Wales boasts over 50 breweries!

Good Beer Guide 2013 launched by CAMRA

Today sees the launch of the 2013 Good Beer Guide with the real ale scene in Wales continuing to boom:

- Wales now boasts 52 breweries

- 11 new breweries opened in just 12 months!

- 68 new Good Beer Guide entries from Wales

- CAMRA local branches judge the Bridge End Inn, Ruabon as best pub in Wales

The 40th anniversary edition of the Good Beer Guide has today been launched (Thursday September 13th) with the news that the real ale scene in Wales continues to thrive.

While nationally there are now an incredible 1,009 breweries – the highest number for over 70 years - in operation across the UK*, with 158 having opened in just 12 months, in Wales, there are now 52 breweries, with 11 coming on stream over the past year. From Hafod in North Wales to Tiny Rebel in the South, Wales is becoming a brewing nation!
The Good Beer Guide 2013, jointly sponsored by Cask Marque and SIBA (Society of Independent Brewers), features the best 4,500 real ale pubs from across the UK, with details of food, opening hours, beer gardens, accommodation, transport links, disabled access and family facilities.

CAMRA’s 143,000 members fully update and revise the Guide every year, thereby guaranteeing to supply the reader with the most up to date publication to the best real ale pubs.

This year, 68 new pub entries (pubs which were not in last year’s edition) from Wales have made it into this 40th anniversary edition. In Newport the Pen & Wig on Stow Hill has made it in - by far the best pub in the City!
Ian Saunders, CAMRA Wales Regional Director, said:

'The Good Beer Guide has always been about celebrating the best community pubs serving a high standard of real ale, and in the Guide's 40th year, the competition to become one of the 4,500 pubs included has never been greater. To this day, the Guide remains completely independent and driven by the hard work of CAMRA members surveying their local pubs to ensure readers enjoy the perfect pint of real ale.'

CAMRA Regional Pub of the Year 2012
To coincide with today’s launch, the Good Beer Guide has revealed the 16 CAMRA Regional Pubs of the Year for 2012. These pubs have been hailed by CAMRA as the very best real ale pubs in the country, and will now go forward in the competition, with the overall National winner to be announced in February 2013.

Wales Regional Pub of the Year 2012-

Bridge End Inn
Ruabon (5 Bridge Street, Wrexham, LL14 6DA)
A summary of the Good Beer Guide description for the Bridge End Inn reads-
‘This former coaching inn near the station, owned by the McGivern Brewery with brewing on the premises, was voted CAMRA National Pub of the Year 2012. The welcoming three-roomed local has a whitewashed exterior and cosy public bar, reputed to be 300 years old, with a beamed ceiling and walls adorned with old breweriana. Children are welcome in the lounge until 7pm and there is a quiet room. Six changing guest ales include a stout and McGivern ale, plus a real cider. Groups can be catered for by arrangement. Live music features on Wednesday.’

The Good Beer Guide 2013 is released on Thursday September 13th, and is available from all good retailers, and from the CAMRA Shop (www.camra.org.uk/shop), where it is priced £10 for CAMRA members and £12.99 for non-members.

CAMRA celebrates 44 Welsh breweries in Good Beer Guide

It's that time of year when the CAMRA Good Beer Guide is published:

Good Beer Guide 2012 launched by CAMRA – Britain’s best 4,500 pubs
-Wales now boasts 44 breweries
-3 breweries opened over past 12 months
-66 new Good Beer Guide pub entries in Wales
-CAMRA local branches announce Ancient Briton, Pen-y-Cae as best pub in South and Mid Wales

The 39^th edition of CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide has today been launched (Thursday September 15^th) with the news that the real ale scene in Wales is thriving.
While nationally there are now 840 breweries operational, with 99 starting life over the past 12 months, in Wales there are now 44 breweries, with 3 coming on stream during the same period. These new breweries are Cerddin, Maesteg (Mid Glamorgan), Brecon, Brecon (Powys) and Kite, Gorslas (Carmathenshire).
Today’s research from Britain’s best selling beer and pub guide comes at a time when the number of drinkers around the nation having tried real ale has risen by 40% in just 5 years*.

