Breweries are popping up everywhere in Britain - with a quest for individuality

By the time you read this, there will be 1,500 breweries in Britain. Or maybe 1,600. Perhaps even 1,650. Who knows? As with London house prices, there doesn't appear to be a ceiling. They're popping up everywhere: from empty shops to shipping containers, historical monuments to – and this is really far-out – old brewery buildings. Three opened while I was typing that.

So what's behind this proliferation? There's a clear quest for individuality plus a desire to test beer-making skills on the market. A lot of people think they have the wherewithal to run a brewery, and many of them do.

Most of these new businesses are too small to be important beyond their immediate locality, and the more significant development is with those breweries who have been open for a few years but are now expanding – like the Scottish operation BrewDog, London lager producers Camden, and Huddersfield-based Magic Rock, for example. Magic Rock, founded in 2011, built a reputation for superb hop-focused ales while based in a tiny unit on the edge of the West Yorkshire town. Now they've moved closer to the centre, into a far larger space.

There's all the shiny equipment you'd expect, plus a huge brewery tap modelled on US lines. It's one of the most impressive new breweries in the UK, in a town with solid beer credentials (if you go, don't miss The Grove pub on the other side of town). And the beer? It tastes as good as it always did – and is now much easier to get your hands on thanks to a new canning line. This is one brewery that isn't strictly for locals.

Three to try

Slurp

Salty Kiss (4.1 per cent, £2.50 for 330ml, magicrockbrewing.com). This understated take on an old German style, Gose, has a thirst-defying saline tang.

Sip

Grapefruit High Wire (5.5 per cent, £2.60 for 330ml, magicrock-brewing.com). The addition of grapefruit gives this pale ale plenty of tonic-water dryness.

Share

Cannonball (7.4 per cent, £3.20 for 330ml, magicrockbrewing.com). Bitterness and tropical-fruit aroma is backed up by just enough cereal-inclined sweetness.