CAMRA - the Campaign for Real Ale

1 week ago | wb.camra.org.uk | Laura Hadland

2 minutes ago As I write these words, the sky outside my window is the most vivid shade of blue. There is a handful of the laziest, fluffy clouds you can imagine floating wistfully by. I think we can all agree that spring has been kind this year. The April showers forgot us almost entirely, with just 51 per cent of the long-term average rainfall being reported last month. With sunny, dry days comes one unavoidable urge. The visceral need to down tools and head to the nearest beer garden.

2 weeks ago | wb.camra.org.uk | Roger Protz

5 minutes ago Audio Description Login here to listen to the audio description Draught Bass, a legendary Burton pale ale, has been saved from oblivion thanks to tireless campaigning by lovers of the beer. At its peak, Draught Bass, brewed in Burton-on-Trent, accounted for close to a million barrels a year and was the biggest-selling premium cask beer in the country.

3 weeks ago | wb.camra.org.uk | Matthew Curtis

2 minutes ago Introduced in May 1988 by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government, Section 28 is a piece of legislation that is now, thankfully, consigned to the dustbin of history. Part of the Local Government Act of the same year, it sought to “not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality” or “promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”.

1 month ago | wb.camra.org.uk | Roger Protz

5 minutes ago It’s good news for our beleaguered pubs that they will be able to stay open until one in the morning on 8 May as the country celebrates VE Day – the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe. As we raise a glass to mark the day, it is fascinating to look back and see what both pubs and beer were like at the time. Today pubs are awash with many styles of beer, from golden lager to black stout, with IPA, pale ale, wheat beer and golden ale in between.

1 month ago | wb.camra.org.uk | Laura Hadland

5 minutes ago A couple of weeks ago my phone pinged as a press release dropped into my inbox. It told me the story of Steve Birch, the head brewer of Mauldons brewery in Sudbury, who has crafted his 25 millionth pint this month. The weird thing was, when I opened that email, I was with Steve taking a look around the brewery. Steve is a modest and immediately likeable man whose fierce loyalty to Mauldons and intense passion for cask beer shines through from the moment you meet him.