PREVIOUS years have seen Yorkshire take on Lancashire in a 'War of the Roses' over beer bragging rights.

But this year it's Cumbria in the firing line at the Craven Beer Festival, which sees 12 Yorkshire breweries take on 12 from the county of the Lakes at the Craven Arms in Appletreewick.

Drinkers at the festival, which starts tomorrow and finishes on Sunday, will be asked to vote for their favourite brew.

These will produce an individual winning ale - but votes will also be added together to find the winning county too.

Festival organiser and Craven Arms licensee David Aynesworth said he was confident the range of beers, including one from Skipton's Grey Hawk Brewery, would have something to tempt even the most seasoned beer aficionado.

He said: "I have chosen the beers from Cumbria and our bar manager Sam Mullins has chosen the Yorkshire ones. The last few years Yorkshire has always come out on top by some distance but I think this year the vote is going to be a lot closer - there's some beautiful brews to be sampled from both counties.

"We have always had 10 breweries from two counties featured in previous years, so this year there's an extra four - that should make the contest closer as well."

More than 3,500 pints were enjoyed at last year's festival, so David is confident that - with the extra four breweries being involved - well over 4,000 pints are likely to be consumed this year.

Each beer is supplied to the festival in kilderkins, which are 18 gallon casks, not the nine-gallon firkins usually featured at beer festivals, meaning that a particular favourite is likelier to stay around for longer during the event. All beers will be, naturally enough, dispensed through hand-pumps.

The Craven Beer Festival has been held annually at the Craven Arms since 2008, both reflecting, and helping to contribute to, the resurgence of real ales in recent times.

David says: "It's great that there we now have so many breweries making a wide variety of wonderful real ales, when until fairly recently the big breweries were just encouraging us all to drink lager with huge advertising budgets, because it was more profitable.The diversity of flavours, textures and aromas of the wide variety of ales we now have is something to celebrate."

The festival will take place in the Craven Arms itself and the pub's annexe, the renowned Cruck Barn, built by David's son Robert to an exact medieval blueprint. Indeed it looks so completely authentic that visitors often assume it's been there for hundreds of years.

David says: "We like to think there can be fewer more pleasant places to hold a beer festival and we want to create a real family atmosphere - we will also be showing the Rugby World Cup on a giant screen."

Admission to the festival is free. The Yorkshire breweries featured are: Saltaire, Settle, Dark Horse, Abbeydale, Hambleton, Grey Hawk, Northern Monk, Elland, Wold Top, Brown Cow, Kelham Island, and Great Yorkshire Brewery. The Cumbrian ones are: Beckstones, Foxfield, Hardknott, Cumbrian Legendary Ales, Stringers, Barnsgate, Hawkshead, Coniston, Ulverston, Watermill, Unsworth Yard and Bowness Bay.