Plough Inn

Brewed to 4.4% ABV, Bass is still brewed to an original recipe using only the finest ingredients and the experience of generations. Bass is brewed with two strains of yeast to produce a complex nutty, malty taste with subtle hop undertone.

Tasting Notes: A medium-bodied complex nutty, biscuity malt taste with roasty, caramel aromas and classic earthy, subtly floral hop notes.

Described by esteemed beer writer Roger Protz as… “The finest blonde beer I’ve drunk in many a year”

Tasting Notes: Harvest Pale is brewed with a gently-kilned malt, and an aromatic blend of American hops added during the brewing process gives this 3.8% alc pale beer exceptional poise. Its distinct hop flavour leads to a crisp finish. Harvest Pale has firmly established itself as Castle Rock’s Flagship Beer. SIBA National Champion Bitter 2004, Champion Bitter of Britain 2007 and Champion Beer of Britain 2010.

XB is a rare delight, a real ale connoisseur’s masterpiece. A strong full-bodied ale with a subtle but superb blend of two types of bitter and three fruit hop varieties giving a most thirst quenching and satisfying ale. XB was first brewed in 1982 to celebrate the purchase of the Carlisle Brewery by Theakstons a few years before. Brewed always and ever in Masham, XB was designed as a tribute to the classic ‘border’ style of beer, strong in gravity, low but complex hop. It was an instant success and has remained so, winning over real ale devotees all over the UK. Always in the shadow of its more famous stable–mate, Old Peculier, XB has quietly established itself as favourite among serious cask ale enthusiasts. Its name came not from some clever marketing expert but rather based on the more prosaic features of the Masham brewery. In the days when the only way to distinguish the contents from one cask to the next was by use of one of only two wooden stamps dipped in white wash and applied to each cask, the only letters available were either an X or a B. We could have called in BX but we preferred XB!

Tasting Notes: A premium strength, ruby coloured premium bitter with a delicate Calvados aroma, and a subtle rhubarb and apple fruit flavour. The balance between bitterness and fruitiness from Bramling Cross and Fuggle hops used give XB the distinctively complex aroma, making it a beer to savour.