Bumper year of awards for Calderdale-born beer as Vocation sweep titles
Award wins cap a successful year despite row over Israel exports
Hello and welcome to The Calderdale Lead.
It’s always nice to celebrate success of a local firm and in today’s edition we’re doing just that.
Calderdale-based brewery Vocation has scooped a string of top gongs at some very prestigious awards to end the year on a high. We’ve got full details below!
Plus, we’ve got a couple of nuggets in our regular Calderdale Digest.
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So, onto today’s edition…
Calderdale Digest
🫱🏻🫲🏻Councillor Shane Taylor will be the next Mayor of Calderdale, depending on next May’s election results.
Calderdale Council has an algorithm which calculates which party group provides the Mayor and next year it falls to Labour, Leader of the Council, Coun Jane Scullion, told councillors.
Coun Scullion said she was pleased to announce the party’s Mayor-elect for 2026-27 was Coun Taylor.
Whether Coun Taylor takes on the role next year it will depend on the election results in May, as it would for any other candidate for Calderdale’s civic head next year.
Following some ward re-organisation which will also see an extra ward come into being, making 18, next year’s Calderdale Council elections are “all up”, meaning every councillor who stands and challenging candidates will contest every seat, with the three candidates winning most votes in each ward being elected.
🚫A mini-market has had its licence to sell alcohol revoked after staff were caught selling counterfeit and smuggled cigarettes.
Calderdale licensing councillors agreed to revoke the premises licence, held by Mr Ako Ibrahim Sabir, for Queens Road Mini Market at Queens Road, Halifax.
The incidents – following trading standards officers making test purchases and an inspection visit by trading standards officers with West Yorkshire Police in the summer – did not involve alcohol.
But Calderdale Council’s Licensing Sub-committee members said they believed they had no choice other than to revoke the licence as the store was failing to uphold a key licensing objective – prevention of crime and disorder.
Mr Sabir has a right of appeal against the decision – this must be made to Magistrates Court within 21 days of being notified of the decision.
The application for a review of the premises licence for the mini market was made by West Yorkshire Police.
West Yorkshire Police licensing officer Matt Dalton told councillors trading standards officers made test purchases at a number of premises on July 31, one was Queens Road Mini Market where they were able to buy an illegal packed of L and B cigarettes for £3.50 – the normal price would be around £14.
Cheers to that! Hebden Bridge’s Vocation brewery celebrates glittering year
By Andrew Greaves
Calderdale’s Vocation Brewery is raising a glass to an exceptional year after picking up a string of accolades at some of the UK - and the world’s - biggest competitions.
The independently-owned brewery, which began life in chicken shed above Hebden Bridge, has seen a raft of its beers celebrated by judges from the Great Taste Awards, the World Beer Awards, the SIBA North West Independent Beer Awards and the SIBA Can & Bottle North West Region Awards.
The firm, which also operates a number of bars across the North West,
“Our brewery’s journey started with a small team brewing in an old chicken shed perched 1,000 feet above sea level in the hills above Hebden Bridge, so to receive this level of national recognition across several competitions is something we’re incredibly proud of,” said Gail Lumsden, Chair & CEO at Vocation Group.
“These awards are a testament to the dedication and craft of our brewing team – and it’s fantastic to see Yorkshire beer celebrated both nationally and regionally.”
In the highly coveted Great Taste Awards, Vocation earned five medals including the prestigious 3-Star rating for its signature IPA, Life & Death, for the second year running – an accolade awarded to fewer than 1.9% of entries across all food and drink categories. The brewery also saw stars awarded for its Crush Hour, Love & Hate, Naughty & Nice Chocolate Stout and gluten-free offering, Heart & Soul.
The Great Taste Awards are one of the most respected and rigorous national food and drink accreditations in the UK, judged blind by chefs, buyers, food writers and industry experts.
Vocation’s success continued in the ‘England Category’ at the World Beer Awards, one of the world’s leading global beer competitions. The brewery achieved two Gold and ‘Country Winner’ titles – for Hop, Skip & Juice and Naughty & Nice Chocolate Stout – alongside Silver medals for Life & Death and Crush Hour.
Closer to home, the brewery also enjoyed a strong showing at the SIBA North West Independent Beer Awards, where Crush Hour secured Gold (Category Champion) in the Keg Pale Ale category and later earned Bronze in the ‘Overall Champion’ of Keg Beer competition – a result which now sends the beer forward to the national final at BeerX 2026. Plus, Naughty & Nice White Chocolate & Raspberry achieved Silver in the ‘Speciality & Flavoured Beer’ category.
Further success followed in the SIBA Can & Bottle North West Region Awards, where Love & Hate took Silver in the ‘Bottle & Can IPA (5.6%–7.4%)’ category – making it a ‘Category Champion’ and also progressing it to BeerX in March 2026. Naughty & Nice White Chocolate & Raspberry also received recognition, with a Bronze in the ‘Bottle & Can Speciality & Flavoured Beer’ category.
Reflecting on the year’s achievements, Rob Beck, Head Brewer at Vocation Brewery, said: “As a brewing team, we obsess over getting every detail right – from hop composition and bitterness profiles, to fine-tuning balance and the unique character of each style. To see our work recognised across such a wide range of respected competitions is incredibly special.”
Away from the awards circuit, Vocation did have a challenging mid-2025 when it was revealed it had been exporting beer to Israel, causing some customers to boycott products due to Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
The brewery initially defended its right to export to the Middle East before announcing it would cease all exports. It said at the time that it had taken on board feedback from customers.
That’s it for this edition, thanks for reading.
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Until Sunday, have a great week…
Andrew