North Yorkshire has been brewing serious beer for nearly two centuries. These are the ales that prove it.
Some English regions have pubs pouring whatever’s on the last truck. North Yorkshire differs. Its brewing tradition runs deep, drawing from a limestone aquifer. From Dales towns to Whitby’s cliffs, the county produces ales worth seeking out.
This is not every notable beer in the county. Here are seven ales that best represent North Yorkshire brewing: straightforward, full-flavoured, and connected to the local landscape. Beers to enjoy at a pub that suits their character.
Quick Facts
- What this is: Seven standout ales from North Yorkshire breweries, from legendary Dales icons to newer names worth knowing
- Style range: Classic bitter, dark strong ale, porter, IPA, pale ale, golden ale, session bitter
- Where to find them: Across pubs throughout North Yorkshire, in bottles from brewery shops, and increasingly in good independent off-licences nationwide
- Note: ABV figures are correct at the time of writing, but breweries occasionally adjust recipes. Check brewery websites for the current specification.
1. Theakston Old Peculier
T&R Theakston, Masham | 5.6% ABV
📍 theakstons.co.uk
You can’t discuss North Yorkshire ale without starting here.
Old Peculier is one of the country’s best-known and most-loved ales. The name pays tribute to Masham’s unique status as a Court of the Peculier. It also refers to the beer’s strong character. For many years, it was affectionately called Yorkshire’s Lunatics’ Broth. Old Peculier is a beautiful yet simple beer. It is brewed with the finest pale, crystal, and roasted barley, and two bitter hops, including Fuggle. The result is a full-bodied flavour with subtle cherry and rich fruit overtones.
Theakston was founded in 1827 by Robert Theakston and John Wood at the Black Bull pub and brewhouse in Masham. Old Peculier has been made under this name since the early 1800s. In 1989, the cask version was voted Champion Strong Ale of Britain at the Great British Beer Festival. It was voted Champion of Champions in the 2007 Yorkshire Beer Championship.
The brewery’s history includes a family split. There was also a hostile 1980s takeover, and a buy-back by the Theakston brothers in 2003. It remains family-run, having been in business for nearly 200 years. The brewery draws clear Yorkshire Dales water from its own well, 100 metres deep, filtered through sandstone and millstone grit.
Old Peculier pours a dark ruby and settles smoothly. It is not a subtle beer: rich, fruity, faintly sweet, and complex, best appreciated over a few sips. If served from a cask at the brewery tap in Masham, it is a worthwhile experience.
- 🍺 What it tastes like: Dark fruit, cherry, light roast, earthy Fuggle bitterness. Full-bodied and warming without being heavy.
- 📍 Where to find it: Widely available across North Yorkshire pubs, in bottles in supermarkets nationwide, and at its best from cask in Masham itself.
2. Black Sheep Best Bitter
Black Sheep Brewery, Masham | 3.8% ABV
📍 blacksheepbrewery.com
Masham is home to two breweries in the same market town, a testament to its brewing history.
Black Sheep Brewery began in 1991 when Paul Theakston, former managing director at Theakston Brewery, left after the family sold the company. He bought the North Yorkshire Malt Roasting Company near Masham and started the new brewery. Inspired by Masham’s sheep heritage, his wife suggested “Black Sheep” as the name.
The brewery produces a range of well-hopped bitters to distinguish itself from Theakston’s fruity, yeasty beers. Black Sheep Best Bitter was first sold at the Bruce Arms in Masham. The brewery now produces over 75,000 barrels a year, which is a long way from where it started.
The Best Bitter is what Black Sheep brews most often and consistently. It is skilfully crafted using unique brewing techniques and the best British ingredients. The beer is built on a bold, sweet malt base. Challenger, Goldings, and Fuggles hops create bold peppery bitterness and a smooth, earthy flavour. The use of now-rare Yorkshire Square fermenters brings a crisp, drinkable finish.
Yorkshire Square fermentation is an old method using double-decked stone or slate vessels that affect how yeast works through the beer. Very few breweries still use it. Black Sheep is one of them.
- 🍺 What it tastes like: Crisp malt, peppery bitterness, earthy hops, clean finish. A proper session is bitter.
- 📍 Where to find it: Across pubs throughout Yorkshire and increasingly nationwide. The brewery visitor centre in Masham is well worth an hour of your time.
3. Riggwelter
Black Sheep Brewery, Masham | 5.9% ABV
📍 blacksheepbrewery.com
This brewery offers a distinctly different beer.
Riggwelter takes its name from a local Yorkshire Dales farming term. It refers to a sheep that has rolled onto its back and is unable to get up. This is a Dark Strong Ale at 5.9%. Layers of roasted and toasted malts build a complex base. It has notes of chocolate and coffee. The house yeast creates subtle red fruit and banana notes. Classic British Goldings balance these flavours with spicy, earthy bitterness.
