On Wednesday 24th April, Tom Hughes and the staff members of the Victorian Craft Beer Café were presented with Halifax and Calderdale CAMRA’s Pub of Year award for 2024. This is the second occasion that the pub has received the award, having previously been branch Pub of the Year in 2018. In addition VCBC has been Highly Commended in the Halifax and Calderdale CAMRA Pub of the Year competition on three occasions in 2019, 2022 and 2023, was runner up in the Yorkshire CAMRA Pub of the Year in 2018 and has received a number of awards from the West Riding Branch of The Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood.
In a packed pub, Halifax and Calderdale CAMRA’s Branch Chair, Richard Lee, praised the range and quality of the cask ale, keg ale and other alcoholic delights on offer and the friendly, knowledgeable and dedicated staff team and commented on the manner in which the pub has evolved over the years to create what is now not only one of the best and most loved pubs in the branch area, but also within Yorkshire and much further afield. It is rather fitting, although not engineered, that the VCBC has gained the award in its 10th Birthday Year. After the pub opened, it has been expanded on a number of occasions, the toilets have been re-located and there are now multiple rooms with plenty of seating in a variety of comfortable settings.
The Victorian Craft Beer Café regularly serves nine beers and one cider on handpump and is the only pub in Calderdale to consistently serve three dark beers on cask. It has 18 kegs lines, 100s of bottled Belgian and World beers and a wide-range of other alcoholic drinks. Coffee, tea, pies, snacks and non-alcoholic drinks are also available and it is open for at least 11 hours every day.
In his speech Richard also praised the bravery of the pub for offering the Back in Black Festival in which only dark beers are served. Back in Black is a celebrated event which has become famous throughout Northern England. This year’s Back in Black Festival will take place from the 5th – 8th December 2024 and there will be 40 different dark beers on handpump (16 served at any one time), 25 dark beers on keg (18 served at any one time) and a range of dark bottled beers. The festival is not to be missed so it is suggested that you should write the dates in your diary now.
