IT isn’t easy to add something truly new to York’s beer scene.

The city has welcomed a huge number of new breweries, bars and beers in recent years, creating unprecedented levels of customer choice. So finding an unoccupied niche takes some doing.

Step forward Lee Grabham and Wayne Smith, who are about to launch Brew York in Walmgate. This will be only the second commercial brewery within the Bar Walls - but it aims to be much more than that. They envisage a brewery, family-friendly cafe bar and shop all rolled into one.

Lee says: “This is a long-held dream that is finally coming to reality. We are not opening an out-of-town industrial estate brewery, but something York does not already have.”

York Press:

Wayne Smith (left) and Lee Grabham, who are setting up Brew York in Walmgate

They have been inspired by Northern Monk and Tapped Leeds, which have bar areas within the brewery, and above all by Little Creatures Brewery in Fremantle near Perth, Australia, which Wayne recently visited. [Pictured above, by The0dora Photography on flickr]

“Their brewery is mixed in with the customer areas,” he says. “It feels really modern and people go along with families. They’ve a little garden as well and it felt a really fun place to be. We really hope we can do something like that for York."

The closest thing in York is York Brewery itself, in Toft Green, though its bar is separated from the brewing equipment, and has a more traditional than modern feel.

The Junction Brewhouse in Leeman Road was a laudable but short-lived idea, with the brewing equipment behind large windows in a sideroom of the pub, until the whole business closed in 2013.

Brew York's building is not yet much to look at. It's Unit 6 of the Enterprise Complex, the mini industrial area set back from the road, between Walmgate Day Nursery and the Italian restaurant Paradiso Del Cibo.

Until 2013, this large, warehouse-style building was used by York Archaeological Trust as storage and work space (a lot of what you see if you visit Jorvik Viking Centre was prepared and developed here). Now, Lee and Wayne want to make it a destination for the general public.

The upstairs mezzanine area will be for staff only and for the start of the brewing process. Downstairs, the rest of the brewery equipment will take centre stage, with a customer bar area around it. And through the back, a small garden area will overlook the river Foss, just across from Rowntree Wharf.

York Press:

The beer garden will overlook the Foss

Later, a shop will also be added, initially selling only the brewery's own beers but eventually stocking others as well.

"The venue is brilliant, given how vibrant Fossgate and Walmgate have become. York is in a good position to have something else within the Bar Walls.

"One of the places we really like is the Fossgate Social, and we hope we can replicate something like that, albeit in a massive warehouse building."

John Pybus, new licensee at The Blue Bell, and Paul Marshall at the Rook and Gaskill in Lawrence Street, plan to take the beers, and for local deliveries the pair plan to use a "dray bike", capable of carrying six casks at a time.

York Press:

Both Lee and Wayne come from a home-brewing background. Lee, from Wigginton, has been working for Aviva most recently, while Wayne moved to York eight years ago through his work with the Shepherd Group.

"We have been home-brewing together for a couple of years, and independently longer than that, and we were told our beer was of a commercial standard," says Lee.

They hope to order the equipment any day now, with delivery likely next February. All being well, they will be open next spring - ideally by Easter. Once up and running, they plan to open to the public from noon onwards every Friday and Saturday.

They tweeted on Friday:

And as for what to expect on the bar?

There will be four core beers, including:

  • An American pale ale called Brew York Brew York
  • An American IPA called Eagle and
  • A smoked porter called Viking DNA, in honour of the building's history.

The fourth will be chosen by a public vote on the launch night, from a choice of:

  • Black Eagle (a black IPA-style beer)
  • Maris The Otter (an English blonde ale, named after Maris Otter malt and an otter recently spotted in the Foss) and
  • Lionheart (an English IPA)

Thereafter, there will be an American series and an English series, with occasional specials available only at the brewery tap.