Real Ale, Real Music

It doesn't seem five minutes since Cloudwater appeared to have turned their back on cask ale, but last week saw a welcome return to beer via hand pump from the influential Manchester brewery. Here's my thoughts.... The Cloudwater squad line up at The Sportsman.... It was back in January, 2017 when news broke that Cloudwater announced that they were abandoning the production of cask beer , citing the cost, limited financial return, and concern about how it was often kept in the cellar and served to the customer, and that henceforth their innovative and contemporary beers would only be available on tap and in can. But last week, just over 18 months later, they announced that Cloudwater cask would be available once again in selected outlets. And locally, the Sportsman in Huddersfield announced they would be having a night launching the beers on Tuesday, 13th November. So naturally, I went along for a nosey.... Four beers were being offered. Pale, a delicious easy drinking 4...

It was the 1st Round of the FA Cup, and the draw enabled us to pay a visit to a town which gave its name to its most famous son.... "Morecambe...will play...Halifax Town...." That's how the FA Cup Draw came out, and so it gave us a welcome opportunity to visit a relatively local, Northern side, in a season dominated by infeasibly long away trips to far-flung Southern-based teams. I hadn't been to Morecambe for at least 35 years, back when a gang of us from the NEGAS Sports and Social Club at Tingley went for a day out at the resort. We certainly weren't the first visitors to arrive in the town from Yorkshire; ever since the railway connection from there was completed in the mid-19th Century, Morecambe had been a popular destination for residents of the West Riding. For a time the resort attracted more visitors from the county than Blackpool, its more famous rival down the Lancashire coast, so much so that it earned itself the sobriquet 'Bradford-on-Sea...

An exciting new venture opened this week in the West Yorkshire market town of Elland, so naturally I went along to have a look. Here's what I discovered.... It had been a long time since I had enjoyed a teatime pint in Elland. Way back, in fact, to the days when I lived in the town and used to frequent the Barge and Barrel, which was at the time one of the top pubs in the area, although now apparently up for sale after years of dwindling sales. And so on Friday, when I called in at Elland Craft & Tap, it must have been the first time I had enjoyed an early evening pint in the town for almost 20 years. Anticipation had been building locally for a few months, ever since a planning application was lodged by Elland Brewery with Calderdale Council for a new bar in a former building society branch on Southgate. With Elland having lost so many of its pubs over the years, not surprisingly there was overwhelming support for the bar amongst the townspeople, with only one objection. An...