IT’S getting late, the train pulls into York and you know you’re nearly home. Taxis and buses beckon but temptation beats them both. For just a few moments’ walk away is a far better proposition – the promise of a swift pint before home, in the cosy hospitality of The Maltings.

Many of us have been there, I’m sure, possibly more often than we should. But then: why not? For this is a delightful place with fantastic beer to boot, irrefutably one of the stars of York’s pub scene.

It’s one of those pubs that’s always appealing and always full of life, a shining example of what a pub can be and what it can achieve, oozing character and proudly showing off the rewards of its labours.

In amidst the pictures, the walls and ceiling are littered with certificates; Camra, industry trade bodies and the old Yorkshire Evening Press all doffing their respective caps.

The most recent honour hasn’t yet made it on to the wall but is a testimonial to the man who runs the show – a Landlord of the Year title in this newspaper’s own pub awards, for Shaun Collinge.

Shaun has been here in Tanner’s Moat since October 1992, when The Maltings opened in what had previously been The Lendal Bridge, and it has been picking up plaudits ever since.

It was Yorkshire pub of the year in 1994, when Guinness and the Yorkshire Evening Press teamed up to search for the region’s best; it was York Camra’s pub of the year in 1996 and 2000 – the first pub to win the award twice; and it has picked up a stash of certificates over the years in Camra’s “pub of the season” scheme.

And little wonder. The Maltings, in a nutshell, has everything a pub-goer could wish for. On the bar are 21 taps, offering real ales, continental lagers, ciders, and fruit beer. Behind the bar, the fridges are stocked with an impressive array of bottles from this country and abroad, and there are innumerable alternatives for the non-beer drinkers who wander in.

Not that I’m one of them, of course. When I ventured in this week I was focused purely on the ales, and I wasn’t disappointed, an impressive Yorkshire range dominating the bar and positively commanding attention. Roosters Citra and Goose Eye Goose Gog were tempting, but I opted instead for a pint from Magic Rock, a new brewery in Huddersfield, about which I’d heard only good things.

Curious I was, and Curious I got – the brewery’s flagship pale ale came highly recommended and more than lived up to the hype. It had a fresh floral smell, was bursting with citric flavours and – at only 3.9 per cent ABV – was the kind of beer you could happily drink for hours on a sunny day. I, alas, had no such luxury, but I did have time for a second and didn’t let the opportunity pass. (£3 a pint).

Supping on that and chatting to Shaun, I couldn’t help wonder how The Maltings may soon change. An expansion is planned next year, extending the pub through the left hand wall as you enter, making the place bigger and more airy, with access to a mini terrace.

On one level, it would be sad if the pub were to lose its distinctive feel, that quirky ambience created by the compact layout and the surrealism of the doors on the ceiling, the vintage signs and the random assortment of furniture. But the thought of this pub becoming bigger and even better is exciting. And as you prop up the bar, soak up the atmosphere, or make that tantalising little detour from York Station on the way home, it’s hard to ponder the prospect without feeling overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

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