I realised the other day that I haven’t written anything at all about Leeds Brewery yet.
The brewery has been in production since 2007, and it’s got a stable of good, solid modern beers, and a trio of staggeringly good pubs to sell it in.
Leeds have three permanent beers, supplemented by a range of seasonal brews. Of the permanent fixtures, Midnight Bell, a dark, chocolatey mild is the pick of the crop, a lovely smooth drink. Pale is very dry and bitter, packed with hops, and it’s extremely good indeed. Best is a classic bitter with a carefully balanced taste.
The seasonal beers include a very good lager, brewed upstairs in a micro micro-brewery at The Brewery Tap, just across from the station. Next up in August is Funfair, trailled as ‘a summer thirst quencher’.
It’s good to see a Leeds success story, in the long shadow of Tetley’s sad and painful divorce from the city.
I won’t dwell on the pubs, but I’ll come back to them later. It’s enough to say that I think The Brewery Tap has hit that perfect balance between being a proper pub and being modern, open and accessible. It’s a real joy.
I’ll leave the more in depth reviews to the brilliant Culture Vulture for now.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Good to see those old labels again I'm not endeared to the new ones, although I believe the shiny ones are expensive for something so hard to read in the wrong light (and takes pictures of!)I believe Midnight Bell will be a permanent cask fixture but they've stopped doing it in bottles, at least for the time being, to focus on other things. It's the best of their beers for me though, a great complex dark mild (that isn't that mild!)
Rumour has it that Midnight Bell is going to be given a rest for a while as it's not selling quite as quickly as the other permanent beers. Shame, but I guess it's not really a summer drink …
Great review! I Im totally obsessed by the Leeds brewery and everything they do. I love midnight bell, but I do enjoy the pale too.
I think Midnight Bell is superb – it'll be a shame if they take it off, although I'd expect that it'll be back come the winter.
Oh my… those bottles are lovely and the beer sounds exquisite. It's before 9am here, but it's got to be happy hour *somewhere*