Salt Leeds City, Leeds

Facebook page of Salt Leeds City - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of Salt Leeds City - www.facebook.com

Can’t add anything to Graham’s review it’s pretty much as was when I visited in 2019 other than the reduced cask range. There are two pulls with only one in use serving White Rat, 10 kegs along the counter and the pre mixes on the bar back. Beers are listed rotatingly on a laser display screen above the counter, which is a bit of a pain as the part you want has moved on before you’ve decided. Naturally it has constant loud music, so on the whole not my taste either but it’s typical of these places in Leeds catering to the stag N hen / big Saturday night crowds.

A square shaped bar owned by Ossett. Six pulls, two beers from the Ossett group others from Marble, Bad Seed, Brew York and a splendid "Juicy" from Tiny Rebel. Toilets are in the basement, decor is partly industrial, partly Wimpy bar.

An excellent bar owned by Ossett. Specialises in their Salt brewery beers along with guests. High ceilings and industrial décor all in bright colours. Ms CAMRA loved this one. My pint of Salt Jute was in excellent condition and despite being on a crawl I ended up having a second one. Great place, we'll be back again soon.

Any venue that greets potential drinkers with the maxim ‘The purpose of beer is to create pleasure’, in two foot high red neon lettering, on the back wall, is off to a good start, in my book. Fortunately, the rest of the set up is strong enough for it not to be all downhill from there. Opening in November 2018, Craft Asylum II, along with sibling Craft Asylum I ( a rebadged Candlebar) was designed to showcase beers from the Salt Beer Factory, yet another subsidiary in the Ossett Brewery family. On entering, the room is noticeably high ceilinged, with exposed concrete beams, bare brick walls and wooden floors. The bar is to the right, looking vaguely industrial with its blue wood and wrought iron style framework. The bar back and the flooring in front of the bar are made from black hexagonal tiling, which appears to be a motif for the brewery. That’s continued with the hexagonal lighting framework suspended from the ceiling, along with the almost obligatory cable trays. Seating wise, there’s a central row of high tables, some lower tables in the front window and a couple of booths in the side window opposite the bar. At the business end of things, there are 15 keg taps and 6 hand pumps . The ales on offer during my visit were Wilde Child ‘Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz’, Nomadic ‘Hoarder’, Salt ‘Mockado’, Ossett Blonde, Salt ‘Jute’, and Rat ‘White Rat’. Trying a half each of the Hugo Stiglitz and the Hoarder, they were both in excellent nick and nicely poured by the friendly young barmaid. Coming in at £3.65, I thought that was very reasonable, for central Leeds. Fairly quiet on my late Thursday afternoon visit, with only half a dozen other punters in the place, but the old-school soul soundtrack was rather soothing and made for a nice chilled atmosphere. I’m not sure I’d like to visit when the place is really busy ( a raised DJ pit, next to the entrance, is rather ominous). However, as somewhere to cherry pick a couple of beers, when it’s quiet, Craft Asylum will do very nicely, particularly as its proximity to Foley’s makes for a natural double header.