A SALTAIRE beer company has signed up to a challenge to prove whether man or machine can pull the best pint.

Saltaire Brewery is one of two companies that have challenged the School of Mechanical Engineering at Leeds University to build a robot capable of pulling the perfect pint.

The students are working on their design for a fully autonomous robot, to battle it out against an industry professional.

They will also be taking part in beer tasting sessions at Saltaire Brewery as part of their research process.

The duel will take place at the Saltaire Brewery pub, The Brewery Tap, in June. It will include taste, consistency and wastage tests.

An independent judging panel, which will include beer industry experts, will decide who pulled the best pint of the brewery’s own Saltaire Blonde.

Saltaire Brewery employs more than 20 people, has annual sales of more than £2 million and operates across the north of England.

Ewen Gordon, managing director at Saltaire Brewery, said the challenge would prove an important experiment on pint-pulling.

He said: “Beer can operate very differently depending on how it is kept and how it is pulled, hence the requirement for an in-depth study.

“The students will be doing some testing at the brewery in the coming weeks to learn as much as possible.”

The other company participating in the challenge is Leeds-based Quality Bearings Online Ltd (QBOL), which is a distributor of engineering spares with customers in more than 70 countries.

Simon Riley, director of QBOL, said: “We have strong ties with Leeds University and are delighted to be working with Saltaire Brewery which is a fantastic Yorkshire business.

“The project allows a team of talented students to demonstrate their skills in a surrounding most of us can relate to.

“I am very excited to see the finished results, both the robot and a freshly pulled pint.”