THE UK now has more breweries per person than any other country in the world, campaigners have revealed.

In the past year, 170 new breweries have opened, including 18 in Yorkshire, as the country's beer boom continues.

The figures are revealed in the 2015 Good Beer Guide, launched today by the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra).

It includes details of around 4,500 pubs around the UK, chosen by Camra branches, and 1,285 breweries. Of those, 141 are in Yorkshire, including new ones that have opened in the past 12 months in York, Bridlington, Brough, Ellerton, Dishforth, Malton and Harrogate.

Guide editor Roger Protz said real ale was the only success story in a declining beer market. He said: "With every region in the country seeing an increase in breweries it means even more choice for real ale drinkers, particularly as breweries are becoming more adventurous in the beers they brew, adding herbs, spices, fruit and chocolate to beer - while a growing number are ageing beer in oak casks bought from whisky, wine and rum producers to give new depths of flavour to their products.”

Tony Rogers, who set up Half Moon Brewery in Ellerton last December, with his wife Jackie, said: "Smaller breweries can serve niches in the market. It's a bit of a boutique market and small breweries can produce different types of beer, or also stronger beers."

He said rising numbers of freehold pubs gave cause for optimism that brewery numbers could keep rising.

The Good Beer Guide features 393 pubs in Yorkshire, including 99 that were not in the 2014 edition, although some of those had previously been regulars.

In York, The Old White Swan, Snickleway and Waggon & Horses have been replaced by the Rook & Gaskill, The Golden Ball and The Blue Bell, which had been axed last year after a row with Camra.

Elsewhere in the region, new additions include The Harrogate Tap and The Winter Gardens in Harrogate, The Greyhound at Riccall, The Mended Drum at Huby, The Fauconberg Arms at Coxwold, The Old Sun Inn at Colton, The Wheatsheaf at Burn, The City & County in Goole and The Gait Inn at Millington.

Marc Allinson, licensee at The Mended Drum, which he opened in the former Star Inn building in 2012, said: "This is fantastic for us. We are really happy about it and it shows we are doing something right. Camra have done a lot for us and hopefully this will help put us on the map."