Black sheep Beer.

It seems a long time ago now when I was first handed a glass of dark beer in a beer festival in Lincoln by a friend who was trying to persuade me into the virtues of real ale . The dark beer was Theaksons Old Peculiar . It was very good , dame good . And back then it was under threat of diapering .

"So what said I the power of the market will decide the way things will go , if a brewery is swooped up by a bigger firm then so be it ." Mrs Thatcher was in power and then greed was good, or so we thought .

" But if we do not support them then no one will make beers like this any more and all we will have to drink is larger ."My friend protested.

He was a passionate about real ale , I was to young to listen and we was both slowly getting drunk . Needles to say the out come of the discussion was that we both thought we was right and both in the long run was wrong .

Not wrong that the Theaksons brewery was taken over by the Big company . Scottish and Newcastle have it now . But thank good for people like my friend who went out made a stand and gave a opportunity for the small independent brewer to start once more . For now we have the Black Sheep brewery.

If you go to Masam in North Yorkshire you are in for a treat. One the drive there is threw some of the best British countryside that you get around . Rolling hills and tree lined roads till you come to the town sitting just on the side of the bottom of a hill. Two it is one of the prettiest little market towns with a cobbles square and surrounding buildings and shops . If you come in from the east side of town and over the bridge you look up to your right hand side and you see The Black Sheep brewery . It is important because it hold on to a tradition that has lived in the town for generations and now despite the big breweries still does . A Paul Theaksons , of the Theaksons family opened the brewery back in the early nineties . He had decided not to go with the old firm and work for Scottish and Newcastle but to go it alone and make his own home brewed beer in his own town like his family before him . This was keeping a tradition alive in the town that had been there for generations . Now they produce a number of beers . Good solid beers that hold up to scrutiny, full of flavour and depth .

The most common one and by that I mean the main beer that is brewed is the Best bitter . Light gold in colure and not to heavy in flavour . A refreshing and dry hop taste to it . It has a ABV of 3.8 and is very, very drinkable.

The next is a Black Sheep Ale , A little darker than the bitter and more of the malt in this one . Slightly sweeter to the taste but not to much . It is by and large my favourite beer that they produce and the one I would pick if I had to over all . 4.4 ABV also stronger than the bitter .

Black sheep Emmerdale , good light beer good flavours and a clean bitter sweet taste. I must admit that I did not like it as much as I thought I was going to but it was still a good honest drink . Plenty of flavour and a more cosmopolitan flavour to it , not as hoppy as the black sheep ale . Having said that it was 4.2 ABV so it did have a punch to it that you might not expect .

Then the Riggwelter. So called after the stretcher that was used I believe to carry sheep found on the fell side who was about to give birth ot a baby lame. At 5.9 ABV you could say that it should come with a stretcher of its own . But unlike most strong beer of this king it is not over sweet . It is in fact , to my mind ,one of the best balanced beer of this kind and strength .Well worth a drink if you can get it .

If you can not get to a pub or bar that you can supply you with the beer I know that you can get the Ale , Emmerdale and Rigwelter in bottles as well as a couple of other beer that they now do in bottles as well . I recommend them all and would drink them all as well with out hesitation .