CAMRA Brings Real People and Real Ale Together in the UK – Demanding Quality Real Ale

As you may already know, CAMRA is one of the most successful consumer organisations across Europe. It’s in charge of the many beer festivals and other happenings around the British beer culture in the UK. 

We made a short query to find out what CAMRA is all about and how’s the situation inside the British beer culture.

Katie Wiles from the communications office was the one who gave us these answers. Thank you, Katie!

Firstly, about the background, how and why was CAMRA established?

CAMRA was established back in 1971 by four men who decided they had enough of bland-tasting beer in the UK. At the time there were only four big brewers operating across the country, each of which owned pubs across specific regions so it was incredibly hard to try anything different or new. 

The founders decided it was time to use their voices as consumers and demand better. Today, there are over 2000 breweries across the UK. 

CAMRA is all about real ale, but how do you define a ‘real’ ale?

Real ale is defined as any cask-conditioned beer where the secondary fermentation process takes place in the container.

To put it simply, other types of beers will kill off the yeast, and then artificially inject the beer with CO2 to give it the bubbles/ froth. 

Traditional real ale relies on the live yeast to continually ferment in the container, making it a living product from the brewery straight into your glass.

Because cask beer is a natural, living product, it has a much shorter shelf life than other types of beer, and needs to be stored and served with a great deal of care. 

Now that the craft beer market has gained a renaissance, how has the British beer culture changed?

The beer market has experienced a boom in recent years, with an explosion of breweries opening across the country. 

However, the nation’s pubs are still in danger and are closing at an alarming rate. Coming out of the pandemic pubs are now faced with the double whammy of a cost of living and cost of goods crisis, and we need urgent Government support to help keep these institutions thriving. 

Has CAMRA’s role changed in the course of time? What do you foreground nowadays?

CAMRA has grown massively over the last 50 years. Some things have stayed the same – we still run the UK’s largest beer festival, the Great British Beer Festival, each summer, and we continue to boast over 180 local festivals across the country.

The UK’s leading beer and pub guide, CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide, is celebrating its 50^th anniversary this year. 

Our campaigning aims have changed and adapted to the pressures facing the industry throughout the decades – halting the spread of pub closures and campaigning for greater Government support is now at the forefront of our agenda. 

In 1988 CAMRA welcomed real cider and perry to the campaign, and we’ve recently introduced our Learn & Discover arm which aims to help consumers learn more about their favourite drink.

And how do you operate? Do you have staff or volunteers or both?

CAMRA is a volunteer-run organisation. We have a small staff team to support its operations, and we are governed by a National Executive Board of volunteers.

There are also Regional Directors and national committees of volunteers who oversee particular areas of activity – whether that’s our portfolio of awards or campaigns.

How many local branches are there? How to join them?

CAMRA has 220 local branches across the UK, all of which run their own local branch activities, festivals, events and campaigns.

When you join CAMRA you are automatically included within a local branch and will hear directly from the local chairman on how to get involved and volunteer with the campaign. To join CAMRA, visit join.camra.org.uk.

Learn more about CAMRA: https://camra.org.uk/.