Brewing returns to Bradford city centre after £400,000 investment

The Bradford Brewery and the brewery’s attached pub, The Brewfactory, will open to the public at 4pm - just a week after brewing started at the site off Westgate.

Both the pub and brewery are inside a four-storey building which contains a glass wall which allows pub customers to peer into the brewery.

Customers will be able to sample the first beer made on site, The Origin, a 4.2 per cent dry-hopped pale ale, and the second brew to emerge, an American brown ale called Razorback.

Further beers will be added to the range over the coming months.

As well as the brewery’s own products, The Brewfactory will also be showcasing beers from other UK breweries,

For managing director Matthew Halliday, the grand opening has been a long time coming.

“Our dream is finally coming true,” he said.

“After nearly two years of planning and hard work we are proud to be relaunching the brewing industry in the heart of this great city.

“We can’t wait to welcome beer lovers to our brewery and we’re looking forward to creating a range of great beers to delight their palates.

“We’d like to thank everyone who’s supported us along the way, local people, the beer-loving community, local businesses, the media, and many, many, more.

“Our next task is to make sure we very quickly see Bradford Brewery beers on bars all across the city.”

The brewery marks the return of the industry to the city centre for the first time in over 50 years.

The former Hammonds Bradford Brewery closed its doors in 1955.

The Bradford Brewery has a 10-barrel brewplant, capable of producing around 16,000 pints a week.

It was manufactured by Oban Ales in Fort William, Scotland, using components sourced from 19 different countries and was delivered to Bradford just two weeks ago.

The kit then had to be unloaded by forklift truck into the brewery where it was assembled, with the help of specialists from the Scottish manufacturers.

In a business partnership first for Yorkshire, The Brewfactory is to be the county’s first Pieminister Pie Pub, serving the award-winning company’s full pie and mash menu.

However pie aficionados will have to wait just a week longer until the pie kitchen is ready to launch.

The new business will be opened by Lord Mayor of Bradford Councillor Mike Gibbons and the Lady Mayoress Mrs Elizabeth Sharp.

Mr Halliday, who is Bradford-born, is a former publican at the Fisherman’s Inn at Bingley, near Bradford.

He used to work in London as chief executive of a health charity and is back in Bradford to lead the brewery/pub full-time.

He also serves as a director of the Saltaire Festival, one of the area’s biggest visitor events.

Head brewer Steve Crump, formerly of the Wharfe Bank Brewery at Pool-in-Wharfedale, says the Bradford Brewery range will feature “hop-bursting pales, complex ambers and some serious IPAs.”