Yorkshire Ale Tales

A weekend in York included a day trip to Harrogate and there was plenty of opportunity over the course of 4 days to visit a few pubs and sample some fine ales:

First pit stop - just inside York city walls was the Three Legged Mare - a York Brewery outlet with a strange pub sign of a hanging. Go explain.

The fairly upmarket Star Inn the City was our dinner venue and it had 2 ales on.

A day trip to Harrogate on Friday allowed me a return visit - the first in a decade - to the Old Bell Tavern, which undoubtedly had the most interesting selection and the best conditioned beers of the weekend - so much so that I scored them a full 5 marks on CAMRA's WhatPub? system - the first time I've ever done that:

The Green Goldings EPA from Durham Brewery was my choice.

I had a taste of the MPA and Windermere Pale as well.

Back in York, I had a Terrier in the Last Drop Inn - another York Brewery outlet.

We took a walk over to up and coming Fossgate, which is full of trendy cafes and some interesting pubs, including the Blue Bell, which is a traditional award-winning pub that was recommended to us a little too late unfortunately, but we were headed for the slightly out of the way Brew York, a brewpub that was only opened earlier this year, but is well worth a detour to:

 On Sunday, we had lunch at the Hole in the Wall - just across the street from the Three Legged Mare. It's a Marston's pub:

Battleaxe and Hole Brew were pretty good.

 Also missed out/messed up on a planned visit to Leeds Brewery's outlet in York - the Eagle and Child - but it was an interesting weekend sampling lots of ales we don't normally get to see in NE Scotland.