What?
We’re a new beer company based in Halifax, part of the Victorian Pub Co Ltd family (along with the Victorian Craft Beer Cafe and Kobenhavn). At the moment we don’t have a brewery of our own, but are cuckoo brewing / collaborating with our friends in the industry to bring tasty beer to our bars and beyond.
Who?
Second Sight is the brainchild of me – Chris Hall – a brewer of 10+ years experience.
I can’t do this on my own however – to get this far I’ve had help from Simon, Tom and Sam as well as various team members from the Victorian Pub Co Ltd bars.
The idea behind Second Sight is simply to bring great tasting beer to our customers, to have fun and pay tribute to the things we love (music mainly) while doing so!
How?
Second Sight Brew Co has been a project I’ve been working on since mid-2020 but finally came to fruition in 2021…
I’ve been in the industry for approximately 10+ years… Back in the early 2000s I was a fresh-faced IT graduate, working at Bradford & Bingley Bank, home brewing on a 100 litre kit sourced from eBay and dreaming about running my own brewery.
Then in 2008 the financial crisis hit, and I was made redundant. A short while later, Simon Stather, one of my best friends, took over as landlord of the Puzzle Hall Inn at Sowerby Bridge, and I joined him as Cellarman.
I got a job with Saltaire Brewery, starting (as you should!) on the cask washer, but eventually progressing to brewer, then team leader. While at Saltaire I worked on recipes for many beers – some of my favourites were Pacifica (IPA), New Ground (cold-brew coffee porter), Zipwire (citrus infused US Pale) and Imperial Triple Choc (with Port Street Beer House). I also brewed some great beer in collaborations with breweries such as Vocation, North & Ilkley, Ridgeside, Anarchy and Lone Pine from Portland, Maine.
Then, a few years back, I started to experience some back pain issues – brewing is physically tough on the body, so it maybe wasn’t a massive surprise. However, my health deteriorated over the next couple of years, but eventually I was able to get a diagnosis – a large tumour growing on my spinal cord. I had an emergency operation in May 2020.
While recuperating, I left Saltaire and began working on my plans for Second Sight. I got talking to Simon, who by now was running the Victorian Craft Beer Cafe and Kobenhavn in Halifax. He suggested we work together to bring Second Sight Brew Co to life as a sister company to the Vic and Kobe – so here we are…