Brewery Information

Bob's Brewing Company

Was founded as Red Lion Ales by Bob Hunter in 2002. The official launch took place at the Red Lion pub in Ossett on Tuesday 9th April 2002, and the beers were also on sale at O'Donoghues in the City and occasionally at that time in The Plough at Warmfield.
Bob Hunter in the early days of the Red Lion Brewery The Red Lion pub under its landlord at the time, Pete Trafford, had been extending its guest beer range, and a logical next step was to bring in Bob Hunter (top picture), former co-founder of Ossett Brewing, to set up and run a 4-5 barrel length plant, brewing once a week, mainly for the pub itself. Originally annual barrrelage was about 300. The mash tun had to be trundled out of the way when not in use: Bob had originally planned to make it hoistable to loft level, but it was not practicable. Trying to shoe-horn the equipment into such a small space Bob's pipework had to be spot-on, and he was not short of bruises on the knees & elbows. An adequate power supply had to be installed in the outbuilding. The only major hitch was that one of Bob's second-hand vessels leaked like a sieve when it was tested and a replacement had to be hastily found. Two conditioning tanks were squeezed into the space, and Bob would say say you couldn't slide a cigarette paper between them. There was and still is almost nowhere to store full casks so it's a real "just-in-time" delivery situation.
The yard at the Red Lion The yeast Bob was originally using came from the Stones plant at Tadcaster but it proved to be too slow-working with Bob's smaller quantities (up to 9 days). He then turned to a yeast from Old Mill at Snaith and this was much more at home in his small vessels, being first used for Bob's Special Bitter, a satisfying pale brown 4.2% old-fashioned "beery" bitter with a lingering hoppy finish, using Northdown for aroma and Bramling Cross for bittering. This yeast was thenceforth used for brews of White Lion, a very pale, flowery 4.3% lager style beer using Cascade hops and the robust, very hoppy 4.5% Golden Lion which uses lots of East Kent Goldings. Golden Lion was "rested" for a while reappeared from time to time. Past specials have been a World Cup special - Three Lions not surprisingly, at 4.2%, and for the Golden Jubilee, Majestic at 5.2%, a strong lager-style beer. Silver Bullet using lager malt, heavily hopped with Simcoe� by the original creator of the silver series, a 4.6% beer far preferable to Coors' hyped-up silver tinnies of Megaswill, and you might also have caught Golden Oldie at 4%. Visitors from across the Pennines observe that Ossett folk like their beers really hoppy. By moving the cold liquor tank out into the yard Bob managed to fit in an additional 3.5 barrel fermenter for busy periods. He did develop a new version of I.P.A. with a revised recipe, extraordinarily light coloured and highly flowery with an enduring hop palate at 4.5%. The 5.6% dark beer Dark Force (alluding to what H.M. said to Paul Burrell, though nobody seemed to get the connection) was brewed with Bamberg smoked malt supplied by Brupaks of Honley giving a China tea smokiness; also a mellow gold Christmas 2002 brew was the 4.6% Three Kings. The 4.6% Chardonnayle (now 5.1%) first brewed in time for the 2002 Wakefield Beer Festival, a complex & stylish strong pale ale with hints of lemongrass & fruits like a Chardonnay wine, using Willamette hops for aroma, continues to sell, along with Yakima Pale Ale a hoppy and fairly bitter yellow 4.5% premium ale using hops from Washington State, placed joint second in the Popular Vote at the 2002 Beer Festival then placed top at Huddersfield Beer Festival. Chardonnayle has since scooped Beer of the Festival at Spring 2003's Bradford Beer Festival. To keep up with the demand for Chardonnayle in particular, Bob has had to buy in a lot more 18 gallon casks. Chardonnayle made it to the 2003 Great British Beer festival, acquiring cult status among beer spotters. It continued to receive high acclaim, including its selection as champion beer at St Albans Beer Festival 2004, one of the largest festivals in the South East outside London, and as Beer of the Festival at the Dudley Winter Ales Festival 2005. Lion Cub, a 4.1% classic refreshing pale ale using Styrian Goldings hops and Maris Otter Pale Malt was on offer in September 2003 as a session beers. Lion Tamer at 5.2% appeared in 2005 for the Halifax Mayfest described as "intensely floral with a malty body". New in March-April 2006 was Pale Sunlight at 4.1%, ultra pale and intensely aromatic from Amarillo hops. The turn of the year to 2004 saw a new phase for Red Lion Brewery. Pete and Hils Trafford moved on to a new pub, The Blacksmith's Arms at Lastingham near Pickering. The locals there enjoyed Red Lion beers and these would regularly find their way up to Lastingham, friends from the Red Lion often taking up a nine in the car boot and calling off at Lastingham on their way to the Moors or Whitby. Bob brewed Lastingham Ale for Pete at 4.1%, using for the first time English hedgerow hops and pale malt plus a small percentage of crystal malt. At this time the adjacent public house went through several changes of licensee, and it was not an entirely comfortable time for the brewery and plans were made to move the brewery with premises located in Horbury. In Autumn 2005 local ale fans were stunned to hear that Bob had been stopped in his tracks by a stroke, from which he has fortunately recovered. Moreover Bob seemed now to be doing what he'd been told, relatively, that is - he is Bob Hunter after all. At first when out of hospital though walking unaided he was finding small distances quite great. He was soon back in brewing mode, although he was no longer trying to do it all himself. He did promise no physical work for two or three months or at least he said so. He and his wife Sarah were really touched by the help given by former colleagues at Ossett Brewing. Bob planned that brewing would continue at the Red Lion until at least the end of the year and set on a keen young chap called Andrew Temporal who did a little work at Ossett a few years back. Andrew was to brew at the Red Lion site whilst Bob continued fitting out the new Horbury premises. In July 2008 Bob announced that he was moving to the brewing premises behind the Brewers Pride in Healey as Ossett Brewery had given up the lease.
The brewhouse at the Brewers Pride, Healey Brewing ended in 2016 when Bob sold the brewery although beers under the brand continued to be brewed up to 2019
The core range of Bob's Brewing was