This year as part of York City of Ale Week we are bringing you 2 days of amazing beer. 

Times
5.00pm Friday 7th July until Midnight
12.00pm Saturday 8th July until Midnight 

Location
52 Stonegate behind Trembling Madness in the courtyard & Belfry Hall

Beer Tokens - £1 per token or buy 25 for £20 (Cash or Card).
                     25 tokens work out at 80p per token (£4.80 pint instead of £6 pint)
Beer Glasses - £2 per glass. 
Beer are sold in 3rd's or Pints.

We will be cooking our own street food in the Madness style. 
There will be vegetarian options as well as the pulled beer meats and BBQ. 

We have a full live music line up throughout from some great local musicians. 
Plus games in the hall.

Lets hope the sun shines x

Its great for a local independent business in York to gain national recognition for the Best Craft Beer Retailer in the UK. We work hard sourcing new up and coming brands as well as stocking the greatest world beers. Our range contains over 1000 different craft ales that change seasonally. Hopefully we can continue to develop and grow through the knowledge we have gained and serve the people of York for many years to come. We are still in limbo over our lease not being extended with Betty's in 2018 but we are in the process of relocating to a new exciting premises that will be announced later in the year if licenses and planning are granted.  

Thanks to all our beer drinking customers!

Full list of all the award winners here 
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If you like our little pub why not give us a quick vote here

The top 30 pubs get added to the Welcome to Yorkshire Ale Trail 2015 - we'd like everyone to sample some the superb new craft ales available today, our beer range is currently over 700 .

Our listed apartments are over 650 years old and due to the nature of the medieval build are not soundproof between floors, we therefore painstaking installed soundproofing between the beams, replastering and decorating as if it had never happened. So I do hope you notice the difference if you stay. Well done to the contractors on a very tough job. 

Check out the apartments here  

Another seasonal release from Flying Dog, and another fantastic label from Ralph Steadman.

Unlike the Poperinges Hommelbier I reviewed previously, this is an American wit that adheres more closely to the traditions of the style. Not as assertively hopped, nor as alcoholic, as the Poperinges, this is a traditional 4.8 per cent witbier spiced with orange peel and coriander seed.

Pouring lemon sorbet with a rustic dustiness, a rough carbonation throws out a billowing meringue head.

The aroma is dominated by walnuts and creamy porridge, run through with baked bananas, and a subtle orange zestiness.

The flavour is lead by a zingy lemon sharpness that builds rapidly into a verdant meadow-scented bitterness, buffered by cream soda, a touch of vanilla sugar, and creamy oats.

This is brought into balance by an assertive carbonation and a slight acidic tang in the finish.

While characteristic almond and fruit flavours remain present, the banana found in the aroma remains absent, as too are the more traditional clove flavours of a Belgian ale.

The result is a less complex take on the style, however this renders Woody Creek incredibly refreshing; a wonderful bracing beer to be drunk with gusto on warm, muggy days.

Recommended by Michael Bates, Trembling Madness, Stonegate, York

FOURPURE brewery are a new one on me; a UK micro brewery that's gone right for the cans.

Sure, Beavertown have started filling cans recently, and Brewdog made a big fuss when they started playing with the format, but Fourpure seem to have just gotten on with it.

Another London brewery new to our shelves, started by ex-homebrewers who wanted to add their own take on a variety of world beer styles for our enjoyment, this time unfined (read: vegan friendly), unfiltered, and canned with yeast in-situ.

Pouring mid-copper with tangerine highlights, and a thick, foamy, head, this was a lively effervescent beer with excellent head retention. The aroma is bursting with pecan nuts, ground ginger, marzipan and parma violets, while a caramel malt edge works its way throughout.

The flavour is surprisingly neutral: not flavourless, I hasten to add, but not dry, not sweet, everything here is clean and carefully balanced. Oatmeal and Hobnob biscuits provided sweetness, countered by the rustic crunch of All Bran. Amaretto sweetness is countered by a fruity liquorice and black coffee sourness.

A rich, sweet, malty biscuit finish is balanced with a sharp acidity from zesty, cascade hops.

It's not about to blow your mind, it's 'just' a well-crafted, refreshing beer; one I expect to enjoy several times over the remaining summer days.

