With Derbyshire’s first ever Real Ale Beer Festival coming up this weekend, we take a look at the history of CAMRA – The Campaign for Real Ale.
CAMRA is an independent, voluntary organisation campaigning for real ale, community pubs and consumer rights.
Its four campaigns are to:
It was formed in 1971 by four men who were disillusioned by the domination of the UK beer market by a handful of companies pushing products of low flavour and overall quality onto the consumer.
The founders of CAMRA, Michael Hardman, Graham Lees, Jim Makin and Bill Mellor thought that British beer drinkers should be given better variety and choice of beer.
The term ‘real ale’ was created by CAMRA and aimed to make it easy to differentiate between the mass produced processed beers and traditional beers.
Real ale is a natural product brewed using traditional ingredients and left to mature in the cask from which it is served in the pub, a unique process called secondary fermentation.
CAMRA’s main aims are to promote real ale and pubs, as well as acting as the consumer’s champion in relation to the UK and European and drinks industry.
CAMRA has over 175,000 members from across the world, who come together to consume real ale and try one of over 11,000 different real ales now produced across the UK.
The campaign is financed by membership subscriptions, sales of books and merchandise and proceeds from national and local beer festivals. It is a not-for-profit company, limited by guarantee.
If you want to find out even more about CAMRA, you can visit their website here – http://www.camra.org.uk/
CAMRA Members are reminded they can purchase half-price tickets for the Real Ale Beer Festival at The 3aaa County Ground. Click HERE to buy your tickets today.
