Hebden Bridge – Vocation & Co.

With my daily rail pass for West Yorkshire, I had a fair few places that I could visit, and Nathan suggested that one of the possible locations was the home of Vocation Brewery, which is Hebden Bridge. I had visited their bar in Leeds a few weeks ago so this seemed a marvellous idea.

The bar, all clean and modern. I faffed about a little at the bar ordering, so I think the barman thought I was an idiot, but he was helpful and friendly. I did tell him that I was checking Untappd so I could remember what drinks I had before, which is a ridiculous way of ordering really. But I didn’t want to come to a brewery’s taproom and then had something I’d already had, thereby missing out on something that I might not get to see anywhere else. It makes sense to me anyway, I think.

The beer options and I of course went for Vocation’s two dark options. The barman mentioned that the Honeycomb Chocolate Stout was a recent product and so I was unlikely to have had it before.

The one on the right is Naughty & Nice, which was lovely. But, I want to focus more on the one on the left, the Honeycomb Chocolate Stout, which was effectively like drinking a Crunchie Bar. A bloody lovely beer with a strong flavour, but it was smooth, luscious and really quite velvety, all with a 7% ABV. This was a delight to drink, although I’d note that the aftertaste wasn’t quite as decadent as I’d have liked, but this was something really quite different and enjoyable.

It’s all a bit keg based to be listed in the Good Beer Guide, although there are a few cask options to choose from. I was slightly tempted by food (they do what look to be a decent line in burgers), but I might have been trying to be on a Zoom call at the same time, so I thought I was already pushing that situation…… A very good suggestion though to come here.