The Little Ale House, York

From the street level this looks like a ground floor whisky parlour,but go up the creaky staircase in the Georgian building to find the beer.The tap room had a bar to the right,two chalkboards for the cask and keg offerings an dan upturned tun.The cask options on my trip were Craven Session Pale,Best Yorkshire Bitter and Yorkshireman Blonde (NBSS 4) together with Two by Two Citra Idaho Azacca and Porter.An interesting mix of styles and strengths. The keg selection of 12 has continental lager styles of Pilsner,Munich Hells and Weissbeir together with a sparkling cider,Guinness,two alcohol frees,a Sierra Nevada Triple IPA,Bullhouse Export Stout,a Brass Castle Sour,and a session IPA from Two by Two.Another good range of styles,eclectic and not dominated by hipster breweries from East London ! The charming interior has been well described below,the nesting of small rooms with traditional furniture works well,the fires keeping everything cosy and the candles on each table aiding the subtle lighting. The service was very friendly and chatty and I really enjoyed my visit.It really should make any crawl list around this fine city,I will most certainly be back.

I can’t add much to Graham’s masterful description. Accessed by a narrow staircase as the main beer bar is upstairs, its whiskys or whiskeys plus a European ceramic keg tap downstairs on a counter to the left and you pass through to the rear. Upstairs there are six pulls in three groups of two with 2x6 keg taps between, a blackboard at the right hand end lists keg beers while the casks are on one at the left although barblockers made this one difficult to see. Furnished with old church pews and seats a bit like the Harrogate version, toilets are on ground floor and are as limited as at Harrogate. There are lots of little rooms many not in use although a barman told me they would be opening other rooms soon. Decorated with Victorian prints of now forgotten celebs, maps and stuff.

CAMRA website: The Little Ale House - camra.org.uk

CAMRA website: The Little Ale House - camra.org.uk