Black Sheep Brewery

Why it matters

One of the few modern British breweries built around a traditional fermentation vessel rather than a recipe. The Yorkshire square keeps yeast in vigorous contact with the beer, and the resulting character is the brewery’s whole argument.

Details

Reference beers

• Black Sheep Best Bitter3.8–4% ABV

  A Yorkshire bitter fermented in traditional Yorkshire squares, which is the point of the beer rather than a detail of it.

BeerHQ carries only the products that anchor something. This is not the brewery’s full range.

Styles it is associated with

• Best bitter — A step up from ordinary bitter in strength and depth, with more malt body while staying firmly sessionable.
• Ordinary bitter — The everyday British cask ale: low in strength, gently bitter, and built to be drunk in pints over a whole evening.

Traditions

• British cask ale — Beer that completes its fermentation in the container it is served from and is dispensed without added gas, at cellar rather than fridge temperature.