Today is National Beer Day — and what better day to celebrate Huddersfield’s thriving brewery scene with a local ale?

Our town has been put on the map thanks to its wide range of craft ale and real ale brewers, from internationally-known producers to small garage-based breweries.

The Real Ale Trail and host of town centre taprooms means you’re never too far from a cracking pint in Huddersfield — so here’s 10 local names to try.

1. Magic Rock Brewing

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The award-winning brewery opened in 2011 and has taken the craft ale world by storm. Recently nominated for a BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Award, the brewery, in Willow Lane, Huddersfield, is known for its flavourful, unusual craft ales, including Hire Wire Grapefruit, Salty Kiss and Ringmaster. Fans can now enjoy a pint close to the source at the Magic Rock Taproom, which serves its core ales as well as collaboration beers with other breweries.

2. Mallinsons Brewery

Mallinsons has been a staple of the Huddersfield brewing scene since opening in 2008, and hopes to open a town centre taproom later this year. Mallinsons brews around 130 casks of ale each week, equivalent to 10,000 pints, delivered to pubs across Huddersfield, including the Star, the Sportsman and the Shoulder of Mutton in Lockwood. Pallets of casks are also delivered as far as London, as well as to customers in North Yorkshire and Leeds.

3. Small World Beers

Nestled in the beautiful Barncliffe Valley, Small World Beers is brewing up a storm. The first brewery Shelley and Shepley have seen for 68 years, the three-man company began producing its range of traditional ales ‘with a twist’ in May 2014. Using fresh spring water from the brewery’s own bore hole, Small World’s range of bitters, pale ales, stout and summer ales is sold in a 30-mile radius around its Shelley base.

4. Golcar Brewery

You might not have realised, but tucked away in Golcar village is an award-winning brewery. In 2010 Golcar Brewery’s Dark Mild won the bronze at CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Britain, while Golcar Mild has won gold more than once at Rotherham’s Real Ale and Music Festival, the largest of its kind in Yorkshire. Golcar brews two light beers, a porter and seasonal ales, using traditional English hops and recipes.

5. Empire Brewing

It’s not a bad start when your first brew takes the top prize at a beer festival. And that’s what happened to Empire Brewing in Slaithwaite — its debut ale, Empire Strikes Back, was named best beer at the Huddersfield CAMRA beer festival in 2004. The brewery has enjoyed more than 10 years of success, with its beers delivered as far as Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield.

6. Summer Wine Brewery

Sorachi Samurai IPA by Summer Wine Brewery
Sorachi Samurai IPA by Summer Wine Brewery

Established in 2008, this Holmfirth-based brewery strives to create avante garde beers that break the rules. Their popular brews include a dark mild, Resistance, pale ale Zenith, an espresso stout suitably-named Barista, a ten-malt porter called Teleporter, a West Coast pale ale called Oregon and Rouge, a red hop ale, among others. This week they have introduced three new keg beers: Sorachi Samurai IPA, Sunset Strip pale ale and The Juice Facilitator Pale Ale.

7. The Bridge (Holmbridge) Brewery

Restaurant review, The Bridge, Holmbridge. Richard Thomas, who is responsible for the brewing of the three Bridge beers inspects a pint of Bridge Blonde from The Bridge brewhouse.

The Bridge brewery, based in a Holmebridge pub, made its Good Beer Guide debut this year. Head brewer Richard Thomas, formerly of the Greenfield Brewery, has developed core ales for the pub, including a 3.8 per cent Blonde English pale ale, four per cent Bitter and a four per cent American Pale, the Brewery’s own version of an American Pale Ale but without the high alcohol volume. Founded last year, it produces five ales and up to 700 pints per week.

8. The Riverhead Brewery

Brewing from the Riverhead Brewery Tap in Marsden, the Riverhead micro-brewery is part of the Ossett Brewery estate and produces hand-crafted beers made from English malts and hops from around the world. It typically brews five different ales each week, with a range of styles and regular limited edition beers. The brew-pub first opened in 1995, and names its core ales after local reservoirs.

9. Rat Brewery

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Beneath the Rat and Ratchet in Chapel Hill, the Rat Brewery has been cooking up an impressive 9,000 pints per week, and regularly collaborates with other brewers to produce unique beers. The brewery has won local and regional awards for its brews and even scooped a national accolade at the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) awards last March. To celebrate its 1000th brew in November, the team has created a ten per cent ABV barley wine-style beer called ‘Grapes of Rat’ — aged in American Cabinet Sauvignon casks.

10. Here Be Monsters

Here Be Monsters produce full-bodied, heavily hopped ales, with a core range called ‘The Furies’ — English-style IPAs, one blonde, one red and one dark, all 4.9%. The craft beer brewery in Holmfirth, run by home-brewer Doug Scard, sold its first bottle of beer (to Doug’s local corner shop) in December last year, and the one-man operation hopes to grow in the coming years.