Controversy, comestibles and confusion. The three Cs of the 33rd annual Steel City Beer Festival in my own home town of Sheffield. Controversy because the venue changed to one far from a tram stop! Comestibles because the Bakewell Farmers Markets do a mean pork butty. Confusion because, quite frankly, nobody had a clue what was going on.

The change of venue was not welcomed for several reasons, the most major being access via public transport. The old St Philips social club, and prior to that the Nelson Mandela Building, both had tramstops very close by, but not so the Darnall Liberal Club. Second of all, as hinted by the name, the Darnall Liberal Club is, in fact, in Darnall. It is not unreasonable to feel trepidation walking about Darnall late on, but to be honest Shalesmoor isn't exactly heavenly.

So anyway, that was that. To be perfectly frank, I thought the venue was very good. Plenty of room to move about, loads of seating and less than a minute's stroll from the 52 bus stop. It was very easy to find, and even easier to find a second time the next morning!

Although there were less beers than previous years, there were still around 70 ales to choose from. All manner of breweries were represented, including the Sheffield Brewing Co who managed to take more space than anyone else. That's not a bad thing, mind, because I haven't had a bad one from that particular source.

I sampled a fair few through the night, with some more notable than others. Old favourites like Black Mass, Stannington Stout and Sgt Pepper Stout failed to disappoint, and one or two new brews caught my attention. Kelham's interestingly named 'Kinell was a very pleasant surprise, as was the Milestone brewery's Raspberry Stout. It may not have escaped the more astute eye's notice that all the aformentioned beers were stouts. Just to prove that I do drink other things, Rudgate's Ruby Mild was excellent too!

On the food front, the pork butties were very tasty. It was a shame they had no crackling, and the apple sauce was somewhat chemical, but a plain pork and stuffing sandwich went down very well. A far cry from the St Philips mystery meat burgers.

Musical accompaniment was very good, as long as you like Free, the Rolling Stones and Black Sabbath. Terrafirma put on a good set, anyway, and kept the place buzzing. It was notably strange that the area in front of the stage cleared when the band started. It was as if people were preparing to dance, but nobody actually got round to it.

So a success, then. I don't know if it'll be back in Darnall next year due to distance and travel arrangement issues. One thing I can say is that it was the right venue in the wrong place. Oh, and the beer was brilliant!