The city that counts its beers: thirteen Sheffield pubs for a pint

On Saturday 30 May, volunteers from the Sheffield & District branch of CAMRA walked into 191 pubs and wrote down every beer on the bar: 692 of them, 375 different, from 155 breweries. Abbeydale’s Moonshine was the most common, on in 41 pubs, and the average cask pint was £4.46, up 8% on a year earlier. The branch uses the census to back Sheffield’s claim to be the beer capital of the UK.

How we chose: the branch’s 2026 Pub of the Year winners, its Kelham Island guide and August price survey, Exposed’s reader awards, and each pub’s own site.

Few of these pubs post prices. Where a pub’s own price is known it’s in the practical line; otherwise the line gives May’s branch-wide cask average.

Kelham Island Tavern

If you drink one pint in Sheffield, have it here. The branch named it the Kelham Island and Neepsend pub of the year again in 2026, and it has twice been CAMRA’s national pub of the year, in consecutive years. Thirteen handpumps cover mild, stout and bitter as well as pale and hoppy beers, usually with something from Blue Bee. It’s two plain rooms and a beer garden, with pork pies, bhajis and samosas. Russell Street, Kelham Island · branch cask average £4.46, May 2026 · walk-in

The Fat Cat

Dave Wickett and Bruce Bentley opened it on 21 August 1981 as Sheffield’s first real-ale free house, and in 1990 Wickett built Kelham Island Brewery in its beer garden. Ten pumps pour Neepsend’s Fat Cat House ale and Timothy Taylor Landlord plus eight guests. The rooms have not changed in years, and the pork pies and sandwiches come from behind the bar. Alma Street, Kelham Island · branch cask average £4.46, May 2026 · walk-in

The Gardeners Rest

More than 430 investors bought this riverside pub in 2016, and it turned ten under community ownership with a party in September. About six cask beers rotate through a lounge, a conservatory and a snug with a bar billiards table. It’s card only, and it doesn’t open until 4pm Monday to Thursday. Neepsend Lane · branch cask average £4.46, May 2026 · walk-in

Sheffield Tap

Order whatever Tapped Brew Co has just made: the 4-barrel brewery sits in the station’s old First Class Dining Room and supplies the main bar. The Edwardian refreshment rooms date from 1904, fell out of use in the 1960s and were restored from 2008, with the plaster ceiling recast from the original moulds. There are 11 handpulls and 14 keg lines on Platform 1b. Under-18s are welcome until 8pm, and so are dogs. Sheffield station, Sheaf Street · branch cask average £4.46, May 2026 · walk-in

Dog & Partridge

The city-centre pub of the year for 2026 is a multi-roomed Irish free house on Trippet Lane with cask, craft and a shelf of Irish whiskeys, and it kept its old snug through the refurbishment. Exposed readers voted it the best traditional pub in 2025. Its landlord, Conor Smith, told Exposed in April that even a busy pub is “only ever two or three weeks of bad trade from serious difficulty”, which is a good reason to go. Trippet Lane, city centre · branch cask average £4.46, May 2026 · walk-in, dogs welcome

The Old Shoe

Order the cider, which The Old Shoe makes on the premises as Exemption Ciderhouse, alongside a craft beer taproom and a natural-wine list, and it has been the branch’s cider pub of the year in 2025 and 2026. Exposed readers have named it best bar two years running. Vinyl plays all day. Orchard Square, city centre · branch cask average £4.46, May 2026 · walk-in

Kapital

Unpasteurised Czech tank lager arrives weekly from South Bohemia, and it’s what to order from the 34 taps in this Wellington Street beer hall, voted best new bar at this year’s Exposed Awards. The kitchen serves continental comfort food until 9pm, 8pm on Sundays, plus a Sunday roast. Wellington Street, city centre · branch cask average £4.46, May 2026 · walk-in or book

The Rising Sun

Abbeydale Brewery has run this Nether Green pub since 2005, and pub and brewery have been employee-owned since 2024, so order the Moonshine, which makes up about half of what Abbeydale brews. It was the branch’s West Sheffield winner again in 2026. Food runs seven days, and the pub tells you to book the Sunday roast by WhatsApp. Dogs are allowed in the bar and conservatory but not the dining room. Fulwood Road, Nether Green · branch cask average £4.46, May 2026 · open daily · walk-in

Abbeydale Beerworks

Two hundred steps from the brewery, Abbeydale’s first dedicated taproom opened in May in the old Turner’s Bottle Shop. It pours the latest releases and small-batch specials, with one keg line kept for guests from friends of the brewery. Abbeydale turned 30 this year and brews over 220 barrels a week. Abbeydale Road · branch cask average £4.46, May 2026 · walk-in

Sheaf View

Heeley’s big multi-room local has a changing cask range and a beer garden, and it fills up on Sheffield United match days. Neepsend Brew Co runs it. The branch has named it South Sheffield pub of the year six times since 2019, most recently in 2026. Gleadless Road, Heeley · branch cask average £4.46, May 2026 · walk-in

White Lion

Go on a Monday, when the August price survey found a pint of Thornbridge Jaipur at £3.50 (it was £5.10 at weekends). The Grade II-listed pub has traded since 1781; what you are there for is the tiled central corridor with its original service hatch, the two glazed snugs and the green-brick front that Duncan Gilmour’s brewery added after buying it in 1900. London Road, Heeley · Jaipur £3.50 Mon, £5.10 Fri–Sun · walk-in

The Itchy Pig

Every cask ale costs £4.80 at this Broomhill micropub, whatever its strength, so the trick is to order the strongest one on. The line-up changes constantly, and the branch has named it West Sheffield’s best pub three times, in 2019, 2020 and 2024. Glossop Road, Broomhill · all cask £4.80 · walk-in

The Stag’s Head

Thornbridge runs this Psalter Lane pub with eight of its beers on handpump. The one to try is Union, a 6.5% strong dark mild brewed on the Burton Union sets Thornbridge bought from Marston’s in 2024. At £5.70, its Jaipur was the dearest pint on the price survey. Psalter Lane, Sharrow · Jaipur £5.70 · walk-in

Left out: the Blake Hotel in Walkley, the branch’s North Sheffield winner for 2026, which was being advertised to lease in September.

Checked October 2026.