CAMRA Good Beer Guide 2022: 33 new pubs and nine new breweries listed in Yorkshire despite pandemic pressures

In total, Yorkshire had 409 pubs featured in this year’s guide, with 33 newly listed.

Of the new pubs listed, 14 were in North Yorkshire and ten in West Yorkshire, while the East Riding had six new pubs featured, and South Yorkshire had three.

North Yorkshire also had the most total pubs featured in the 2022 guide, with 157 establishments highlighted, while West Yorkshire had 130, South Yorkshire had 78, and the East Riding had 44.

There was also a net increase in the numbers of breweries across the area - while three breweries have closed, nine new breweries are included.

North and West Yorkshire both saw three new breweries open, South Yorkshire had two, and the East Riding had one.

Nationally, the 2022 Guide has found the total number of independent UK breweries has risen to 1,902 in 2021 from 1,816 in 2020 - showing the highest number of breweries recorded in the Guide since publication began in 1974, and a national increase after recording the first decline in brewery numbers since 2008 in the previous edition.

However, while 138 breweries have opened this year and are newly listed in the Guide, 75 have closed.

While last year's edition of the Guide captured data pre-COVID, the 2022 edition shows the ramifications of 18 months of lockdown on the industry.

CAMRA has been calling on the Government to go further with its support package for pubs and breweries, to help mitigate the damage done to a sector in recovery, and still scarred by extended closures.

The Guide, which surveys 4,500 pubs across the UK, aims to lead beer connoisseurs to the very best pints in the most picturesque and friendly pubs.

The foreword for this year’s edition of The Good Beer Guide was written by singer and owner of the Fox & Pheasant pub in Chelsea James Blunt.

He wrote: “Whilst, in recent years, there might have been a trend for people to drink cheap supermarket beer at home, those people have been locked away for the best part of a year, and now those people want out. They can taste real beer from the tap, and food cooked by a pro, and they can meet legally and joyfully.”

CAMRA National Chairman Nik Antona said: “After the struggles of the past 18 months for the industry, it is great that The Good Beer Guide figures are showing the resilience of pubs and brewers in the face of strife – a national increase in brewery numbers after they dipped last year for the first time, as well as over 500 new pub entries.

“This is great to see, especially coupled with the news from the Government’s latest Budget, including the announcement of a new, lower rate of duty for draught beer and cider.

“However, the industry is still vulnerable in the aftermath of COVID-19 lockdowns. Breweries still face issues around costs of goods, lack of business rate relief and silence from the Government on Small Brewers’ Relief reform.

“We are calling on the Government to make sure the new draught duty rate applies to containers 20L and up so that all our small and independent brewers can benefit.”