New pub is full of stunning options

On a busy Saturday, between family commitments in Knaresborough and Leeds, I had one free hour.

Just enough time, I thought, to try a pub I've been meaning to visit since it opened six months ago.

Ha! Shows what I know! My time there was bliss; indeed I'm not sure I'll have a better hour's drinking all year. But one paltry hour was certainly not enough.

One hour allowed me to only scratch the surface of Ten Devonshire Place, Harrogate's newest contribution to the craft beer revolution. An afternoon is what I needed. Or maybe a long weekend.

This place has been a pub for as long as anyone can remember, but it was The Devonshire Arms until it reopened last November, after a massive restoration.

It's just off Skipton Road, east of the town centre, a few yards up the road from the old Black Swan, which underwent a similarly spectacular overhaul in 2010 to become The Swan on The Stray.

We've visited the latter before, praising the excellent beer range but lamenting the rather clinical decor. At Ten Devonshire Place, my first impressions were unequivocally positive.

Sure, it is visibly newly restored. But it retains the character of an old pub. As soon as you walk in the door you are greeted by a majestic, sweeping horseshoe-shaped bar, topped with an elegant stained-glass canopy.

There are seating areas on both sides, and again towards the rear of the pub, but you might not want to stray far from the bar at all, for the beer list is magnificent.

There are ten handpulls, eight serving cask ale and two serving cider. At the back of the bar there are ten keg fonts, boasting some of the finest beers the UK, mainland Europe and the United States have to offer.

As if that weren't enough, a small area beside one of the windows has been turned into a small but well-stocked bottle shop.

The bottle shop in the front of the pub

What choice, what decisions. Where, oh where, to start?

I was mulling it all over when I spotted the "three thirds" option, always a good idea in pubs that pride themselves on their wide range.

Here, it's any three thirds for £3.60. That would be a reasonable price for cask-only but was incredible value given it also included the keg beers, two of which sell for £4.90 and £5 a pint.

I resisted the urge to seek the biggest saving I could (not easy for a Scotsman in Yorkshire), and instead chose a varied range: Goose Island IPA from Chicago, Anchor Porter from San Francisco, and Oldershaws Progress from just outside Grantham; the first two were on keg and the third on cask.

Excitability and intrigue got the better of me, and with 20 minutes of my 60 left, I decided to sneak another three thirds in, this time plumping for Jever, Kirkstall Framboise and Marble Pint - again, two from the kegs and one from cask. The Marble is one of the two regulars on cask, the other being Timothy Taylor's Boltmaker.

There were others I had to sadly pass up - some because they were superb but not too hard to find (Oakham Citra and Dark Star Hophead, for instance); some because they were a tad too strong for the afternoon (Kernel Zeus at 7 per cent, for one). But six superb thirds for £7.20 was more than I could have asked for.

Personal tastes will obviously vary. The Jever was ideal in the heat; the Kirkstall was tart and full-flavoured; and the Goose Island and Marble are long-standing favourites of mine. The latter is an easy drinking session beer, the former a rasping IPA, full of bitter hops.

If I'd had the time, I may have returned to that one again, but not before trying a few more thirds from around the bar and around the world. Alas, I had no such decision to make. My hour was up, duty beckoned and I was forced to call it a day. But I'll make sure I return, and it'll be for more than an hour next time.