Jo Theakston (left, sales and marketing director) and Rob Theakston (managing director) prepare the Black Sheep tanker for the road

Black Sheep Brewery is ramping up production to support the reopening of pubs. After restarting brewing this month with Black Sheep Best Bitter, the Masham-based brewery is adding a wider selection of brews in various formats.

Though primarily available in cask, Black Sheep Best Bitter is also available in kegs and mini-kegs. The brewery’s opening cask range will also feature Twilighter, a fresh IPA that was introduced as a seasonal in 2019 and was widely well received.

The brewery plans on reintroducing Black Sheep IPA in keg format from 6th July, while also reintroducing their Yorkshire lager, 54° North, from 20th July.

Its distribution team, who have been providing local home deliveries direct to customers, will begin reloading their fleet of vans with casks and kegs for delivery to customers in its Yorkshire heartland and across the UK over the next two weeks.

Chief executive, Charlene Lyons, said: “We have been poised to increase our production ready for pubs to re-open, and now we have the green light, our team will be pulling out all the stops to ensure our pub customers have the freshest supplies of Black Sheep behind the bar, ready for 4th July.

“All of our deliveries will be made in line with hygiene and social distancing guidelines, and we will be encouraging all the pubs we work with to ensure they have a safe environment for staff and customers to enjoy this new chapter in the story of our industry.

“There’s no doubt that this is a monumental day for us. Delivering to pubs once again will allow us to resume our close bonds with our flock of publicans, with whom we have long-standing and successful relationships. We’ve missed them, but we are back together now and making sure they can serve much-desired pints of hand-pulled Black Sheep that their customers have been looking forward to throughout lockdown.”