Publican Awards Winners: Best Brewing Pub Company, sponsored by MCA - North Bar/North Brewing Co

15-Mar-2017 - Last updated on 15-Mar-2017 at 13:49 GMT

Multiple: North Bar operates seven sites across the greater Leeds area

North Brewing – a 15-brewer’s barrel (15-bbl) brewing operation in an industrial estate on the fringe of Leeds – has evolved out of the operator, North Bar, which has seven sites across the greater Leeds area. The two directors of the pubco and brewery, Christian Townsley and John Gygnell, have been in charge of the flagship site, the North Bar, since the late 1990s.

It was the first outlet in the UK to pour Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Brooklyn Lager on tap, offering some insight into its credence as a ‘godfather’ of the craft-beer bar scene in Britain. When setting up the brewery in 2015, the pubco was able to play off this legacy, as the operator already had the supply chain and relationship with breweries to quickly establish its presence.

However, the operation started as a vehicle purely to serve the North Bar estate, before opening up to the wider on- and off-trades last year.

Due to the pedigree of the craft beer operators, Townsley and Gyngell were able to secure some high-quality collaborations within the first 12 months, including with BrewDog, Magic Rock and Norwegian brewer Lervig.

It has a core range of five beers, with its flagship brew being Sputnik, which it sells across its bars.

Plans to double capacity each year have been met and the brewing operation is moving from 10% of turnover towards 20% – which is double the company’s own projections. It is currently producing around 15,000 pints a year.

The head brewer, a former music teacher, has now hired an assistant and taken on an additional space for storage due to already meeting capacity.

The extensive plans for the brewery, integrating it into the estate, driving forward innovation, and also how successfully the business has taken on board the numerous financial issues and management decisions required to run a successful brewing operation alongside its pubs estate has made it a worthy award winner – as well as acting as a great example of how multiple-operators can launch a high-quality, holistic brewing operation.