Very spur of the moment decision to book a cheap hotel and do a ale crawl in Leeds. Quite a few people have suggested Leeds so I thought. Why not.
We stopped in the ibis in the center and while chatting to the guy at reception he said there was a pub with a microbrewery just up the road. So we set off up the hill and round the corner found the Fox and newt. I decided to try the beer from the Burley Street brew house (the microbrewery on site) and had a nice pint of 'the brickyard beer.' we checked out the menu on the table and decided we would eat here. I had the burger and it was beautiful. And cheap. A very nice pub my only complaint would be the music was to loud to have a conversion.
Next we decided to walk into the center. Walking past lots of different pubs we finally settled on the Bowers tap. This is a modern Craft ale bar. A tad chain pub like. Beer was very good. Had a pint of the Raven Bourbon Milk by the Sonnet 43 Brewery. Very sweet and very tasty. The main problem with this pub was the heat. It was boiling. After 10 minutes we downed our pints and left because of the heat.
After this we decided to trust the Good Beer Guide and walked to Whitelocks. My favorite thing about Leeds is how you have the main shopping street with lots of alleyways and Ginnels with lots of backstreet pubs. Whitelocks is one of these pubs . Whitelocks is a very old and fantastic real ale pub with lots of pumps and a very old interior. It was very busy so we opted to sit outside. I had a lovely pint of Mary Jane by the Ilkley Brewery.
The next pub we went in what just up the next ginnel. It was called the Packhorse. Apparently this is the oldest pub in Leeds. It is tastefully decorated with a mix of old and new. I had a pint of the Saltaire Brewery Blonde. which is very light and tasty. Again my only complaint about this pub was the music was to loud. Especially the fact that there was not that many people in the pub at the time.
The final pub for us was the ship inn. Again up another ginnel. There were lots of cask pumps and lots of great beers. Which I tried them all. Unfortunately my phone was out of battery at this point so I don't know exactly what beers I had. I know there were a couple of Leeds beers on. There was an guitarist on who was ok for some songs but murdered some others. I got a cracking t-shirt from the ship inn.
Leeds has so many different real ale pubs I have the feeling we didn't even scratch the surface. I think we will be visiting in the future.
Bamber out.
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