Real Ale, Real Music

I had a great trip east last weekend courtesy of Halifax & Calderdale CAMRA to visit Brass Castle Brewery in Malton and North Riding near Scarborough, followed by a visit to a few pubs on the coast at Filey.... The trip was organised to present certificates to Brass Castle and North Riding breweries for their beers that had won awards at last September's Halifax & Calderdale CAMRA Beer Festival, and so, on a blustery but sunny Saturday morning I joined 20-odd other CAMRA members and boarded a coach at Halifax Bus Station for the journey to North Yorkshire. An hour and a half or so after leaving Halifax, we arrived in the market town of Malton. My visits over the years to the town have been very sporadic, and I don't think I'd ever appreciated what a bustling little town it is. We got parked up near the town's market and walked through narrow streets to the Brass Castle Taphouse, behind which lies the Brass Castle brewery. The Taphouse is a lovely, welcoming...

A couple of days in the Lake District this week gave me the chance to re-visit a few old favourites.... I have always liked to visit the Lakes out of season. The chance to wander around when it's less busy, an opportunity to take in the outstanding scenery, lovely villages, and excellent pubs without the crowds that flock there for so much of the year is an attraction. So when I decided to go for a couple of days this week, even though it was half-term, with   the weather forecast not being particularly good in the wake of Storm Denis, I didn't anticipate that it would be too busy. I was wrong. OK, you could still drive around the area easily enough, provided you carefully negotiated the puddles and streams that seemed to be everywhere, but there did seem to be a whole lot more people than a couple of years ago, when I had also visited in February. And like last time, I had booked to stay at The Sun Hotel in Coniston, and whilst it was quieter later on, when I checked in...

The weather this last few days has been pretty challenging to say the least, with areas of the country struck by high winds and heavy rain, resulting in some severe flooding and devastation for many. One of the areas worst affected was the Calder Valley, where once again the heavy rains and the swollen River Calder took hold of communities up and down its length.... Last Saturday, the weather was kinder than had been forecast. All the previous week we had been warned to expect severe winds and rain, but the sun was out and the day was pleasant as I met a group of friends from Brighouse at Halifax station. We were heading off to Sowerby Bridge, where we were celebrating the birthday of one of the gang, Janette. The train from Halifax takes 6 minutes, and less than a minute's walk away was the first place on our tour, the Jubilee Refreshment Rooms, housed in a building that was once part of the grand old building that was once Sowerby Bridge Railway Station. It is run by brother...

Last week was a busy one! Thursday night it was Halifax with some friends from the world of pubs and beer, then on Friday I paid my annual visit to the Manchester Beer and Cider Festival.... The road from Halifax town centre to the huge industrial mill complex at Dean Clough has become a well-trodden one by me over the past few months. Not only because out Tom has been working at the Next Level Bar - retro arcade games, nice enough bar, but regrettably no draught real ale - but because the Stod Fold bar there has become a magnet for the pub ticking fraternity as a result of its inclusion into the CAMRA Good Beer Guide for the first time. So a couple of months ago, Simon Everitt  came to town for an evening with Alex aka Quosh and I, and then on Thursday, Martin Taylor  and Duncan Mackay , along with Quosh, a couple of Jims, and a Luke, met me there for a tour around the town which also took in the Grayston Unity, and a couple of the new bars, The Meandering Bear and Kobenha...

Tap takeovers where one brewery takes over the pumps and taps of a particular establishment are common enough, but the Toon on Tour festival taking place in Halifax in February puts a different slant on things.... "Hi, Chris. Will you be calling in the bar/s this weekend? Got an idea I'd like to put to you."  The text was from Michael Ainsworth. The idea was to have a city-based takeover of the pump and keg lines at the two bars he runs in the town, the Grayston Unity and The Meandering Bear. The first city he had in mind was Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a city that he knows that I love to visit. And that's where I came in. Would I be interested in curating the beers for the festival? I thought for a minute. I said yes. There is something unique about Newcastle. The city, built on the side of the Tyne Valley, is full of stunning views. Bridges, roads, and railways pass below you, sometimes above. Grand old buildings give the city a sense of importance, and in Grey S...

For many people, January is a month when resolutions are made, diets started, gym memberships taken out. Which means the pub can get left out of things. But there is no reason to completely abandon them.... January is probably the most miserable month in the calendar. Christmas gone, back at work, long dark days, bills to pay. Indeed, as I write this on the 20th of the month, it is the so-called Blue Monday, as apparently analysis been conducted which shows that this is actually the most depressing day in the calendar. It tends to be on the 3rd Monday of January, but can sometimes be a week earlier or later. And despite that, some people decide to make themselves even more miserable by depriving themselves of things that they love! Chocolate, a favourite food, alcohol, maybe. But if you decide to give up alcohol for a month, there is no reason to completely abandon the pub. Staff still need to be paid, their bills still keep coming in, and so the non-alcoholic option, a meal out, o...

An iconic Calderdale pub re-opened its doors a few days before Christmas after being closed for several years. And so I've been along to have a look.... The Puzzle Hall in Sowerby Bridge was always a quirky place. I first visited it 40-odd years ago when I was growing up in the town. Back then it was a tied house belonging to Wards of Sheffield, one of only two pubs they had in Calderdale (the other was The Star at Greetland). This in itself marked it out as unusual at a time when the local pub scene was dominated by the likes of Websters, Tetleys, and Whitbread. Its location, on Hollins Mill Lane, past the town's swimming baths, library, and fire station (only the library is still open these days), was somewhat isolated, squeezed in between the river and industrial units, with the Rochdale Canal flowing above on a bank across the narrow road. This meant that, despite only being a few minutes' walk from the busy A58, it was on the edge of town, not really on the road t...