How CAMRA helps keep traditional ales alive

CAMRA has been waving the banner for quality real ales for four decades, but if you think it’s just about enthusiastic hop-heads getting together for a beer festival booze up, then think again. The Campaign has challenged European rulings on beer monopolies, helps keep quality standards high, and pretty much saved the craft ale industry from dwindling into insignificance. Read on for a quick overview of the Campaign for Real Ale.

History of CAMRA

It was during 1971 when four drinking buddies – Jim Makin, Bill Mellor, Michael Hardman and Graham Lees – decided that they’d had enough of pubs being overrun by bland corporate beers at the expense of better tasting traditionally made ale. They formed the Campaign for the Revitalisation of Ale and other supporters of quality beer soon joined their campaign.

And their ranks continued to swell, thanks in part to some supportive articles in The Guardian newspaper. Two years after forming, CAMRA changed the meaning of its name to the easier-to-remember Campaign for Real Ale (Real Ale being a term coined by the organisation for beers made using age-old methods rather than the mass-produced, insipid beers made by the big breweries).

To boost interest in microbrewery ales, the Campaign held beer festivals, published guides, books and articles, and promoted ciders and beers that were in serious danger of disappearing. Perhaps most significantly, it took on the big brewery firms and launched legal challenges to halt their practices of getting pubs to only stock their beers. And CAMRA’s successes in such ventures have helped to make it among the most successful single issue consumer campaign organisations in the UK.

Festivals

Nowadays, CAMRA’s best known and, perhaps, best loved method of advancing the popularity of real ale is the beer festival. Each year, regional CAMRA groups organise local beer festivals, however, the granddaddy of them all is the annual Great British Beer Festival. Beer enthusiasts from around the globe head to London to be part of this ale-lovers paradise, and to sample some of the best beers, perries and ciders in existence.

Recognition and Awards

To help ensure that standards are maintained, CAMRA recognises and awards the year’s best ales. Champion Beer of Britain is the top award and the winner is announced at the Great British Beer Festival. Other awards include Champion Beer of Scotland, Champion Beer of Wales and National Pub of the Year. Another way that continued high standards are encouraged is the National Beer Scoring Scheme, whereby people can rate the quality of a particular beer in a particular pub.

CAMRA’s efforts over the years means it could arguably claim responsibility for rescuing Britain’s real ale industry from near extinction. These days, thanks in part to enthusiastic support and promotion from the Campaigns’ 120,000-strong membership, craft ale production is booming. This means that Britain’s traditional beer fans can continue to look forward to value for money, quality and choice in real ale.

But as flavour is such an intrinsic part of the appeal of real ales, it would be a shame for the taste to be compromised by unclean lines in pubs. This is why publicans need to do their best to ensure optimum taste by keeping beer lines clean at all times. Probably the best method of doing this is by installing a system that will clean lines automatically at set intervals. The line cleaning system from CellarBright can efficiently and effectively keep lines clean so that pub pints can continue to taste as fresh as when they left the brewery.

CellarBright is an excellent automated beer line cleaning system which can save thousands of pounds a year for companies selling keg, cask beer and lager. It minimises waste by letting the beer that’s in the lines be drawn off and sold before cleaning commences, allowing you to sell 100% of the beer that you’ve paid for. A beer profit calculator on the website shows how much you can save.