Good Beer Guide facts for kids
The Good Beer Guide is a special book published every year. It's put together by a group called the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). This guide lists what CAMRA believes are the best places in the United Kingdom to find "real ale." Real ale is a traditional type of beer. The guide includes about 4,500 places like pubs, clubs, and shops that sell drinks to take home.
How the Guide is Made
The information in the guide comes from volunteers. These volunteers are part of CAMRA's many local groups across the country. All year long, CAMRA members visit different places. They secretly check how well the beer is kept and served. They use a special scoring system to rate the quality. They can submit their scores online or through a special app.
Later in the year, local volunteers look at all these scores. They choose the places that serve the best real ale. They make sure that the guide includes places from all over the country.
Each entry in the guide gives helpful facts. It tells you things like opening times and if food is available. It also mentions if the place is easy to get into. Sometimes, it even describes how friendly the staff are!
The guide also lists all the real ale breweries in the UK. It includes notes about their different beers.
For many years, a person named Roger Protz was the editor of the guide. He stopped after the 2018 edition. Since 2019, the guide has not had one main editor. The 2021 guide had a special introduction written by a famous chef, Tom Kerridge.
History of the Guide
The very first version of the guide came out in 1972. It was only 18 pages long. It wasn't a proper book back then. It was just a bunch of papers stapled together. CAMRA members received it in the mail.
The first guide that was actually printed like a book came out in 1974. This first printed version caused a bit of a stir! It had a strong comment about a brewery called Watney. It said to "Avoid like the plague." This got a lot of attention in the news. Because of this, the company that printed the book had to take back all the copies. They changed the description to "Avoid at all costs" before printing it again.
Other Guides from CAMRA
In the past, CAMRA also published other guides. These included the Good Cider Guide and the Good Bottled Beer Guide.
