A CENSUS of 170 of York’s pubs has revealed those offering the widest variety of real ales.

More than 20 teams of volunteers surveyed most of the city’s pubs. This was the fourth time the survey has been carried out by local CAMRA volunteers, and a spokeswoman said it was “really good to see the growth in diversity and choice of real ales and craft beers in York, in particular from local breweries”.

The pubs which featured the most real ales were York Tap with 18, the Postern Gate with 13 and the Fox in Holgate Road with 11.

The volunteers found there were 574 hand pumps in the city, offering 291 unique real ales, which had an average price of £3.60 per pint - though prices ranged from £1.25 to £6.

They found there was a beer from at least one York area brewery available in 58 different pubs across the city, and 54 different beers from breweries around the York area - including Turning point, BAD Co, Half moon, Roosters, Jolly Sailor, Treboom, Rudgate and Ainsty Ales.

She said: “The brewery with the most beers is, unsurprisingly, Brew York with 13 different real ales available at their tap house and across the city. York brewery and Yorkshire Heart offer a rewarding eight different beers and Ainsty Ales have seven different beers available across the city as well.”

The top ten real ales included Landlord, Doombar, Black Sheep Best, York Brewery Guzzler and Hobgoblin but local beers were also making a good show, with Rooster’s Yankee available in seven pubs, Rudgate’s Hop for Heroes and Ruby Mild available in five pubs, and Ainsty Ales’s Ainsty Angel, Bantam Best and Crafty Chocolatier available in three pubs each.

In terms of craft and keg beers, there were 746 taps offering 240 unique varieties at an average price of £4.54 per pint - in a range £1.34 to £11.80.

The pubs with the most craft and keg beers available were Brew York, Postern Gate and the Rook & Gaskill.