More than 3,000 pints poured at first ever AmityFest in Farsley

Launched during the pandemic, Amity Brew Co is a 2,500 sq ft brewery and bar with outdoor paved beer garden situated at Sunny Bank Mills in Farsley.

The team started producing beers in June 2020, moving their launch forward so that they could build a community locally and within the craft beer scene before physically opening doors to the brewery.

More than a thousand beer drinkers attended Farsley’s first ever craft beer festival this weekend, with over 3,000 pints poured.

The sold out AmityFest is a celebration of the second anniversary for craft brewery Amity Brew Co and took place July 1-3.

The team invited breweries to attend who had supported Amity in the early days through borrowing equipment, giving advice or offering a collaboration.

Breweries on offer included Northern Monk, Vocation, Brew York, Fierce, Horsforth Brewery, Nomadic, Round Corner, Kirkstall, Tartarus and Anthology.

The beers on offer included a Cherry Sour from Vocation, a tropical hazy pale called Judicious from Kirkstall, Fierce’s Bourbon Very Big Moose, a marshmallow flavour beer from Brew York called Mallowed Be Thy Name and a 17% stout from Leeds-based Tartarus who make beers with a large ABV.

Amity Brew Co was also pouring a new beer made specially for its Famity community who supported them with their crowdfund earlier this year.

The food offering was also a highlight of the weekend which attracted the crowds including BBQ kings Farsley Fire and Smoke with their low and slow BBQ and burgers, Mexican amigos Sabrosa Street with tacos and Oakwood-based Pizza Loco.

One vendor told Amity Brew Co they took more sales then at the city centre street food festival Chow Down and sold food every two minutes during the lunchtime rush on Saturday.

As a small business, the brewery said the huge event was "an enormous undertaking" - with the tenants of SunnyBank Mills carefully taken into consideration to ensure there was minimum disruption.

The 3,000 square foot marquee took three hours to erect on Thursday evening ready for the first session on Friday afternoon and free tickets were offered to tenants to come and enjoy.

The event also attracted local sponsors Bevic Marketing Services, Adept Civil & Structural Consulting Engineers and FYI Printhouse.

Event partners Sunny Bank Mills and Old Woollen provided support including the loan of equipment.

Co-founder of Amity Brew Co, Russ Clarke, said: “What a weekend!

"We wanted to invite our pals from the beer scene for a big party and that’s exactly what we achieved and it seems that everyone had a blast!

"We are so thankful of the breweries, food vendors, the Amity team and volunteers, we couldn’t have done this without our awesome community. ”

Co-owner Verity Clarke felt the added benefit of a family focussed Sunday really made the event unique.

She added: “As a mum to a four year old I was very keen to create a family friendly element to the festival, not only because a huge part of our customer base is families but also personally,

"I’m always on the lookout for events that gives both parents and children a great time. We had a bubble station and lawn games.

"The face painting from Clare Staples the Glitter Fairy gave both the children and the brewers a dash of sparkle!”