Brewers having a barrel of laughs

A brewer who claims to have the smallest brewery in Leeds, conjuring up ales in a back-to-back terrace home and a female brewer in East Yorkshire achieving her ambition of producing her own real ales, both feature in a list of start-ups by the Campaign for Real Ale.

The West Riding now tops the leader board for the most breweries in the country, with 57 all told.

The double dip recession has done nothing to stop the surge, and although 26 pubs are closing a week, the demand for real ale seems unstoppable, according to Good Beer Guide 2014 editor Roger Protz.

There are now 1,147 breweries in the UK, a 14 per cent increase in the last 12 months.

Much is to do with the tax break handed breweries producing up to 30,000 barrels a year by Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor, as well as an increasing enthusiasm for all things local. More women are also drinking real ale.

Mr Protz said: “West Yorkshire has always been a strong area for beer with Leeds, Bradford, Castleford and Halifax and Huddersfield and many smaller towns boasting hundreds of fantastic real ale pubs. In recent years numerous new breweries like Collingham, Big River and Brass Castle have sprung up to supply local demand.

“In spite of pub closures there is a tremendous boom in the number of people looking for good beer and demanding fresh and exciting beer styles. People are no longer content to go out for a pint of mild or bitter. They are looking for styles that have been recreated, such as porter, stout, Indian pale ale. The other real exciting thing is that more women are looking for taste and flavour.

“It was always assumed that the women would be drinking half a pint of Carlsberg while the husband has a few pints of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, but they have tried his beer now and decided that instead of some fizzy nothing, they like the lovely interesting flavours of rich malt and hops.”

As well as newcomers in and around Leeds including Collingham Ales and Rodley’s Sunbeam Ales, established brewery Kirkstall Brewery is celebrating its own milestone, taking charge of its first pub. New breweries mean even more choice, with the number of regularly brewed British beers now standing at over 5,200.

Hand Drawn Monkey Brewery Co in Huddersfield, which operates in premises which used to be operated by Mallinsons Brewery, describes itself as “ambitious and creative” and admits to experiments – including twigs – which “are too wierd to release.”

They are already doing around 2,000 pints a week, supply pubs as far away as Edinburgh and Bristol and have just been invited to send a cask of beer to the Toronto Beer festival. “They sent us the cask and we filled it,” said brewer Tom Evans.

Meanwhile at the Goodmanham Arms, in East Yorkshire, Abigail Longozzi is brewing six bitters and a mild, Peg Fyfe, named after a local highwaywoman, proving one of the her most popular. Jade Melbourne, from the pub, said: “People are always surprised when they come in and see a woman brewing. It is getting more and more popular as word gets out.”

Despite the boom in UK-brewed beer the ingredients are not always local with brewers going for New Zealand and American hops, leaving the industry in deep crisis. “There’s a craze for New Zealand hops, which makes a nonsense of the carbon footprint in flying them all the way from there, said Mr Protz. “There are 23 types of hops in this country and we can provide all the flavours people want. The hop industry in this country reckons they could disappear in 10 years.”

Every year when Mr Protz compiles the guide he believes the number of breweries must peak – but it hasn’t yet, and that is despite the beer we drink being the most heavily taxed per head in Europe.

He said: “All governments from time immemorial certainly from the warhave used the brewing industry as a milk cow. There is no reason to think that this Government or any other is going to change tack For the last four or five years 80 new breweries have been opening. This past 12 months even more have opened. It seems to be unstoppable.”