North Cheshire

Campaign for Real Ale

Campaign for Real Ale

What is Real Ale?

Real ale is a beer brewed from traditional ingredients (malted barley, hops water and yeast), matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide.

The CAMRA National Website has much more to say about the beer you drink on its Learn & Discover pages

What is real ale in a bottle?

Real ale comes in bottles too! It is a beer that continues to ferment, mature and condition within the bottle. It contains a visible amount of viable yeast cells together with sufficient sugars for fermentation to take place. Bottle conditioned beers will continue to improve and mature in the bottle but they should be kept in the cool and the dark.

Real Ale in a Bottle can also be recognized if it carries the appropriate CAMRA Logo - see right.



Is there a future for real ale?

189,000 CAMRA members think so. And so do 450 UK brewers. Although the largest brewers have almost entirely abandoned real ale, the country's regional and family brewers and the 400 microbrewers are great believers in the future for real ale and many have seen their sales of real ale increase over the last few years. In the last year there have been 80 new breweries which have set up and for many breweries business is booming.