Dana Okafor
Co-founder · Head brewer
Fifteen years brewing, a chemistry degree she calls "expensive insurance", and final say on every recipe. Will not release a beer she would not drink two of.
The story of the pit.
Two people, one derelict arch, and a hole in the floor nobody could explain. Ten years later: fourteen tanks and half a million pints a year.
Arch 23, on a typical Sheffield evening. Wet.
It started with a leak.
In 2016 Dana Okafor was a brewer at a big regional and Joe Wolstenholme was fixing roofs, including, eventually, the roof of Arch 23. Dana came to look at the empty arch as a favour. The favour got out of hand.
Clearing the floor, they found a brick-lined pit, three metres deep, older than the railway above it. A local historian said medieval wolf trap. A structural engineer said please stop standing in it. Both were right, and the brewery had a name.
Timeline
2016
Found the arch
And the hole. Signed the lease anyway, which tells you everything about the business plan.
2017
First mash
Pit Pale, brewed on a secondhand 10-barrel kit held together with optimism and jubilee clips.
2019
Taproom opened
Forty seats, one tap tree, a bar made from the scaffolding the roofers left behind.
2022
Canning line arrived
Through the front door with 40mm to spare. There is video, and shouting on the video.
2024
Fourteen tanks
The arch officially declared full by everyone except Dana, who has seen a corner she likes.
2026
One-off No. 38
Still independent, still self-distributing, still under the tracks.
The pair in charge.
Joe Wolstenholme
Co-founder · Everything else
Ex-roofer, self-taught engineer, and the reason the canning line, the glycol system and the van all keep working. Drinks Ironmonger. Only Ironmonger.
"We never wanted to be the biggest brewery in Sheffield. Just the one people argue least about."Dana Okafor, co-founder
The kit.
A 20-barrel brewhouse, fourteen tanks from four to forty hectolitres, one lagering tank that Keld hogs for six weeks at a time, and a canning line that does 2,400 cans an hour when Joe has had a word with it.
Come and see it running. The tours are the best way in, and yes, you can look in the pit.
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