Pioneering Leeds-based bar group North Bar Ltd and the successful team behind Belgrave Music Hall and Headrow House have joined forces

Pioneering Leeds-based bar group North Bar Ltd and the successful team behind Belgrave Music Hall and Headrow House have joined forces to open a 15bbl brewery with a 200 person capacity tap room in Leeds.  

The new brewery opened on November 28th at Taverner’s Walk Industrial Estate on the fringe of Leeds City Centre and will initially service the eight bars currently operated between the two bar groups. Brewers Seb Brink (formerly of Golden Owl) and Darius Darwell (of Bristol Beer Factory) are behind the recipes of the beers, which will vary from classic British standards to exciting and interesting flavour combinations.

Christian Townsley, Director of North Brewing Co, said: “We’ve been talking about opening a brewery for over ten years, to finally see it become reality is amazing and we’re all really excited about the future.”

Opened in 1997, North Bar marked the way for the growth in ‘craft beer’ venues in the UK, working closely with key beer importers such as James Clay of Elland and Vertical Drinks of Leeds on the way. The group, which currently operates six venues in Leeds, is undergoing a significant wave of growth with work underway on a new venture in Harrogate and another site in Leeds city centre, working with local law firm Chadwick Lawrence and with support from Natwest Bank. Belgrave Music Hall opened in 2014 to critical acclaim and the team have followed that success with the opening of Headrow House in October of this year.

Christian Townsley, Director of North Bar Ltd, said: “North Brewing Company is the next logical step in our business growth, but it doesn’t come without a challenge as over the last eighteen years our customers have come to expect only the best from us. We believe that even in the current competitive climate in British brewing there’s an opportunity for a team willing to produce well crafted classics as well as more challenging beer styles. At the same time we’re opening something unique in Leeds – a proper tap within the brewery, where customers will be sitting amongst the action.

We’ve big plans for the brewery and the tap, the opening months will be about ensuring we’ve consistency in our brews and our systems are tight, then we’ll look to packaging and distributing our beers, while developing the offering within the tap, with parties, tasting events, craft fairs, you name it.”

John Gyngell, Director of North Bar Ltd, said: “In our group of bars we have commercial customers ready and waiting for our product, giving us the opportunity to develop our products quickly and under the scrutiny of the most refined palates. In the tap we have an exciting new venue that we worked hard to ensure still felt like a part of the brewery, we wanted that ‘Willy Wonka’ feel.”