Beer guide praises UK craft beer growth

The “unstoppable” British craft beer boom means the country now has the best range of beers in the world, according to the editor of the Camra Good Beer Guide.

More than 11,000 different real ales are now being brewed in the UK

The comments came as a report announced that the number of breweries in the UK has jumped to more than 1,400 this year, generating growth of more than 10% for the third year in a row.

The report, released to mark the launch of Camra’s Good Beer Guide 2016, revealed that 204 new breweries have opened in the past 12 months, taking the total to 1,424 – the highest it’s been since the 1930s.

The report said the number of different real ales available in the UK now exceeds 11,000 – an average of around eight per brewery – as brewers expand their repertoires to include IPAs, porters, stouts, fruit beers and even beers aged in wine and whisky casks.

As real ale continues to outperform the rest of the beer market, according to the Cask Report, one in six pints of beer sold in a pub is now cask ale, with 634 million pints consumed a year while kegged ales, such as John Smith’s and Tetley’s, are in decline.

Good Beer Guide editor Roger Protz said: “The great British beer revolution rolls on and appears to be unstoppable. Britain now has more breweries per head than any other country and the range of beers on offer is the best in the world.”

While the brewing bug has struck most emphatically in London – with 74 breweries operating in the capital, compared with 54 a year ago – the capital is closely followed by Greater Manchester, which has 19 new breweries, including four in Stockport.

The new statistics come as the drinks business reported that government ministers have hailed the industry for sustaining 900,000 jobs, with breweries opening at a rate of one every two days.