 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(October 2024) |
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| Formation | 1971 |
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| Type | Consumer organisation |
| Headquarters | St Albans |
| Location | |
Official language | English |
National Chairman / Chief Executive | Ash Corbett-Collins / Tom Stainer |
| Website | www.camra.org.uk |
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is an independent voluntary consumer organisation headquartered in St Albans, which promotes real ale, cider and perry and traditional British pubs and clubs.
The organisation was founded on 16 March 1971 in Kruger's Bar, Dunquin, County Kerry, Ireland, [1] [2] by Michael Hardman, Graham Lees, Jim Makin, and Bill Mellor, who were opposed to the growing mass production of beer and the homogenisation of the British brewing industry. The original name was the Campaign for the Revitalisation of Ale. [3] Following the formation of the Campaign, the first annual general meeting took place in 1972, at the Rose Inn in Coton Road, Nuneaton.
Early membership consisted of the four founders and their friends. Interest in CAMRA and its objectives spread rapidly, with 5,000 members signed up by 1973. Other early influential members included Christopher Hutt, author of Death of the English Pub, who succeeded Hardman as chairman, Frank Baillie, author of The Beer Drinker's Companion, and later the many times Good Beer Guide editor, Roger Protz.[ citation needed ]
In 1991, CAMRA had 30,000 members across the UK and abroad and, a year later, helped to launch the European Beer Consumers Union.[ citation needed ]
CAMRA's campaigns include promoting small brewing and pub businesses, reforming licensing laws, reducing tax on beer, and stopping continued consolidation among local British brewers. [4] It also makes an effort to promote less common varieties of beer, including stout, porter, and mild, [5] as well as traditional cider and perry. [6]
CAMRA's states that real ale should be served without the use of additional carbonation. This means that "any beer brand which is produced in both cask and keg versions" is not admitted to CAMRA festivals if the brewery's marketing is deemed to imply an equivalence of quality or character between the two versions. [7]
CAMRA is organised on a federal basis, over 200 local branches, each covering a particular geographical area of the UK, that contribute to the central body of the organisation based in St Albans. It is governed by a National Executive, made up of 12 voluntary unpaid directors elected by the membership. [8] The local branches are grouped into 16 regions across the UK, such as the West Midlands or Wessex. [9]
CAMRA publishes the Good Beer Guide , an annually compiled directory of the best 4,500 real ale outlets and listing of real ale brewers. CAMRA members received a monthly newspaper called What's Brewing until its April 2021 issue and there is a quarterly colour magazine called Beer. It also maintains a National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors to help bring greater recognition and protection to Britain's most historic pubs.
CAMRA supports and promotes beer and cider festivals around the country, which are organised by local CAMRA branches. Generally, each festival charges an entry fee which either covers entry only or also includes a commemorative glass showing the details of the festival. A festival programme is usually also provided, with a list and description of the drinks available. [10] Members may get discounted entrance to CAMRA festivals.
The Campaign also organises the annual Great British Beer Festival in August. It is now held in the Great, National & West Halls at the Olympia Exhibition Centre, in Kensington, London, having been held for a few years at Earl's Court as well as regionally in the past at venues such as Brighton and Leeds. This is the UK's largest beer festival, with over 900 beers, ciders and perries available over the week long event.
For many years, CAMRA also organised the National Winter Ales Festival. However, in 2017 this was re-branded as the Great British Beer Festival Winter where they award the Champion Winter Beer of Britain. Unlike the Great British Beer Festival, the Winter event does not have a permanent venue and is rotated throughout the country every three years. Recent hosts have been Derby and Norwich, with the event currently held each February in Birmingham. In 2020 CAMRA also launched the Great Welsh Beer Festival, to be held in Cardiff in April.
CAMRA presents awards for beers and pubs, such as the National Pub of the Year. The competition begins in the preceding year with branches choosing their local pub of the year through either a ballot or a panel of judges. The branch winners are entered into 16 regional competitions which are then visited by several individuals who agree the best using a scoring system that considers beer quality, aesthetic and welcome. The four finalists are announced each year before a ceremony to crown the winner in the spring. [11] There are also the Pub Design Awards, which are held in association with English Heritage and the Victorian Society. These comprise several categories, including new build, refurbished and converted pubs.
The best known CAMRA award is the Champion Beer of Britain, [12] which is selected at the Great British Beer Festival. Other awards include the Champion Beer of Scotland and the Champion Beer of Wales.
CAMRA developed the National Beer Scoring Scheme [13] (NBSS) as an easy to use scheme for judging beer quality in pubs, to assist CAMRA branches in selecting pubs for the Good Beer Guide. CAMRA members input their beer scores online via WhatPub or through the Good Beer Guide app.
The CAMRA Pub Heritage Group identifies, records and helps to protect pub interiors of historic and/or architectural importance, and seeks to get them listed. [14]
The group maintains two inventories of Heritage pubs, the National Inventory (NI), which contains only those pubs that have been maintained in their original condition (or have been modified very little) for at least thirty years, but usually since at least World War II. The second, larger, inventory is the Regional Inventory (RI), which is broken down by county and contains both those pubs listed in the NI and other pubs that are not eligible for the NI, for reasons such as having been overly modified, but are still considered historically important, or have particular architectural value.
