Brewing in Sheffield is not an easy business. The city has probably the most discerning real-ale customer base in the country; getting your beers onto the bars and keeping them there is a real challenge. You could buy a pub and so own your own outlet. You could brew house beers for other bars and pubs. You could walk the streets, speak to landlords and drum up sales that way. Pete Roberts of the The Brew Company does all three.

And whereas some Yorkshire brewers are content to just tinker with recipes to provide endless ticker-friendly variations of the same beer, The Brew Company are prepared to be bolder. Single hopped showcases, seasonal specials, brews inspired by travels and trains of thought... they like to produce assertive beer with character and flavour. Their brews run through the city's 'Valley Of Beer'; house beers for one of the best known bars, specials at the scoop-tastic pubs plus one-offs at their own place (the Harlequin).

Such demand is proof positive that, even in a city the size of Sheffield, there's more than one way to skin a cask...

Why try? Quality regulars and adventurous specials

What to look for? Hop Ripper or St Petrus Stout

Where to buy? House beers and specials at the Harlequin, Devonshire Pale at the Devonshire Cat, many Sheffield pubs stock regular and/or seasonal brews

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Brewdog = Marmite.

I can't think of any other British brewer that polarise opinion in the way that Fraserburgh's finest do. Stoats stuffed with freeze-distilled beer. Dwarfs protesting outside Parliament. A Bar With No Cask. Never backwards at steamrolling forward with PR that complies to the law of contrary opinion.

Plenty of mouth is one thing. Do they have the brew trousers to match? Well, in four short years their beers have passed into the lore of British New Wave Of Hoppy Brewing. The steady hand of Martin Dickie has pushed Punk IPA and Riptide to the fore as worthy competitors to Jaipur and St Petersburg as brewed at his former employer, Thornbridge.

With an assertive export programme, ceaseless experimentation with ingredients at both extremes of the ABV spectrum and their own bars starting to bloom, Brewdog may or may not be forging a 'craft beer revolution'. Call it what you will; as long as you can call the end product 'damn tasty beer' then I'm behind them.

If only I could persuade James Watt that a beer actually brewed with Marmite might work...

Why try? Leftfield brews that you can't fail to have an opinion about.

What to look for? Punk IPA, 5am Saint - both on keg. And Paradox, the whisky-aged stout.

Where to buy? Their own bars and website, plus a host of top ale pubs and bars such as the Sheffield and Euston Taps. >

Nottingham CAMRA have seen some sights at their festivals, but few have had the same impact as a monkey.

In a corner of the main tent in 2008, Blue Monkey Brewing launched their debut beer and thirsty punters lapped it up. That beer, a 3.6% session bitter called Original, had taken brewer John Hickling over twenty test brews to perfect. He was rewarded with over 1,200 pints of it being sold during the three-day festival.

A year later John launched his first dark beer, Guerrilla Stout, which promptly won the Champion Beer award at the SIBA Midlands competition. Blue Monkey brews have since been sold in over a hundred pubs throughout Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. The brewery expanded into new premises in 2010 to meet the ever-growing demand for its beer.

Why try? John and the team brew well balanced, moreish beer.

What to look for? The pale and hoppy BG Sips or the surprisingly-light-bodied Guerrilla Stout.

Where to buy? Blue Monkey concentrate their sales in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Look for their distinctive pump clips which feature a blue chimpanzee (chimps look funnier than monkeys so we'll let them off). >

Some brewers are relentless. Opening the brewery on a Saturday so customers can buy pints or pins or barrels to take away. Running a stall at their local farmer's market to put their beer into the hands of people who appreciate quality local produce. Looking for innovative pub schemes that develop the local market for their brews. Brewing using jasmine, orange, cherry... not for the shock, not for the hype but for the thrill.

Down in Derbyshire's Amber Valley, Pete Hounsell and his team have been keen to push themselves and the local beer scene further forward. Amber Ales established a great reputation at their brewery tap, The Talbot Taphouse, in Ripley and have since gone on to achieve national acclaim. Their Chocolate Orange Stout won the coveted CAMRA Champion Speciality Beer of Britain award in 2010 and their 'experiment-ales' such as Jasmine IPA and Almond Dark prove that Amber aren't ready to rest on their laurels.

Whether it's taking on a pub, brewing adventurous beer or hosting an IPA festival, Amber seem to relish the challenge.

Why try? Their refusal to compromise. Unusual brews but still with a keen balance.

What to look for? Barnes Wallace bitter, Imperial IPA and Chocolate Orange Stout.

Where to buy? Bottles and draught at the brewery or at their pub (the Talbot Taphouse) in Ripley, Derbyshire.

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When I first began drinking cask ale, it was Beer From The Coast at a pub that's almost as far away from the sea as you can be in Great Britain. I've still never asked why the Carpenter's Arms in Dale Abbey, Derbyshire, serves Adnams beer from Suffolk but I'm grateful that it does.

A pint of Broadside became my regular Sunday mid-country-walk tipple. When holidaying in Norfolk, their Bitter became a go-to beer wherever I went. And whereas some regional brewers seem content with recipes from days of yore, Adnams experiment continuously with style and re-interpretation. After all, they didn't name a beer 'Innovation' for nothing.

Rightly proud of their environmental policies, adventurous with their specials, reliable with their regulars, Adnams are a fresh breeze in a regional brewing scene that is too often shoegazing in sepia.

Why try? Balanced core beers and interesting specials

What to look for? Broadside, Explorer and bottles such as Innovation and Spindrift.

Where to buy? Adnams pubs throughout East Anglia and beyond. Bottles can be bought direct from their own website. >

Back in January, the question was asked on Scoopgen as to what the members' favourite twenty UK breweries of the moment were. It's often more difficult than you think to compile such a list; half-a-dozen may be obvious but how do you decide between the rest?

I've revisited my original list from back then with the added proviso that I'd only pick breweries from whom I've drank at least five different beers. Strength in depth, you see.

So, as an exercise in filling up this site with waffle whilst I'm elsewhere doing other stuff - er, I mean as a concise and informative way of profiling my currrent favourite UK breweries - the gory details will start to appear here from tomorrow. Some will be all-too-familiar-but-worthy, some will (hopefully) make you think twice as to why I've included them and some will - possibly - blindside you completely.

Note to sceptics - it's not definitive, it's not a Top 20, it's not sponsored. It's a list of UK brewers from whom, if I organised a beer festival tomorrow, I'd place my orders from.


The pic is of Andrea Pausler - then at Thornbridge, now at Birreria Amarcord - with a dirty big grin on his face as he chucks bucketfuls of hops it to a brew. Don't you just love a happy brewer!

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