Recommended by Michael Bates, Trembling Madness, York

Mikkeller brewery is probably the best-known 'gypsy brewery' – the one that has no brewery of its own, and is therefore either fun and experimental, or gimmicky and aimed solely at beer hipsters depending who you ask.

I'm probably classed as a beer hipster by some, so I guess that's why I enjoy Mikkeller's beer, except for the ones that aren't very good. Unsurprisingly, for a brewery releasing upwards of 40 experimental beers every year, some of them aren't actually nice – they may well be interesting, but you have to pick carefully, and so we only order in those we know will meet people's expectations.

Beer Geek Breakfast, their flagship coffee stout, is fantastic – it's reliably so too; placing in Ratebeer's top 50 beers in the world seven times in the eight years the brewery has existed. You can't really argue with that sort of success.

Pouring unctuous and black with a thin espresso cream head, the immediate rush of aroma is of toasted oak, robust, fruity coffee, redcurrants, and bitter cocoa.


Opening with buttery fudge and vanilla marzipan, creamy coffee leads to a caramelised hazelnut flourish, backed by a grassy bitterness. Mint and lemon tea accents punctuate an assertive hoppy finish, cleaning up the palate after an otherwise sweet affair.

This, and it's relatively light body, make Beer Geek Breakfast surprisingly easy drinking, and much more refreshing than its strength and style might suggest.

Recommended by Michael Bates, Trembling Madness, Stonegate, York

I've talked about the Wild Beer Co and their penchant for experimentation before; their blended, barrel-aged saison 'Solera' featured earlier, and their Berliner Weisse style ale brewed with a sourdough culture pretty much suggested that this beer was inevitable.

Yes, the Wild Beer Co have finally done as their name suggests and cultured some 'wild' yeast strains and bacteria, then used the naturally occurring yeasts on apple skins to kickstart the fermentation of this, their bravest experiment yet.

What we have here is a young, unblended, lambic by another name, and it most certainly is lambic season now the sun is out.

Pouring a dusty platinum blonde, topped with the briefest flash-in-the-pan white head, the aroma is typical of the style.

Peaches and lemon sherbet shoot up the nostrils, shocking with their pungent fruit sharpness, before damp earth and heady farmyard funk kick in.

Apples, nutmeg, and grape juice get a foot in, but only as accents here and there, this is really a yeasty beasty.

The body is moderate, surprising for the style, and perhaps because of the buttery influence of the pedio. yeast and the beer's youth, this accentuates the yoghurt sharpness of the first impression.

A sharp lactic tang opens up into blanched peanuts and dying embers, a touch of petrichor subdued by creamy bananas and sour cream.

Not for the faint of heart – go in to this one with your mind open and your senses prepared though, and you'll be glad you did.

Recommened by Michael Bates, Trembling Madness, Stonegate, York

Brasserie d'Orval is unique among the Trappist breweries - you won't find the abbey producing a range of ales for export, rather just the one, monolithic beer: Orval.

Generously dry hopped with aromatic noble hops and conditioned in the bottle with Brettanomyces Bruxellensis (a yeast many brewers consider a contaminant), while the beer that leaves the abbey doors is all of the same ilk, this secondary yeast strain noticeably dries the beer and alters the flavour profile, sometimes dramatically, as the beer ages.

As such, Orval's flavour forever changes depending on how old the beer is, with aged Orval sought fervently by enthusiasts, even if the beer's fingerprint remains the same.

Pouring a hazy copper toffee, with a billowing white head, the immediate impression is an aroma of warm muesli, gooseberries, and a smoky, phenolic edge of Brett. funk.

Somewhere under all this lies a grassy, nettle tea hop character and a sliver of lemon garnish.

The body is light, medium dry, and refreshing, as a golden syrup sweetness rises from a chorus of lemon cheesecake and grapefruit pith which lingers on the palate, enhancing the beer's dryness. A gentle dandelion bitterness is present in the finish, along with the characteristic sweat and warm hay of the Brettanomyces yeast. Even if you've had Orval before, there's never an excuse not to return to it once more – it really is one of the best beers in the world.

