The 5.5% beer will make its debut at Bradford Brewery’s Yorkshire Day Beer and Food festival next weekend (1 August), which is taking place at its brewery off Westgate, Bradford.
‘Northern Powerhouse’ is the creation of Bradford’s head brewer Anthony Barrett and Leeds Brewery’s assistant head brewer Will Warriner.
Hops included in the beer include First Gold, Admiral, Target and Bramling Cross.
“We’re using hops which we’ve never put together before, so we’re not 100% sure how it’s going to turn out. It’s already smelling and tasting incredible though. It has a reddish hue and, at around 5.5%, may emerge as an ESB (Extra Special Bitter) or a Best,” explained Barrett.
Bradford Brewery’s managing director Matt Halliday said there has always been a “cheeky” bit of rivalry between Bradford and Leeds – including arguments about who can brew the best beer.
He said: “But the truth is that the brewing industry is part of a proud tradition across the whole county – so, for Yorkshire Day, we decided to bury the hatchet and work together to create a powerful new brew which we feel sure will get everyone’s vote.
“For this weekend at least, we are all united behind one aim as beer loving Yorkshire folk, so we’ve named it Northern Powerhouse. The difference here is that you can be confident that our vision will be allowed to proceed to maturity!”
Only 40 casks of the special edition Yorkshire beer have been brewed, with half of these distributed across bars in Bradford and Leeds.
Leeds Brewery’s head brewer Venkatesh Lyer added: “When the idea was put forward by Matt at Bradford Brewery we were quite excited, as we’ve never done a collaboration brew before. We felt there was no better way to do a great Yorkshire Day beer than in a collaboration brew with Bradford – and the name Northern Powerhouse seemed very apt!”.
The Bradford Brewery Beer and Food Festival goes on from 11am to midnight on the Saturday and from 11am until the bottoms of the barrels are seen on Sunday.
As well as the Northern Powerhouse launch there will be a choice of 50 Yorkshire Beers and a Yorkshire Cider Bar.
