Lord Mayor Stanley King paid his first-ever visit to a brewery this week -- and found it was nothing like he had expected.

Councillor King was visiting the award-winning Timothy Taylor's brewery, in Keighley, after reading about its successes in the Keighley News.

"I expected it to be large, dark and cavernous and probably smelly, but it was nothing of the kind," he said. "It was very impressive and nothing like I had imagined. It was all very well organised and clinically clean."

Councillor King, who confesses that he enjoys beer in modest quantities and has been known to try Taylor's products on occasion, was shown around the Knowle Spring brewery by head brewer Peter Eells and managing director Charles Dent.

Mr Dent told the Lord Mayor how the Keighley brewery was defying the general decline in the brewing industry and had invested heavily in new equipment and a new fermentation room.

Councillor King said he was pleased to see the brewery operating successfully within the bounds of greater Bradford, and pleased to see it was still a family concern. "I hope it will continue for many years to come, with no shortage of appreciative consumers," he added.