ALE November/December 1997 No. 289

The Good Beer Guide 1998

Silver Anniversary Edition

Britain's biggest selling Guide is 25 years old. The Good Beer Guide, published by CAMRA, was first issued in the early 1970s, at a time when beer was 15 pence a pint and traditionally brewed ale was becoming increasingly hard to find. The Guide was an immediate hit, selling over 30,000 copies in its first year. The 1998 edition went on sale at the end of October and looks to break all previous sales records.

CAMRA was founded in 1971 with the aim of protecting traditional beer and traditional pubs. In taking on the big brewers who were flooding pubs with tasteless, fizzy keg beers, it attracted thousands of followers who demanded the return of real ale - beer which ferments in the cask in the pub for a fuller, fresher taste. The sight of real ale handpumps on bars all over the country today is testimony to the success of the Campaign, which now has over 50,000 members. Anyone wishing to join the on-going fight to preserve quality beers, served at a fair price in decent pubs, see joining CAMRA.

More membership information is included in the Good Beer Guide, which features around 5,000 pubs serving excellent beer and gives full details of all Britain's breweries and the real ales they produce. It is a book no beer lover can afford to be without.

Available from local bookshops and most pubs featured in Cambridge and South Cambs will carry a stock - look out for the "On Sale Here" poster.

Cambridge & District Branch entries
CAMRA's Good Beer Guide pages

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