The name comes from the Old Norse words rygg, meaning back, and velte, meaning to overturn. The words and their meaning are still largely the same in modern North Germanic languages. Riggwelter is also popular in Sweden. It ranks among the top 20 bottled ales sold there.
Riggwelter’s popularity in Sweden, a country with its own strong beer traditions, speaks to this ale’s quality. Riggwelter is best enjoyed with patience, especially during colder months and in a welcoming pub setting.
- 🍺 What it tastes like: Chocolate, coffee, dark fruit, toffee, earthy bitterness. Rich and warming, with more complexity than the ABV suggests.
- 📍 Where to find it: Widely bottled in supermarkets and off-licences. Also on cask in many Yorkshire pubs, where it is noticeably better.
4. Nightmare Porter
Hambleton Brewery, Melmerby, near Ripon | 5.0% ABV
📍 hambletonales.co.uk
Hambleton Ales started in 1991 in Holme-on-Swale, North Yorkshire, in a converted outbuilding. The brewery hit its production target in six months and won an award within its first year.
Founder Nick Stafford, formerly a teacher, began the brewery with old steel tanks and a used car. Nightmare won CAMRA’s Champion Winter Beer of Britain three years after launch. It continued to win more accolades, including Champion Beer at the Society of Independent Brewers northern competition in 2006. It also won a Campaign for Real Ale gold in 1997.
Nightmare is a robust four-malt porter. Its aroma is rich, with scents of cacao. The creamy palate carries treacle, toffee, roasted coffee, molasses, and dark fruit, with a touch of smoke, hops and lingering cherry.
Nightmare is a remarkable porter, showcasing the depth and character possible in a well-made dark ale. Hambleton moved to larger facilities in Melmerby near Ripon in 2007. Now the brewery exports throughout Europe and the United States, introducing this beer to audiences familiar with great porters.
- 🍺 What it tastes like: Chocolate, treacle, coffee, dark fruit, roasted malt. A serious, beautifully made porter.
- 📍 Where to find it: Good craft beer pubs across Yorkshire, the brewery’s own online shop, and an increasing number of independent bottle shops.
5. Scarborough Fair IPA
Wold Top Brewery, Wold Newton, near Driffield | 6.0% ABV
📍 woldtopbrewery.co.uk
The Yorkshire Wolds sit between the North York Moors and the North Sea, a landscape of rolling chalk hills and wide skies that most people drive through without stopping. Wold Top Brewery sits high on those hills, on a working farm in the Mellor family for generations.
Wold Top Brewery uses home-grown barley and chalk-filtered water from the farm’s borehole. Primarily using Yorkshire ingredients, the brewery produces Wold Top Bitter, Wolds Way pale ale, Wold Gold, and Scarborough Fair IPA.
Scarborough Fair IPA is the beer that put Wold Top on the national map. Brewery manager Alex Balchin said: “Being named the UK’s best English style IPA in the World Beer Awards is really special. It is a testament to the skill and expertise of our brewing team.” The beer has also won a country award at the World Beer Awards and multiple SIBA gold medals.
At 6.0%, Scarborough Fair IPA is substantial without being heavy. Chalk-filtered water gives it clarity and balance. This offsets the hop strength. Wold Top emphasises sustainability through on-site barley cultivation, wind-generated power, and aquifer-sourced water. Two wind turbines provide 95% of the brewery’s electricity.
- 🍺 What it tastes like: Balanced hop and malt, biscuity base, citrus and fresh grass notes, clean bitter finish.
- 📍 Where to find it: Pubs across North and East Yorkshire, the brewery’s online shop, and good bottle shops. Worth keeping an eye out for the cask version, which the brewery regularly enters in regional competitions.
6. Yorkshire Legend
Helmsley Brewing Co., Helmsley | 3.8% ABV
📍 helmsleybrewingco.co.uk
Helmsley is the only market town inside the North York Moors National Park. Its brewery sits on Bridge Street, close to the market square. The premises double as the taproom. The story behind it is one of the better ones in North Yorkshire brewing.
The man who created this microbrewery is Kyle Boote, a former history teacher. He taught worldwide before deciding in 2012 on a radical change. The idea was inspired by a holiday in Japan. There he saw a shelf full of beers from across the world and realised none were from Britain. It set him thinking: I could do that.
He learned brewing science on a Brewlab startup course in Sunderland, then travelled to the US to attend beer exhibitions and trade shows, learning from brewing experts. The brewery he built from those experiences opened in Helmsley in 2014 and now supplies pubs from Sheffield to the Staithes coast.
