A Saturday trip up to the North Yorkshire Market Town of Masham. Includes tours around Theakston Brewery and Black Sheep Brewery along with a number of local pubs.
Theakston Brewery
First call of the day was to Theakston Brewery, the visitor centre includes a bar named “Black Bull in Paradise”. See link below for photos and more details on the brewery tour.
Theakston Brewery Tour Blog
King’s Head Hotel
Situated on the main Market Place, the King’s Head Hotel is a an 18th Century Grade II Listed Hotel. It has recently being refurbished to a great standard. This is where we had booked to stay for the night aswell (The rooms are immaculate and spacious, and the hotel is well placed for getting around the town).
Both local breweries feature on the bar here (Black Sheep Bitter, Old Peculiar and Theakston Best Bitter) alongside Green King IPA. After just finishing the Theakstons tour, I decided to go with the “Best Bitter”.
Black Sheep Brewery
A walk to the other end of town to Black Sheep Brewery. The visitor centre includes a shop, bar and large seating area both inside and outside (also serves home cooked food). See link below for photos and more details on the brewery tour.
Black Sheep Brewery Tour
The White Bear Hotel
Situated next to Black Sheep Brewery is “The White Bear Hotel”, Theakston Brewerys only pub. Oddly for the Yorkshire Dales the pub was a victim of wartime bombing, following which it was derelict for many years before being renovated to a high standard.
A great range of beers both cask and keg from Theakston Brewery. One I hadnt seen before was “Theakston Smooth Dark”. Really enjoyed this and was packed full of flavour. Lots of seating available here with 2 rooms inside with seats outside at the front.
The Bay Horse
Situated just off the main market place, “The Bay Horse” is another Grade II Listed building. Serves a good variety of drinks alongside a fantastic food selection.
4 Cask Beers to choose from here – including both local breweries and one from Wensleydale Brewery. Went with Semer Water from Wensleydale Brewery to accompany my food (Homemade Burger and Chips).
The Bruce Arms
Last call of the evening was to “The Bruce Arms”, just over the way from The Bay Horse. It is set back in a small side street and easy to notice with its white washed frontage.
Another good selection of ales available here, including 3 from Theakston Brewery (Light Foot, Best Bitter and Old Peculiar), Black Sheep Best Bitter and Timothy Taylors Landlord. Enjoyed the Light Foot here. Named after the Light Foot brewery that used to brew in Masham.
Masham Cider Press
If you get up this way on a Saturday, its worth checking out Masham Market and looking at Masham Cider Press. A choice of bottles, bag in box and fresh apple juice.
Micropub Adventures 
Thanks for mentioning Masham Cider Press, hope you enjoyed your cider 🍏🍎🍏🍎😁
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No problem at all and yes took a bottle home aswell!
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It’s a shame that you missed the spirit of masham gin distillery on fearby road. We have four of our own gins and we make a number of gins for other companies. We also have corks and cases wine shop on silver street.
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I struggled to fit everything in one day, hopefully ill get back over again to try 👍
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Correction, the old White Bear used to stand on the present bomb site next to the wensleydale garage (there is a memorial). The present White Bear was hastily opened to keep the license in two old cottages. Incidently the parachute mine did considerable damage all over Masham with a number of houses destroyed and several people killed.
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