GAVIN AITCHISON has a fruitful pub crawl this week around York.

TRADITIONALISTS, look away now. If you like your beer simple, you won’t like this. There are no best bitters this week, no smoky porters, no nutty milds and no hop-heavy pale ales. It’s time for something completely different.

Pineapple. Lime. Blueberry. Orange. - That may sound like a fruit salad or the list of flavours on a sweet packet, but no. It’s this week’s beer selection.

Fruit beers are nothing new, of course; the Belgians have been producing them for centuries and early brewers everywhere would readily experiment with any available fruit, exploiting its fermentable nature.

But in Britain today, such drinks are scorned by many – frowned upon as a gimmick or generally derided by hardened drinkers of more mainstream beers.

That’s a shame, because there are some excellent fruit beers available and many brewers are trying new ideas and coming up with sometimes-weird and oftenwonderful results.

Take Thwaite’s current seasonal special, Book’em Danno, for example – a pineapple-infused wheat beer, which sounds bizarre but tastes fantastic. It has a pale yellow appearance, the hazy body of a wheat beer and a pronounced pineapple flavour that would make the man from Del Monte jump for joy. It’s very unusual and very refreshing and well worth a try.

I had a half in the Judges Lodgings in Lendal but if you can’t find it there, try the city’s other Thwaite’s pubs: The Inn on The Green, The White Horse, The Lighthorseman and The Stone Roses Bar.

From the Judges Lodgings it was a short stroll across Lendal Bridge to The Maltings, for another fruity option: Salty Kiss Lime by Magic Rock Brewery from Huddersfield.

This is an adaptation of an earlier gooseberry concoction by the same brewery, and I loved it. It’s golden/amber and has a fairly unremarkable aroma but the lime comes storming through when you drink it, with a rasping burst that will make you pucker. If you don’t like sour flavours then try something else, but if you do then this is a guaranteed winner.

More restrained but no less enjoyable are the Opat beers, which have also been on sale in York in recent weeks. Brewery Broumov in the Czech Republic brews a vast range of beers using fruits, spices or herbs, and their raspberry, strawberry and blueberry ones have all been seen at Pivní and York Tap. The blueberry is my personal favourite so far and has a discernible yet not overpowering flavour, the beer laced rather than laden with fruit. Keep an eye on the Tap and Pivní for more from the same brewery.

Finally, still in Pivní, is a beer with local links and my drinking highlight of the week. Great Yorkshire Brewery’s Chocolate Orange Stout, on keg, is as it sounds – a beery version of the famous Terry’s orange invented right here in York.

Those who have already tried Blackout by Great Yorkshire Brewery (previously Cropton Brewery) will recognise much of it in this beer – imagine a rich, cream-smooth, chocolatey stout, but with coils of bitter orange zest tipped into the glass.

It’s 6 per cent ABV but is ludicrously easy to drink – and if it’s enchanting now, then it will become almost irresistible as autumn and winter kick in. Until then, happy hunting if you do decide to give some of the fruit beers a go.

Most of the above should still be available in York, but there will be others to choose from without having to look too hard, if you prefer to pick your own. Now, if only they counted towards our five-a-day...

SHORTS

• The Hansom Cab, Market Street has closed temporarily for refurbishment.

• The Shoulder of Mutton in Heworth Green has re-opened following a brief refurbishment.

• Cawood beer festival takes place today in the Old Boys’ School.

Twitter: @pintsofview