Is the Saltaire Brewery taproom half full, or half empty? On a sweltering Friday, a single, very loud group of men compete for conversational dominance on the high table near the bar. Outdoors, a few scattered groups are spread across tables in a nondescript car park, which peter out to an abandoned-looking street food van at their far end. Is this strangely quiet Friday afternoon an apocalyptic vision of the end days of craft beer, or is it just a very hot day?
I enjoy a pint of Saltaire’s Cascade or South Island as much as the next person, but today, I’m looking for something else: Magic Rock and North Brewing, two craft beer brands that have all but disappeared over the last few years. And lo, I spy North’s Piñata pale ale, over on the far left tap.
Magic Rock and North Brewing are both formerly independent West Yorkshire brands that, like Saltaire Brewery, are now owned by the Batley-based investment firm The Great British Drinks Company, a subsidiary of Paramount Retail Group. Paramount is perhaps an unlikely owner — up until quite recently, its portfolio consisted of confectionery, DIY and pet food brands.
Craft beer was a movement that initially distanced itself from investment firms, large breweries, chain pubs and multinationals to brew brighter, bolder and more experimental and obscure styles – stronger, hoppier, steeped with fruit, spices and other flavours – under independent leadership. But during its 2010s boomtime, many promising independents were snapped up by brewing behemoths anyway. Take London success stories Beavertown and Camden Town Brewery, which remain at Heineken and AB InBev respectively to this day. Magic Rock and North, on the other hand, have each taken a comparatively lurching ride to land at their current ownership.
Magic Rock was a Huddersfield craft brewery, bought out by Australian drinks giant Lion in 2019. This eventually seemed to trigger a chain reaction of sales: Lion sold it on to a private equity portfolio called In Good Company in August 2022, who went bust in October 2024 and was rescued by another private equity firm called Keystone Brewing in January 2025. Keystone then also went bust, and was scooped up by Paramount Retail Group.
North Brewing, a side project of Leeds’ renowned North Bar, had a simpler journey: it went bust, landed what seemed like a rescue deal, got sold immediately to Keystone, where it joined Magic Rock, and then transferred to Paramount too.
On paper, this journey sounds farcical; worthy of the Benny Hill theme tune. But, by this point, Keystone had gained a reputation in the industry for aggressively acquiring — and, according to some, mismanaging — craft beer brands. Glynn Davis of trade publication Beer Insider described the company’s approach as “swooping” in and then “picking over assets, rather than saving the remains”. When those in the know learned Keystone had snapped up North, they had grim predictions. “That’s a shame,” reads a Reddit comment responding to the news. “A bit sad that a decent local brewery is hoovered up to be part of a massive £100m portfolio.”
Today, little remains of North and Magic Rock’s glory days: the original taprooms and facilities are closed, the production lines ground to a halt, the brewing and creative talent has moved on. The brands survive. The breweries, arguably, do not.
This is the story of two of West Yorkshire's defining craft breweries, how they became national success stories, and how they ended up losing everything.
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