Recommended by Michael Bates, Trembling Madness, Stonegate, York

Our decision to stock The Celt Experience came about after we were offered a rogue cask of their Imperial Stout – Ogham Ash – by one of our suppliers.

Not ones to shy away from this sort of thing, we took it on, and sure enough it was fantastic stuff. So good, in fact, that we had to get it in bottles so we could continue to enjoy it, unable to guarantee a steady supply on tap for the staff.

Our Welsh section instantly doubled in size, as we took in their other Ogham series (read: strong, experimental beers); completed by Willow, and American-style India Pale Ale, and Oak, a spiced Tripel-style ale, inspired by the Belgian brewing tradition.

Brewed with cinnamon and orange peel, Ogham Oak pours the colour of golden syrup; brassy gold with copper edges, underneath an audibly fizzing white head that soon diminishes to a delicate white collar.

The aroma is pure nostalgia-fodder; pineapple cubes vie with orange pop, foam bananas, and sweet, bready yeast for your attention, underlined by a bitter, dusty note from the cinnamon.

Light bodied and dry, with a spritzy carbonation, a traditional Belgian tripel soon gives way to pineapple juice and banana sweetness. A cinnamon swell rises with the dry finish, its punchy earthiness further drying the palate as an even, but firm, hoppiness brings freshly cut grass and lemon zest to the fray. Complex, innovative, and ultimately fun, Ogham Oak is experimental done right.

Recommended by Michael Bates from Trembling Madness, Stonegate, York

BASED in Esen, De Dolle Brouwers are one of the more elusive and less well-known Belgian breweries whose products intermittently hit our shelves.

It doesn't help that supplies are limited, deliveries months apart, and often only include one type of beer, but it's always a pleasure to have them on hand.

De Dolle are something of an outlier; perhaps most famous for their Oerbier – a delightful sour brown ale. Ask someone to list some Belgian breweries, and there's a good chance they might not mention these guys.

However, every now and then we manage to get our grubby mitts on something from them that might suit a wider audience, rather than the rather niche funky sour ale, and Dulle Teve is one such beer.

Pouring a dusty amber, this 10 per cent tripel generates a billowing white head of loose, large bubbles that dissipates quickly. The aroma is typified by lemon sherbet and orange zest, with an edge of sharp raspberry purée and a dash of peppery esters.

Initial impressions are reminiscent of a banana split – sweet, chewy banana with a scattering of chopped cashews, held together by a rich toffee sauce.

Recommended by Michael Bates, Trembling Madness, Stonegate, York

CAMDEN Brewery are fairly well established, having set up shop in early 2010 – since then they've made a range of refreshing, contemporary ales, their eponymous Camden Pale perhaps best loved among them.

Then, after a time, they caused a few grumbles by announcing their decision to move away from cask conditioned beer entirely, opting instead to use kegs to deliver their beer, favouring keg's consistency over cask's more variable delivery quality.

We never really got their casks this far North anyway, so I've only ever known the keg products, but it seems to be working for them: they now have an expansion in the pipeline, with some of their ever-popular Helles lager brewed at a larger facility in Belgium by the Camden team. Expect to see them in ever-more outlets over the coming years.

Gentleman's Wit is a Belgian style wheat beer brewed with roasted lemons and bergamot, and by far and away my favourite of Camden's wares, pouring a delightful lemon-yellow with a white billowing head. The aroma is led by honeydew melons, lemon-thyme, bananas, and black pepper; a fruity, sweet nose brightened up by a zing of lemon zest.

Sweet, with a moderately viscous wit-bier body and a prickling carbonation, banana ice-cream and lemon rind cut through a creamy sweet wheat background, before a touch of bitter orange peel and oaky, dry bitterness cut through the finish.

Interesting enough to bear scrutiny, and delicious enough to slip down without thought.

Recommended by Michael Bates, Trembling Madness, 48 Stonegate, York

ANCHOR brewery are one of the big hitters of the American craft beer movement.

The brewery traces its history back to the late 19th century. Anchor is renowned for its California Common, or Steam, beer as well as their Liberty Ale, and Porter, for decades now, and are considered the leading light of the rise in craft brewing throughout America.

