Region's real ale scene flourishes with raft of new breweries (From York Press)

Region's real ale scene flourishes with raft of new breweries

12:00am Thursday 13th September 2012 in News By Julie Hayes, Business editor

YORKSHIRE'S real ale scene continues to flourish with 19 new breweries opening in the last year.

The Good Beer Guide 2013, published by CAMRA, also lists 86 pubs from Yorkshire which are new entries among the best 4,500 real ale pubs recognised across the UK this year.

The county recorded the joint highest increase in the number of breweries, alongside the South West, which also recorded 19 new breweries.

Yorkshire is now home to 123 breweries, beaten only by the South West with 125 breweries, during a year that the guide counted 1,009 breweries, the highest number for more than 70 years.

The new breweries include Pocklington's Brass Castle Brewery, Barkston at Barkston Ash, Conquest in Whitby, Hop Studio in Elvington , Scarborough Brewery and Treboom at Shipton-by-Beningbrough.

Among the 86 newly-listed real ale pubs are the Buck Hotel in Thornton-le-Dale; the Fauconberg Arms in Coxwold, the Brewers Arms in Snaith, the Grey Horse at Elvington and York's Guy Fawkes Inn.

The Telegraph Inn in Bridlington is also a new entry in the guide this year and landlady Helen Norman, who bought the pub two years ago with business partner Robert Daykin, said real ale had been such a success for them, they were about to start their own brewery in stables at the premises.

The pair, who previously worked in property, bought the freehold of the pub and initially intended to run a small pub which served a little bit of food, said Helen.

"From the day we opened the doors we have been too busy to do food," she said. They have created a function room in which they intend to start serving Sunday lunch, and have refurbished the rooms upstairs. They have increased real ales from three pumps to four and suppliers tell them they take more real ale than any other pub in Bridlington.

"Real ale is a phenomenal business," she said. "We turn over so much real ale and we know there's massive expansion at the moment in real ale and there isn't a brewery in Bridlington, so we decided to be the first ones."

The business is currently fixing up the stables in its yard and the brewing equipment will arrive in January.

Chris Smith , who has run the Brewers Arms in Snaith with wife Chrissie for the past four years, said they were pleased to get the pub listed in the guide again after at least ten years.

The pub, which also serves good food, specialising in seafood on a weekend, also won CAMRA's pub of the season in 2010.

He said: "It's all about keeping the cellar as clean an environment as the kitchen and attention to detail."