Vocation & Co, Halifax

Vocation brewery showcase and downstairs is your typical hipster bar that smells of pizza. It really lacks any atmosphere as a room but upstairs has an extra bar which is much cosier in style - sadly it was dead and seems to be primarily used for sports events or large group bookings. The roof terrace was surprisingly locked up. Great beer, but I find this kind of venue a bit tedious these days- I had to pinch myself to remember I wasn’t in Manchester’s northern quarter.

Yet another modern bar in Halifax, with both cask and keg beers. The ground floor bar feels like a cafe, but venture upstairs and the "cocktail bar" is much bigger and has a much nicer atmosphere. It also has its own beers, which at first glance seemed to be a more limited range of what they had downstairs. On a third level, there is also a roof terrace that we did not explore. Unisex toilets can be found between the ground and first floors. The ground floor space was packed when we initially arrived. Most people were customers trying to get served. Things didn't look too promising at first, but there were plenty of staff on hand and it didn't take anywhere near as long as I'd expected to get a drink. Vocation Bread & Butter and Heart & Soul are the regular cask ales. In addition, they also had their Naughty & Nice, Pride & Joy & a New Zealand Cold IPA in collaboration with Rye River. Keg beers were Vocation Chop & Change Centennial, Crush Hour, Hop, Skip & Juice, Life & Death, Vanishing Point, Evergreen Gem, Enchantment IPA, Death By Cherries & Salted Dark Chocolate Imperial Stout, Ilkley/Rooster's Dad Jokes, Deya Steady Rolling Man, Newbarns Eric IPA & Pastore Raspberry & Strawberry Water Beach Weisse. I opted for the one cask beer I'd not had before which was the New Zealand Cold IPA. The name of the collaboration brewery (Rye River) put me off initially. It somehow gave me an impression it would be a rye beer, despite the IPA description. It was in fact a very enjoyable beer and certainly one of the best I tried in the town.

A modern bar kitted out in a somewhat minimalist fashion, It's about the beer though with eight handpumps and some eighteen keg taps, I stuck with cask and a Pride & Joy. The bar is decent but lacking in ambiance.

As mentioned, this is indeed a very austere building, looking like an Art Deco bunker (apparently former cinema), though with a neat and tidy tiled façade overlooking a cobbled street and boasting a roof terrace. Modern inside, my Bread & Butter was nice, but my first taste of a sour failed to convert me.

Official site of Vocation & Co - www.vocationbrewery.com

Official site of Vocation & Co - www.vocationbrewery.com

Reopened in November 2022 by Vocation Brewery as Vocation & Co, adding to their small chain of pubs run by Vocation Brewery. Fairly austere from the outside you enter into a very modern, clean and for me at bit too sterile ground-floor taproom with eight Cask pumps and 18 Keg lines. Most other punters got served and then disappeared upstairs to where I believe there is a Roof Top Terrace bar seating up to 60 people, but we didn’t explore up here. Six ales for our visit with four of Vocation’s own ales and then two from collabs with other brewers. I went for their Bread and Butter Ale and very good it was too. A seasonal spritzer menu and a frozen cocktail menu was also available and this seemed to be quite effective in pulling in those not necessarily interested in the ale taps. Another good Halifax craft beer bar and another that has a decent ale line up alongside the interesting craft ale options, but I didn’t warm to this one as much and was much more comfortable in the nearby Victorian Craft Beer Cafe and København bar.