Masham - The Beer Capital of North Yorkshire

This blog post has been a long time coming. For anyone who knows me you have probably noticed that I am a bit obsessed with this small Yorkshire Market Town.

Situated just north of Ripon, a quick 15 minutes off of the motorway is the little town of Masham, if you have never visited the market town, or even heard of it then you will definitely have heard of its two famous Breweries. It is the home of Theakston & Black Sheep.

We first came across this wonderful place when we booked a weekend away 5 years ago, for me the decision was made on the promise of a brewery tour at the Black Sheep Brewery. The hotel we stayed at shares a wall with the latter brewery, even though it is a Theakston pub - take the tours where all is explained.
For the last 5 years we have stayed at the White Bear Country Inn, we even ended up having our Wedding reception here. Sue and the team are so friendly and will always make you welcome, so please pay them a visit...an overnight stay is approx £125 a room including (an amazing) breakfast. I'd like to be able to recommend a few restaurants in Masham, but we have never ventured away from the White Bear for a meal. Apart from the Wedding Breakfast and a Sunday Roast last year I have always ordered the same, Steak & Chips (with blue cheese sauce)...cooked to perfection, you would really struggle to have three courses.
Make sure you try the beer bread - it is served both at breakfast and for dinner and is like a sweet cake with a salty crust...its so good that our wedding guests ordered loaves to take home with them!
At the bar they offer a large range of Theakston beers, including the new craft range...on a recent visit I tried the new IPA and Barista Stout (cake in a glass...yum).

If you are just looking for a coffee, with a view of the market square then I suggest you head to Johnny Baghdad's for a spot of people watching, this is situated on the square next to the church. The markets run on most weekends, but head down early as it gets really busy.

Naturally if you are here you are more or less obliged to hit the breweries, the tours are fantastic. Personally we prefer the Theakston brewery tour & visitor centre as it is more 'oldy worldly' and ironically feels less corporate, when in fact it is Black Sheep who are more of a private firm (the Theakston family still own their brewery but have more corporate ties).
The stories behind these two breweries are fascinating - and the staff clearly love their products and have so much knowledge that you can't help but want to stock up in the shops. The only downside to the shops is that you can find their normal beers cheaper in the supermarkets...but I suppose you only pick up the beers that you can not find locally, the Black Sheep Imperial IPA is worth the money as is the Theakston Pale Ale & Distillers Cask!
In both visitor centres you can relax and enjoy the range of regular and seasonal beers. The Black Bull In Paradise (Theakston) is really cosy in the winter months...make sure you get a taster board, beers do not come better in any pub !

On a more recent visit to Masham we discovered that they have more than just beer on offer. Pop into Corks and Cases if you are looking for a bottle of wine or some spirits, surprisingly this little shop now has its on on site distillery offering it's own Masham Gin. The chap who I spoke to was really enthusiastically about his gin, it has a smooth aniseed flavour and matches perfectly with a bottle of Fevertree tonic water. Naturally this gin has had hops added as a nod to the towns famous export. I bought a bottle for both my wife and my mother in law....safe to say both bottles will soon need replenishing.

So in a nutshell, when you are looking for a day out, or even a weekend away, head out into the dales to my favourite place, browse the market, drink some beer and just take in the atmosphere of this wonderful place.

Gin Tasting - Fuggle & Golding Ilkley

There are certain drinks that you associate with the summer months: pimms, cold lager, prosecco etc But for me, nothing suits a warm afternoon in the sun than a G&T. If we are at a family get together, or just sat in our own garden I will usually grab the nearest bottle of gin, especially with Mrs Tipple and her sister around.

Unfortunately we have not really had much of a summer here in Yorkshire, I think I have spent more time outside in my shorts keeping warm with a coffee than I have had enjoying the sun. But what else do you expect from the UK.

I have spoken in the past about the joy of having local craft beer/bottle shops and how even though the prices can be a little high, I will always support my local beer shop. These independent stores need our support to bring us weird and wonderful tipples that we will not usually stumble upon in the supermarkets. One of my 'locals' is Fuggle and Golding in Ilkley, it is not necessarily 'close' to where I live, but easily accessible - read about them here in a past post. Mrs Tipple and I saw on Facebook that they were moving into 'tasting nights', starting with a Gin Tasting...we could not resist.

As their store is quite small tickets were limited, luckily we jumped straight in there as we would have been really disappointed to have missed out. Tickets were £10 each and included 2x free G&T's, which lets face it that is your £10 there and then with Ilkley prices.
Upon arrival we were greeted by the ever welcoming owners, they explained that the evening would be quite informal and that we were free to just relax and enjoy all the wonderful bottles that they had on offer. I have to admit we were a bit worried that we would have to do the whole 'whats your name and where do you come from' but the informality made for a really relaxing and enjoyable evening.

As soon as everyone had a full glass their gin expert (I forget his name, blame the booze!) took centre stage to discuss how to create the perfect Gin & Tonic - the trick is, plenty of ice, stir for up to a minute to benefit from all the botanicals and do not add too much tonic. I feel like the latter is where we go wrong at home as it is tempting to just fill up a glass with tonic water...the way we were taught tasted amazing, but we started to feel the effects quite quickly!
On the shop counter/bar housed a line up of all the Gin on offer for the evening, as he went down the bar we were all taught about different garnishes that we could use to get the most out of our Gin, whilst at the same time learning about the small distilleries that created these tipples.

Cuckoo Gin

Cuckoo Gin (Brindle Distillery, Lancashire)
We began the night with a glass of Cuckoo & Fevertree, garnished with lemon peel and a slice of ginger. I tried this neat to begin with, it was really smooth and surprisingly drinkable without any tonic water. Mark & his wife, from the distillery, were on site and talked us through the story behind their new Gin...when I say new, they had only started bottling their first batch 5 weeks before the gin tasting. After a long chat and a very large sample of Cuckoo we decided that this was the bottle that we would go home with, check out their website for the story behind the brand - I will be writing a post especially on their Gin within the coming weeks and both Mrs Tipple & I hope they gain the success that they deserve.

Malfy Gin

Malfy Gin (Torino Italy)
I enjoy a Limoncello and anything citrusy, so this was a must have for the evening. When you list the drinks that the Italians make I would never have thought that Gin would be on it. Looking at the bottle it just screams out summer, and even though it is distilled in the north of Italy, the taste is everything that I would associate with a summer on the Amalfi coast. Naturally, the lemon infusion is the big draw for this Gin, making Malfy a very fruity and refreshing tipple.

Three Rivers Gin (Manchester)

Manchester Three Rivers Gin

Mrs Tipple picked this as her second sample of the night. Paired in the glass with frozen cherries this gin has a really mellow smoothness, before a spicy, peppery aftertaste hits. We had not heard of Manchester Three Rivers before the taster evening, but we really want to book a visit. For £95 per person you can book a 'Gin Experience', where you visit the distillery and take a tour of its facilities...i'm sure with a G&T in hand. They then introduce you to their 'Gin School' where you learn about botanicals and flavours, and here is the best bit, you get to create your own unique gin! Once we have finished saving for Tipple Towers then we will certainly be booking a Gin Experience.

A selection of flavours that can be found in Cuckoo Gin