Pages

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Little Valley Brewery


A recent trip to the lovely little village of Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire resulted in a first for The Good Stuff – a taste of what Little Valley Brewery have to offer.
Hebden Bridge has always had a lot to offer, Beer-wise. The White Lion, my personal choice of drinking hole whilst visiting, was actually home to my first taste of beer – many moons ago. The beer was Flowers IPA, and it gave an impressionable young teenager a glimpse into a world outside flat, tasteless lagers – so it’s fitting that I should find a new taste whilst here.


My pint of Little Valley Withens IPA went down very well. An easygoing, light style, with a refreshing hoppy finish, it accompanied my Sausage Sandwich very well indeed. This would make an excellent session beer, and another pint was ordered duly. I’ve not tried the bottle conditioned version, but the Withens IPA is a beer I can happily recommend. Little Valley are based just near Hebden Bridge, and their website lists all their brews.
In fact, there's a lot to recommend in Hebden Bridge; a specialist wine and cheese shop, a number of bars and restaurants and of course, a few good old pubs. Also, of foodie interest is Jules Pottery, whose wares i cannot resist buying whilst there. Handmade ceramics for every type of dish, and at amazing prices.


2 comments:

Jonny said...

Hi Leigh - as an irregular visitor here over the past couple of years I must have missed this, but during a recent bout of nostalgia I was telling my wife just how good Flowers' Original and IPA were, only to learn upon a brief google search that they are no longer available. With your encyclopaedic knowledge of beer, can you confirm this sad news? I wouldn't have expected it to be available here in the US since it was only sold in a few spots outside the West Midlands, but I'm misty-eyed at the prospect that it might be gone forever.

Leigh said...

Hi Jonny. We don't get a right lot of Flowers' stuff at all anymore. This was the last time I tasted it, and this was a while ago. A friend tells me it was more widely available in the south, but as far as I am aware, it's a defunct brand. Sorry mate!