Theakston Brewery Black Bull In Paradise Visitor Centre

Visited yesterday to try a few beers. Had Old Peculiar, chocolate old peculiar, Barista which is great. Good shop loads of different things to buy. Bar had good selection of beers i think 8. Dogs are allowed outside in small beer garden. Brewery tours are available here as well. About 5 mins walk from market place where you can park.

Waited forever to be served, when food eventually arrived it was warm. Not very impressed at all.

Rude and aggressive barman. Shouted at me for walking in with a dog. Staff in the shop didn't say there was anything wrong with it when I walked through. Great beer. Hopefully just one terrible person working there.

So the on site pub shuts at an inexplicably early 4.30pm. However, worse still, it turns out when we arrived at 4.10pm that last orders for drinks is 4pm! After an afternoon walking on the local moors, we hurried into Masham, looking forward to a decent pint of Old Peculier, arriving at 4.10pm (thinking we were in time for 4.30 closing). But the jobsworth staff in the pub/visitor centre showed no flexibility and refused to sell us beer! My friends had their well behaved dog with them (hardly unusual in a popular walking area like this), so actually the first words out of the staff 's mouth was oh, you 've got a dog with you: we don 't allow dogs in here . This is into a 'pub ' style building with hard floors. So, some pubs don 't allow dogs fair enough but for this to be the unfriendly greeting is no good. We would also have been more than happy to sit outside on the benches and tables in the beer garden. If it was my business, would I refuse money when my pub was completely empty and potential customers arrived 10mins after the arbitrary last orders time? If I did, I wouldn 't be surprised if I went out of business. This is meant to be the flagship of this beer brand, and the staff are meant to be brand ambassadors. As it is, they are small minded clock watchers who turn customers away. Avoid!

Tour was superb. Interesting how they still make beer using same tooling, machines and craft skills of old. The attached Black Bull in Paradise offers all the ales, served as they are meant to be. Super small quaint pub and fully stocked Theakston gift shop. Essential visit for the serious beer drinker.