Buds made wiser: Americans told to head to Yorkshire for great British beers

A drinker at The York Tap at York railway station

God’s Own County is in 22nd place in The New York Times’s 52 Places to Go in 2014 because of our beer. Writer Evan Rail said: “The sprawling northern county of Yorkshire is becoming a big destination for beer lovers, thanks to a recently published guidebook called Great Yorkshire Beer and a renewed interest in historic breweries like Samuel Smith (founded in 1758) and Timothy Taylor (from 1858).

“Spend an evening crawling through the Fat Cat, the Kelham Island Tavern and other award-winning pubs in Sheffield – recently called Britain’s best beer city by the connoisseur Adrian Tierney-Jones – then travel to Leeds, whose compact centre is home to the Victoria Hotel, the Cross Keys and other public houses that pull pints on traditional hand pumps.

“A final stay in the photogenic city of York offers a Tudor-style pub at the end of every cobbled lane, as well as modern beer temples like York Tap, Pivni and  the House of Trembling Madness.”

Yorkshire is placed above such exotic and far-flung destinations as Krabi in Thailand, Xishuangbanna in China, Barahona in the Dominican Republic and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire said: “It’s terrific to see the rest of the world realising Yorkshire is the place to come to sample some of the best beers in the world in amazing settings. We look forward to welcoming New Yorkers to Yorkshire for a proper pint.”

In October, Yorkshire was named the third best region in the world to visit in 2014, according to travel guide company Lonely Planet, owing in part to the forthcoming Tour de France Grand Départ.