The Bock beer, brewed for release each spring, is brewed to be darker, stronger, and more complex overall than their Steam beer, just as a traditional German Bock stands in relation to a Pilsner or Kolsch.

Pouring walnut with tobacco highlights, and a tight tan head, an aroma of banana, pear drops, and treacle rises from the glass.

The flavour is not as sweet as some Bocks I've had, it is still sweet, but this is a slightly drier, crisp affair, with a welcome ashy, roasted malt acidity cutting through the mix to break apart this rich toffee lager.

Chocolate raisins and cinder toffee are brought into relief by a subtle lemon sharpness and a spritzy carbonation, ending with a treacle-y, sweet and sour finish revealing a touch of black pepper and lemon-zest bitterness.

Recommended by Michael Bates, Trembling Madness, 48 Stonegate, York

REVOLUTIONS Brewery, from Castleford, are in no way a new presence on our shelves or on cask in our bar; they've been putting out a range of delightful, musically-themed beers for a while now, and they are a brewery that does a good job of producing a wide range of styles to a high standard.

Go Go is the brewery's American pale ale, although it is brewed at a more Anglo-friendly 4.5 per cent, but what it lacks in weight it delivers in flavour.

Pouring strawberry-blonde with a loose white head, the initial aroma is pure American hops; we're talking that typical cascade grapefruit and nutty pine, a touch of hay from the malt, and some rough, prickly nettles off in the distance. Very light bodied, with just a touch of crystal malts and a slight wheat creaminess, the hops certainly lead the show.

Melons and grapefruit lead the proceedings, drying the palate, with some strawberries and thyme in there, before a bone-dry finish with the characteristic lemon zest and orange pith American hop finish.

Carbonation is a touch on the high side, providing a sharp carbonic bite, pushing this from 'refreshing' right into the 'summer beer' category.

Recommended by Michael Bates, Trembling Madness, 48 Stonegate, York

There's that switch every beer lover makes - they go from thinking that all proper beer is brown, twiggy bitters or stout, to drinking almost exclusively micro-brewed and regional beers.

This is a wonderful thing – it's the equivalent of eating potatoes all your life, then walking into a greengrocer's, you should do it if you haven't already.

The only downside to it is that quite often we'll find a customer who'll refuse to return to lager, even a fine Czech pilsner, having made the leap, assuming the swill they used to drink is actually representative of the style. It isn't, and Victory's Prima Pils proves that lagers can be just as exciting as any other style, in the right hands.

Pouring a hazy lemon yellow with a short-lived, loose head, the aroma is quince jelly, sweet and nutty, with a touch of cracked black pepper and cut grass in there for good measure.

The flavour is slightly sweet, with light toffee notes, giving way to a precise, robust bitterness; crisp and clean, lemon zest and grapefruit vie with cedar and petrichor for the palate's attention.

The finish is dry, refreshing, and clean, backed by lemon pith bitterness. All this coming exclusively from German and Czech hops.

Victory have done it by the book, and done it exceedingly well. So give lager another shot, provided it's the right sort of course.

Recommended by Michael Bates, Trembling Madness, 48 Stonegate, York

IF the concept of a jasmine green tea India pale ale sounds familiar, it might be because you had this beer in its previous incarnation.

Once upon a time, this beer was sold under the brewery's 'Outlaw' sub-label of experimental beers, but it clearly did well enough to enter the main stable.

If it sounds alien to you, well you should probably just give in and try it. Brewed with jasmine flowers, jasmine green tea from Taylor's of Harrogate, and in collaboration with the renowned beer writer Melissa Cole, this beer has 'promising' written all over it.

Pouring a hazy gold, and giving rise to a rich meringue-whip head, the aroma is unsurprisingly jasmine-lead with only the faintest suggestion of rich tea biscuit malts in the background. It's the first sip that's the most exciting; a sweet, perfumed beer, High Tea fills your entire head with notes of tangerine, parma violets, and yes... jasmine, before a surge of green tea adds a herbal, slightly acidic, bitterness.

Pungent, delicate, and reasonably balanced, the bitter finish of the IPA is taken further by the dry green tea tannins, and it is this flavours lack of abrasive quality that keeps this IPA from becoming hard to drink.

