From Queen to King

Ossett Brewery's new flagship pub the Silver King will open it's doors to the public this evening. After a major refit the former Victoria Hotel in Manor Road, Ossett will combine a bar and bistro following in the footsteps of the company's successful Riverhead and White Horse gastro-pubs. Interior photos will appear as soon as the dust has settled. (map)

The Silver King early this morning and as The Victoria in July (above right)

Ossett in Keighley

The running of Timothy Taylor's Albert Hotel in Keighley has been taken on by the Ossett Brewery Pub Company this week.

Riverhead Brewery Tap restaurant manageress Lori Parsons has foresaken Marsden to be at the helm of this large town centre tavern which will close for a couple of weeks for improvements.

Expect beer from both breweries to be available plus a comprehensive food menu. The restaurant and bar areas are spacious with an open fire and ample seating. A pool table, large screen TV and a fully self-contained function room complete the picture. (map) (pic: T.Taylors)

More Monkey Business

The award winning Monkey Club at Armitage Bridge, Huddersfield is holding a Harvest Festival Duck Race with mini outside bar this Saturday (27th September) from 2pm. There will be live music about 5pm and a barbecue too. Six beers, all with a harvest theme, have been ordered and full details of the event are now on the club's website.

The Beers:
Acorn Harvester 4.5%
Clarks Harvest Special 4.1%
Hopback GFB 3.5%
RCH Pitchfork 4.3%
RCH Steam Harvest 4.8%
York Brewery Golden Harvest 4.1%

Cider Trail

The West Riding Licensed Refreshment Rooms in Dewsbury & The Cellar Bar in Batley are co-hosting an event involving lots of real cider and just for a bit of fun, participants collecting (ie drinking) all twenty or so concoctions are not only guaranteed a splitting headache but also the chance of winning a top prize.

Trail cards will be available from both venues during the festival (today & tomorrow) and will add a little bit of food for thought with questions about the buildings (presumably in which the pubs are housed), cider, apples, cheese and who knows what else.

During the two days there will be a range of tasty apple themed foods available at both bars plus a Hog Roast (with apple sauce one hopes!) at the West Riding on the Saturday. Bar staff will also be serving non-alcoholic apple punch and there will be an opportunity to taste a range of quality cheeses courtesy of Czerwiks.

Musical entertainment will feature heavily too and bands confirmed so far include Floque - a five piece rock 'n' blues combo, Britrocks - playing 60's classics including the Stones, Jimmy Hendrix & The Who, De-railed - providing some blues and soul covers, Eric the Viaduct - Dewsbury's answer to Jake Thackray, and the famous Slubbing Billys Morris Team from Huddersfield.
It all sounds great fun if you fancy a totally off your face weekend. Count me in!

The List:
Thatchers
- Pear Cider 4.5%
- Traditional 6.0%
- Cheddar Valley 6.0%
- Heritage 4.9%
- Gold 4.8%
Westons
- Old Rosie 6.0%
- Scrumpy 7.3%
- Herefordshire County Perry 5.0%
Other ciders
- Westcroft 6.0%
- Soloway 6.0%
- Richs 6.0%
- Henrys 6.1%
- Sheppys 6.0%
- Wilkins 6.0%
- Burrow Hill 6.0%
- Ben Crossmans 5.7%
- Bennets 6.0%
- Ernie & Gerties 5.9%
- Naish 6.0%

Mallinson's Mountain Range

Recurring themes seem to be a Mallinson trait when it comes to naming their brews. First it was sport and now it seems mountains are the favoured flavour - though I have to plead stupidity with this latest offering from Huddersfield's newest brewery, as it took me a google session to realise that Tafelberg is (of course) Table Mountain! The christening of a beer can often tell us as much about the brewer as the beer, sometimes more than we need to know, but one thing's for certain with this ale - it rocks!

"A pale beer with a pleasant hoppy aroma, lightly bitter taste and dry finish"
ABV 4.5%. Click here to check availability.

Building Up Another Head Of Steam

More good news in the latest bulletin from the Head of Steam this week:

As we have circulated before, THE HEAD OF STEAM LTD pubs in Newcastle upon Tyne and Huddersfield are having beer festivals from 22nd September to about 6th October (or until the beers run out) aimed at "educating" new university students about the delights of the real ales in the area they have come to live in.

