WHEN customers come in to Johnny Singh's shop for the first time, many of them immediately take pictures on their phones to let friends know what they've found... shelves and shelves of bottled real ales. The largest selection of real ales in the North. And getting bigger.

Until the end of last year, the shop was an ordinary Darlington corner shop, just like many others.

"And that was the trouble," says Johnny, who has been running the shop with his mother Natasha since he was 18. "I wanted to do something different."

For some years he had been interested in real ale. "It was a niche market but becoming more popular all the time, as well as being really interesting. Every beer has a story. Each one is special."

After a lot of research and hard work over the last few years, he has reorganised the shop and renamed it the Ale Cellar. The groceries are still there, but are now tucked into one corner. The rest of the shelves are taken up by the selection of beers, more than 400 when I was in there last week. (Probably 500 by the time you read this.)

The beers come from all over the world: Belgium, France, the US, Italy, Canada, Australia, China, Vietnam, Russia, Sweden. But above all, they come from Britain, from just about every far flung corner, from Orkney down to Wales, from London across to Cornwall. Which means Johnny has done a lot of travelling.

"I have a supplier who can get me perhaps 300 different beers. But I also want the ones he can't get so I go straight to the little breweries - and some of them are very small in out-of-the-way places.

"But you go to one brewery and then they tell you about another. And that one tells you about yet another. I have been up and down the country so many times," he says.

Johnny stocked his shelves at the beginning of the year, but already word has got round and real ale enthusiasts are flocking to the shop. Among his regular visitors is John Taylor who, until his retirement in 2005, for many years ran the off licence at Binns in Darlington. Under his guidance, Binns had a vast range of beers and was the only department store in the Good Beer Guide.

John Taylor is hugely knowledgeable and cheerfully shares his knowledge and enthusiasm with Johnny Singh.

"In Binns the most we ever had was 485 beers and I think Johnny will soon have more than that. It's wonderful to see them all," he says approvingly.

There is terrific variety among the beers offered. Samichlaus, for instance, now made in Austria, is brewed on St Nicolas Day (December 6) and left to age in the bottle. It is 14 per cent - stronger than many wines and costs £2.89 for a 330ml bottle.

The biggest bottle in the shop is St Feuillien, 8.5 per cent and a whacking great six litres. So you could drink your way through that and say quite honestly "I only had one bottle".

Deus Brut des Flandres is bottled like champagne, complete with popping cork, and costs £11.99 a bottle.

There are 35 different types of fruit beer and organic fruit beers from Suffolk, including lemon and ginger, or grapefruit. And Sheppy's Ciders, each one made from a single variety of apple.

Many of the continental beers also have their own individual drinking glass to go with them, a unique style for every beer. Some of the designs are worth buying for themselves, never mind to bring out the best of the beer to go in them.

There's chilli beer from America and Heather Ale from Scotland - "Brewed since 2,000BC". And plenty of beers with daft names. There's Sweet FA "a beer of two halves", and Sexy Lager from Belgium - rub the picture of the busty blonde on the label and all will be revealed.

And there are plenty of beers from close to home, including Nick Stafford's Hambleton Ales, the Durham Brewery beers; High Force and Cauldron Snout from Darwin Brewery.

Johnny has yet to sample them all, though he's work ing on it. "To really know