Sheffield’s beer scene is among the most vibrant in the U.K., and Jules Gray has long been one of its leading lights. This year, despite so many challenges, she’s only further cemented her role in building its community. As well as being the proprietor of award-winning bottle shop and tasting room Hop Hideout (which, during the U.K.’s third lockdown, saw her delivering beers at night when the shop had closed for the day), Gray has spearheaded a series of digital and face-to-face events to keep beer in this part of South Yorkshire vital and exciting during a time of loneliness and isolation.
Digital socializing continued through the first half of 2021 with a Virtual Sheffield Beer Week in March, which Gray organized to encourage drinkers to join in online celebrations of the beers, breweries, venues, collaborations, events, and community that have shaped the city’s beer scene. She was also one of the instigators of the Indie Beer Shop Day national initiative. “We had 100 shops throughout the country involved, with various events including a virtual tasting with beer writer Pete Brown of a selection of some of the national beer shop collaborations that were brewed,” she says. “That gained some really positive momentum for the sector after a tough year.”
When it became possible, she planned a series of in-person events as the year progressed, which included an eighth birthday weekend for Hop Hideout as well as Indie Beer Feast, which was organized as a festival trail around the pubs of Sheffield. She describes the Feast as “Sheffield’s craft beer festival, though not exclusively just championing Sheffield beer. We do have local breweries but it’s about showcasing breweries, and cider-makers, from around the U.K. and more that are brilliant. We also champion the Everyone Welcome initiative at the event, and breweries have to sign up [and] live up to that ethos [to participate].”
Did I mention that she did a live beer tasting on Channel 5’s nationally broadcast “Summer on the Farm” in June? Though Gray is not a noisy person, her work speaks loudly in support of Sheffield’s—and the country’s—independent beer businesses, and her down-to-earth manner has continued to be valuable in making beer inclusive. I suspect 2022 will be just as busy for her—and for Sheffield beer.
Words,Adrian Tierney-Jones