The Head Of Steam, Huddersfield, will be featuring ales from West Yorkshire, while the 3 pubs in Newcastle will be featuring beer from Northumberland, Co. Durham and Tyneside. In addition, the Cluny and The Head Of Steam in Newcastle are putting on festivals of ciders and perries, the like of which has probably never been seen in Newcastle before! I bet you never knew there were so many Welsh cider and perry makers!

During October and November, we plan to be featuring in all our pubs - Liverpool included - another element in the 3rd phase of our successful STUFF THE SUPERMARKETS campaign, this time in association with BLACK SHEEP BREWERY of Masham, N. Yorkshire. For every 8 pints of any Black Sheep beer bought, 2 bottles of their magnificent HOLY GRAIL will be given (for taking out). This is a fantastic beer, mainly brewed for export, but made available to our company by special arrangement. It's not available in supermarkets, so if our customers like it, they can get it from our pubs!

We will shortly be launching another attack on the supermarkets to steal their Christmas take home trade (I bet they'll be quaking in their commercial boots!!!) - and when we do announce our plans, it will be big news - so WATCH THIS SPACE!!

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Tony Brookes, The Head Of Steam Ltd - office 01434 607393 mobile- 07803 124508 http://www.theheadofsteam.co.uk/

FESTIVAL OF WEST YORKSHIRE ALES
22 September – 6 October

Anglo Dutch Kletswater 4.0
Bridestone Bridesmaid 4.0
H.B. Clark Classic Blonde 3.9
Elland Beyond the Pale 4.2
Fernandes Triple O 3.9
Empire Golden Warrior 3.8
Halifax Steam Uncle John 4.3
Old Bear Goldilocks 4.5
Little Valley Withens IPA 3.9
Taylors Ram Tam 4.3
Tigertops Dark Mild Wheat 3.6
Leeds Leeds Pale 3.8
Ossett Silver King 4.3
Riverhead Wessenden Wheat 4.0
Atlas Mill Hercules 4.5
Ryburn Luddite 5.0
Salamander Stout 4.5
Saltaire Fuggles Bitter 3.8

Andy's Acorn Feast

The Green Cross at Moldgreen, Huddersfield is celebrating landlord Andy Henstock's birthday this month with an Acorn beer fest featuring ten ales from the award winning brewery. An entire week's festivities (12th-19th) are planned with live music from Light's Out, The 3 Nineteens, Patrick Dean and a live folk night too. The beers confirmed include old favourites Barnsley Bitter and Old Moor Porter plus a specially commissioned birthday ale. The full list and live music dates can be found on the pub's website. (map)

New Beer Guide Entries

A couple of deserving cases from this area have made the Good Beer Guide, now in it's 36th year, for the first time. The Swan at Crimble, Slaithwaite is now well and truly on the Colne Valley ale trail thanks to the consistent quality of it's beer and biannual festivals. The pub is within easy reach of Huddersfield town centre by bus & train and always provides a warm & friendly welcome.

A few miles away in the Holme Valley, Armitage Bridge WMC or the Monkey Club as it's better known, has been another success story this past twelve months. Picking up local CAMRA's seasonal and annual awards for best club it now produces an outstanding beer festival in July that has quickly become one of the unmissable events of the year.

Two brewpubs that have not featured for a while but find themselves back in the bible this time are the Rose & Crown, home of the Golcar brewery and the Riverhead Brewery Tap in Marsden - now under the Ossett banner but still producing the original range of quality ales.

Links to all these pubs/clubs can be found in the sidebar.

Rat Fest In Colour

When landlord Sam Birkhead asked if I could do some 'crowd' pics of the festival, I'm damned sure this isn't what he had in mind! But then I was halfway through the Saturday session when the request was made and I have enough difficulty controlling a camera when sober. 'Cos I never use flash and the pub is dark the results were predictably soft & grainy - and then, I'm afraid, I went and got a little carried away in Photoshop. Sorry Sam!

The action shot of Ted (no.4) is my favourite - it's just like Beijing all over again!

Rat Fest 3 ...

... starts today and promises to be an improvement on last year. Those attending back then will recall problems with the temperature of the beer on the festival bar during the mini-heatwave, rendering much of it undrinkable. New cooling apparatus has been installed for this one so predictably the weather will be crap, in fact opportunities to enjoy the beer alfresco will be very limited indeed with a forecast of persistent rain for the entire weekend. Haven't we suffered enough!

The List: (click to enlarge)