The Upper George, Halifax

After a series of modern-style bars in the centre of Halifax, it made a refreshing change to come across another more traditional pub. The Upper George is approached through a courtyard with tables for outdoor drinking. Inside, it is quite a dark space with seating arranged in different sections around a central bar. It's a Greene King pub, with their IPA on as standard. Their False Nine & Morland Golden Hen were also on. Guest beers were Ossett Excelsius, Goose Eye Chinook Blonde, Phoenix Black Bee, Stancill Sumo & Acorn Se7en. I ordered the Acorn beer, which was a pale ale. Returning from the toilet, there were 3 halves on the counter all having the same appearance. One was claimed by another mate of mine, whilst we weren't able to distinguish which was my Acorn beer and which was another mate's Stancill beer, such was the similar taste. Even trying the other confirmed Acorn beer provided no help. Either way, I know I started the Acorn beer, but whether I finished it or whether I moved onto the Stancill, I'll never know! I also missed out on the CAMRA discount that is available. For a Greene King pub, the guest beers make this a decent alternative to the modern bars in Halifax town centre.

A Greene King pub with lots of interesting beers, not a thing I say often, the pub has the feel of a traditional locals pub and indeed seemed to be well attended with more than a few characters. I counted eight handpumps with just a couple of GK beers on , the rest were guests, I went with a Rudgate Valkyrie which was of a decent standard. Another solid Halifax Pub.

Accessed via either Crown Street or Upper George Yard, this is a Greene King pub, but don’t let that put you off. Spending most time out front, I’d plumped for the Bridgehouse Tequila Blonde, recorded as being ‘very nice’.

Cunningly hidden down its own yard off Cheapside this is indeed a surprising good ale house. Internally it is multiple spaces around the central bar area that you enter into including a separate “Raise your game” room housing a pool table. Traditional pub decor with flat screens in each section and the odd fruit machine dotted about. But a really good feature with this one was the spacious outside space to the front of the pub in the lane which was catching the midday sun and providing a very pleasant alfresco drinking space which made some of the southerners in our group think we were in Brighton, not Halifax. The bar supports two banks of four hand pumps and seven of these were in operation for our visits. It I is a Greene Kings house but that was only evident by IPA and Old Golden Hen clips and the other five were dispensing three from Rudgate Brewery in the form of Viking Golden Ale, Astrid Summer Fruity ale and Valkyrie American Pale Ale and. Then Stancill Toms Mild and an excellent Bridgehouse Brewery Tequila Blonde. Really liked it here but then the sun did help enjoy the outside space.