25 years ago, craft beer was an alien concept.
Sipping a saison or ordering an IPA was about as far-fetched as smartphones at the turn of the Millennium, when beer was simply a catch-all phrase for lager.
That all changed in 1997 though, when a quiet, unassuming bar opened in a small unit on New Briggate in Leeds city centre that used to house a shop called Knobs & Knockers.
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North Bar was the brainchild of John Gyngell and Christian Townsley, who became inspired after a trip to Belgium where they encountered “huge menus full of weird interesting beers”.
However, changing the mindsets of British drinkers was a slow burner.
“They started off just serving things like John Smiths and Guinness,” says Alex Millhouse-Smith, brand ambassador at North Brewing Co.
But they slowly introduced new beers to their ever-evolving menu and before long, drinkers came from across the country to see what beers were on offer at the cosy city centre bar.
“Duvel had its first pour in the UK in North Bar,” says Alex.
“Erdinger got its first pour of UK in North Bar. So too did American beers like Brooklyn Brewery and Sierra Nevada.”
North Bar is undoubtedly the trailblazer for the UK craft beer scene - which is now worth almost £1 billion a year - and the “legendary” venue is a Mecca for beer aficionados from across the country.
Not only has North Bar’s success allowed the owners to open nine venues across Yorkshire - from Otley to Harrogate, Meanwood to Chapel Allerton - but it has also sparked a craft beer revolution in its home city. Leeds is now England’s epicentre for interesting bars and new breweries.
“North Bar was definitely a pioneer,” says Alex.
“It just set a model for having such a wide range of drinks and not just saying: ‘You have to have this’.
“I guess it's almost like democratising drinks. Craft beer shouldn't be this little niche that only certain people can access and know about.
“It doesn't have to be frivolous drinking with your pinky out.
“It's just good drinks, made well and for everyone.”
After almost 20 years of working closely with local breweries, North Bar decided to make its own beers.
In 2015, North Brewing Co was launched and the Leeds-based company ventured into a brand new market of selling its own beer.
“It's been a rapid rise,” admits Alex.
North’s first brewery opened in Sheepscar six years ago and was the birthplace of Sputnik and Transmission, but the company’s exponential growth saw them move into a new state-of-the-art, multi-million pound brewery in Meanwood in 2020.
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The launch didn’t quite go according to plan though.
“We got the keys on the day the first lockdown was announced,” says Alex.
The brakes were “slammed on” as North Brewing Co rapidly shifted its focus to home deliveries and scaled up its online shop.
Alex says: “The webshop went from a spreadsheet to a very integral part of our business.
“Anyone who could drive was loading their boot full of cases of Sputnik or Transmission and delivering it to people's doors.
“Christian [North Bar co-founder] was driving cases back to his house and delivering it by bike to people in Otley.
“It was a real team effort and really humbling.”
While the pandemic has posed countless challenges, it has also seen North’s popularity soar.
Collaborations with other breweries have seen a whole new range of beers created. A special edition California Pale Ale was launched alongside Leeds United podcast The Square Ball to celebrate the Whites’ promotion to the Premier League.
North has also strengthened its ties with a number of major supermarkets. Tesco, Asda and Morrisons all now stock the Leeds brewery’s most popular drinks as the craft beer market continues to grow exponentially.
“You're going to see it more and more,” says Alex.
A year after North Brewing Co got the keys to their new brewery, the very first visitors finally arrived at Springwell.
Not only does it provide North with much more brewing capacity, but the fact that Springwell is walking distance from Meanwood, Woodhouse and Chapeltown “allows us to be more within our community”.
It hosts regular film nights and has even launched its own running club.
But it’s the big outdoor space and the amphitheatre set-up of the Springwell taproom that draws in huge crowds at weekends.
“One thing that I really like about Springwell is the theatre of having the tap room next to the brewery,” says Alex.
“There are times when the taproom is open, and there's still some rumblings in the brewery and production. That interaction of the beer is made here and it's drunk here, right next to each other.
“There are times on the weekend when the production staff have to come in and just do some checks on the beer.
“I really love the thought of Sputnik getting dry hopped while someone is sitting there drinking Sputnik, seeing the magic happen before their eyes.”
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