The pride of Yorkshire

Yorkshire is one of Britain’s finest beer regions. We have extensively covered North Yorkshire in past issues. Here Barrie Pepper goes West and South

The 1974 edition of the Good Beer Guide – the very first which warned you to avoid Watney’s like the plague – lists 10 breweries in South and West Yorkshire.

Of these eight have closed. In this year’s guide there are 41, showing a net gain of 39.

This remarkable statistic takes no account of a dozen or more micro plants that have opened and shut in the last 30 years or so. Some of these were never going to make it but others, sadly, were victims of circumstance.

Take the Boat Brewery located behind the Boat pub at Allerton Bywater which was its main customer. Formed in 1999, in 2002 it won a bronze in the mild section of the Champion Beer of Britain awards for its Man in the Boat. One year on the same beer took the silver.

There were high expectations for 2004 but between times the pub changed hands and the new owners stopped selling Boat beers and the brewery was forced into closure. The West Riding Brewery, also a winner at CBOB, was closed down twice after disastrous fires, and there were economic failures at two other prizewinners: Trough of Idle and Stocks of Doncaster.

Success for Yorkshire breweries in competitions is commonplace, and none more than Timothy Taylor of Keighley.

Its flagship beer Landlord has been both Champion Beer of Britain and top prizewinner in the Brewing Industry International Awards several times. Two years ago Pale Rider brewed by Kelham Island of Sheffield was Champion Beer of Britain and 1872 Porter an inspiration from E & S Elland picke.....

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By Barrie Pepper

Section : Regional Focus

Page number : 34