Yorkshire Legend is a classic Yorkshire Bitter that blends five Yorkshire malts with two English hops. Broodingly dark and toasted, it combines floral and berry notes in a rich recipe that blends complexity with easy drinkability.
It is the right beer for the right location. When walking the Howardian Hills or coming off the Cleveland Way, a pint of Yorkshire Legend at the Helmsley Brewing taproom is a very good idea.
- 🍺 What it tastes like: Toasted malt, floral notes, light berry, satisfying bitterness. Complex for its strength, easy to drink a second.
- 📍 Where to find it: The Helmsley Brewing taproom on Bridge Street is the best place. Also available bottled and in selected pubs across the national park.
7. Jet Black
Whitby Brewery, Whitby | 4.5% ABV
📍 whitby-brewery.com
Whitby takes its identity seriously. It has the ruined abbey, the 199 steps, the jet stone, the harbour, the Dracula connection, and a long history of fishing, whaling, and shipbuilding. It deserved a proper brewery. It now has one.
The brewery sits in a converted former cow shed that had no floor, running water, or electricity when founder Richard took it on. It was rebuilt by local Whitby craftsmen and now sits in the shadow of Whitby Abbey. From a small operation brewing 100 litres a week on an industrial estate, the brewery now produces 6,000 litres weekly with a workforce of seven.
The flagship dark beer, Jet Black, takes its name from Whitby jet, the fossilised wood found in the cliffs around the town and carved into Victorian mourning jewellery that gave Whitby a particular reputation across 19th-century England. The beer is a session porter at 4.5%, approachable and well-made, brewed using floor-malted barley and whole hops.
Drinking Jet Black in the Whitby Brewery taproom, looking across rooftops towards the ruined abbey on the cliff, is one of the better ways to spend an hour in North Yorkshire. The 199 steps to get there are easier on the way down.
- 🍺 What it tastes like: Smooth roast, light chocolate, coffee, easy bitterness. A dark beer that drinks lighter than it looks.
- 📍 Where to find it: The brewery taproom on the East Cliff above Whitby, in pubs across Whitby town, and in bottles from the brewery’s online shop.
Where to Drink Them
A good pint of any of these ales is only as good as where it is kept. North Yorkshire has many excellent pubs for this purpose.
The BlThe Black Bull in Paradise, Masham, is the Theakston brewery tap and the oldest part of the original brewery site. Old Peculier from the wood here is an experience worth a specific trip. The Bruce Arms, also in Masham, is where Black Sheep Best Bitter was first sold and remains an excellent place to compare the two town breweries. Helmsley Brewing taproom on Bridge Street is the obvious stop in Helmsley. The Feversham Arms hotel bar in Helmsley stocks a rotating selection of local ales and offers a very comfortable place to drink them.
The Whitby Brewery taproom above the abbey has arguably the finest view of any brewery tap in England. The beer garden on a clear summer evening makes the climb worthwhile.
A Note on Yorkshire Squares
Both Theakston and Black Sheep use Yorkshire Square fermentation, a method that uses double-decked rectangular vessels to allow yeast to work differently through the beer, producing a different flavour profile from modern cylindro-conical fermenters. Very few breweries still use it. The method helps give North Yorkshire ales their particular character.
It also reminds us that the best traditions in brewing, as in most things, survive not because they are nostalgic but because they work.
Reader Q&A
Which of these is best for someone new to real ale?
Black Sheep Best Bitter. It is a textbook session bitter, expertly made, widely available, and approachable without being dull. Start there, and work outward.
Which is the most unusual?
Old Peculier. There is genuinely nothing quite like it. The ecclesiastical history of Masham that gives it its name, the centuries of continuous brewing, and the beer itself are all one of a kind.
Can you visit the breweries?
Theakston and Black Sheep both run tours from their Masham visitor centres, several times daily. The Helmsley Brewing taproom is open Thursday to Sunday and can be booked for tours online. Whitby Brewery runs tours and has a taproom open Thursday to Sunday. Wold Top does not currently offer public tours but operates an online shop.
Which pairs best with food?
Riggwelter with a good Wensleydale cheese and fruit cake is a combination that the brewery itself recommends. Nightmare Porter alongside anything slow-cooked with red meat. Old Peculier with a proper steak and ale pie, if you can find one made with Old Peculier itself.
North Yorkshire brewing is not a recent story. It did not begin with the craft beer revival of the 2000s. It goes back centuries through monasteries, market towns, dales farmers, coaching inns, and river valley mill workers who needed something worth coming home to.
What is happening now, with new breweries like Helmsley and Whitby joining established names in Masham, is that tradition is being added to rather than replaced. These ales taste of where they come from. That is, in the end, what good beer is for.
