WHARFEDALE Brewery, housed at the back of the Flying Duck Brew Pub in Church Street, Ilkley is launching a new beer called Wharfedale Gold to its range this weekend, following an approach from a former Ilkley resident who now lives in Australia.

Home brewing enthusiast turned commercially qualified brewer, Rob Callin has maintained regular contact with friends and family in his home town since moving to Cairns with his wife Rachel nine years ago, and has kept a watchful eye on developments at what used to be his local pub via Facebook and the Ilkley Gazette’s website.

Whilst planning his visit back to Yorkshire this summer, he got in touch with the brewery to see if they would be interested in producing a collaboration beer with an Australian twist during his stay and Wharfedale Gold is set to get the taste buds buzzing at the Flying Duck this weekend.

Rob said: “The transformation of the Flying Duck is simply unbelievable and this is exactly the type of pub I always thought Ilkley was lacking. I was really looking forward to seeing the work that had been done and with the added bonus of a microbrewery at the back I just had to get in touch.

"I would like to thank everyone at Wharfedale Brewery for giving me the opportunity to help add to what is already a top quality range of beers. It has been a great experience working with their technical director Stewart Ross, in creating a beer that fuses traditional Yorkshire cask ales with the more heavily hopped and intensely flavoured American/New World sparkling pale ales I’m used to brewing in Australia.

"The project has been a real highlight of my trip back to the UK and I’m tremendously excited about trying a few pints."

Stewart added: “Rob’s beers have won first prizes in the State of Queensland and he’s also won awards nationally down under so when he asked if he could work with us we were only too keen to oblige. It has been a thoroughly interesting and enlightening exercise and I am sure our customers will be impressed with the latest addition to our stable”.

Wharfedale Gold bursting with American Amarillo hop flavours, weighs in at 4.3% ABV.