66 new CAMRA Good Beer Guide pub entries from Wales
As CAMRA’s flagship title, the Guide features over 4,500 urban and rural pubs, giving details of the real ales, food, opening hours, beer gardens, accommodation, transport links, disabled access and family facilities.
The Guide is completely independent, and there is no charge for entry. The Guide is compiled by CAMRA’s 130,000 members, who exhaustively update and revise the Guide each year.
Only pubs serving the best real ale are considered for entry, and this year, 66 new pub entries from Wales have made it into the 39^th edition.

According to Ian Hill, CAMRA Wales Director,‘With so many fantastic community pubs in Wales, it is becoming harder every year for CAMRA branches to select their choice of local pubs to feature in the Guide. Only pubs serving a consistently high standard of real ale are considered for inclusion, and it’s been a busy year for CAMRA members surveying their locals. In CAMRA’s 40^th year, we hope readers find the Guide as useful as ever in tracking down the perfect pint of real ale.’

CAMRA Regional Pub of the Year 2011
To coincide with the launch of the 39^th edition of the Guide, CAMRA has today also announced its 16 Regional Pubs of the Year. These pubs have been hailed by CAMRA’s membership as the very best real ale pubs in the country, and will now go forward in the competition, with the overall National winner to be announced in February 2012.

Wales Regional Pub of the Year 2011-
Ancient Briton
Brecon Road, Pen-y-Cae, SA9 1YY,
A summary of the CAMRA Good Beer Guide description for the Ancient Briton reads-
‘Excellent country inn within the Fforest Fawr Geopark, close to Dan-yr-Ogof Caves and Henrhyd Waterfall, frequently used by walkers, cavers and cyclists. Thirteen handpumps regularly dispense up to six real ales and two real ciders, and an annual beer festival is held in September. Winner of local CAMRA Branch Pub of the Year on three occasions and runner up for South and Mid Wales in 2010.’

 
Meanwhile, in the Merseyside , Cheshire and North Wales region, another Welsh pub, the Bridge End Inn, Ruabon, Wrexham (LL14 6DA) was crowned winner and will now, like the Ancient Briton go forward in the competition.

New Welsh Breweries feature in the Good Beer Guide

The Good Beer Guide 2011, launched today by CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale features more breweries than ever before with 767 different breweries now operating throughout the UK. Four new Welsh breweries are featured in the Guide:
Neath Ales, Neath
Rotters Brewery, Talgarth
Abbey Grange, Llangollen
Gertie Sweet, Eyton (contract brewed at Plassey)

Good Beer Guide editor and Trotskyite Roger Protz says: “The real ale revolution goes on in spite of all the problems facing the brewing industry such as the often anti-competitive behaviour of the large pub companies, the heavy and continuing rise in tax on beer, grossly unfair competition from supermarkets, and the smoking ban in pubs. Yet, against all the odds, craft breweries continue to sprout like mushrooms at dawn.”

“The main reason is a simple one: craft brewers are responding to genuine consumer demand. Beer in pubs may be expensive compared to cheap supermarkets but drinkers are prepared to pay a bit extra for beer with taste and quality. Real ale hits the spot in every way: it has flavour and is made from pure, natural ingredients that are grown mainly here in Britain. More and more people want to think local and drink local and real ale meets that demand.”
“These breweries are just the tip of the famous iceberg,” editor Roger Protz says.
“The breweries section of the Guide is full of similar success stories of small craft breweries that are booming and growing as a result of beer lovers’ demand.
“The British are notoriously bad at celebrating the things we do well but let’s raise a glass to the success of the good old British pint!

The Good Beer Guide is surveyed every year by CAMRA members and the new edition, the 38th, features over 1000 new entries.

