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WharfeBank Brewery

Unit 4, Pool Business Park, Pool Road, Pool-in-Wharfedale, Otley, West Yorkshire LS21 1FD 0113 2842392

brewery website    Picasa Web Album where these and many more photos can be viewed at much higher resolution           

visited by Wakefield CAMRA Saturday 15 May 2010

Wharfe Bank Brewery is located in part of a former paper mill beside the River Wharfe at Pool-in-Wharfedale. The high ceiling has facilitated the installation of a dry mezzanine floor for mashing and the storage of dry materials, as well as a tower brewing plant. The gable end wall only shows 4 which is the number of the industrial unit, but shortly the brewery's logo will be prominently displayed. It can be seen on the WharfeBank website.

Ian Smith, now retired from his post as Head Brewer at Carlsberg's Tetley Brewery, is on board as a consultant. Martin Kellaway's previous position was as Marketing Director for Caledonian Brewing in Edinburgh, during which time Southampton-born he commuted from his beloved Wharfedale!

On a second WebAlbum you see the brewery building complete with signage a few weeks later on the official Opening Day:
The flexible white pipe pumps malt from a grist case to a little hopper and thence down a steel tube into the mash tun. Bulk pale malt is sourced from Muntons of Stowmarket and coloured malts from Fawcetts of Castleford. In the foreground is the brewing kettle.

The young Dhiraj Pujari, in his first post, is a top Brewing Graduate from Herriott-Watt University.
M.D. Martin Kellaway (right) receives a commemorative certificate from Wakefield CAMRA Chairman Mark Goodair.

 

 After tasting samples of (still green) Slingers Gold direct from the fermenting vessel and Camfell Flame direct from the conditioning tank, we were able to sample superb hand-pulled WharfeBank beers at the nearby Hunters Inn on Harrogate Road where Martin had arranged  a pie and pea lunch for us. The Hunters Inn offers cask ales on nine or ten hand-pulls  and serves as unofficial brewery tap for WharfeBank.

Next door at the farm shop the sale of an ice cream using perhaps the brewery's Black Tom Mild or another Wharfebank beer is planned.