Historic brewing region
Yorkshire
Northern English brewing region known for the Yorkshire Square fermentation system and for beer served through a tight sparkler head.
In United Kingdom.
Why it matters to beer
The Yorkshire Square is a two-chamber stone or slate fermenting vessel that repeatedly rouses the beer over the yeast, producing high attenuation with a distinctly full palate. The region is also the heartland of sparkler dispense, which produces the dense creamy head associated with northern cask ale.
Beers brewed here
- Black Sheep Best Bitter
A Yorkshire bitter fermented in traditional Yorkshire squares, which is the point of the beer rather than a detail of it.
- Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale
The reference English brown ale — hazelnut, light caramel, dry finish — and the beer the style is usually described against.
- Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout
The beer that revived oatmeal stout as a category and remains its most widely cited reference example.
- Samuel Smith Taddy Porter
A traditional Yorkshire-fermented English porter, drier and more austere than most modern interpretations.
- Samuel Smith’s Imperial Stout
A Yorkshire imperial stout fermented in stone squares, and one of the most widely available examples of the style.
- Samuel Smith’s Yorkshire Stingo
A strong ale matured in oak casks that have held the brewery’s own beer for decades, and one of the few living examples of how British beer was aged before stainless steel.
- Theakston Old Peculier
The reference English old ale — dark, rich, faintly liquorice-tinged — and named for an ecclesiastical peculiar rather than for being odd.
- Timothy Taylor Boltmaker
A Yorkshire best bitter that won Champion Beer of Britain, from the brewery better known for Landlord.
- Timothy Taylor Golden Best
A pale mild — the half of the style that almost disappeared — still in production in West Yorkshire.
- Timothy Taylor Landlord
The pale, hop-forward Yorkshire bitter most often named by British brewers when asked what a well-made cask beer should taste like.
Breweries
Black Sheep Brewery · Samuel Smith · Theakston · Timothy Taylor
Elsewhere in the country
Burton-on-Trent · London · Scotland · Kent
Last reviewed 2026-08-15.