Save money on the Good Beer Guide RRP by ordering on Amazon:

Sailors Arms, Llareggub

Sailors Arms

A few years back I was busy compiling the Good Beer Guide entries together and decided to do a spoof entry. As a Regional Director of CAMRA, the branch entries come to you to sort into the areas in the guide, I would also check the postcodes, OS references etc. Occasionally I would have to add to the description if not enough words were included in the original form, very occasionally I would rewrite the entire description if the original did not make any grammatical sense and cut any negative comments about the pub. Basically the Regional Director acts as a sub-editor of the guide, before the entries are sent on to CAMRA HQ for compiling into the print-ready edition.

A few months earlier to the Good Beer Guide forms coming in I had gone through an edition of Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas and had highlighted every word and phrase to do with drinking or the Sailors Arms pub. I then wrote all these down and assembled them into a description suitable for the Good Beer Guide. Unfortunately the entry was removed by the editor Roger Protz on the grounds of 'literary decency', whatever that means?

The entry never made it into print and a copy stayed as a bookmark in my edition of Under Milk Wood until I rediscovered it by accident recently. Having shown it to a few people who thought it amusing I have decided to reprint here. Remember the words are taken straight from the book and just placed in ordered sentences as they would be in a pub description. The postcode is actually that of the Dylan Thomas Boathouse in Laugharne and the telephone number was of the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea.

GOOD BEER GUIDE SURVEY FORM

COUNTY: West Wales, Carmarthenshire

TOWN: Llareggub

NAME OF PUB: Sailors Arms

FULL ADDRESS: Coronation Street, Llareggub, Nr Laugharne

POST CODE: SA33 4SD

DIRECTIONS TO PUB: Uphill, along the cobbles and up three steps

ORDINANCE SURVEY REF: OS308111

PUB OPENING HOURS: 11.30-11.30, SUNDAY 11.30-11.30

DRAUGHT BEERS: Welsh Bitter [H]

DESCRIPTION:

The Sailors is a village pub immortalised in literature, where the customers are all characters. Set amidst the humble two-storey pinkwash houses of the backwater of life, Llareggub, the Sailors offers no frills but several curious customs including stout with an egg in it and the belief that stout and ale is good for a baby in a pail. It is comforting to sit in the bar, supping flat, warm, thin, Welsh bitter beer whilst watching village life go by through the smoked herring-brown windows of the unwashed Sailors Arms. Occasional dancing. Mr Benyon's owlmeat sausages are recommended. There is no accommodation at the pub but Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard runs a nearby B & B.

Real Fire

Traditional Pub Games

Not that bad I thought and a lot more inviting than some of the entries in the Good Beer Guide.

Good Beer Guide Launched

The best 4,500 pubs according to the Campaign for Real Ale

-1227 new pub entries and 73 new breweries listed in the Guide
-CAMRA finds 668 breweries in the UK!
-CAMRA today announce the 16 Regional Pub of the Year Winners
-CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, has today launched the 36th edition of its annual Good Beer Guide which features the best 4,500 real ale pubs in Britain according to CAMRA membership.

Despite many pubs struggling in today's current economic climate and research showing that 57 pubs permanently close every month across Britain, this year's Good Beer Guide highlights that the UK real ale pub scene is thriving.

The Guide features both urban and rural pubs, giving details of food, pub history, architecture, transport links, beer gardens, accommodation, disabled access and facilities for families.

Pubs are surveyed by local CAMRA members and scored on a variety of aspects that make a great pub. These include customer service, the clientele mix (i.e the pub appeals to 18 and 80 year olds), value for money, décor and of course the quality of the real ale. CAMRA members therefore guarantee to supply the reader with the most up to date publication to help locate the best pint of real ale.

To view the full list of new pubs and new breweries please visit www.camra.org.uk/gbgmedia. Please note this area of the site will only be live until Friday 12th September 2008.

Good Beer Guide editor Roger Protz said: “CAMRA's Good Beer Guide is Britain's original number-one, independent guide to good beer and pubs. It is great to see that there are now more than 660 real ale breweries in Britain brewing over 2,500 different varieties of real ale and so many wonderful pubs to drink them in.

Mr Protz continued, “The CAMRA members work tirelessly to survey the pubs each year to make sure the reader gets the most updated guide to the best pubs in Britain. I would personally like to thank them for all of their hard work and support.”

