Handley Tap, York

Brew York’s weekends only taproom based at their Osbaldwick brewery and HQ. The taproom usual of a large open space in an industrial building, most of it seems to be warehousing for canned beers and racks for cask conditioning in wood. There’s a servery to the right when you enter from the yard, the rest of the taproom is filled with seating comprising a mix of sofas and chairs and tables of every imaginable type, each table with a daft tea light, including the inevitable casks as tables and firkins used as table bases. There’s a pool table to one side and a street food stall in the front corner, Cluck N Dough today, not sure if that changes as at other taprooms. Gossamer fine banners advertising Brew York beers hang from the roof as decor. The counter has four hand pumps with three running today and 10 keg taps on the back wall obviously with a range of Brew York beers and there’s a couple of fridges. The cask was a touch tired and the keg over carbonated, cold but not dreadfully chilled. A screen above scrolls through the choices, this is repeated on an even bigger pull down screen, sometimes replaced with sport of some sort further back in the building. This is fed from a projector balanced on a Tun cask. Similar middle class clientele to Graham’s visit maybe less knitwear and certainly only a few rugrats and beards. Actually as I left a hill billy family with beards and brats arrived, I could almost hear the Duelling Banjos. Is it worth the bus ride out*, well only if you collect brewery taprooms, I’ll stick with their place in Walmgate or even Leeds (when it’s open). *other forms of transport are available.

Official site of Handley Tap - brewyork.co.uk