More women enjoying beer

Women are helping to boost the UK’s real ale market as the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) reveals the number of women trying the product has more than doubled in the past three years.

Camra said that more than 20,000 women have joined in the last decade, taking its membership past 150,000.

Research for Camra, released on the opening day of its Great British Beer Festival in London, showed that a third of women had tried a real ale, more than twice as many as three years ago.

Camra chairman Colin Valentine said: “We’re enjoying a genuine and sustained revival in real ale as it shows the way to success for the UK beer market.

“There are now more than 1,000 breweries brewing in excess of 8,000 different real ales for consumers to choose from. More people are looking for something brewed locally and with so many breweries in Britain, everybody has a local beer to try.

“It’s very exciting that more and more women are trying real ale. Our national drink threw off its flat cap image years ago and now it is increasingly seen as a drink for women as well as men. That trend will help put the whole British beer market back on a track towards growth.”

In the last decade Camra’s membership has more than doubled from 65,000 to 150,000, with women now accounting for 22% of the total.

Christine Cryne, a member of Camra’s national executive, said: “The upsurge in interest in real ale amongst women in the UK is in no small part thanks to the sheer range of beer which is now available.”