Obviously if you don't like jasmine tea, you might not like this one (or maybe you're brewing your tea improperly), but you should give this a try regardless. It's genuinely refreshing, and could be just the ticket for next time the sun comes out.

Recommended by Michael Bates, Trembling Madness, 48 Stonegate, York

BREWED at Brewdog’s new brewery in Ellon, this is a new beer from a ‘new’ brewery. Only it isn’t a brewery; Gypsy Inc. is a new collective of contract brewers headed by the infamous Mikkeller.

So this is a beer at least somewhat related to Mikkeller, brewed at Brewdog... but it’s not either of their beers. Or something.

According to Brewdog, Gypsy Inc. have launched “over 600” commercial beers, and yet only two are currently available, two more are due soon, and nobody has heard of the other 596.

Hopefully somewhere beyond the smoke and mirrors is a nice beer for me to drink, because my head hurts now.

Pale Trail is a 4.7 per cent hoppy pale ale brewed with Citra, Simcoe and Tettnanger hops, and the former two really show in the aroma; dripping wet pineapple and Um Bongo. The beer itself is a lovely bright copper, in part because it isn’t bottle conditioned, with a delicate white head.

Of course the taste is what matters, however it isn’t, as you might expect from the aroma, aggressively hoppy. Rather it tastes like raw, unfermented wort; caramel sweetness and dry toasted cereal play off against gentle hop aromatics, and yet it’s remarkably light bodied.

It might be made by nobody, but you know what? This is a lovely beer for a sunny Spring day.

Having started out on a tiny one barrel brew kit (producing only four casks of ale per brew), Brass Castle made a name for themselves in the local area with their rich, sweet vanilla porter Bad Kitty, and this beer, their India Pale Ale Sunshine.

Last year saw the brewery take the top prize at CAMRA’s York Beer Festival and SIBA’s North East regional competition with Sunshine. Part of this is almost certainly due to the fact that all its ales are vegan friendly – not fining or filtering the cask beer means the ale remains slightly hazy with flavourful hop particles, although of course some fantastic brewing probably does most of the legwork. Pouring copper with brass highlights, gentle carbonation creating only a slight head. The aroma is bready yeast, nettle tea, pine, and parma violets. Lemon and lime accents provide some bright notes, underlined by earthy tea and bergamot.

Peppery malt, with a medium sweetness and rich caramel that develops into a warming lemon and honey. Tangerines come to the fore, followed by a spicy blend of pine and grass, with a touch of peach drying out the palate. No wonder it’s has people coming back for more.

Recommended by Michael Bates, Trembling Madness, 48 Stonegate, York

VAN Ecke's witbier is nothing like other traditional wits you might have drunk before; gone are the coriander and orange peel.

This beer was first brewed in 1981 to celebrate the proud hop-growing culture of Flanders.

Intensely hopped, aromatic, and brewed to a hearty 7.5 per cent, Hommelbier gets its name from its native region's crop, and the bees that help pollinate the farmers' crops.

Hommelbier pours a glowing tangerine, under a voluminous, creamy white head. The aroma is sweet candyfloss, cloves and bananas like many other wits, but there's an edge of papaya and marzipan, coupled with a fragrant woodiness that just isn't there in its competitors.

Medium to full bodied, with a sprightly carbonation, this beer demonstrates just how luscious noble hops can be: there are peaches and pecan nuts playing on a background of vanilla, with a creamy porridge backing from the wheat.

Strong fruity esters provide further interest, banana-bread and almonds round out the finish with a substantial hop bitterness and a slight alcohol warmth.

For those who are game, I'd strongly recommend drinking this wit with the sediment, or at least some of it, in the beer; don't worry, it won't upset your tummy, it's only yeast.

Adding these critters in to the mix intensifies the wheaty nuttiness of the beer, but also adds a satisfying salty bitterness that acts as an excellent foil for the sweeter, fruitier aspects of this brew.

Recommended by Michael Bates, Trembling Madness, 48 Stonegate, York

The biggest festival to happen in York is coming very close - make sure you're there this year as there's better food, better music and better beer!  Have a look at our current selection that is going to be ready for you to enjoy and dispensed professionally. We can't wait!

Tickets still available - follow the link below