You can't say Leeds without smiling

Work brought me to Leeds for a few short days a couple of weeks ago. Pubbing time was limited but I got a bit done; places both new and familiar from my last visit.

First stop was Assembly Underground, a down-with-the-kids dude-food basement hangout, a large section of which is dedicated to a Vocation Brewery (and guests) 50-tap bar.

Warm evening, long day: pilsner please. Vocation's own Yakima Pilsner, as it happened. As with many a high-level new-world-hopped pils it ended up tasting more like a pale ale than a pils. There's lots of peach in the foretaste, followed by a leafy dankness, the bitterness intensifying to the point of pine resin and tin. Despite the oiliness it doesn't linger, leaving the palate respectably quickly. Something plainer and more Germanic would have suited me better at that exact moment, but this wasn't half bad. I do like a peachy hop.

Cornish brewery Verdant seems to have become a byword for great beer in recent UK discourse. I'd never tried any of their beers, and since there was a sour IPA on here, that seemed like the obvious next choice. My elation lessened on seeing It's Friday Almost Tomorrow is an unreasonable 8.4% ABV and a weird opaque pink colour. Turns out rather than souring an IPA with a bacterial culture they've simply dumped blackcurrant and lime juice into it. It's an approach, I suppose. The first taste gave me creamy coconut, something I often confuse with lime. The warmth of the alcohol and the burn of the bittering hops sit behind this, sulking, probably. It's all very simplistic, as you might expect from an IPA watered down with juice. I don't really see the point. It's fine to drink, though: refreshing in a juicebar sort of way. Can't help thinking it's a waste of IPA, however.

Winding my way back to the river I dropped in to the Head of Steam for a pint of Boltmaker: a beer which I swear is different -- darker and less hop-driven -- than when I last tasted it as Timothy Taylor's Best in York a decade ago.

Anyway, one new tick while I was here: a half of Tinderbox IPA from Fell Brewery in Cumbria. "Classic West-Coast Style" says the pumpclip, without specifying which west coast. It is 6.3% ABV, though, so maybe that's a clue. It's a beautiful northern-bitter shade of clear gold. The aroma mixes a gentle citrus with crisp biscuit while the flavour begins on fruity chew sweet then turns waxy, in a very definitely northern TT-Landlord sort of way. It's not a hyperloop to San Diego but it's a bloody nice IPA, clean flavoured, with a definite punch coming from the strength but by no means hot or soupy. A great session-finisher.

I was back for a quick one on the Friday: Ilkley Summer, a 4% ABV golden ale. It's bang-on for the style, maybe a little more bitter than normal: another one that's unmistakably northern. But there's bubblegum and wafer biscuit too. A little more fruit character would have summer-ised it further, but no complaints. Such stuff as sessions are built on. Not that I had time for any of that sort thing.

Pushing on, next stop was Stew & Oyster at Call's Landing, a nice little riverside place, built for eaters and jumping weekend crowds, but perfectly pleasant on a Wednesday.

I learned something from the name of the Kirkstall lime beer on tap. Turns out a Verdita is a mix of juices and spices designed for drinking with tequila. This one is a more innocent 4% ABV and brewed with lime (obvious), mint (I'd believe it), pineapple (OK), and coriander (what?). But the lack of distinctive cocktail flavours means it all integrates very nicely into a single thirst-quenching summery piece, part lemonade, part straight Berliner weisse. It's fun, it's silly, and perfect if that's what you're in the mood for.

A nightcap, then, at BrewDog. I thought Beatnik Sticky Toffee was a guest beer but it turns out BrewDog makes it themselves. It's a 9% ABV imperial stout and actually not as sweet as the name suggests. Yes it's sweet, and yes there's toffee, but it doesn't tip over into that metallic treacle sweetness that too many of these do. Pastry stout with nuanced flavours gets a pass from me, and there's even a hint of ginger at the back to dry it out and  -- God forbid! -- balance it. A sticky beer that is only slightly sticky. I'll take that.

Next day, Tapped was handy, so I nipped in there once, despite not having had a good experience with their beer last time. Second chance, thy name is Zlato. It looked a little bit dull and hazy, not the usual pin-bright pilsner colour, nor the colourful opaqueness of an unfiltered example. And it doesn't taste right. There's a vinegary twang and a hard plasticky bitterness. I'm guessing it's been brewed in that harsh north-German way which I'm not a fan of at the best of times, but even even I don't think it's a well-made example. So that's Tapped cancelled.

Finally, for this post, I dropped in to Whitelock's after work on the Friday. The crowd had packed into the alley outside to enjoy the sunshine, leaving the saloon relatively free. Picking randomly from the casked selection I went for Glass Light, a pale ale with Azacca hops from Bad Seed Brewery. This'll be a pint of summer, I thought. It wasn't really. While it is a perfect gold colour with just a slight coppery tint, and does have a touch of Azacca's tropical chew-sweet in the flavour, it's otherwise dusty and dry. A rubbery twang adds unpleasantly to the harshness. Thankfully it's smooth yet light-bodied, making it quite easy to drink, despite the terrible taste.

I switched to keg for my last half, the Unfined IPA brewed by Kirkstall as the Whitelock's house beer. Despite the name it's very clear. The ABV is 6% and it's suitably thick: boggy with dank hop resins and overlaid with a heavy lemon and lime bitterness. This means it's wanting for zing, but maybe that's not always necessary. What we have here is a decent, chewy, slow-and-steady-wins-the-race west coast IPA; one with an uncompromising character all its own.

The only other place I went for a drink on this trip was Little Leeds Beerhouse, and I'll cover that when I get around to reviewing the beers I took away from it.