Frequently Asked Questions
Have a question? There's a chance that someone has already asked us, so we've put together this useful set of FAQs to help you find the answer quickly. If your question isn't listed, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Do you do brewery tours?
Sadly we do not offer tours to the general public as we are a fully working brewery from Monday to Friday – and due to the age of the brewery there are a lot of narrow walkways, steep steps and gridded walkways etc. So for health and safety reasons we are not set up to conduct tours regularly.
Due to being asked frequently if we do tours, we have created a step-by-step look into our brewing process with an accompanying video tour.
I've experienced a bad pint of Timothy Taylor's, what do I do?
Although we definitely don't like hearing about any of our beers being in less-than-perfect condition, we can at least try and help with any issues the pub serving it may be having.
Our support beyond the brewery is second-to-none. Each of our BDMs around the country is Cask Marque accredited and we offer free cellar training to any pub who stocks our beers to try and guarantee quality. We will also routinely drop in on pubs on an ongoing basis for quality checks to make sure standards are being kept.
Unfortunately as you can imagine there are a few instances where customers receive a less-than-perfect pint and if this is the case, upon receiving negative feedback we will plan a visit ourselves to see what issues the pub might be having and offer support where we can. This will of course be kept totally anonymous.
If you've experienced a bad pint recently, please email us at tim@timtaylors.co.uk with information about what was wrong with it and the name and address of the pub, and we'll confidentially investigate on your behalf and support where needed.
Can I make a request for a charity?
We would love to be able to offer assistance to every charity that sends a request to us; however, we have a longstanding commitment to our local Sue Ryder Care hospice, Manorlands, as one of their corporate partners.
We do of course try and support charities however we can, so if you have a request for a local charity, please contact us by emailing charitycommittee@timtaylors.co.uk
Although we do appreciate that there are many very worthy causes. We receive letters and emails of request almost daily and would love to support them all but our commitment has to be to Manorlands.
Do you have a brewery tap or shop onsite?
For many of the same reasons that we can't do brewery tours, we also don’t have a tap or shop onsite here at the brewery. If you do visit the brewery and are not expected, we will unfortunately have to turn you away as we don't have visitor facilities or any merchandise held here.
If you’re visiting the Keighley area and would like to try our beers or purchase merchandise, we would suggest a visit to Taylor's on the Green, our local brewery tap room and kitchen - with a brewery shop onsite.
Why can't I find Golden Best or Dark Mild in bottles?
Unfortunately, both our milds, Golden Best and Dark Mild currently aren't available in bottles. This is due to the fact that there just isn't the commercial demand to make them viable at the moment.
Bottling them does remain part of our ongoing conversations here at the brewery, but isn't something we expect to happen any time soon - however if they do become available we will send out an update.
Why are some of your beers different strengths in bottle and cask?
Landlord and Landlord Dark are both 4.1% ABV in bottle and mini keg; compared to 4.3% in cask. This is because of the residual sugars in the cask which stimulate the yeast that’s also present. This gives the beer a vigorous secondary fermentation; adding to the character of the beer and developing the additional 0.2%.
Boltmaker is 4.2% in bottle and 4.0% in cask. This is simply down to the flavour and quality we seek to deliver in all our beers. Our brewers found that without the secondary fermentation, the usual cask recipe didn’t deliver in bottle. Due to this, they adjusted the strength of the beer in bottles, to make sure you get the same well-balanced bitter flavour as you get in cask.
Knowle Spring is the same strength in cask as it is in bottles; 4.2%. This is because our brewers use the recipe and fermentation to leave much less residual sugar in the cask than they do with Landlord. The result is that the ABV does not increase significantly in cask.
Have you lowered the ABV of Golden Best and Dark Mild?
We have moved both Golden Best and Dark Mild from 3.5% to 3.4% alcohol by volume [ABV] for all to benefit from the new lower duty rates. Given the change is only 0.1% of alcohol and HMRC tolerances (e.g. 3.49% ABV is rounded down to 3.4% not up to 3.5%) we have not had to make any changes to our recipe but just minor adjustments to fermentation, that will be imperceptible to the consumer.
Why are your bottles more expensive on your webshop than in a supermarket?
While one would think we could offer the beer at a similar price as supermarkets, the savings we make by selling direct to you are offset by the costs of packaging materials and the people we have packing the orders (this does involve a fair bit of effort, including breaking down 8 packs into individual bottles; erecting the dividers and boxes, picking the stock, sealing the box, etc).
It's also worth noting that the only place you can find our full range of beers is on our webshop, no other supermarket currently offers this, and we also offer free delivery on all orders regardless of how much you spend, again not something that many other breweries or supermarkets offer.
We should conclude by saying that we feel that supermarkets under-price our beer, given our sales price into them and the quality and effort that we put into the bottle. However, retail price is totally theirs to control.
We hope this provides you with at least some explanation on our pricing, but wherever you buy our beers from we hope you continue to enjoy them.
I work in a pub that serves your beers and would like some POS (beer mats, bar runners etc.)?
We at Timothy Taylor’s know that one of the most important roles involved in the enjoyment of our award-winning ales are the dedicated pub and wholesaler teams responsible for looking after our beer once it’s left our brewery. Without these hardworking individuals our ales would not be what they are and therefore we are 100% committed to providing ongoing industry-leading support to every stockist who supports us.
We have a wide range of tailored POS items which we offer for free to all stockists and we can support your business with second-to-none technical support through our Cask Marque-accredited Sales Team.
If you stock our beers and would like any POS sending to your pub - please contact our POS Logistics team.
Phone: 01535 682 196 | Email: POS@timtaylors.co.uk
Can I hire the Timothy Taylor's trailer bar?
If you are running a large event and would like to hire our trailer bar, please contact Premier Event Bars, who run it for us.
They offer premium bar service and catering for any size of occasion, and will be happy to discuss your needs to create a bespoke package for you.
Can I buy a cask from you for an event?
Unfortunately we are unable to sell our 9 gallon casks of beer direct to the public due to liability and insurance restrictions, also issues with delivery and pick up. There are some alternatives though:
- You can contact a wholesaler (however you sometimes need a wholesale account for this) – two that we usually deal with are LWC and Matthew Clark.
- We sell bottles in large pack sizes on our webshop with free UK delivery regardless of how much you spend: https://www.timothytaylorshop.co.uk/beer/
- If you definitely would like cask you can contact That Outside Bar Company who are our recommended suppliers of event bars: That Outside Bar Company UK Limited, That Bar Company, Giggleswick, Settle, North Yorkshire, BD24 9BP. TELEPHONE: 07887 507266
Why are your beers no longer available in the United States?
Unfortunately we have stopped export of our beer to the US.
Given the complexities of the ‘three tier’ US system for alcohol distribution and a variety of other issues we decided that we couldn’t carry on. While there were a number of factors, one of the issues relates to quality; we were finding that the stock that eventually made its way onto shelves was quite old and did not reflect the quality in which we take pride.
We would not rule out our beers returning to the US at some point in the future but it isn’t something that we can see happening in the short to medium term.
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