The LocAle scheme was launched in 2007 [15] [16] [17] to promote locally brewed beers. The scheme functions slightly differently in each area, and is managed by each branch, but each is similar: if the beer is to be promoted as a LocAle it must come from a brewery within a predetermined number of miles set by each CAMRA branch, generally around 20, [18] although the North London branch has set it at 30 miles [19] from brewery to pub, [16] even if it comes from a distribution centre further away; [18] in addition, each participating pub must keep at least one LocAle for sale at all times. [18] [19]
CAMRA members may join the CAMRA Members' Investment Club which, since 1989, has invested in real ale breweries and pub chains. [20] As of January 2021 the club had over 3,000 members and owned investments worth over £17 million. Although all investors must be CAMRA members, [21] the CAMRA Members' Investment Club is not part of CAMRA Ltd.
Real ale is the name coined by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for beer that is "brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide".
Beer has been brewed in England for thousands of years. As a beer brewing country, it is known for top fermented cask beer which finishes maturing in the cellar of the pub rather than at the brewery and is served with only natural carbonation.
Beer in Wales can be traced to the 6th century. Since the 2000s, there has been a growing microbrewery industry in Wales.
The Good Beer Guide is a book published annually by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), listing what it considers to be the best 4,500 real ale outlets in the United Kingdom.
The Society of Independent Brewers is an organisation representing the interests of independent breweries in the UK. Founded in 1980, it was intended to fight the pub-tie system, under which large brewers owned 80% of the UK's pubs. It changed its name in 1995 to reflect the changing aspirations of its members, but retained its original acronym.
The Great British Beer Festival is an annual beer festival organised by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). It presents a selection of cask ales, and the Champion Beer of Britain awards, and is held in August of each year. GBBF's sister festival, the Great British Beer Festival Winter, is held in February each year.
A beer festival is an event at which a variety of beers are available for purchase. There may be a theme, for instance beers from a particular area, or a particular brewing style such as winter ales.
Jennings Brewery was established as a family concern in 1828 in the village of Lorton, between Buttermere and Cockermouth in the Lake District, England. The brewery was started by John Jennings Snr, son of William Jennings. Jennings brewed exclusively in Lorton until 1874 when its present home, the Castle Brewery in Cockermouth, was purchased. The Lorton brewery closed some five years later.
Beer in the United Kingdom has a long history, and has quite distinct traditions. Historically the main styles were top-fermented Bitters, Porters, Stouts and Milds, but after World War II lagers took over half the market by volume. The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) was founded in 1971 and has encouraged the preservation and revival of traditional styles of ale. In particular CAMRA has promoted cask conditioned beer, which completes its maturation in casks in the cellar of the pub rather than at the brewery. As of 2014 the UK drank 634 million imperial pints of cask ale, representing 60% of ale in pubs and restaurants and 17% of all beer in pubs. In total 42.42 million hectolitres of beer were produced in 2013 of which 48% was sold in the off-trade.
The Otley Brewing Company Limited, colloquially Otley Brewery, is a brewery located in Pontypridd, Wales. Established in 2005, it has won several awards, including the Champion Beer of Wales in 2006. The head brewer is Charlie Otley. In October 2016, the brewery was put up for sale by its owners. In February 2018 the brewery ceased trading.
Bryncelyn Brewery was a brew pub in 'Wern Fawr Inn', a pub located near Ystalyfera, in south Wales. Brewing was begun in July 1999, and the brewers are Will Hopton and Robert Scott.
The Champion Beer of Wales is a beer award presented annually by the Campaign for Real Ale at the Great Welsh Beer & Cider Festival in Cardiff, Wales.
York Brewery is a brewery, formerly located in York within the city walls, owned by Black Sheep Brewery in Masham where York Brewery beers are currently brewed.
The Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood (SPBW), founded in 1963, is the oldest consumer-based group interested in stimulating the brewing of, increasing the awareness of, and encouraging the drinking of traditional cask ale. The Society also supports and encourages the use of wooden casks for beer dispense.
The Rotherham Real Ale and Music Festival is an annual real ale festival that takes place in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
John Allen Young CBE was an English brewer. He was for many years chairman of the Young's Brewery in Wandsworth, working there for over 50 years.
Beer in Northern Ireland has been influenced by immigration into Ulster, especially from Scotland, and the drinking habits in Ireland until the partition of Ireland. Whiskey drinking was always a tradition with Guinness from Dublin being a strong influence in the style of beer drunk in the 19th and 20th centuries. Brewing traditions almost ceased to exist as smaller breweries closed, or were taken over, and then the large breweries in turn closed down their facilities. The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) was founded in 1971; however, it was 10 years before the first new brewery, Hilden Brewing, opened its doors.
Tiny Rebel is a craft brewery in Rogerstone, Newport, Wales.
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