UK’s best selling beer and pub guide celebrates 40th anniversary
– 1033 new pub entries* make it into the 4,500 pubs included
– Good Beer Guide pays tribute to the ‘Magnificent Seven’, the 7 pubs which have featured in all 40 editions
– Good Beer Guide unveils 16 winners of CAMRA’s Regional Pub of the Year competition
Issued: Tuesday September 11th 2012
Status: Embargoed until Thursday September 13th 2012 (00:01 hours)
Full breakdown on headline stats for the Good Beer Guide 2013 can be accessed via its dedicated media page
The UK’s best selling beer and pub guide, the Good Beer Guide 2013, is released today (September 13th), with CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale raising a glass to the 40th anniversary of its flagship publication.
The Good Beer Guide, jointly sponsored by Cask Marque and SIBA (Society of Independent Brewers), features the best 4,500 real ale pubs from across the UK, with details of food, opening hours, beer gardens, accommodation, transport links, disabled access and family facilities.
CAMRA’s 143,000 members fully update and revise the Guide every year, thereby guaranteeing to supply the reader with the most up to date publication to the best real ale pubs. In its 40th edition, the Good Beer Guide this year contains 1033 new pub entries, as well as a comprehensive brewery section listing all breweries operational across the nation. This year, the Guide has found a whopping 1,009 breweries in the UK**, with 158 having opened over the past year – the highest rate of new openings ever recorded in the Guide’s 40-year history.
Speaking in regard to the Good Beer Guide’s 40th anniversary, its editor, Roger Protz, said:
‘The UK beer and pub industry has changed enormously over the last 40 years, and throughout this period the Good Beer Guide has remained the definitive resource for keeping beer drinkers up to date when tracking down the perfect pint of real ale.
‘One of the most under-publicised aspects of the Guide is that it is the result of constant pub surveying by CAMRA’s dedicated members over the course of a year, so in many ways this fortieth anniversary is testament to the tireless work of countless unpaid volunteers across the country who give up their time to champion great pubs, whether situated on a city centre high street, suburban street corner, or in a small hamlet.’
As part of the anniversary celebrations, the Good Beer Guide has heralded the few pubs which have made it into all of its forty editions. These ‘Magnificent Seven’ are-
-Buckingham Arms, 62 Petty France, London SW1
-New Inn, The Hill, Kilmington, Devon
-Queen’s Head, Newton, Cambridgeshire
-Roscoe Head, 24 Roscoe Street, Liverpool
-Square & Compass, Worth Matravers, Dorset
-Star, Netherton, Northumberland
-Star Tavern, 6 Belgrave Mews West, London SW1
Paying tribute to the ‘Magnificent Seven’ pubs, Roger Protz said:
‘It’s a remarkable achievement for the publicans of these pubs to have maintained an exemplary standard of beer over all these years. The special thing about these seven pubs is that they vary so much in their location, size and heritage, showing how brilliantly diverse our pub industry remains, even through weathering the high profile storm of closures in recent years.’
Regional Pubs of the Year 2012
To coincide with today’s launch, the Good Beer Guide has revealed the 16 CAMRA Regional Pubs of the Year for 2012.
Pubs are judged by CAMRA’s 143,000 members on all the criteria that make a great pub, including atmosphere, decor, customer service, value for money, clientele mix, but most importantly, the quality of the real ale and cider/perry! These 16 regional winners will now compete to be crowned National Pub of the Year, with the announcement made in early 2013.
The winners are (also featuring in the Good Beer Guide 2013!)…
Central Southern- Shoulder of Mutton, Wantage (38 Wallingford Street, Oxfordshire, OX12 8AX)
East Anglia- Compasses, Littley Green (Essex, CM3 1BU)
East Midlands- Just Beer Micropub, Newark (Swan & Salmon Yard, 32A Castlegate, Nottinghamshire, NG24 1BG)
Greater London- Hope, Carshalton (48 West Street, SW London, SM5 2PR)
Greater Manchester- Baum, Rochdale (33-37 Toad Lane, Greater Manchester, OL12 0NU)
Kent- Conqueror Alehouse, Ramsgate (4C Grange Road, Kent, CT11 9LR)
Merseyside & Cheshire- Lower Chequer, Sandbach (Crown Bank, Cheshire, CW11 1FW)
North East- Ship Inn, High Hesleden (Durham, TS27 4QD)
Scotland & Northern Ireland- Woolpack Inn , Tillicoultry (1 Glassford Square, Clackmannanshire, FK13 6AU)
South West- Tom Cobley Tavern, Spreyton (Devon, EX17 5AL)
Surrey & Sussex- Wilkes Head, Eastergate (Church Lane, West Sussex, PO20 3UT)
Wales- Bridge End Inn, Ruabon (5 Bridge Street, Wrexham, LL14 6DA)
Wessex & Channel Isles- Victoria & Albert, Netherhampton (Wiltshire, SP2 8PU)
West Midlands- Weighbridge, Alvechurch (Scarfield Wharf, Scarfield Hill, Worcestershire, B48 7SQ)
West Pennines- Bridge Bier Huis, Burnley (2 Bank Parade, Lancashire, BB11 1UH)
Yorkshire- Kelham Island Tavern, Sheffield (62 Russell Street, South Yorkshire, S3 8RW)
The Good Beer Guide 2013 is released on Thursday September 13th, and is available from all good retailers, and from the CAMRA Shop (www.camra.org.uk/shop), where it is priced £10 for CAMRA members and £12.99 for non-members.
END
Notes to editors-
*Pubs which did not feature in last year’s edition
**A very small percentage are brewery companies and use other breweries for production.
Review and competition copies of the Good Beer Guide 2013 can be ordered by visiting www.camra.org.uk/gbgorder
Radio interviews–
Please call CAMRA’s press office on 01727 798443 if you would like an interview with Good Beer Guide editor Roger Protz, or a local CAMRA spokesperson on Thursday September 13th 2012.
Further information on CAMRA’s Regional Pubs of the Year can be viewed at www.camra.org.uk/gbgrpoty
The Good Beer Guide is jointly sponsored by industry bodies Cask Marque (www.cask-marque.co.uk), and the Society of Independent Brewers (www.siba.co.uk).
For further information-
CAMRA Press Office, 01727 798443
Jon Howard, CAMRA Press Manager, 07939 425471
Roger Protz, Good Beer Guide editor, 01727 834111