In this year's feature section, the book addresses current affairs such as the boom in craft brewing, landmark pubs, and the attempts by the brewing industry to combat global warming. Press releases on these subjects can be viewed at www.camra.org.uk/gbgmedia.


REGIONAL PUB OF THE YEAR 2008 WINNERS:

To celebrate the launch of the Good Beer Guide 2009, CAMRA has announced the 16 CAMRA Regional Pubs of the Year winners. These are the pubs that have been hailed as the very best real ale pubs in the country.

The National Pub of the Year winner will be judged from final 16 Regional Pubs of the Year and announced in February 2009.

Regional Winners:

Central Southern -
Royal Oak Inn, Newbury Street, Wantage, Oxfordshire, OX12 8DF

East Anglia -
Chequers, 71 Main Road, Little Gransden, Cambridgeshire, SG19 3DW

East Midlands -
Arkwright Arms, Chesterfield Road, Sutton Cum Duckmanton, Derbyshire, S44 5JG

Greater London -
Trafalgar, 23 High Path, Greater London, SW19 2JY

Greater Manchester -
Crown, 154 Heaton Lane, Stockport, Greater Manchester, SK4 1AR

Kent -
Butcher's Arms, 29A Herne Street, Herne, Kent, CT6 7HL

Merseyside, Cheshire & North Wales -
Blue Bell, Rhosemor Road, Halkyn, North-East Wales, CH8 8DL

North East -
King's Arms, Beach Street, Deptford, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, SR4 6BU

Scotland & Northern Ireland -
Marine Hotel, 9-10 Shorehead, Stonehaven, Grampian, AB39 2JY

South & Mid Wales -
Tafarn John y Gwas, Drefach-Felindre, West Wales, SA44 5XG

South West -
Tom Cobley Tavern, Spreyton, Devon, EX17 5AL

Surrey & Sussex -
Royal Oak, Friday Street, Rusper West Sussex, RH12 4QA

Wessex -
Red Lion Inn, Kilmington, Wiltshire, BA12 6RP

West Midlands -
Beacon Hotel, 129 Bilston Street, Sedgley, West Midlands, DY3 1JE

West Pennines -
Manor Arms, Princes Street, Broughton-in-Furness, Cumbria, LA20 6HQ

Yorkshire -
Kelham Island Tavern, 62 Russell Street, Sheffield, Yorkshire, S3 8RW


‘Good Beer Guide' Goes Technical - CAMRA Launches New Sat-Nav and SMS Services

There is now simply no excuse not to find the best real-ale pubs in the UK, as CAMRA will coincide the launch of the ‘Good Beer Guide' publication with new satellite navigation and text message services for mobile phones. The new Sat-Nav POI file will allow users of ‘Tom-Tom' hardware to see the locations of all the 4,500-plus pubs listed in the Guide throughout the UK. Meanwhile, the text message service, compatible with most mobile phones with Internet access, will allow the user to seek out the listed pubs simply by inputting a postcode or place name.

Speaking with regards to the launch of this service, ‘Good Beer Guide' author Roger Protz said: ‘The best-selling pub guide in the UK has now become the most readily accessible with these excellent technological innovations. These services are so simple to use, and really increase the visibility of the publication.'

For further information on both services, visit the CAMRA website at www.camra.org.uk/gbg

Notes to Editors:

The Good Beer Guide 2009 is sponsored by Cask Marque - a non profit making organisation set up to champion quality of cask ale within the industry. www.cask-marque.co.uk

CAMRA now has more than 93,000 members

The Good Beer Guide is available priced £14.99 directly from CAMRA (£12.99 for CAMRA members) or at all good book shops. Further discounts also available through the online CAMRA shop - www.camra.org.uk/shop.

For more information contact:

Jon Howard, CAMRA Press Officer
Tel: 01727 798443 / 07939 425471, email: jon.howard@camra.org.uk

CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale
230 Hatfield Road, St Albans, Herts, AL1 4LW