Good Beer Guide reveals a rise in new breweries

14-Sep-2011 - Last updated on 11-Mar-2017 at 23:16 GMT

CAMRA: New beer guide

The number of new brewery openings in Yorkshire is the “big stand-out story” from the Campaign For Real Ale’s (CAMRA’s) Good Beer Guide 2012, which is published today.

That is according to editor Roger Protz, who admitted to being “amazed” by an increase in new brewery openings across the UK over the past year.

“Ninety-nine new breweries have opened this year, which is incredible when you consider we are in a slump,” said Protz.
This is 21 more than the 78 that opened last year, taking the total number of breweries in the UK to 840.

New findings by CAMRA went on to show there are just fewer than 5,500 beers now in regular production across Britain

Protz added: “There are so many amazing people who are somehow finding the money to pour into breweries and most of them are not just business people, they are beer lovers too.”

Commenting on Yorkshire, Protz said: “Tetley’s closes and suddenly we have all these little breweries opening up. Somehow these people are managing to sell beer and make a living.”

This year’s guide also has an Olympics focus as Protz explores the best pubs near Stratford’s Olympic Park.

The 2012 guide lists 4,500 of Britain’s best real-ale pubs and there are a total of 1047 new entries this year.

Sixteen Regional Pub of the Year winners will also compete to be crowned CAMRA's National Pub of the Year, with the announcement due in early 2012.
Pubs are judged by CAMRA’s 130,000 members on criteria including atmosphere, decor, customer service, value for money, clientele mix, and the quality of the real ale and cider/perry.

The list of competing pubs is as follows: