Hip Hip Hipperholme

Bradford City 0 v Sheffield United 2

Saturday 18 October 2014

Twitter @ball_sup

A Destination Drink today that I’d been hoping to tick off for a while.  The Cock o’ the North pub in Hipperholme, West Yorkshire.  It’s essentially the Halifax Steam Brewing Company tap.  The logistics are reasonably straightforward. I caught the 549 bus from Huddersfield Bus Station. That dropped me more or less outside the pub.  The 549 runs from Huddersfield via Brighouse to Halifax. So, quite straightforward from any of those three.  It’s about a 10 minute schlep up the hill to Hipperholme, where I caught the 571 Bus to Bradford.  So, Cock o’ the North fairly accessible from those larger West Yorkshire places.

I'm really glad I went & I enjoyed myself. But, no beating around the bush, bits of it were odd. The place had a bit of a cliquey feel. A few characters sat at the bar. Constant banter with the staff. I had a "was that a tenner or a fiver" misunderstanding & a few of the customers piped up.

Some of the beers seem to be badged as Ladies names or references (eg Blondie). And the corresponding pumpclips use "glamorous images" - I emphasise not risqué or offensive - just glamorous. It was all a bit Old Skool Tennent's Lager.

Anyway. Broadly welcoming & helpful. It's fine inside. Big & bright. But on the outside it's got a "big portakabin" thing going on. Nothing wrong with that, it's a brewery tap.

There were 8 casks & 1 keg from Halifax Steam. Plus Krombacher Lager. I'm going to say that 4 of those casks were Identikit Blonde Beers. In a sense, difficult to tell them apart.

One of the casks was "chocolate". I tasted it but didn't have it. I assume it's added chocolate. Certainly tasted as such. Way way too much for my taste.

The Steam Punk IPA on keg at 5.3% was OK. Good effort. Bit safe. I wouldn't rush back to it.

For the record I had;

Aussie Kiss 3.8%
Blondie 4%
Lilly Fogg 4%
Child Catcher 4.8%
Jamaican Ginger 4%
Steam Punk IPA 5.3%

The Stand Out Beer of the Day was Child Catcher - more mouthfeel & a bit more ooomph than the others.  But I was disappointed with the lack of real variety across 8 pumps.