Pizza flavoured beer and Yorkshire pudding ale on tap at new bar

Sarah Oakland and Dean Zolts have opened The Chain Bar and Bottle Shop on Cheapside, Cleckheaton.

It’s taken six months of hard work – much of it in lockdown – but Sarah and Dean have thrown open their doors to surprise and delight locals with some unusual Yorkshire beers.

There’s a Yorkshire Pudding Pale – made from 100 per cent real Yorkshire puddings – from C’84 Brew Co in Malton, and a pizza-flavoured beer called Pizzazz, by Brass Castle Brewery in Malton, a sun-dried tomato and sweet basil gose.

And those who like exceedingly good cakes might like to try Mr Sipling, a battenberg pastry sour produced by S43 in Durham.

Beers come from across the county as well as down the road. One of the beers on tap for the opening was Wild Panther, a Czech Pilsner from Mill Valley Brewery in Liversedge.

The bar, which is aimed at 30-50-year-olds, has eight taps which will continuously rotate beers, all of which are sourced from small, independent breweries.

The bar seats 30 people for social distancing and there is also a shop selling bottles and cans so people can drink in and take away.

Sarah, 40, has quit her office job to run the bar while Dean, 48, will help out during the evenings.

“It’s been a lot of hard work but we have had a great welcome,” said Sarah.

“I’ve always worked in an office and I’ve never had a customer-facing role, though I have done a bit of bar work before.

“It’s a complete change of career and I’m nervous but excited too.”

Dean said the couple had pondered on whether now was the right time to launch but he added: “You can always find a reason not to do something, so we decided to go for it.”

Sarah and Dean are passionate about craft beers and have visited lots of micro pubs and breweries, so it was a labour of love researching and sourcing beers.

“I was two stone lighter when we started this,” joked Dean.

The bar also sells “normal” beers along with wine, gin and spirits.

It is open from noon-8pm, Wednesday-Sunday.