Beds a hotbed of hops and barley, but at a price

The average price of a pint in the county’s pubs is among the most expensive in the country.

So says the latest edition of the The Good Pub Guide, published last week.

A pint will set you back a sobering £2.91, landing Beds in the “quite expensive” category alongside the watering holes of neighbouring Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Kent, Sussex, the Isle of Wight and Scotland.

The county is just shy of the infamous £3-a-pint bracket, which includes boozers in London, Berkshire and Surrey.

And it is also markedly cheaper than nearby Buckinghamshire, where you will have to shell out an average £2.98 for every pint you sup.

If you are after a pint at a bargain price, the cheapest place to buy beer at the bar is in the West Midlands, where the average price comes in at just £2.45.

Adam Croft, press officer for South Beds CAMRA, said: “We’re in the commuter belt so that obviously makes the price of beer a bit more expensive.

“There’s quite a lot of big name breweries around here rather than your smaller breweries, so they can get away with charging more for a pint.”

But despite high prices, there is still good quality beer to be quaffed locally according to CAMRA’s own recently released beer almanac The Good Beer guide 2011.

This publication lists details of more than 4,500 pubs across the UK which serve the best real ale.

Among the local pubs included in this year’s guide, there are more than 20 in south Bedfordshire.

Those featured are Luton pubs the Bricklayers Arms, in High Town Road, the Globe, in Union Street, the English Rose, in Old Bedford Road, and the Black Horse, in Hastings Street.

Also included are the Chequers, in Streatley, the Star & Garter, in Dunstable, the Farmers Boy in Kensworth and the Victoria and the Globe, both in Dunstable.

Mr Croft added: “There are quite a few that have been in the CAMRA guide for years and will be for years to come, but there’s a few newcomers in there this year. It’s based on the quality of a pub’s beer and its consistency throughout the year.”