Timothy Taylor Landlord

Well, we have finally reached the end of my sixty beers. A journey which has introduced me to many new acquaintances has, it turns out, culminated in encountering and old and much loved friend. Landlord is frequently a guest beer in pubs around here and if kept well is hard to beat. Also, it has been CAMRA's national champion beer on no fewer than four occasions.

What I did not know much about was the brewers, Timothy Taylor. The story dates back to 1858 when the eponymous founder of the brewery began brewing beer in Cook Lane in the West Riding town of Keighley. He clearly struck upon a successful formula for in 1863 he set up and built a larger brewery at Knowle Spring, where the company has remained ever since. The superb spring water that wells up from deep under the Pennines is still used today to produce the country's best traditional cask ales.The brewery remains in the Taylor family and is now the last independent brewery of its type left in West Yorkshire. This independence enables Taylors to survive as one of the few brewers still brewing true cask ales in the same way it has always done. More can be found at www.timothytaylor.co.uk.

Landlord is a classic pale ale and as its reputation as the beer that has won more awards nationally than any other suggests, it is a full flavoured and well balanced amber beer with a hoppy bitter finish complementing the background malt. The only information given about the ingredients is that it contains, as well as the famous Knowle Hill Pennine water, the finest malt and leaf hops. ABV is 4.1% and it is not bottle conditioned.