Andy Black, the head brewer at Yorkshire Square Brewery in Torrance, California, has built a reputation in the Los Angeles beer community as a custodian of British brewing traditions, and from the brewery’s name (a “Yorkshire square” is a novel stone fermentation vessel once popular in northern England) to the hand-pulled proper pints of real ale served at the bar, Yorkshire Square Brewery (YSB) shades British styles and sensibilities with American craft-brewing ingenuity.
The keystone of YSB’s identity is the oft-misunderstood cask. Every aspect of Black’s brewing is in service to the cask program, and the brewery is just the second pub in California to earn a Cask Marque accreditation—a badge of honor indicating the attention to detail at YSB.
“We stand for the preservation of tradition, but I don’t consider us a traditional brewery,” Black says.