BEER

About BEER

BEER is the quarterly magazine of CAMRA — the Campaign for Real Ale — celebrating beer, pubs and brewing for the organisation's members. Published quarterly in digital and hard-copy editions for members, it is the consumer magazine of Britain's great beer campaigning movement: a celebration of the pubs, breweries and beers that CAMRA exists to champion. It is published by CAMRA, whose website is camra.org.uk.

CAMRA itself was formed in 1971 to promote good beer, protect pubs and defend consumer rights, and has grown into a volunteer membership organisation with over 180 branches across the UK and more than 140,000 members. BEER magazine is the quarterly expression of that movement's enthusiasm — written for the people who love pubs and beer, by the organisation that has defended them for more than fifty years.

CAMRA: The Campaign Behind the Magazine

The Campaign for Real Ale was founded in 1971, when four drinkers — dismayed by the dominance of bland keg beer and the closure of traditional breweries — launched a consumer revolt that would transform British beer. From those beginnings CAMRA grew into one of Britain's most successful consumer organisations, with over 140,000 members and more than 180 volunteer branches.

CAMRA's achievements are written across the British beer landscape: the revival of cask ale, the explosion of independent brewing — from a handful of survivors in the 1970s to thousands of breweries today — and the protection of pubs as community institutions. BEER magazine is the quarterly celebration of that living heritage.

A Quarterly for Members

BEER is published quarterly for CAMRA members, who can choose to receive it in digital or hard-copy form. Each issue celebrates the world the campaign defends: the beers, the breweries, the pubs and the people who make them special. It is the members' magazine in the fullest sense — reflecting the enthusiasms of the volunteers who form CAMRA's branches and the drinkers who sustain its campaigns.

The quarterly rhythm suits its celebratory mission: each season brings its own beers, festivals and pub occasions, and the magazine follows the drinking year from spring milds to winter warmers, from summer beer festivals to the autumn pub walks.

Celebrating Beer, Pubs and Brewing

The magazine's editorial heart is celebration: of beer in all its styles, from traditional cask bitters to the innovative brews of the craft revolution; of pubs, from country inns to city taverns, as the social institutions CAMRA was founded to protect; and of brewing, the craft that links them — the independent breweries, large and small, that keep Britain's beer culture alive.

Its pages carry the stories behind the pint: brewery profiles, beer styles explained, pub features, campaign news and the voices of the volunteers who judge, score and champion the nation's beer. It is written with the insider knowledge and affection that only a member-driven organisation can provide.

Part of CAMRA's Publishing

BEER sits within CAMRA's wider publishing operation, which includes the annual Good Beer Guide — first published in 1974 and now listing some 4,500 real ale outlets and around 1,700 breweries, compiled by branch volunteers scoring beer through the National Beer Scoring System — and the many branch magazines produced by CAMRA's local branches, from Sheffield's Beer Matters (fifty years old in 2024) to London's London Drinker, which has the largest circulation in print of any CAMRA magazine.

Together these publications form one of the great volunteer publishing enterprises in Britain: hundreds of editors, writers and distributors keeping the nation's beer lovers informed, pub by pub and pint by pint.

The Pub as Cause and Celebration

What distinguishes BEER from commercial beer magazines is its campaigning soul. Every celebration in its pages carries an implicit argument: that pubs matter, that real ale deserves protection, and that consumer choice in beer is worth fighting for. The magazine both enjoys the fruits of CAMRA's campaigns and recruits readers to their continuation.

That duality — celebration and campaigning — has been CAMRA's formula since 1971, and it gives the magazine a purpose beyond entertainment. To read BEER is to be reminded, quarterly, why the organisation exists and what membership sustains.

BEER Today

As CAMRA navigates its sixth decade — defending pubs through economic headwinds, embracing the diversity of modern beer while protecting traditional cask ale, and representing 140,000 members — BEER magazine remains the quarterly heartbeat of the movement: the publication that celebrates what the campaign protects.

For members who choose it in print or pixels, each quarterly issue is a reminder of what Britain's beer culture offers and why it is worth defending — the pubs, the breweries and the beers, celebrated four times a year by the campaign that saved them.

CAMRA: Four Blokes in a Pub, 1971

BEER is the quarterly colour magazine of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) — one of the largest consumer organisations in Britain, with more than 140,000 members and hundreds of local branches. CAMRA's story began on 16 March 1971 in Kruger's Bar in Dunquin, County Kerry, Ireland, where four drinkers from North West England — Michael Hardman, Graham Lees, Jim Makin and Bill Mellor — founded the Campaign for the Revitalisation of Ale in response to the poor quality and blandness of British beer. Five thousand members joined in the first year; two years later the name became the Campaign for Real Ale. The first branch formed at the Farriers Arms in St Albans, minutes from the headquarters established in 1974.

CAMRA coined the term "real ale" for traditional draught cask beer — a living product conditioned by live yeast in the cask — and its campaigning reshaped the industry: lobbying that led to the 1989 Beer Orders curbing the Big Six brewers' tied estates, and pressure that brought Gordon Brown's Progressive Beer Duty in 2002, giving tax breaks to small brewers. From around 500 breweries in 2000, Britain now has some 1,700 — the most per capita in the world.

The Good Beer Guide and the Great British Beer Festival

CAMRA publishes the Good Beer Guide, the annually compiled directory of the best 4,500 real ale outlets in the UK. The first edition appeared in 1974 — just 300 pubs across 18 pages; more than five decades later it is an institution, its entries decided by local volunteers using CAMRA's National Beer Scoring System, with the 2023 edition carrying a foreword by King Charles III. Members also received the monthly newspaper What's Brewing until its April 2021 issue. The first Great British Beer Festival was held in 1977 at Alexandra Palace in North London — an opportunity to sample hundreds of beers in one place — and the festival, now permanently settled in the capital, remains the world's great celebration of cask ale. CAMRA also maintains the National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors, protecting Britain's most historic pubs.

BEER Magazine Today

BEER carries the campaign's journalism to members each quarter in full colour — though in 2025 the printed winter edition was not distributed for reasons of financial austerity and appeared online only. The magazine celebrates real ale, real cider and real perry, the pubs that serve them and the people who make and campaign for them. Its website is camra.org.uk.

140,000 Members: Europe's Most Successful Consumer Organisation

BEER is the magazine of what has been called Europe's most successful consumer organisation. CAMRA — the Campaign for Real Ale — was founded in 1971 by four friends, Michael Hardman, Graham Lees, Jim Makin and Bill Mellor, sitting in Kruger's Bar and lamenting the state of British beer. They coined the moniker 'real ale' for the traditional cask-conditioned beer they wanted to save, and within two years the jokey little drinking club had 5,000 members.

Today CAMRA is a volunteer membership organisation with more than 140,000 members and over 180 volunteer branches across the UK, existing to promote good beer, protect pubs and defend consumer rights. Its early weapons were print: the magazine What's Brewing, and the Good Beer Guide, first published in the early 1970s with just 300 pubs across 18 pages — now an institution listing thousands.

'If we weren't here, there wouldn't be cask beer today,' said Roger Protz, the long-time editor of the Good Beer Guide, at CAMRA's 30th anniversary. BEER magazine, circulated to CAMRA's members, is the organisation's longstanding platform — the quarterly that carries the campaign's news, views and tasting notes to the membership that made the campaign.