Real Ale, Real Music

A return to an old favourite and a visit to a new cycling-themed bar, both situated in Halifax, followed by a trip out to a micro pub situated in a market hall a few miles away up the Calder Valley.... Situated on Powell Street in Halifax town centre opposite the Victoria Theatre, the  Victorian Craft Beer Cafe (opening image)  or simply the  Vic  or  VCBC  for short was the first of the modern craft bars in the town when it welcomed its first drinkers back in 2014. Opened by Simon and his wife, Pang, it seems incredible but the Halifax beer drinking scene it joined was so different then to what it is now. The town centre pubs at that time were by and large traditional drinking houses, lager-driven sports bars, or cheap late night venues, and whilst there was some real ale to be found, most discerning drinkers would head a little further out of town to the likes of the Three Pigeons, the Cross Keys in Siddal, or the Big Six in King Cross. Victorian Craft Be...

News has just broken that Kirkstall Brewery will soon be taking on the lease of The Tetley, the former head office building of the famous Leeds brewery in their latest act of support for the city's brewing heritage.... There is something quite fitting about Kirkstall Brewery getting involved with The Tetley. The contemporary arts venue and restaurant had been fashioned from the former head offices of the brewery that for years provided the beer that slaked the thirsts of many of the city's residents as well as those from further afield. Fast forward to now and we see the increasingly confident, relative upstarts coming to the rescue of a building that once symbolised the former brewery's domination and standing the city in their latest rescue act as would-be custodians of the local brewing heritage. Tetley's brewery was a proper landmark for years in Leeds, part of the local furniture, dominating its site on Hunslet Road beside the River Aire and the area around, with t...

A breezy afternoon and heavy seas in Scarborough meant it was more of a day to seek shelter in some of the North Yorkshire resort's fine pubs rather than take in the sea views. And with good beer on offer everywhere it turned out to be a most enjoyable visit.... My most recent trips to Scarborough haven't always gone to plan. The last one saw me driving in bright, warm sunshine all the way from home to the outskirts of the North Yorkshire resort only for a thick sea-fret to descend, obscuring the sun and dragging the temperature down so that the entire visit was spent in gloom, the colours and sounds of the seaside muted and downplayed. Another time, I had booked a stay so I could spend a day watching Yorkshire play cricket, only for the rain to start coming down as I drove east, so there was very little play, resulting a long session in the neighbouring North Riding just down the hill along with plenty of other soggy fans including the legendary Bloke from Hull. And this lates...

A look at one of Greater Manchester's oldest surviving independent breweries which celebrates its 175th anniversary this year, followed by a pint of their beer in a couple of pubs in the Shudehill area of the city centre.... I first came across the beers of Joseph Holt when I moved to Manchester as a student in the 1970's, particularly when I lived in Salford which was in those days one of the family-owned brewery's strongholds. Having been weaned on the gentler flavours of beers from the likes of Websters and Tetleys, when I moved over the Pennines, I was struck by the bitterness of some of the local beers I discovered like Boddingtons, and more particularly Holts, whose bitter really was eye-wateringly bitter when I first tried it in the Grafton Arms, just round the corner from the university. The brewery had been founded in 1849 on Empire Street in the Cheetham Hill area of the city in the days when Manchester was expanding rapidly and demand for beer was high. Other bre...