Derby CAMRA Annual Beer Census Results 2009

This years' Derby CAMRA Annual Beer Census saw the City try to recapture the title of 'Beer Capital of Britain', which it has held on numerous occasions throughout the years. However, we came up slightly short of our bigger City neighbours, Nottingham and Sheffield although per head of population we definitely have more different ones available than any other City in the Country.

The ABC crawl (as it has become known) has developed into one of the best social nights out of the year with members young and old crawling around most of Derby's pubs in the name of Beer Science and a pint or three. Meeting up at the end of the evening for a right good knees-up, a swapping of tales from the night's activities and of course the all important result announcement.

This year's event saw 79 pubs visited with the idea being to determine how many different Real Ales were available in the City on any one given night. The results again proved startling but fell slightly below last year's total by 4. However this in itself is still quite impressive for a cold wintry night in February with less pubs being visited than last year.

With no Real Ale available in 10 pubs and 4 Closed, the 275 Real Ales recorded (147 different ones) came from just 65 pubs, an average of over 4 per pub. These Ales came from 70 different breweries throughout the Country. 7 Real Ciders & Perries where also found.

Star pubs of the night included the Flowerpot with 28 Real Ales followed by the Babington Arms with 25 and the Brunswick with 16. Marston's Pedigree is still the most dominant brand in the City available in 40 pubs easily beating its nearest rival Draught Bass which continues its steady decline and is now only available in 16 pubs compared to its position of power a few years back. Greene King Old Speckled Hen - 8 pubs, Wells & Youngs Directors - 8, Wells & Youngs Bombardier - 7 and Greene King Abbot - 7 make up the next nearest rivals.

The average price of a pint was noted but this was recorded before the last budget increase and City Centre price hike. Anyway, on the night itself the average price of a pint came out at £2.48 (6p up on the previous year) making Derby probably the most expensive place to drink in the East Midlands. On a slightly worrying note though the beer quality throughout was generally found to be average with only a handful of pubs (mostly Derby's Good Beer Guide entries) serving good quality ale.