York    

t is really nice to be able to be surprised by somewhere that you think you know but it turns you do not; this happened last year when I had 2 hours in Shrewsbury and again this year on Monday May 7th when I had 4 hours in York.  Now I must admit that I thought I knew York quite well after all these years; It has been a long time since I have been to anywhere but the Maltings and the Ackhorne in York, Prior to that I been to quite a few pubs in York including the much missed John Bull, both Tap and Spiles and a host of other pubs over the last 20 years.  

I was met at York by my friends Jules, Hayley, Nick and their friend from York John.  Our first port of call was the fairly recently opened Briganties just passed the wall on the way to the Ackhorne, less than 5 minutes from the station.  This I thought was the best pub in York with lots of space, completely no smoking and air con, I think it was converted from an old bank but nothing like your average spoons, there were quite a few foreign beers both bottled and draft and about a dozen hand pumps with a good selection of beers; I scored 1 and a must now on any trip to York.

We had quite a warm chicken curry in the old Tap and Spile, then over the road to the expensive hotel that now does York brewery beers, a bit pricey, but an excellent view of the river.  We then went to one of the York brewery pubs, The Three Legged Mare, which has been done out in a very good way, in fact we went to three York pubs and they were all very good; all had a good range of beers and all a few guest beers on.  We also saw 2 quite interesting beer shops which had a good range of foreign beers and if I had not gone so mad on foreign beers at Reading I would have indulged in a few.

We then went to Ye Olde Starre Inn which had about 10 beers on, then we went to the Blue bell which had some lovely red tiles on the front and a 2 very small bars, but with about 8 beers it was well worth a visit, the annoying thing was I had seen this pub on the way to the John Bull, I doubt that they had such range of beers on then, but a gem of a pub in any case.

All in all very we spent the afternoon, some very good pubs, in fact I think I visited some 7 new pubs and had a reasonable to very good beer range in each pub and many thanks to John for guiding us around the pubs.

Cheers and happy drinking, and many thanks to Phil Logie for the gen.

Brigantes	3 Legged Mare	Blue Bell

What was on... 

Punch Bowl, 7 Stonegate, York, YO1 8AN
York Terrier
Bass
John Smiths Bitter

Ye Olde Starre Inn, 40 Stonegate, York, YO1 8AS
Landlord
Tiger
Theakstons Paradise 4.2
Theakstons Old Peculier
John Smiths Bitter
Wentworth Admiral Kepple 4.8

Lendal Cellars, 26 Lendal, York, YO1 8AA
Theakston Paradise 4.2
Speckled Hen
Green King Olde Tripe
Elgoods Golden Newt
Green King IPA
Abbot

Rook & Gaskill, 12 Lawrence Street, York,  YO10 3BN
Castle Rock Elsie Mo
Castle Rock Harvest Pale
Shepherd Neame Spitfire
Shaped Neame Bishops Finger
Vale Black Swan Mild
Dent Bitter
Batemans XXXB
Everards Sly Fox
Burton Bridge Bramble Stout
Saltaire Goldings
Marston Moor Merrymaker

Spread Eagle, 98 Walmgate, York, YO1 9TL
Pedigree
Red Brick Double Barrel 4.3
Batemans XXXB

Ackhorne, 9 St. Martins Lane (off Micklegate), York, YO1 6LN
Landlord
Black Sheep Bitter
Caledonian Deuchars IPA
Roosters Yankee
Pedigree

First Yorkshire Hussar, 15 North Street, York, YO1 6JD
Hyde's Jekyll's Gold
Exmoor Hound Dog
Caledonian Deuchars IPA

Maltings, Tanners Moat, York, YO1 6HU
Black Sheep Bitter
Roosters Yankee
Springhead Willy's Wheat Beer
Marlow Rebellion Mild
York Terrier