Category appealing to a new generation, CAMRA report says
NEW research by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) claims more young people are drinking real ale.
The analysis, which coincided with the publication of the organisation’s Good Beer Guide 2015, showed more than a third of 18 to 24 year olds had tried real ale and 87% of those quizzed said they would drink it again.
It also showed a total of 65% of 18 to 24 year olds tried real ale for the first time within the last three years, compared with 11% across all age groups.
Guide editor Roger Protz said: “It is fantastic to see more young people discovering and enjoying real ale.
“That old stereotype of real ale drinkers being in their dotage never was true, but now it’s dead and buried.”
At the Three Judges pub in Glasgow, manager Angela Bradley agreed that real ale is now appealing to a younger consumer.
She said: “It used to be old fuddie-duddies that asked for real ale.
“Now there are a lot of younger people who are coming in and they know what they are after. Because we have a varied selection, they want to try different ales and sometimes ask for ones from a specific area or brewer.”
The Good Beer Guide, meanwhile, revealed 70 new breweries had started up in the UK in the last 12 months.
It claimed growth across the whole of the UK, which now has 1285 breweries, has been driven by the emergence of small independent breweries.
The guide also named the Isle of Whithorn’s Steam Packet Inn among 16 regional finalists which are vying for CAMRA Pub of the Year.
Protz added: “These pubs have won their branch’s Pub of the Year, then gone on to win the regional competition and now have a chance of being crowned National Pub of the Year making every one of them a winner in their own right.”
