do well.

Lots of people drink industrial keg bitter & lager. Good luck to them.  I'll check another day whether the "craft" bottles remain on sale.