Over 5000 beers produced in UK

The 2012 CAMRA Good Beer Guide is launched later today and research from it shows:

-Just under 5,500 beers are now in regular production across Britain
-Boom time for British brewing means drinking ‘a beer a day’ would take just under 15 years!
-Yorkshire brewers top the charts with over 600 beers regularly produced in region

CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide 2012 – out today (September 15^th) – has released staggering new findings showing there are just fewer than 5,500 beers now in regular production across Britain. Such a marked growth comes at a time when 99 new breweries have opened in the past 12 months, taking the national total to 840.

Based on the findings of Britain’s best selling beer and pub guide, its editor, Roger Protz, has proposed that if a real ale fan were to drink every beer now regularly produced in Britain at a rate of one a day (to stay within responsible drinking guidelines), it would take him/her just short of 15 years to try them all! This does not even take into consideration the few thousand extra seasonal and one off brews that British brewers churn out during the course of a calendar year.

Roger Protz, CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide editor, said:

"The choice and diversity of beer in Britain is literally staggering, and in reality, if one hardy soul was to attempt the challenge of sampling every beer produced in Britain, including seasonal offerings, you’re going to be looking at an estimated 25 year stretch!

‘Such a range is exactly what discerning beer drinkers expect in the current climate, and in spite of economic difficulties and pub closures, Britain’s pioneering brewers are more than rising to the challenge. Never will anyone alive today have seen 5,500 regular beers produced on these shores at any one time."

Premier League of brewing- Yorkshire brewers go ‘hopping mad’

To show this huge growth in the number of beers now regularly produced around Britain, CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide has produced a league table of the most prolific brewing counties.

While Yorkshire as a whole sweeps away all competition with over 600 regular beers brewed in total, West Yorkshire comes up trumps as a single area with a whopping 276 beers permanently produced by the county’s 43 brewers.

Roger continued, "Areas such as Yorkshire are recording startling brewery growth, with over 6 times more brewers in the region than when the first Good Beer Guide was compiled in the 1970’s. Not only are there an exploding number of breweries operating in Britain, but also the quality of real ale has never been better. Speciality brewers are using the finest raw materials - malt and hops –to make their ales. Britain is a great place to be drinking good beer."