Hoppy returns

That is the name of the draught beer specially brewed to mark the 20th birthday of York Beer And Wine Shop.

As it comes from Timothy Taylor's Keighley brewery, creator of the legendary Landlord, you can be sure you're in for a treat. A little stronger than Landlord, at 4.7 per cent ABV, 2X is paler and has a more citrus flavour, according to the Beer Shop's Jim Helsby.

It is the second special brew to mark the anniversary. Bottles of Hampshire Brewery's Premier Crew (complete with label featuring a picture of Jim and co-founder Eric Boyd), are still on sale at the Sandringham Street emporium.

The shop deserves its double celebration. When it opened in 1985, real ale was a rarity in York. While wine was taken seriously, beer certainly wasn't.

Jim and Eric set out to change that. They sold proper beer from across Britain through six handpumps.

Thanks to pioneers like them, beer's status has improved considerably. It is still not acknowledged as a drink every bit as complex and crafted as wine (more so in many cases), but there has been a belated recognition that there's much more to a pint than foam and froth.

The guest beer law means lots more pubs now sell real ale. Consequently, the number of microbrewers has rocketed - Jim remembers just one, Selby Brewery, in North Yorkshire when the shop opened. Now there are scores.

Some microbreweries have outgrown the term, such as Black Sheep and Old Mill. And there is a roaring trade in bottled beers.

Reflecting these trends, the Beer Shop now has only two handpumps, and its unmatched range of bottled beers accounts for much more of its income.

Jim finds it hard to believe that 20 years have gone by since he first opened the doors.

"I worked for ten years before that at the pathology lab at the district hospital. I always thought that was a proper job.

"I gave that up and I just feel like I've been piddling about. Then I realised I've been piddling about for twice as long as I worked at the hospital."

He still remembers, and occasionally sees, the woman who was his first customer. And the passion which drives him to travel across the country seeking out the best beers, wines and cheeses for the shop is undiminished.

With supermarkets belatedly catching up with the beer revolution and stocking a range of bottles, Jim's policy is to look for the smaller breweries whose beer is unavailable elsewhere.

Originally called simply the York Beer Shop, the wine element of the title was added five years ago.

"We always intended to do wines. The idea was to give beer a crack of the whip and put it on more of an even footing," said Jim.

There is still work to do. "I think wine is taken far too seriously and beer is taken far too flippantly.

"That's getting into balance now. People are realising how good beer can be."

A COUPLE of weeks ago, we quoted some North Yorkshire entries from the Good Pub Guide. One of these was not quite accurate, according to John Marrison, landlord of the Three Hares, Bilbrough, our Eating Out choice of the week. He tells us there is one menu for lunch, and one menu for the evening - but the food is the same in the bar or the restaurant. Sounds good to us.

WE prefer the Good Beer Guide anyway. The 2006 edition, recently published at £13.99, includes an updated list of CAMRA's National Inventory of "pub interiors of outstanding historic interest".

In York, these are the Blue Bell, Golden Ball, Royal Oak and Swan. Elsewhere in North Yorkshire, there's only two: the Birch Hall Inn, Beck Hole, and the Gardeners Arms, Harrogate.

What a shame that hundreds of old pubs are just shells of their former selves.

Updated: 10:40 Saturday, October 22, 2005