YORKSHIRE is the beer capital of Britain, with more ales than any other part of the country, according to a new expert guide.
The Good Beer Guide 2012, published today by the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), identifies more than 600 beers in regular production across Yorkshire, from 98 different breweries.
The region has experienced a surge in activity in the past 12 months, with new breweries springing up across God’s Own Country.
New producers include The Junction Brewhouse in York, Yorkshire Heart brewery in Nun Monkton, North Riding in Scarborough and Wall’s in Northallerton, as well as a spate of acclaimed new ones in West Yorkshire, including Magic Rock in Huddersfield, Kirkstall in Leeds and Revolutions in Castleford.
Since the Guide went to print, Brass Castle Brewery has also opened in Pocklington.
Roger Protz, editor of the Good Beer Guide, said: “Areas such as Yorkshire are recording startling brewery growth, with over six times more brewers in the region than when the first Good Beer Guide was compiled in the 1970s.
“Not only are there an exploding number of breweries operating in Britain, but also the quality of real ale has never been better. Speciality brewers are using the finest raw materials – malt and hops – to make their ales. Britain is a great place to be drinking good beer.”
The guide reveals that, across Britain, there are now 5,500 different beers in regular production – meaning that if you drank one a day, it would take 15 years to try them all.
The number of breweries in Britain has risen from 767 last year to 840 this year. West Yorkshire has most, with 43, followed by North Yorkshire and Derbyshire with 33 each.
Camra says the number of people having tried real ale has risen by 40 per cent in the past five years.
The guide, now in its 39th edition, lists 4,500 pubs, including 141 in York or North Yorkshire, and 42 in East Yorkshire.
Mick Moss, Camra’s Yorkshire director, said: “With so many fantastic community pubs in the area, it is becoming harder every year for Camra branches to select their choice of local pubs to feature in the Guide. Only pubs serving a consistently high standard of real ale are considered for inclusion.”
• Don’t miss the Pints of View column in The Press on Saturday for a chance to win a copy of the Good Beer Guide.
New entries
IRENE and Martin Capeling took over The Ship Inn in Strensall only 19 months ago, and said they were overjoyed to be added to the Good Beer Guide.
The couple are running their first pub and have quickly won praise from Camra. Irene said being added to the guide was “the best news ever”. She said: “It’s just fantastic. To be included in the guide is amazing.”
Other pubs in the 2012 guide which weren’t in the 2011 edition include... The Last Drop Inn, The Phoenix, The Slip Inn and the Three Legged Mare in central York.
Others include The Lion Inn (Blakey Ridge), Ferry Inn (Cawood), Blacksmiths Arms (Cayton), Swan on the Stray (Harrogate), The Cross Keys and The Union (both Knaresborough), Blacksmiths Arms (Naburn), Dawnay Arms (Newton-on-Ouse), Sun Inn (Pickering), Magdalens (Ripon), Tap and Spile (Scarborough), White Bear (Stillington), The Ship Inn (Strensall), New Inn (Thornton le Dale), The King’s Head (Barmby-on-the-Marsh), Boot and Shoe (Ellerton), Goodmanham Arms (Goodmanham), Old Star (Kilham).
Tadcaster, one of Britain’s biggest brewing towns, has been left without any pubs in the Guide though, after its sole 2001 entry, The Angel and White Horse in Bridge Street, was left out of the 2012 edition.
Ale and hearty
WELL, who’d have thought it? Yorkshire, it seems, is the beer capital of Britain.
According to the 2012 Good Beer Guide, there are more local beers (more than 600 of them) brewed here, in more local breweries (98), than anywhere else in the country.
There’s obviously something in the water. And with the York Beer and Cider Festival kicking off today, there has never been a better time to celebrate.
So why not raise a glass to our county’s beery pedigree? You know it makes sense.
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