BrewDog slams CAMRA but books bar at its festival

BrewDog, the controversial Scottish micro-brewer, has booked a bar at the Great British Beer Festival, despite claiming Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) events are "stuffy, boring or misguided".

James Watt, co-founder at BrewDog hit out at the consumer group this week claiming: "CAMRA doesn't celebrate beer; it celebrates itself."

He added: "CAMRA events snub creativity, impinge passion, and frown on newcomers. If they really cared about real ale, they would support creativity and the breweries looking to breathe new life into it."

The calls were made as BrewDog announced alternative beer festivals at its sites in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, designed to coincide with the regional CAMRA Beer festivals.

"Our passion is beer, and we would love CAMRA to organise an event that wasn't stuffy, boring or misguided, but they never do, so we decided to take matters into our own hands."

Tony Jerome, CAMRA head of marketing, said: "It is interesting to read this news in light of BrewDog booking a brewery bar at the Great British Beer Festival in August to broaden the exposure of their real ales.

"I have seen a few negative stories from BrewDog over the years and contacted James Watt in December 2010 to discuss his views as to how he thought our beer festivals could be improved with our limited budgets. As of today, we still have received no direct contact from the brewer regarding this matter."