CAMRA doubles down on fight to expose 'Big Beer’ as ‘fiercely independent’ Good Beer Guide 2027 is release.

2027 Guide cover featuring the Oxford Bar, Edinburgh, sponsored by Midland Snacks Traditional Pork Scratchings and endorsed by Cask Marque

Campaigners demand a fairer beer market for licensees, independent brewers and ordinary drinkers

CAMRA has published the 2027 Good Beer Guide, while renewing calls for a formal competition investigation into the global brewers that dominate the UK beer market, and continuing their quest to get independently brewed beers on as many bars as possible.

The Guide is the definitive guidebook to pubs that serve great cask beer across the UK, and uses an independent, volunteer-led selection process that makes it the authoritative and trusted voice of cask beer drinkers. It features 4,500 pubs, 1,700 brewers and 5,000 beers.

The foreword for the 2027 edition is written by Sir Ian Rankin. He, and his fictional detective Rebus, both frequent the Oxford Bar, in Edinburgh, which features on the cover of this year’s Guide.

This year, data from the Guide shows:

• 137 breweries have closed, and only 57 new breweries have opened.

• There are 812 new entries in the 2027 Guide.

In a year where independent brewery closures have slowed, but not returned to growth, the Guide remains the go-to source for finding choice and quality in pubs.

Ash Corbett-Collins, CAMRA Chairman, said:

“The Good Beer Guide is fiercely independent, just like the brewers making the best beer. It is the result of the time and effort of our volunteers across the UK to find the pubs serving the best kept cask beer.

“This year, we released our flagship report, ‘Beer in the UK', alongside our campaign to expose how ‘Big Beer’ is dominating the UK beer market, and how ordinary drinkers and independent brewers lose out as a result. Because of that, we need the Competition and Markets Authority to start a formal investigation of the UK on-trade beer market. If you agree with us, please join CAMRA, buy the Guide, and find amazing independently brewed beers for yourself.”

Sir Ian Rankin, writing in the foreword of the Guide, said:

“What makes the perfect pub? Ask fifty people and you might get fifty different answers… My preferences might not be yours, but there are a few things we can probably agree on. We want the beer to be good and the welcome to be friendly. We want to see signs that the bar represents the best of its community or neighbourhood. We want to feel like we fit in.”

A pint of cask beer deserves the perfect snack. That’s why we are delighted to have Midland Snacks Traditional Pork Scratchings as our perfectly matched sponsor for 2027.

The 2027 Guide is also endorsed by Cask Marque.

Notes to editors

Images of the Guide, our sponsor and endorser logos, CAMRA spokespeople and featured pubs, are here.

Buy the Good Beer Guide 2027 from the CAMRA website: shop1.camra.org.uk/product/the-good-beer-guide-2027/ and all good bookstores, with a standard retail price of £16.99

Data tables and listings

UK nations and regional data is here: UK nations and regions data tables Good Beer Guide 2027

Contact press@camra.org.uk for listings from the Guide for media use.

Use terms for data and images apply.

For further information please contact press@camra.org.uk.

Third-party news items are published as received for informational purposes. Publication does not imply endorsement by the Guild. Please use the contact details within the post for any enquiries.